Download pdf - Scottish Screen

the scottish screen industries magazine 

dec 2008 - jan 2009 

BAFTA awards 2008 | Local Hero 25th anniversary | Summer in Rome | Cromarty film festival

news 

Front cover image: 

BAFTA Scotland awards 

editorial 

Christmas is fast approaching and as this 

issue straddles the old and new year, it 

seems time is further accelerated. 

Just a moment then to pause and celebrate 

all the great work and talented people in 

Scotland’s screen industries. Much of this 

issue is given over to this year’s BAFTA 

Scotland awards, with an interview with new 

Director, Helen Anderson, a report from the 

Cardonald College students who worked 

behind the scenes to produce the show, and 

of course, a few words with the winners 

themselves. 

Also time to look back and celebrate an 

iconic Scottish film that is celebrating its 

25 th anniversary. Bill Forsyth was recently 

reunited with Local Hero and the town of 

Pennan, which played such a crucial role in 

the film; Neil Shirran from Aberdeen City 

and Shire Film Office writes of how the town 

marked the occasion. 

Also in this issue we hear from five 

different film festivals around the world: 

Kenny Glenaan recent recipient of a BAFTA 

Scotland award for Best Direction reports 

back on the Rome International Film Festival, 

were Summer picked up a prestigious 

prize – and some footwear - from a jury 

young Italians. Lucinda Broadbent writes of 

Sheffield doc/fest where her film, Red Oil, 

was screening, and where she enjoyed a 

Scottish rollerblading ceilidh! Further afield, 

Dale Corlett and Suzanne Adamson took 

their short film, man at the side of the road, 

to Palm Springs Shortfest and discovered 

the downside of driving convertibles in the 

desert. Closer to home, Norman McClandish 

recounts how he very nearly managed to 

upset the most stylish man in Scotland 

at the Heartland Film Society Festival 

in Aberfeldy, and producer Don Coutts 

previews December’s Cromarty Film Festival, 

which has a great programme and line-up of 

speakers introducing their favourite films. 

We also hear from a number of independent 

filmmakers and their recent experiences. 

Two films share dark subject matters, 

Blooded shot on the Isle of Mull and 

Mandragora Productions’ Dark Nature shot 

in Dumfries & Galloway. Midnight Madness 

is an ultra low budget documentary from 

Charles Henri-Bellville, documenting a 

basketball tournament, which recently 

screened at the Raindance Film Festival. 

Jana Prchalova, one of last year’s NEATs 

trainees, is now working on a short film with 

animation studio, Once Were Farmers; she 

tells us where the inspiration for Mondo’s 

Search for the Sun comes from. 

Much to look forward to in 2009, including 

the continuing progress towards Creative 

Scotland. Scottish Screen welcomed the 

recent appointment of chair for the new 

organisation, Ewan Brown, and we look 

forward to working with him in establishing 

the new organisation. 

Scottish Screen would like to wish everyone 

a happy festive season and all the very best 

wishes for 2009. 

Linsey Denholm 

Editor 

PANAMINT NEWS 

We are pleased to announce our latest DVD Hogmanay with The 

Whistlebinkies is in stock now. Hogmanay - catalogue number PDC2044. 

RRP £13.99 incl P&P. Presented by Jimmy Reid with the musical help 

of folk maestros The Whistlebinkies, this Channel 4 film looks into the 

New Year rituals and festivities as they are practised in various parts of 

Scotland. Filmed by Eddie McConnell. 

For more details and to order click on the following link: 

www.panamint.co.uk/acatalog/culture.html 

The Whistlebinkies 

Published by: 

SCOTTISH SCREEN | 249 West George Street | Glasgow | G2 4QE | UK 

e: info@scottishscreen.com | w: www.scottishscreen.com | t: + 44 (0)141 302 1700 

Scottish Screen is a charity registered in Scotland, No: SC026210 

2

CHAIR APPONITED TO 

CREATIVE SCOTLAND 

The establishment of a single dedicated body for Scotland's arts and culture 

sector gained further momentum as Ewan Brown was named Chair of 

Creative Scotland, the new publicly owned limited company which will be 

established. 

Working closely with the Joint Board of the Scottish Arts Council and 

Scottish Screen over the coming months, Mr Brown will formally become 

Chair when the company is established. Creative Scotland will take 

responsibility for all the practical transition arrangements, including staffing, 

systems and processes. 

The Joint Board will continue to be involved in the policy development of Creative Scotland 

and its Chair Richard Holloway will serve on the new board. Scottish Arts Council and Scottish 

Screen will focus on managing day to day operations of the two respective organisations to 

ensure continuous and seamless support to the sector. 

The Government intends to establish Creative Scotland as a statutory Non Departmental Public 

Body (NDPB) through the Public Services Reform Bill to be introduced to Parliament next year. 

Mr Brown, who will take no remuneration from Creative Scotland, has indicated that he plans to 

step down as Chair when NDPB status is established and the transition process is completed. 

To see the full press release from the Scottish Government, please visit www.scotland.gov.uk. 

Wide Open Spaces 

Begins Shooting 

Principal photography began in Ireland on 10 

November for Wide Open Spaces written by 

Arthur Mathews, co-writer of the infamous 

Father Ted. It stars Ewen Bremner (Fool’s 

Gold and Trainspotting), Ardal O’Hanlon (My 

Hero, Father Ted) and Owen Roe (Alarm, 

Intermission). The film is directed by Tom Hall 

(Bachelors Walk) and shot by Tim Fleming 

(Once) 

Wide Open Spaces is a belated coming-of-age 

comedy set in a remote part of Ireland about two 

slackers working to pay off a debt by helping to 

build a Famine Theme Park for a dodgy local 

entrepreneur. With a classic double-act at the 

centre, Wide Open Spaces is a unique take on 

male friendship and how it is easier to break up 

with a girl than with your best friend. 

Wide Open Spaces is a co-production between 

Irish company Grand Pictures (Spin the Bottle, 

Stew, Paths to Freedom) and Scottish company 

Mead Kerr (Night People). The film is being 

funded by Bord Scannain na hEireann (The 

Irish Film Board), Scottish Screen, RTE and 

BBC Scotland. Entertainment One are handling 

world sales. 

Paul Donovan of Grand Pictures commented: 

"This is a very funny script with great comic 

talent attached. We believe Wide Open Spaces 

will make audiences laugh out loud at the 

absurdity of all our lives.” 

Carole Sheridan, Head of Talent & Creativity 

at Scottish Screen said: “Investment in Wide 

Open Spaces provides Scottish producer Clare 

Kerr with her second feature film credit and 

first credit on an international co-production. 

Although the film will shoot in Ireland, postproduction 

will be done in Scotland, and 

Scottish crew have been brought on board to 

work with their Irish counterparts. This is the 

first of three projects that Scottish Screen has 

committed to invest in alongside the Irish Film 

Board; the other projects will shoot in Scotland. 

Scottish Screen is delighted to be entering into 

what we hope will be a sustained partnership.” 

Simon Perry, Chief Executive, Bord Scannán na 

hEireann/the Irish Film Board commented on 

the buoyancy of local film production saying: 

"Wide Open Spaces is one of three feature 

films in production this week. Perrier's Bounty 

directed by Ian Fitzgibbon and starring Cillian 

Murphy, and One Hundred Mornings directed 

and written by Conor Horgan have also started 

production indicating that the high levels of 

Irish film production experienced this year are 

being maintained. This year IFB-funded film and 

television projects contributed an estimated 

total of over €70 million to the Irish economy, 

showing a significant return on government 

investment in this sector." 

contents 

3-8 News 

10-11 MEDIA news 

12-13 Training news 

14-15 Calendar 

16 Call for entries 

18-23 BAFTA special 

news 

24-25 Local Hero: 

report by Neil Shirran 

26-27 Summer in Rome: 

report by Kenny Glenaan 

28-29 Red Oil and the Sheffield 

Doc/Fest: report by 

Lucinda Broadbent 

30-31 Man on the side of the 

road in the desert: 

report by Dale Corlett & 

Suzanne Adamson 

32-33 The letter ‘s’: 

by Norman McClandish 

34-35 Blooded: by James 

Walker & Nick Ashdon 

36-37 Dark Nature: 

by Eddie Harrison 

38-39 Midnight Madness: 

by Almamy Soumah 

40-41 Mondo’s Search for the 

Sun: by Jana Prchalova 

42 Shooting People 

43 Beyond Tartan: 

by Paul Smith 

44 East Meets West: 

interview with Leo 

Saidenough and Sharon 

McCance 

45 The L.A.B Learn @ 

BBC Scotland: 

by Johanna Hall 

46-47 Cromarty Film Festival: 

preview by Don Coutts 

48 Arc facilities 

49 Access Take 2: by 

Jennifer Hunter-Mackenzie 

50-51 Location of the Month: 

The Glasgow Academy 

3

news 

SHORT FILMS FLYING 

HIGH AT ENCOUNTERS 

Jamie Stone, the recent BAFTA Scotland 

award winner for animation, screened his live 

action work at this year’s Encounters Short 

Film Festival (18-23 November). 

