Video: Film and Glasgow for the Future

Recently there have been several tidbits of news regarding the film industry in Scotland, notably the growing importance of Glasgow as a centre for the industry. Following on the heels of the much hyped Gerry Butler as Ambassador for the GFO, but with little detail on what exactly this actually meant and what would tangibly be done, it seems last week the Evening Times gave us a glimpse of the future. The future, one year ahead that is as the paper stated "‘Glasgow: Cinema City’ project, is currently being developed by the organisers of Glasgow Film Festival and will be launched at next year’s event.It will promote the city’s calendar of film events and historic movie links and sell Glasgow to visitors as “a city in love with the silver screen”.VisitScotland regional director David Adams McGilp said: “The Cinema City project is an inspired idea, uniting Glasgow’s heritage as a film-going city with its more recent reputation for cultural richness and its success establishing a popular, audience-focused film festival. We are delighted to support it.”

While we may have to wait a year to see all of this put into motion, in the meantime promotions are out there right now, including the most recent brochure from Scottish Screen which highlights many of the wonderful facilities Glasgow has to offer for filmmakers, including FILM CITY GLASGOW. Founded by the superb and Sigma Films' own Gillian Berrie, for those who have not yet seen this video, you can hear straight from Tiernan Kelly, head man at FCG here :)))



Also of interest is this clip from one of the occupants at FCG, Savalas Sound which has done so much work on Sigma Films among others.


While waiting a whole year to see this campaign begin in earnest, it's been quite encouraging to see David Mackenzie's Last Word hyped a bit of late. Many publications and blogs (including Screen Daily etc) are mentioning Last Word as a candidate for Cannes. While I personally think its a great fit, I also hope it gets to screen at Edinburgh this year too, but more importantly I just want it to sell and show on screens in the UK , US and well EVERYWHERE lol :D Poor Ewan, who has recently concluded his latest gauntlet for the ghost, was asked by a few actual thinking journalists about other films including Last Word, one reply which went as follows:

It was also nice working with David MacKenzie last year in Scotland on The Last Word, which was really low budget. Then I came back to L.A. and made a film with Mike Mills called Beginners, and that was super, super low budget. Those two films were in a way as rewarding as anything I’ve ever done. Sometimes, because there’s no budget, your filmmaking has to become much cleverer because you can’t spend a day shooting a scene from every angle. You have to shoot five scenes in a day, so the filmmaking becomes much more exciting. You have to get much more creative with the filmmaking, and that ends up on screen. There’s an energy that it produces that I really like. There are no rules to it. I’m really lucky that I’m able to dance in and out of both really.

Scottish Screen: A Sigma Films Case Study

In its newest brochure, Scottish Screen has a number of case studies, including one on Sigma Films. Called "Sigma Films Slate Fund Award Case Study," this piece makes mentions of the funding provided to the dynamic independent film production company in Glasgow. The article says that the Slate fund exists to "provide leverage to companies seeking to secure additional finance and consolidate market interest in their slate of projects in development."

It goes on to list some of the films we already know about including Ewan Morrison's Swung (script developed apparently), and The Ordinary which frankly intrigues me the most, as well as two on the backburner but still being worked on, the adaption of some sort of the book by Pelle Sandstrak called "Mr. Tourette & I " as well as one called lol...beers steers & queers (and if this is the western David talked about once wanting to do ...lolol) Personally I believe there are others but this is what the article mentioned and nary a peep on The Last Word. They then of course bring up ADVANCE PARTY II and tiny mention of 'SOON TO BE RELEASED DONKEYS''

DEAR PEOPLE OF SIGMA
WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH DONKEYS... *sigh* (Im doing that alot today lol) but oy it surely would be great to know...just sayin :)

Anyway, my understanding on this whole UK funding business is murky at best so I think its better just to hear from the great Gillian Berrie, Sigma's co-founder and managing director who is quoted as saying:

"In order to survive, Scottish filmmakers must not only embrace the industry on an international level, they have to compete and succeed in both the creative and business sides of the arena. Scottish Screen recognizes the challenges we face and is a critical supporter of our endeavors to maintain Scotland's presence in an often turbulent and unpredictable market. Our industry would not survive without that fundamental support."

HEAR HEAR! Whats more confusing to me is that given the statistics and numbers contained in the Scottish Screen brochure ie the film and creative industries are bringing in literally BILLIONS of dollars to the Scottish economy, as well as all the not so dread film tourists, you know wee nothing people like me, who represent huge numbers and dollars to see places in Scotland where films were made and so on WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO CUT THIS FUNDING? It all makes absolutely no sense to me, rather akin to shooting yourself in the foot and then saying oho I cant walk right ... anyway, there is also a nice piece on Valhalla Rising, Summer (with Kate Dickie ) and more, well worth a looksee. Hope to get these up on my flickr soon but you can download it here PDF

Film City Glasgow, Savalas, Dawn Steele, One Night in Emergency with Kevin McKidd Updates more

As we move into fall, Scottish Screen has now released another feature worth reading (the film version of course I posted about months ago). This newest one now features Scottish TV including some great updates,interviews and a closer look at some of the fine companies now part of the Film City Glasgow family. I have these up now on my flickr to read, or you can download the entire thing (large file warning!) here via this link (PDF). It was so great to see Tiernan Kelly and co highly praised by all the companies who are now located in that wonderful old Govan Town Hall in Glasgow, and are helping make Glasgow the flourishing new focus of film and television production in the UK.

Of interest is this new interview with Gregory Burke on the forthcoming Silver River production of "One Night in Emergency" starring Kevin McKidd, along with Jamie Sives, James Cosmo, Gary Lewis Ewan Bremner and more due later this fall on BBC.

Also very cool is a new interview with Kahl Henderson of Savalas Sound, part two is here. Savalas is of course one of the longtime trifecta of awesome at Film City Glasgow (now two lol), where Mr. Henderson talks about the importance of a post sound facility at FCG that offers top of the line facilites and production, thereby making the home of Sigma films all the more practical and a fabulous one stop choice when seeking a base for film production. We learn that indeed Savalas will be doing work on the recently completed Neds from the always wonderful Peter Mullan . You can also learn more about the new residents of Film City Glasgow including
KeoNorth and Crocodile Media,
Finestripe Productions
Hopscotch
If there is someone else I should have added to this I fail and my apologies, please let me know what else needs a mention!

Finally, always very good to hear from the ever fabulous Dawn Steele, who of course starred as the much beloved Lexi in Monarch of the Glen with Alastair. Rock on Dawn, fingers crossed your luck with the new show holds out!