Interest in the immobilized film photocatalyst for hydrogen production has been increased. In this study, a simple monolithic film system is used, and a variety of cell configurations is investigated for minimizing electron losses in the electron transport pathways. The relative area ratio of Pt and photocatalyst (CdS/TiO2) is also an important parameter to maximize hydrogen production on a limited substrate. The relative area ratio (Pt/photocatalyst) is 0.37 for the highest hydrogen production in our photocatalyst system. Repeated unit structures generate high amount of hydrogen without decreased efficiency at large photocatalyst area, comparing to the single unit structure for the same area. Therefore, minimizing electron loss and the effective use of limited area are important factors in applications of monolithic large scale film photocatalyst. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.