Jamie, who is based in Edinburgh, was 

awarded the BAFTA Scotland Award for 

Animation for Space Travel According 

to John, directed with Anders Jedenfors 

and produced by Laura Clarke. His recent 

directorial foray into live action has resulted 

in Flights, a journey set in one of Edinburgh’s 

famous stairwells where a frail old man 

struggles his way to the summit. 

“It’s great to have both films shown at 

Encounters. I’m often uncertain as whether I 

should be counted as an animator or a liveaction 

filmmaker, so I’m thrilled to have both 

examples of my work recognised at the same 

festival,” he said. 

Both films screened as part of Scottish Screen 

and Glasgow Media Access Centre’s (GMAC) 

New Scottish Shorts programme, which 

celebrates new excellent and innovative 

storytelling from Scotland. 

Other highlights from the New Scottish Shorts 

strand include Eyes on the Street, directed 

by David Newbigging and produced by Andy 

Maas, a snap-shot of Dougie McLelland’s 

life as a community warden and his dreams 

of becoming a cop. BAFTA Scotland awardnominated 

producer Kat Calton showed 

another of her short films, Saltmark, directed 

by Robin Haig, where a humiliating trip to 

the chip shop shows how the love between 

granddaughter and grandfather can save an 

embarrassing situation. 

A number of Scottish short films were 

selected to run in competition at Encounters. 

Glasgow-based production company Once 

Were Farmers competed for the Children’s 

Jury Award with two short films: Terrafarmer, 

a comedy about an astronaut’s attempts to 

make an inhospitable planet liveable with 

only a malfunctioning robot as his help and 

companion; and This is J03, where live action 

and 3D animation fuse to tell the story of an 

8-bit digital man stuck in our 21st century 

Christmas with Dad 

analogue world searching for a way home. 

This is J03 was nominated for the Cartoon 

d'Or, Europe's chief animation prize. 

Once were Farmers attended the festival to 

showcase their work. Will Adams, one of the 

Creative Directors of Once Were Farmers said: 

“After having exhibited at various festivals 

internationally, Toronto, New York, California, 

Switzerland and Wrexham to name a few, 

having both our films selected for Encounters 

is a highlight for us - not just because it's a 

festival we can actually find the time to go to, 

but because it has a great reputation in the 

animation industry, and it’s a privilege to be 

involved.” 

Christmas with Dad, directed by Conor 

McCormack, produced by Sarah Tierney and 

made through the Scottish Documentary 

Institute’s Bridging the Gap Scheme, has 

already been selected for Sheffield Doc/Fest 

and competed for the Best of British Award at 

Encounters. The documentary follows AJ who 

is 22 and already a father of seven. AJ’s tough 

appearance conceals a sensitive young man 

living through some of the defining moments 

in his life. 

Sonja Henrici of the Scottish Documentary 

Institute was delighted at the selection: 

“Scottish Documentary Institute is pleased 

to present the first Bridging the Gap film in 

competition at Encounters - testimony to the 

continuing strength of the scheme, and the 

growing interest in short documentary.” 

Sambrooke Scott, Market Development 

Executive at Scottish Screen attended 

Encounters to support and promote Scotland’s 

considerable filmmaking talent. He said: 

“Encounters is the UK’s premiere short film 

festival and we are proud to support the 

excellent work of GMAC, Bridging the Gap, 

and independent Scottish filmmakers. The 

selection of films from Scotland this year is 

accomplished and diverse: from hilarious 

animations to hard-hitting documentary, 

from gripping narrative films to challenging 

experimental work. Scottish filmmakers are 

firing on all cylinders and producing work on 

a level with the very best that’s out there.” 

Screen Academy 

Scotland filmmakers 

screen graduation 

films in China and 

India 

Four Screen Academy Scotland 

filmmakers are heading east this month 

to screen their graduation films in China 

and India. 

The four graduates, two from Screen 

Academy partners Napier University 

and Edinburgh College of Art, are 

bound for Beijing Film Academy, where 

they will take part in the CILECT world 

congress of film schools, screening 

their documentary, drama and animated 

graduation films to staff and students 

from around the world. 

From Beijing, they will travel to West 

Bengal where they have been invited to 

take part in the renowned Kolkata Film 

Festival. 

The China leg of the trip is being 

sponsored by the Scottish Government 

and the British Council's Connections 

Through Culture programme. The 

students will screen their films at the 

Kolkata Film Festival as part of British 

Council's Scotland Kolkata Connections, 

a year-long programme of cultural 

events building links between Scotland 

and India. 

The four graduates whose films are 

being screened are: 

Damian Woods, director of short drama 

River Child (Winner of Best Short Drama 

at the Celtic Media Festival), Napier 

University MFA in Advanced Film 

Practice graduate; 

Timo Langer, director of short drama 

Dach (Winner of Kodak Craft Award 

for Technical Excellence at Scottish 

Students on Screen), Napier University 

MFA in Advanced Film Practice graduate 

and graduate from Edinburgh College 

of Art; 

Ruth Paxton, director of experimental 

drama She Wanted to Be Burnt, 

Edinburgh College of Art MDes in Film 

graduate; 

Hermann Karlsson, director of 

animation Short Dog, Edinburgh College 

of Art MDes Animation graduate. 

4

news 

The Director's Cut presents a series of discussions staged at the 

University of Aberdeen's Kings College campus with well-known 

and innovative international filmmakers and broadcasters. 

In the 2007/08 debut series, they were delighted to welcome 

Nicolas Roeg, Raul Ruiz, Allan Shiach, John Akomfrah and Sir 

David Attenborough. Webcasts from Series 1 are available on 

the Director’s Cut website. So far in Series 2 2008/09, guests 

have included Hans Petter Moland and Pawel Pawlikowski with 

Jane Treays on 9 December. Look out for more filmmakers to be 

announced in the New Year. 

The series is organised by the Film and Visual Culture Department 

and coordinated by the Events team of the Office of External 

Affairs. It is open to the public and admission is usually free and 

includes a reception hosted by Scottish Screen. 

www.abdn.ac.uk/directorscut 

Alan Docherty 

(1955-2008) 

by Janet McBain, Curator of Scottish Screen Archive 

Alan Docherty, born 1955, was the quiet gentle man who was at the 

heart of the Scottish Screen Archive’s access service. He joined the 

Archive in 1995 at a time when traditional film presentation was 

becoming superseded by video technology. He built up the Archive’s 

video editing and dubbing capability, and over the years, assembled 

and produced compilations of original historical images for film 

theatres, museums and schools, and dubbed titles for hundreds of 

programme makers, and for the many members of the public. 

He was absolutely committed to delivering the best quality of image 

possible, and was never happier than when working on a film that 

required to be speed and colour corrected, cleaned up and married 

with appropriate musical accompaniment. 

Hans Petter Moland in conversation with Dr Alan Marcus 

He took enormous pride in his work, which was enjoyed by 

television audiences and community groups across Scotland. He was 

essentially a private person, never comfortable in the foreground, but 

as steady as a rock in a backroom supportive role. His contribution 

to the current generation’s enjoyment of our screen heritage is 

considerable. 

5

news 

Merry XXXmas from The Magic Lantern! 

Wednesday 3 December, 7.30pm 

CCA5, 350 Sauchiehall Street 

Tickets: £5/£3 from CCA Box Office on 

0141 352 4900 

www.themagiclantern.org 

www.cca-glasgow.com 

The Magic Lantern presents a programme of 

short films that explore the representation 

of sex on screen. From seminal artists' 

shorts, early erotic titillaters to more recent 

commissions from contemporary celebrated 

filmmakers: each of the films in this 

programme question the diverse attitudes by 

which we represent ourselves sexually. NB: 

this programme is suitable for 18+ only. 

La Fessée à l'école, France, 1925, 5 mins 

A restored French blue movie, originally 

shown in the waiting rooms of brothels. 

Some naughty schoolgirls are punished by 

their teacher. 

Moment, Stephen Dwoskin, 

UK, 1968 ,13 mins 

One single continuous shot of a girl's face 

before, during and after orgasm. 

Fuses, Carolee Schneemann, 

USA, 1964-67, 18 mins 

A silent film of collaged and painted 

sequences of sex between Schneemann and 

her then partner, composer James Tenney; 

observed by the cat, Kitch. 

Balkan Erotic Epic, Maria Abramovic, 

2005, 13 mins 

Through eroticism the human attempts to 

make himself equal with the gods. In Balkan 

folklore, various explicit acts were performed 

for higher purposes; to promote growth 

of crops, to heal a sick child and to protect 

against evil spirits. 

