As a nation, Scotland prides itself on having a distinct identity, one that can be described as international in outlook, punk in attitude and forward-thinking in ideas. As a screen sector, Scotland combines those characteristics with an ambition to build a robust future for homegrown talent on both sides of the camera.
Scotland is brimming with producers, directors, writers, actors and craftspeople to deliver on the promise of its locations and facilities, and help sustain a thriving independent creative sector. Focused support strategies and increased investment in local content, production skills and infrastructure are helping this sector to grow.
“As Scots we’re feisty, we’re confident and we’ve got that punk rock attitude. We’re quite funny and amenable as well,” says producer Gillian Berrie of Glasgow-based Sigma Films. “I would love to see our films play in Competition in Cannes and our filmmakers working in Scotland. It’s such a great place to work.”
Scotland’s screen sector delivered $690.5m (£567.6m) of GVA (gross value added) to the Scottish economy in 2019, according to a report commissioned by Screen Scotland. In Glasgow alone, a record $51.6m (£42.4m) was generated from film and TV productions shooting in the city. Titles to have shot in Scotland include Warner Bros’ The Batman and (the recently shelved) Batgirl, as well as Lucasfilm’s fifth Indiana Jones film and Tetrisfrom Apple TV+.
David Macpherson’s The Rig is the first Amazon Original series filmed entirely in Scotland (at the newly opened FirstStage Studios in Leith), while Douglas Mackinnon has scored the double whammy of directing two large-scale Amazon projects simultaneously at Scottish studios: Good Omens (at The Pyramids) and Anansi Boys (FirstStage Studios immediately after The Rig).
Berrie, a producer on Jon S Baird’s Tetris, about the ground-breaking video game, says: “Even when shooting during lockdown, the international crew said to me, ‘You’ve got it made. Scotland is the easiest place to make movies. It’s fantastic. The infrastructure, the people, the taxi drivers, the fish and chips, the wonderful community.’”
Scottish filmmakers to have impressed the festival circuit in recent few years include writer/director Ben Sharrock with Limbo, produced by Angus Lamont and selected for the Cannes 2020 label. The film picked up two Bafta nominations and Bafta Scotland wins for best film, director, writer and actor.
Scottish writer/director Charlotte Wells’ debut feature Aftersun, produced by Amy Jackson, was one of the sensations at Cannes earlier this year. The film sold widely around the world, won the Critics’ Week jury prize and opened the 2022 Edinburgh International Film Festival.
As the international production boom brings an increasing number of film and TV projects to Scotland, opportunities are growing throughout the sector, particularly for local actors. “I would love to see more Scottish actors breaking through and getting that financeable factor, getting the bigger roles,” says Glasgow-born casting director Kahleen Crawford, who worked on Tom Harper’s 2018 Wild Rose, which shot in Glasgow, London and Nashville. “The more years this production boom goes on, the more people can trust that their children can maintain a career in the performing arts.”
Crawford, who is based in London, says she has worked on seven or eight projects in Scotland last year alone: “What the actors get paid, the production values, are on a par with what we are doing in London. To have three casting directors working in Scotland in my office alone is pretty exciting. It’s great there is enough work for casting directors in Scotland to keep people living there.”
Driving force
The work of Screen Scotland, the national body driving the development of the Scottish film and TV industry, is proving vital as the sector navigates the surge of inward investment and works to balance it with a lively and sustainable independent sector. Screen Scotland executive director Isabel Davis is charged with invigorating, stimulating and establishing Scotland’s efforts.
“Our goal is to strengthen locally originated production and the many industries that surround it,” Davis explains. “The positive interaction between large-scale incoming production and the local sector is an important part of that picture.”
In November 2021 Screen Scotland hosted the annual meeting of the European producers network ACE, bringing 100 European producers to events in Edinburgh and St Andrews. “We are very engaged with Europe,” says Davis. “Team spirit seems to be a sort of Scottish capability.” European collaboration is key to Screen Scotland’s aims, along with deepening ties to the rest of the UK nations and international producers from outside Europe including Australia and North America.
Part of Scotland’s appeal is that, as part of the UK, the film and high-end TV tax reliefs and co-production treaties all apply. Additionally, Screen Scotland offers a smorgasbord of funding options to both incoming and local production, supported by the National Lottery and Scottish government.
These include a $2.4m (£2m) production growth fund, which aims to create employment opportunities for Scottish crews, encourage the use of production facilities and underpin opportunities for the professional development of Scotland-based producers.
A $4.9m (£4m) film development and production fund offers support for feature-length films and documentaries made by filmmakers based in Scotland, while a $4.25m (£3.5m) broadcast content fund supports sustainable growth of Scotland’s broadcast production sector. It encourages project development, the scaling up of existing projects and production of commissioned programmes.
“We are platform agnostic as an agency,” says Davis. “We have TV in the mix and that makes us very conscious of the challenges around theatrical feature films, but also the convergence of certain parts of the world and the huge opportunity that is offered by the streamers.”
Access routes
In parallel with expanding the territory’s production infrastructure, Screen Scotland is also working with partners on a dynamic array of skills and development initiatives designed to develop writers, producers and directors, and to encourage new and diverse entrants into the sector.
Short Circuit, delivered by Film City Futures in partnership with Glasgow Film and funded by Screen Scotland and the BFI Network, aims to produce up to nine short films and develop five feature-length scripts each year.
Further initiatives include the workshop series Little Pictures, in partnership with Glasgow charity GMAC Film, which aims to empower emerging talents to realise their ambitions in film; Screen NETS, based at Screen Academy Scotland, which provides paid, on-the-job training for new entrants; and TV researcher scheme Rad, which offers eight-month paid placements with Scottish production companies, with a specific focus on entrants from diverse backgrounds.
As part of Screen Scotland’s production growth fund commitment with incoming productions, Scotland-based trainees are recruited across all departments on projects including The Rig, Good Omens and Anansi Boys.
Sony Pictures and Starz’s series Outlander — which is based at Wardpark Studios between Edinburgh and Glasgow — was one of the first high-end TV projects to base itself in Scotland. Since 2014, the production has worked with Screen Scotland and ScreenSkills to co-fund a traineeship programme across all of the departments, with approximately 20 newcomers joining the crew each season. It is now readying trainees for its seventh iteration.
Collaboration on this scale between incoming studios, streamers and the local industry amplifies just how valued a partner Scotland is to the international industry. The nation’s established and rising producers and filmmakers are now poised to make this work for them — for the long term.
“It fundamentally comes from confidence,” says Berrie. “We’re being equipped with all the tools now to give us that confidence. There’s no reason why we can’t take a big step forward.”
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