Impaled, Larry Clark, 

USA, 2005, 38 mins 

Celebrated American filmmaker of Kids 

and Bully explores the impact porn has on 

attitudes to sex by interviewing a range of 

porn enthusiasts and providing them the 

opportunity to act out their fantasies. 

Un Chant D’Amour, Jean Genet, 

France, 1950, 25 mins 

Set in a French prison, this silent, poetic, 

and intensely physical vision of homosexual 

desire reveals the recurrent themes that unite 

Genet's work and the cinematic techniques 

- of collage, flashback and close-up - which 

he adopted to his novels, plays and poetry. 

The subject of ceaseless controversy 

and international censorship, Un Chant 

d'amour was unseen for many years yet 

has influenced a generation of film-makers, 

becoming a cause celbre of gay rights and 

freedom of expression, as well as being 

recognised as a masterpiece of underground 

cinema in its own right. 

Sync, Marco Brambilla, 

Italy, 2005, 1 min 

Sync is made up of sampled images from 

sex scenes in mainstream and adult films 

and explores the formulaic and often 

derivative approach to sex in cinema. 

Contact: 

info@themagiclantern.org 

rosie@themagiclantern.org 

Rosie: 07966735006 

Thanks to lux, bfi, revolver & destricted 

Supported by Scottish Screen National 

Lottery funds through the Audience 

Development Fund. 

Skillset and UK Film Council 

publish Feature Film Production 

Workforce Workforce Survey 

Half the UK's film production workforce says that it needs more 

training. This is according to UK film production crew as captured 

in the Skillset - UK Film Council Feature Film Production Workforce 

Survey Report 2008. 

The film industry, in the UK and around the world, is going through a 

period of rapid transformation. With the advent of new technologies, 

90% of the workforce recognise that the skills needed to work in the 

industry are going to change. 

Despite this, the results of this year's survey do not show much 

change from those of the earlier survey in 2005. Roughly half the 

workforce has not received any kind of training. In addition, there are 

particular areas where significant improvement is needed: 

- To create a more diverse workforce by recruiting and retaining: more 

women, people from ethnic minority communities, and people with 

disabilities 

- To reduce the amount of unpaid work that people in our industry are 

expected to do in order to gain experience before getting paid work 

- To enable the workforce to receive more training by supporting them 

through financial subsidies and more convenient delivery, ie flexible 

location and timing 

To download the full report, please visit 

http://publications.skillset.org/index.php?id=9 

Edinburgh start-up 

selected for film 

festival in Toronto 

The first two short films made by Binary Fable, a new animation 

company based in Edinburgh, have been selected as finalists for 

Mobifest Toronto 2008. Mobifest is the international film festival for 

made-for-mobile films. 

The two films tell the stories of two very different places in Scotland. 

One recounts a miraculous escape to safety at Culross in Fife, and 

the other tells the story of the reintroduction of Capercaillie at 

Drummond Hill. Both films were screened in competition at Toronto's 

Revue Cinema on 19 November 2008. 

The films were designed to be downloaded by visitors to Culross 

Abbey or Drummond Hill. They use storytelling to connect with the 

past through tales of people and places. Only one minute long, 

each film provides a short burst of information in an engaging and 

humorous way. 

The films were commissioned through the Pocket Shorts Scotland 

funding and development scheme, supported by Scottish Enterprise, 

Scottish Screen and NESTA. Funding was awarded in January 2008 

and the films were launched at an event at this year's Edinburgh 

International Film Festival in June. 

6

news 

Build Space in 

Scotland 

Scottish Screen recognises that TV and filmmakers need good 

quality studio and set building spaces and have compiled this list of 

empty warehouses and potential build space. Purpose-built studios 

are a rarity in Scotland, but a number of film and TV projects have 

successfully completed their shoots here in makeshift spaces. 

The list attempts to provide a detailed record of potential build space 

and will be updated regularly. It will include any empty industrial 

spaces that become available and which productions have used the 

space in the past. 

Scottish Screen has compiled the list and has made every effort 

to ensure the accuracy of the information. The company cannot, 

however, be held responsible for state of the buildings. It will be 

up to each production company to deal with owners and complete 

all the paperwork and clean or manipulate the premise to suit their 

needs. 

Please contact locations@scottishscreen.com should you encounter 

any problems. Scottish Screen Locations department is happy to 

amend any details if they are incorrect - or if you would like your 

space included on the list. 

For more information, please download the Build Space brochure 

here www.scottishscreen.com. 

Strathclyde Police warning 

about replica guns 

Glasgow Film Office were contacted recently by Inspector John 

Hunter of Strathclyde Police, who is becoming increasingly 

concerned, especially in the current climate, about filmmakers 

using replica guns without contacting the police first. 

He said, "On two separate occasions in the past 18 months, 

there have been incidents of student filmmakers who have not 

informed the police of their proposed filming and proceeded to 

film scenes which involved replica firearms. On both occasions, 

an Armed Response Vehicle was dispatched to the scene and 

filming was halted immediately. I'm sure that I do not need 

to stress the grave concern which this caused to Strathclyde 

Police as up until the moment they arrive on the scene, their 

officers are under the assumption that they are dealing with a 

legitimate firearm incident." 

Scottish Screen Locations works closely with all the regional 

film offices and police forces across Scotland to ensure that 

the current Health and Safety Executive legislation involving 

filming with firearms, replica firearms and other weapons is 

adhered to by all filmmakers. 

Strathclyde Police, and all the other forces in Scotland, 

would like to reassure filmmakers that they are happy to help 

and advise on gun-related issues, but that everyone has a 

responsibility to ensure the safety of the general public. Any 

filming involving the use of replica firearms or other weapons 

must be discussed with the local police before filming. If you 

have any questions, please contact Scottish Screen Locations 

on 0141 302 1724, or your local film office. 

For more information on the legislation, please go to 

www.hse.gov.uk and download Entertainment Information 

Sheet No 20. 

7

news 

Trainspotting 

Cartwheels 

Share 

Your Stories 

with Made in 

Scotland 

Set for publication in 2009, Made In Scotland is a celebration of 

Scottish filmmaking in the form of a coffee-table book, with indepth 

accounts of the making of some of Scotland’s most fondly 

remembered and critically acclaimed movies. 

Published by Guerilla Books, the book will follow on in style from 

Tony Ernshaw’s Made in Yorkshire publication, and will compiled by 

film writer, journalist and pole-dancing expert Eddie Harrison. 

Anyone who has special location stories or behind the scenes 

pictures they’d like to share can get in contact with Eddie at the 

following email address: madeinscotland2009@yahoo.co.uk. 

Esther Hegarty 

Turning Cartwheels 

with Madonna 

Scottish director Esther Hegarty visited the Flanders Film Festival in 

October when her short film, Cartwheels, was selected to accompany 

three public screenings of Madonna’s directorial debut, Filth and 

Wisdom. 

Esther directed her first short, Juliet in 2005, and also worked as a 

set assistant on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and was 

assistant to Sir Richard Attenborough on his most recent film, Closing 

the Ring. 

Written by Eddie Harrison, Cartwheels stars Beth Cordingly as a 

woman who gains the self-confidence to leave her unappreciative 

husband through the power of pole-dancing. After this support 

slot to Madonna, Cartwheels went on to screen at the BSC New 

Cinematographers Night at London’s Pinewoood Studios in 

November. 

BBC Scotland call for audience 

members for brand-new comedy 

The Old Guys is a brand-new comedy for BBC One 

from the writers of Peep Show and The Thick Of 

It, starring Roger Lloyd Pack, Clive Swift and Jane 

Asher. 

Recordings begin at BBC Scotland on 19 November 

and will continue up until 21 December 2008. 

If you would like to be part of the studio audience, 

please e-mail oldguysaudience@bbc.co.uk. Please 

remember to leave your name and phone number. 

8

MEDIA 

media news 

NEWS 

NEWS 

Register now for media Stand at EFM in 

Berlin 

The Marketplace will again organise the 

European Stand at the European Film Market 

during the Berlinale 2009, with the support of 

the MEDIA Programme. 

This Umbrella stand with front desk, 

messaging service, DVD-viewing facilities, 

coffee bar and internet access will host, 

free of charge, approximately 100 selected 

independent European audio-visual 

professionals. To participate in this offer 

you will need to register directly with the 

European Film Market for a badge before 

December 15 (see EFM website at www. 

efm-berlinale.de/) and complete the MEDIA 

eligibility form on the Marketplace website. 

For further information contact The 

Marketplace on info@marketplaceevents.com 

or visit their website at www. 

marketplace-events.com. 

MEDIA Funding 

Festivals 18/2008 

A minimum of 70% of the eligible 

programming presented to the public 

during the festival must be European. 

The programming must represent at least 

10 countries participating in the MEDIA 

Programme. Grants of €10,000 to €75,000 

can be sought. 

Deadline: 30 April 2009 for festivals taking 

place between 1 November 2009 and 30 

April 2010 

Television Broadcasting 

20/2008 

The scheme's objective is to encourage 

independents to produce television 

programmes involving the participation of 

at least three broadcasters from several 

member states participating or co-operating 

in the programme. 

Productions belonging to the following 

categories are eligible: 

Television fiction films (one-off or series) of a 

total duration of minimum 50 minutes 

Creative documentaries (one-off or series) of 

a total duration of minimum 25 minutes 

Animation (one-off or series) of a total 

duration of minimum 24 minutes 

The financial contribution awarded cannot 

exceed 12.5% of the total eligible costs for 

fiction and animation works. The maximum 

financial contribution which may be awarded 

to fiction and animation works is €500 000. 

For documentaries, the financial contribution 

awarded cannot exceed 20% of the total 

eligible costs and the maximum financial 

contribution which may be awarded is 

€300 000 per action. 

Deadlines: 27 February and 26 June 2009 

Interactive Works 25/2008 

The activities for the following interactive 

works are eligible: 

Interactive works for computer, internet, 

mobile phone, games console including 

handheld presenting a substantial degree of 

interactivity, scenario and innovation; 

New format concepts destined for digital 

television, the internet or mobile handsets 

where interactivity and narrative elements 

are significant. 

In all cases the projects must be intended 

for commercial exploitation. Works which 

do not require the active involvement of the 

user are not considered to be interactive. A 

production company can submit a maximum 

of two projects in this call. 

Each grant will amount between €10,000 

and €60,000 except for the development of 

prototypes for games consoles, handheld 

consoles and computers for which the 

maximum grant is €100,000. This grant can 

cover up to 50% of the eligible costs; the 

applicant company must guarantee matching 

funds to cover the rest. 

To be eligible to apply, companies must 

demonstrate a track record of having 

produced as majority producer an eligible 

interactive work or an animation of no less 

than 24 minutes. They also have to prove 

that this project has been commercially 

distributed during the period between 1 

January 2006 and the application submission 

date. 

Deadline: 17 April 2009 

Development Funding 

24/2008 

Companies can only submit one application 

for development support (Single Project, 

Slate Funding or Slate Funding 2nd Stage) in 

this call. 

Single Projects 

The development activities for the following 

audiovisual works (one-offs or series) are 

eligible: 

Drama of at least 50 minutes (the total length 

of the series in the case of a series) 

Creative documentary of at least 25 minutes 

(length per episode in the case of a series) 

Animation of at least 24 minutes (the total 

length of the series in case of a series) 

Each grant will amount between €10,000 and 

€60,000 except for feature-length animations 

for theatrical release, for which the 

maximum is €80,000. This grant can cover 

up to 50% of the eligible costs; the applicant 

company must guarantee matching funds to 

cover the rest. 

To be eligible to apply, the company must 

be able to provide evidence that they have 

completed, as the majority producer, a 

previous work similar to the eligible projects 

described above. It must also show that this 

work has been commercially distributed 

during the period between 1 January 2006 

and the application submission date. In 

addition, applicant companies must have 

been registered for at least 12 months. 


Slate Funding 

A Slate Funding application must contain 

a slate of at least 3 and a maximum of 6 

eligible projects. Each project can receive 

an amount of support between €10,000 and 

€60,000. The total amount of support that can 

be allocated under Slate Funding is between 

€70,000 and €190,000. This grant can cover 

up to 50% of the eligible costs; the applicant 

company must guarantee matching funds to 

cover the rest. 

The eligible projects comprising the slate 

must be from one of the following eligible 

categories: 

Drama of at least 50 minutes (total length of 

the series in case of a series) 

Creative documentary of at least 25 minutes 

(length per episode in case of a series) 

Animation of at least 24 minutes (length of 

the series in case of a series) 

Within five years leading to the application 

submission date, the company must have 

produced as a majority producer two 

projects in a similar eligible category to the 

projects described above and these projects 

must have had international distribution. In 

addition, applicant companies must have 

been registered for at least 36 months. 


Slate Funding 2nd Stage is only open 

to companies already selected for Slate 

Funding or Slate Funding 2nd stage and who 

meet the following conditions: 

To be a beneficiary of a Slate Funding or 

Slate Funding 2nd Stage agreement signed 

10

media news 

during the course of 2005, 2006, 2007 or 

2008 AND 

To have entered into production with at 

least one project supported under the 

aforementioned Slate Funding or Slate 

Funding 2nd Stage no later than on the date 

of submission of their application. 


Selective Distribution 

22/2008 

The scheme is to facilitate transnational 

distribution of European films. It aims to 

encourage distributors to release films 

that might be a challenge were they to be 

supported by market forces alone. As a result 

of this support European audiences should 

gain access to a wider range of films. 

Distributors wishing to distribute one or 

more non-national European films must 

form a grouping, co-ordinated by the film's 

sales agent or the producer, which will set 

out to release the film in several European 

territories. 

Deadlines: 1 December 2008, 1 April and 1 

July 2009 

i2i Audiovisual 28/2008 

The i2i Audiovisual scheme supports 

production companies that bear the 

costs of bank financing and/or associated 

insurance and completion bonds costs. It 

offers subsidy to cover up to 50% of the 

following costs, capped at €50,000 per 

project, and at €100,000 per company: 

Module 1: Insurance Costs   

Module 2: Completion Guarantee Costs 

Module 3: Financial Costs (the interest on the 

loan) 

In order to be eligible companies must 

present a signed credit agreement, insurance 

contract or completion guarantee for the 

project. 

Companies can apply for more than one 

module for the same film, unless it is 

possible to obtain the maximum of €50,000 

under one module. The minimum allocation 

is €5,000 per project. 

Deadlines: 

2 February 2009 - for projects that have 

started between 1 July 2008 and 2 February 

2009 ie the credit agreement with the bank or 

financial institution has been signed within 

that period and the first day of principal 

photography has not taken place before 1 

July 2008. 

7 July 2009 - for projects that have started 

between 1 January 2009 and 7 July 2009 

i.e. the credit agreement with the bank of 

financial institution has been signed within 

that period and the first day of principal 

photography has not taken place before 1 

January 2009. 

For further information on any of the above 

please go to www.mediadesk.co.uk/funding. 

MEDIA Training 

Script & Pitch Workshops 

An advanced script writing and development 

course for script writers and story editors 

of cinema films and television movies. This 

course lasts for eleven months, consisting of 

three workshops, two online sessions and an 

alumni meeting. 

Fee: €2000 but is reduced to €1500 for 

writers from the new EU member states. 

Deadline: 15 December 2008. 

For further information please contact 

info@scriptpitchworkshops.com or visit the 

website at www.scriptpitchworkshops.com. 

MFI Script 2 Workshops 

A script and project development 

programme, based on group work, Q&A 

sessions, case studies and individual 

consultations. It consists of four intensive 

workshops: two in the Greek islands of 

Nissyros and Samos, plus two on-line 

sessions. 

Fee: €1500 for each screenwriter, plus €1000 

for each additional person and €500 for each 

additional person thereafter. 

Deadline: 27 February 2009. 

For further information please contact 

info@mfi.gr or visit the website at 

www.mfi.gr. 

MEDIA Roadshow 2009 

MEDIA Antenna Scotland will be holding 

MEDIA information roadshows in various 

venues in early 2009. They aim to give an 

overview of the MEDIA 2007 Programme 

and the opportunities it offers in the areas of 

funding, networking and training. 

Dundee 

11am – 1pm, Wednesday 21 January 2009 

Scottish Enterprise 

Enterprise House 

3 Greenmarket, Dundee DD1 4QB 

Glasgow 

2pm – 4pm, Wednesday 28 January 2009 

Scottish Screen 

249 West George Street 

Glasgow G2 4QE 

Aberdeen 

11am – 1pm, Wednesday 4 February 2009 

Aberdeen Martime Museum, Education 

Room 

Shiprow, Aberdeen AB11 5BY 

Edinburgh 

2pm – 4pm, Wednesday 18 February 2009 

Scottish Arts Council 

12 Manor Place, Edinburgh EH3 7DD 

These events are free, but please book a 

place by contacting Emma Valentine at 

Scotland@mediadesk.co.uk or 

tel 041 302 1776. 

For any further information, 

please do not hesitate to contact 

MEDIA Antenna Scotland on 

0141 302 1776/7. 

Alternatively, you can also email us at 

Scotand@mediadesk.co.uk 

or visit our website: 

www.mediadesk.co.uk 

MEDIA Antenna Scotland operates with 

the kind support of Scottish Screen and the 

MEDIA Programme of the European Union. 

11

training news 

TRAININGOPPORTUNITIES 

Short Course 

Training for Indies – 

December 2008 

Dealing with 

Difficult People 

Date: 3 December 2008 

Location: London 

Cost: ITF member - £150. Full fee - £225. 

A one-day seminar for production 

managers, team managers or anyone 

who would like to develop their people 

management skills. 

Who’s it for? Anyone who manages other 

people or works in a team. 

Pitching Your 

Project 




A one-day intensive workshop for indie 

producers on pitching TV and film projects 

to commissioning editors/funding bodies. 

Who’s it for? Producers and production staff 

with some experience of production and the 

commissioning process. This workshop is 

suitable for all TV and Film genres. 

Artistic & 

Literary Copyright 




A basic seminar for anyone wanting 

to understand more about clearance 

procedures for artistic and literary copyright 

in production. 

Who’s it for? Production staff of all levels, 

anyone dealing with books, art, still images 

or other types of artistic copyright in 

production. 

Health and Safety for 

Factual Productions 



Cost: ITF Member - £100. Full fee - £150. 

A one-day workshop for production staff 

covering the key issues in health and 

safety legislation and practice for factual 

productions. 

Who’s it for? Directors, producers and 

production management staff, production 

executives and heads of department. 

Suitable for anyone working in factual 

production with some element of 

responsibility for Health and Safety. 

The indie training fund is a charity that 

raises funds for training via 

contributions from independent TV and 

interactive media production 

companies and runs training courses and 

schemes for industry professionals. 

ITF short courses are open to ITF members, 

Pact members and freelancers with two 

years proven work experience. 

UK indies can join ITF in return for free 

courses, in-house training, subsidised 

trainees for company placements and 

subsidised training for their freelance 

workers. 

For more information visit the website 

www.indietrainingfund.com or get the 

latest from the blog http://indietrainingfund. 

wordpress.com. 

A: ITF, 18 –20 Southwark Street, 3rd Floor, 

London, SE1 1TJ, UK 

T: 020 7407 0454 

Bookings: To book a place or check 

availability, please e-mail 

bookings@indietrainingfund.com. 

ICO Training Courses 

December 2008 – 

January 2009 

Programming 

Specialised and 

Archive Film 

Date: Thursday 11 December 2008 

Venue: University College of the Arts, 

Norwich 

Cost: £100 + VAT. The price includes lunch, 

refreshments and networking drinks. 

Bursaries: Individuals working in Scotland 

can apply to Skillset Scotland's Training 

Fund. Please contact Sharon Hutt with any 

queries by e-mail SharonH@skillset.org. 

This course has been developed especially 

for independent cinemas, film festivals, arts 

centres and film societies who want to: 

- Learn how to create a strong programme 

of cultural film. 

- Discuss innovative approaches to 

programming. 

- Develop a good working relationship with 

film distributors. 

- Find out about accessing the collections of 

public sector moving image archives. 

- Get advice on the creative, practical, 

technical and legal considerations of 

screening archive film. 

- Take a tour of the East Anglian Film 

Archive. 

- Network with peers from all over the UK. 

Making the Most of 

Your Digital Screen 

Date: Thursday 15 January 2009 

Venue: QUAD, Derby 

Fees: £100 + VAT. The price includes lunch, 

refreshments and networking drinks. 

Bursaries: Individuals working in Scotland 

can apply to Skillset Scotland's Training 

Fund. Please contact Sharon Hutt with any 

queries by e-mail SharonH@skillset.org. 

This unique event has been designed 

especially for programmers, managers and 

administrators from independent cinemas 

12

CALLING ALL FREELANCERS 

Need money to train? 

training news 

The Skillset Scotland Training Fund 

is now open 

Freelancers can now apply for up to 80% of 

the combined training course fee, travel and 

accommodation to a maximum of £1,000. 

Deadline for Freelance Bursary fund 2008/9: 

31st January 2009 – Applications will be 

accepted on an ongoing basis until this date. 

For full guidelines and application forms 

visit www.skillset.org/uk/scotland. For more 

information please contact: 

Sharon Hutt, Scotland Fund Co-ordinator 

T: 0141 222 9990 E: sharonh@skillset.org 

from all over the UK who want to maximize 

the potential of their digital screen to 

strengthen their programme, broaden their 

audience and become more sustainable. 

It will also be of interest to distributors, 

screen agencies and local authority arts 

development officers. 

The day will include presentations 

from key players in the digital rollout, 

a panel discussion between exhibitors 

and distributors, plus peer dialogue and 

networking on a national scale. 

Questions to be addressed will include: 

- What impact is digital cinema having on 

specialised film releases and programming? 

- What is the Virtual Print Fee deal and how 

will it affect me? 

- How does the technology work and what 

are the plans for its future development? 

- What initiatives related to digital screens 

can help my cinema reach new audiences? 

- What are the industry plans for future 

digital cinema roll-out and how do I not get 

left behind? 

For further information about the above 

courses and details on registration, please 

visit www.independentcinemaoffice. 

org.uk/training, e-mail info@ 

independentcinemaoffice.org.uk, or call 020 

7079 0477. 

Initialize Films 

Producers' Lab - 

International Co- 

Productions 

Applications are now open for the 

forthcoming Initialize Films Producers' Lab 

on International Co-Productions. 

The Lab takes place in London and Berlin 

(at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival) over 

10 days in January and February 2009, 

culminating in pre-arranged one-to-one 

meetings for the 12 participants with 

potential co-production partners. 

Lead tutors Rebecca O' Brien (The Wind 

That Shakes the Barley) and Christine 

Alderson (Irina Palm) will be joined by 

over 20 international experts to provide a 

comprehensive analysis of co-production 

strategies. In addition, each participant will 

also be coached by a producer who has coproduced 

a feature project in the territory/ 

territories they are targeting. 

The Lab is open to documentary, fiction and 

animation producers who live in the UK and 

who have a feature project at an advanced 

stage of development. 

For further information about the Lab 

please see www.initialize-films.co.uk. 

The application deadline is Monday 15 

December 2008. 

Starter For 6 

now open for applications 

NESTA’s Starter for 6 programme provides 

enterprise training, support and grant 

awards of up to £10,000 to innovative 

business start-ups across Scotland. 

Now in its 3rd year, applications for the 

2009 programme are open to individuals 

and teams with a strong business idea in 

the science, technology and/or creative 

industry sectors. 

What NESTA offers: 

- Four days of training, giving participants 

new tools and ways of looking at the 

business as it turns from an idea into 

reality. 

- Opportunities to meet like-minded 

individuals at sessions and networking 

events, hear from entrepreneurial speakers 

and sector experts. 

- PR opportunities and support. 

- Coaching support between each training 

session. 

- Subsidy payment of £250 to assist with 

attending the training. 

- On completion of the training, participants 

have the opportunity to pitch for up to 

£10,000 of grant funding to take the 

business forward. 

Who NESTA is looking for: 

- Outstanding individuals and teams 

who have innovative business ideas with 

commercial potential. 

- Ideas that come from any of the faculties 

of science, technology or the arts/creative 

industries. 

- Applicants must be either pre-trading or 

trading up to a maximum of one year. 

- Open to anyone in Scotland with training 

taking place in Aberdeen, Dundee, 

Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. 

Apply online and find out more by visiting 

www.nesta.org.uk/starterfor6. 

Deadline for applications is Monday 26 

January 2009. 

Online scriptwriting 

course on 

Cineuropa.org 

Cineuropa.org, the European cinema portal, 

proposes an online scriptwriting course in 

English, French, Italian and Spanish. 

The training formula is based on a direct 

and personalised contact between the 

participants and the teacher. Participants 

will therefore be able to read the lessons 

and communicate privately with the teacher 

at any moment. 

Following the first trial lesson, which is 

available, free of charge, on the website, 

the course is structured in eight lessons 

over 14 weeks. These lessons aim to offer 

participants the essential theoretical 

and practical notions in scriptwriting, 

highlighting at the same time the 

differences between cinema scriptwriting 

and other creative forms. The follow up 

with the tutor and the practical aspects 

provided by the exercises are at the core of 

the project. 

There are no deadlines and candidates can 

apply anytime during the year. 

For further information, please visit 

http://cineuropa.org/onlinescreenplay. 

aspx?lang=en=1574. 

13

Calendar 

DECEMBER JANUARY 

1 Mon EVENTS – Art of the Pitch, City Halls, Glasgow (www.aandb.org.uk) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Coatbridge & Glasgow, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

TRAINING – MAIA Workshops 2009 (www.fabulafilm.com) 

DEADLINE – Entries to FilmG Competition (www.filmg.com) 

DEADLINE – Entries to Focal International 6th Footage Awards (www.focalint.org/focalawards.htm) 

2 Tue TRAINING – MAIA Workshops 2009 (www.fabulafilm.com) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Glasgow, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

EVENTS – Edinburgh Market Day, Cultural Enterprise Office (www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.uk) 

EVENTS – Business Start Up Workshops, Wick, HIE (www.hie.co.uk) 

3 Wed TRAINING – MAIA Workshops 2009 (www.fabulafilm.com) 

TRAINING – Dealing with Difficult People, London, (www.indietrainingfund.com) 

EVENTS – European Information Clinics, Glasgow, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Inverurie & Motherwell, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

EVENTS – Funding the Business, Aberdeen, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

EVENTS – Glasgow –Starting Out, Cultural Enterprise Office (www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.uk) 

EVENTS – Young People and the Arts, Various Locations, Children in Scotland (www.childreninscotland.org.uk) 

EVENTS – Business Start Up Workshops, Dingwall & Wick, HIE (www.hie.co.uk) 

4 Thur TRAINING – MAIA Workshops 2009 (www.fabulafilm.com) 

TRAINING – Pitching Your Project, London (www.indietrainingfund.com) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Glasgow & Hamilton, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 


EVENTS – Business Start Up Workshops, Dingwall & Wick, HIE (www.hie.co.uk) 

5 Fri RELEASES - UK Release of Summer (press.vertigofilms.com) 

TRAINING – MAIA Workshops 2009 (www.fabulafilm.com) 

DEADLINE – Entries to Women in Film and Television Film Festival, Vancouver (www.womeninfilm.ca) 

DEADLINE – Entries to Cartoon Movie, Berlin (www.cartoon-media.be/MOVIE/schedule.php) 


EVENTS – Business Start Up Workshops, Dingwall, HIE (www.hie.co.uk) 

6 Sat EVENTS – European Film Awards, Copenhagan (www.europeanfilmacademy.org/) 

FESTIVALS – Cromarty Film Festival (www.cromartyfilmfestival.org/index.asp?pageid=12945) 

FESTIVALS – Kill Your Timid Notion on Tour, Glasgow (www.arika.org.uk) 

7 Sun FESTIVALS – Cromarty Film Festival (www.cromartyfilmfestival.org/index.asp?pageid=12945) 

FESTIVALS – Kill Your Timid Notion on Tour, Glasgow (www.arika.org.uk) 

8 Mon FESTIVALS – Cromarty Film Festival (www.cromartyfilmfestival.org/index.asp?pageid=12945) 

9 Tue DEADLINE – Applications for Markets and Festivals Support for Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival (www.scottishscreen.com/investment) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Irvine, Hamilton & Glasgow, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

EVENTS – Edinburgh – Starting Out, Cultural Enterprise Office (www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.uk) 

10 Wed EVENTS – Bridging the Gap pitching session (www.docscene.org/) 

TRAINING – Artistic & Literary Copyright, London (www.indietrainingfund.com) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Coatbridge & Edinburgh, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

11 Thur TRAINING - Programming Specialised and Archive Film, ICO Training, Norwich (www.independentcinemaoffice.org. 

uk/training.html) 

TRAINING – Health & Safety for Factual Productions, London (www.indietrainingfund.com) 

EVENTS – Networking Skills, Glasgow, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

EVENTS – Christmas Networking Party, Glasgow, Cultural Enterprise Office (www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.uk) 

15 Mon DEADLINE – Entries to BIFFF Science Fiction Film Festival, Brussels (www.bifff.org) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Coatbridge, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

EVENTS – Business Start Up Workshops, Inverness & Elgin, HIE (www.hie.co.uk) 

16 Tue DEADLINE – Applications for Markets and Festivals Support for Rotterdam International Film Festival (www.scottishscreen.com/investment) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 


17 Wed EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Edinburgh, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 


18 Thur EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Hamilton, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

23 Tue EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Hamilton, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

24 Wed EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Coatbridge, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

29 Mon DEADLINE – Deadline for Entries to BAFTA Scotland New Talent Awards 

31 Wed DEADLINE – Entries to Studentfest (www.propellertv.co.uk) 

24 Sat FESTIVALS – Goteborg International Film Festival (www.filmfestival.org/filmfestival/) 

FESTIVALS – Angers Festival of European First Films (www.premiersplans.org) 

FESTIVALS – Sundance Film Festival (www.sundance.org/festival/) 

FESTIVALS – Rotterdam International Film Festival (www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com) 

25 Sun FESTIVALS – Goteborg International Film Festival (www.filmfestival.org/filmfestival/) 




MARKETS – Cinemart, Rotterdam (professionals.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/eng/cinemine.aspx) 

26 Mon DEADLINE – Applications to NESTA Starter for 6 (www.nesta.org.uk/starterfor6) 

FESTIVALS – Goteborg International Film Festival (www.filmfestival.org/filmfestival/) 



27 Tue EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Sessions, Dundee, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 




28 Wed EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Sessions, Edinburgh, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 




29 Thur EVENTS – Networking Skills Workshop, Dalkeith, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 




30 Fri FESTIVALS – Goteborg International Film Festival (www.filmfestival.org/filmfestival/) 


FESTIVAL – Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival (www.clermont-filmfest.com/) 

31 Sat DEADLINE – Applications to Skillset Scotland Training Fund (www.skillset.org/uk/scotland/trainingfund/) 



FESTIVAL – Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival (www.clermont-filmfest.com/) 

MARKETS – Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market (www.clermont-filmfest.com/00_templates/page.php?m=66) 

FEBRUARY 

1 Sun FESTIVALS – Goteborg International Film Festival (www.filmfestival.org/filmfestival/) 


FESTIVALS – Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival (www.clermont-filmfest.com/) 


2 Mon DEADLINE – Applications to MEDIA i2i Audiovisual Fund (www.mediadesk.co.uk/funding) 




3 Tues EVENTS – Organising Accessible Screenings, ICO Training, London (www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/training. 

html) 




4 Wed FESTIVALS– Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival (www.clermont-filmfest.com/) 


EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Perth & Edinburgh, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

5 Thur FESTIVALS – Berlin International Film Festival (www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html) 

MARKETS – European Film Market, Berlin ((www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html) 



6 Fri FESTIVALS – Berlin International Film Festival (www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html) 




FESTIVALS – Kingussie Food on Film Festival, Kingussie (www.kfff.co.uk) 

7 Sat FESTIVALS – Berlin International Film Festival (www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html) 


EVENTS – Berlinale Talent Campus, Berlin (www.berlinale-talentcampus.de) 

FESTIVALS – Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival (www.clermont-filmfest.com/)

JANUARY 

5 Mon DEADLINE – Applications to the 2009/I UKFC Short Film Completion Fund (www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/completition) 

DEADLINE – Applications for Markets and Festivals Support for Berlin Film Festival (www.scottishscreen.com/ 

investment) 

6 Tue EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Perth, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

7 Wed EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Edinburgh & Arbroath, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

8 Thur DEADLINE – Applications for Markets and Festival Support for Berlin International Film Festival (www.scottishscreen.com/investment) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Dundee, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

9 Fri FESTIVALS – Flickerfest Short Film Festival (www.flickerfest.com.au) 

10 Sat EVENTS – Introduction to Business, Aberdeen, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

FESTIVALS – Flickerfest Short Film Festival (www.flickerfest.com.au) 

11 Sun FESTIVALS – Flickerfest Short Film Festival (www.flickerfest.com.au) 

12 Mon EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Grangemouth, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 


13 Tue EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Edinburgh, Alloa & Dunfermline, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

EVENTS – Glasgow - Starting Out, Cultural Enterprise Office, Candleriggs Glasgow (www.culturalenterpriseoffice. 

co.uk) 


14 Wed EVENTS – Introduction to Business, Dundee & Edinburgh, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

EVENTS – Getting Branded Content Right, London (www.brandedcontentevent.co.uk) 


15 Thur DEADLINE – Applications for Initialize Film Producers Lab – International Co-Productions (www.initialize-films.co.uk) 

DEADLINE – Entries to European Independent Film Festival, Paris (www.ecufilmfestival.com) 

EVENTS – Making the most of your Digital Screen, ICO Training, Derby (www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/training.html) 

EVENTS – Start Up Networking Session, Dundee (www.bgateway.com) 



16 Fri FESTIVALS – Angers Festival of European First Films (www.premiersplans.org) 



17 Sat FESTIVALS – Angers Festival of European First Films (www.premiersplans.org) 



18 Sun FESTIVALS – Angers Festival of European First Films (www.premiersplans.org) 


19 Mon FESTIVALS – Angers Festival of European First Films (www.premiersplans.org) 


20 Tue EVENTS – Funding the Business Seminar, Aberdeen, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

EVENTS – Business Start Up Workshops, Lerwick, HIE (www.hie.co.uk) 



21 Wed EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Edinburgh, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

EVENTS – Business Start Up Workshops, Lerwick, HIE (www.hie.co.uk) 




22 Thur EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Perth, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 




23 Fri FESTIVALS – Goteborg International Film Festival (www.filmfestival.org/filmfestival/) 




Calendar 

cont above 

8 Sun EVENTS – BAFTA Film Awards, London (www.bafta.org/awards/film/) 

FESTIVALS – Berlin International Film Festival (www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html) 


MARKETS – Berlinale Co-Production Market (www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html) 


9 Mon FESTIVALS – Berlin International Film Festival (www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html) 




EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Livingston, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

FESTIVALS – Registration open for Celtic Media Festival, Cearnarfon (www.celticfilm.co.uk/register) 

10 Tue FESTIVALS – Berlin International Film Festival (www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html) 




11 Wed DEADLINE – Applications to Markets and Festivals Fund for Celtic media Festival (www.scottishscreen.com/investment) 




EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Edinburgh & Arbroth, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

12 Thur FESTIVALS – Glasgow Film Festival, GFT (www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk) 



EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Dundee, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

13 Fri FESTIVALS – Glasgow Film Festival, GFT (www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk) 



14 Sat FESTIVALS – Glasgow Film Festival, GFT (www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk) 



15 Sun FESTIVALS – Glasgow Film Festival, GFT (www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk) 


16 Mon DEADLINE – Entries to Edinburgh International Film Festival 

FESTIVALS – Glasgow Film Festival, GFT (www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk) 

17 Tue FESTIVALS – Glasgow Film Festival, GFT (www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Kirkcaldy & Perth, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 

MARKETS – FICCI Frames, Mumbai (www.ficci-frames.com/) 

18 Wed FESTIVALS – Glasgow Film Festival, GFT (www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Edinburgh & Dundee, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 


19 Thur FESTIVALS – Glasgow Film Festival, GFT (www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Cupar, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 


20 Fri FESTIVALS – Glasgow Film Festival, GFT (www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk) 

EVENTS – Anima 2009, Brussels (www.anima2009.eu) 

21 Sat FESTIVALS – Glasgow Film Festival, GFT (www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk) 


22 Sun FESTIVALS – Glasgow Film Festival, GFT (www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk) 


23 Mon EVENTS – Anima 2009, Brussels (www.anima2009.eu) 

24 Tue EVENTS - Sustainable Development for Cinemas and Film Festivals, ICO Training, Newcastle (www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/training.html) 

MARCH 



25 Wed EVENTS – The Media Regulation Executive Briefing, London (www.themediasummit.com) 

EVENTS – Start Up Awareness Seminar, Edinburgh, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 


26 Thur EVENTS – The Media Summit, London (www.themediasummit.com) 

EVENTS – Start Up Networking Event, PERTH, Business Gateway (www.bgateway.com) 


27 Fri DEADLINE – Application to MEDIA Television Broadcasting Fund (www.mediadesk.co.uk/funding/) 


28 Sat DEADLIEN – Submission to Munich Short Film Festival 2009 

EVENTS – Anima 2009, Brussels (www.anima2009.eu)

call for entries 

CALL for ENTRIES 

Women in Film and 

Television Vancouver (5-7 March 09) 

Women in Film and Television Vancouver is accepting submissions 

for the 4th annual film festival. 

The festival is an internationally affiliated non-profit society 

committed to advancing and celebrating women in screenbased 

media. The festival seeks submissions in the following 

categories: narrative and documentary, shorts and features, 

new media, music videos, video poems, and experimental. Any 

genre, animated or live action, will be considered. Eligible films 

must have women in creative control, and films featuring female 

characters and stories are encouraged. 

This year's festival will be dedicated to new media and the festival 

accepts submissions for a wide variety of projects such as visual/ 

audio installations, mobile films, non-linear narration, and online 

projects. Two days of the festival will feature new media projects 

and dedicated panels and workshops discussing the future of 

women in the new media industry. 

Please note that the deadline for film submissions has now 

passed. The final submission deadline for new media projects is 

Friday 5 December 2008. 

Application forms can be downloaded from 

www.womeninfilm.ca. 

27th Festival International Du 

Film Fantastique De Bruxelles 

(9 March-21 April 2009) 

The 27th Festival International Du Film Fantastique De Bruxelles 

(27th Brussels International Festival of Fantastic, Thriller and 

Science-Fiction Film 2009) has placed a call for entries for their 

short film programme. 

The festival is calling for fiction films, completed after 1 January 

2008 and not previously screened in Belgium. Films should not 

exceed 20 minutes. 

The deadline for entries is Monday 15 December 2008. 

For more information and to enter your film, please visit 

www.bifff.org. 

Studentfest 2008 

Following the huge success of propeller tv’s first ever short film 

festival, ShortFest, the channel is now launching a brand new 

competition to find the best student short film in the UK. 

To get involved, send in your student short (no longer than 10 

minutes) to: Studentfest, propeller tv, C/O Screen Yorkshire, Leeds, 

LS2 7EY, UK 

Deadline for entries Wednesday 31 December 2008. Please 

include a propeller tv submission form which you can download 

from www.propellertv.co.uk. 

UK Film Council Short Film 

Completion Fund 

The UK Film Council’s Short Film Completion Fund provides 

finance and support for short films that show outstanding 

potential, but lack the funds to finish. 

The total annual fund available to the short film Completion Fund 

2008/09 is £70,000. There will be two invitations for applications 

during 2008/09, and up to 14 films will be offered funding. 

Full guidelines, forms and more information can be found at 

www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/shortfilms. 

Please note that the deadline is 

now extended to 5pm on Monday 5 January 2009. 

Munich International Short 

Film Festival 2009 (18-24 June 09) 

Munich International is excited to announce the call for entries for 

next year's short film festival, which takes place directly prior to 

Munich Filmfest. 

Taking place 18-24 June 2009, the festival will showcase the 

world's best contemporary short films each night at the traditionsteeped 

Gloria Filmpalast in the heart of the Bavarian capitol. 

Submissions are open to non-German language films of all 

genres from any nation of the world. Films must not have been 

shown in Bavaria at a festival, in a theatre, or on television before 

and must not exceed a length of 15 minutes. 

All non-English films must have English subtitles. The festival only 

screens 35mm prints. 

The deadline for submissions is Saturday 28 February 2009. 

Please check the complete submission requirements at 

www.muc-intl.de. 

Animate IT '09: 

To cut a long story short 

Film Street, the award winning children’s filmmaking website and 

educational software house Kudlian Software, have got together 

to launch a filmmaking competition for children, Animate IT '09: To 

cut a long story short. 

This year they have teamed up with CBBC’s Ed Petrie to invite 

children under 12, primary schools and after school groups from 

across the UK, to make an animated trailer to promote their 

favourite book. 

The deadline for entries is Friday 3 April 2009. 

For further information about the competition, please visit 

www.filmstreet.co.uk. 

All entries to Studentfest will be broadcast on propeller tv (subject 

to terms and conditions). The winning films will also be shown at 

Leeds Festival, Reading Festival and Latitude Festival in 2009. 

For more information, please visit www.propellertv.co.uk or 

contact john@propellertv.co.uk. 

16

call for entries 

17

news 

Brian Cox with Gary Lewis 

Adrian McDowall & Finlay Pretsell, 

with Greg Hemphill and Kirsty Wark 

Rockstar North with Peter and Stephen McC 

Summer Jamie Stone Hedz 

Morag Ross with David Hayman and Kate Dickie 

Eddie Shin (Phoo Action) 

with Anne Mensah and Jenni Falconer 

Lorraine Kelly 

Brian Elsely Mark Littlewood and Mike Alexander Rachel Bell (The Genuis of Charles Darwin) 

18 Britain’s Protection Racket Greg McHugh (Gary’s War) Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives Peter McDougall

AND THE WINNER IS... .. . 

Entertainment Programme 

Writing in Film or Television 

ole 

Sanjeev and 

Hardeep Singh Kohli 

WINNER 

Gary’s War 

Directed by Iain Davidson 

Produced by Rab Christie 

The Comedy Unit for Channel 4 

Children’s Programme 

WINNER 

Hedz 

Directed by Ciaran Cruickshank & Louise Wilson 

Produced by Eric Haynes & Nick Hopkin 

BBC Scotland for CBBC 

WINNER 

Brian Elsley 

Skins 

Company Pictures for Channel 4 

Directing in Film or Television 

WINNER 

Kenneth Glenaan 

Summer 

Sixteen Films/ Vertigo Films 

Multimedia 

Factual Programme 

WINNER 

Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives 

Directed & Produced by Louise Lockwood 

BBC Scotland for BBC FOUR 

WINNER 

Grand Theft Auto IV 

Rockstar North for Rockstar Games 

Animation 

Factual Series 

WINNER 

The Genius of Charles Darwin 

Directed & Produced by Russell Barnes 

IWC Media for Channel 4 

WINNER 

The World According To 

Directed by Jamie Stone & Anders Jedenfors 

Produced by Laura Clarke 

1A Productions for Channel 4 

Short Film 

Charles Martin Smith 

News and Current Affairs 

Programme 

WINNER 

Britain’s Protection Racket 

Panorama Directed & Produced by Dominic 

Gallagher 

BBC Scotland for BBC ONE 

Television Drama 

WINNER 

Ma Bar 

Directed & Produced 

by Finlay Pretsell & Adrian McDowall 

Imagine Pictures in association with 

Scottish Documentary Institute for 

Dumfries and Galloway Council 

BAFTA Scotland Award for Craft (In 

Memory of Robert McCann) 

WINNER 

Phoo Action 

Directed by Euros Lyn 

Produced by Matthew Read BBC Scotland 

for BBC THREE 

Acting Performance in Television 

WINNER 

Morag Ross 

Outstanding Contribution to 

Scottish Film 

Mike Alexander & Mark Littlewood 

Ken Stott 

WINNER 

Ken Stott 

Hancock & Joan 

World Productions for BBC FOUR 

Outstanding Contribution to 

Scottish Broadcasting 

Peter McDougall 

Acting Performance in Film 

WINNER 

Brian Cox 

The Escapist 

Picture Farm/ Parallel Films 

Feature Film 

The Lloyds TSB Scotland Audience 

Award for Most Popular Scottish 

Presenter 

WINNER 

Summer 

Directed by Kenneth Glenaan 

Produced by Camilla Bray 

Sixteen Films/ Vertigo Films 

WINNER 

Lorraine Kelly 

Kenny Glenaan 

19

Lloyds TSB BAFTA 

Scotland Awards 2008 

By Helen Anderson, Director BAFTA Scotland 

espite the miserable 

Glasgow weather, the 

Dbest of Scotland’s film, 

television and multimedia 

talent braved the elements 

to grace the red carpet at 

Glasgow’s City Halls on 

Sunday 9 November for 

the annual BAFTA Scotland 

Awards. The ceremony 

showed the diversity of 

Scottish talent working both 

within and outwith Scotland. 

Over 800 people attended and 

the event was broadcast live 

on the internet allowing people 

all over Scotland, the UK 

and indeed across the globe, 

the opportunity to watch the 

proceedings live. 

The Scottish industry was out 

in force with Robert Carlyle, 

Robbie Coltrane, Brian Cox 

and Ken Stott, just some of 

the home-grown talent in 

attendance. Jenni Falconer, 

Michelle Gomez and host 

Edith Bowman provided some 

glamour on what proved to 

be a night of typical BAFTA 

Scotland weather - rain, hail 

and even a bit of snow later in 

the evening. 

Edith was delighted to be 

hosting her first BAFTA 

Scotland Awards stressing 

the growing importance of 

the ceremony: “Events like 

this draw emphasis towards 

the arts and people making 

exceptional art; that’s the sort 

of thing that’s going to draw 

attention and funding.” 

Brian Cox took to the stage 

to collect his prize for Acting 

Performance in Film, and 

commented: “We have an 

incredible culture for a small 

nation. Our acting’s second to 

none and our writing talent 

is extraordinary.” This win 

on home turf clearly meant 

a lot to him. “The Scottish 

BAFTAs are a genuine look 

at our home-grown talent. As 

international as I would like 

to think myself, I’m still a boy 

fae Dundee, and to receive 

acknowledgment from one’s 

own kind always means a lot.” 

Other big winners included 

Grand Theft Auto IV, made by 

Edinburgh-based company 

Rockstar North, who took 

the Multimedia Award and 

Channel 4’s Gary’s War, 

starring rising comedy actor 

Greg McHugh, which won the 


category. 

Accepting the Feature Film 

Award for Summer with 

director Kenny Glenaan, 

Robert Carlyle commented: 

“It’s fantastic to be recognised 

at home,” and reiterated that 

Summer proved that with 

a little money, Scottish film 

could stand against “the best 

in the world”. 

Ken Stott, who took the award 

for Best Acting Performance in 

Television for BBC Four drama 

Hancock and Joan, said: “I was 

absolutely delighted. These 

are people I know and admire, 

and that makes it all the nicer. 

Celebrations like tonight’s, 

show that we have a huge 

talent here.” 

Lorraine Kelly was delighted 

to have won sponsor’s Lloyds 

TSB Scotland’s audience award 

for Most Popular Scottish 

presenter saying: “There are 

some legends in there, so that 

makes it even more special.” 

Three special awards were 

given: the Outstanding 

Contribution to Scottish 

Broadcasting, which went to 

Peter McDougall; the Craft 

Award (in memory of Robert 

McCann) to Morag Ross; and 

the Outstanding Achievement 

to Scottish Film, which went to 

Pelicula Films (Mike Alexander 

and Mark Littlewood). 

We are now eagerly 

anticipating the BAFTA 

Scotland New Talent Awards, 

which take place on March 13 

in Glasgow. This celebration 

of emerging talent in Scotland 

is combined with the annual 

Scottish Students on Screen 

event and aims to celebrate, 

promote and inspire emerging 

talent in Scottish broadcast 

and digital media. For more 

information or to view this 

year’s BAFTA Scotland awards 

log on to www.baftascotland. 

co.uk. 

Kenny Glenaan, director 

Directing in Film or 

Television (Summer) 

“I’m delighted that the film 

has won. It gives us great 

encouragement: to Hugh as a 

writer and for me as a director. I 

keep delving into my own voice 

and finding my own way. For a 

lot of people who were involved 

in the film, it was their first time, 

so this is a big signal for them to 

be all they can be and do all they 

can. And it’s a great thing for the 

people of Bolsover where the film 

was made: to see a film that was 

made in that area, using a lot of 

local talent that has just won a 

prestigious award. I think a lot of 

people will be incredibly proud; 

incredibly proud but in a quiet 

way.” 

Hugh Ellis, writer 

Best Feature Film (Summer) 

“I had almost given up writing 

when I wrote Summer because 

it’s a hard process to go through. 

When you sit here tonight at 

an awards ceremony...the word 

miracle might be a bit overblown 

but it feels like that, the end of 

a long journey. When I wrote 

Summer, it was a farewell piece 

and then you meet someone like 

Kenny who brought the energy to it 

and the ability to get it funded and 

all the other fantastic people who 

have made it happen. So, I couldn’t 

be happier tonight.” 

Morag Ross, make-up artist 

bafta scotland award for 

craft 

“Getting this award is a fantastic 

acknowledgement of what I have 

been doing for the last 28 years. It’s 

amazing and all the better because 

it’s from Scotland. I’m really proud 

and really thrilled. It’s particularly 

special because it’s a memorial 

award for Robert McCann. I met 

Robert McCann when I was 16 

and we shared a flat in Otago 

Street [Glasgow] and went to the 

Art School together. He was my 

mentor and I miss Robert; he died 

too young and I’m overwhelmed to 

receive this award in his name.” 

Mark Littlewood, producer/ 

director 

Outstanding Contribution 

to Film 

“Mike [Alexander] and I are both 

really chuffed. We have worked 

together at Pelicula Films for 

about 40 years. The whole event 

is phenomenal and it’s really 

gratifying to get this award. I think 

it’s a great encouragement, even 

for a man of 62! You have to be 

very brave to get this far in film 

because as a creator you have be 

very vulnerable and have a great 

belief in yourself, even when you 

don’t have much belief and other 

people don’t seem to either.” 

BAFTA 

Winners 

Jamie Stone, director 

Animation 

(The World According To) 

It actually does mean an awful 

lot to me especially since I have 

been nominated for the last two 

years and not won. I was used to 

just being nominated and wasn’t 

expecting to be collecting it from 

the stage. When the category 

came up and I had won I was 

really surprised. I was incredibly 

nervous collecting the award and 

my speech was garbled - I had no 

notes. On the way to the stage I 

realised that I didn’t actually know 

where I was going or to how to get 

on stage so had to brave a feat of 

athleticism and jump up on stage. 

I am delighted to have won the 

award; it’s really given me a boost.” 

Finlay Pretsell and Adrian 

McDowall, producer and director 

Short Film (Ma Bar) 

“We were delighted about the 

news, really surprised as there was 

tough competition. It's great to get 

the recognition in Scotland for the 

hard work we all did in making this 

film, especially to the wonderful 

editing from Mark Jenkins, camera 

work of Blair Scott and the music 

by Matthew Aldworth. It's not 

easy making films on such a micro 

budget, but this also gave us the 

freedom to make the film we 

wanted to make - so thank you to 

Dumfries and Galloway Council 

and Scottish Documentary Institute 

for helping us do that.” 

Leslie Benzies, 

president of Rockstar North and 

the producer of GTA IV 

Multimedia 

(Grand Theft Auto IV) 

“For three years, 600 people 

worked on Grand Theft Auto to 

provide people with an opportunity 

to escape reality and fulfil their 

fantasies through the game. People 

all over the world love our video 

games, but we are very happy to 

have achieved recognition in our 

home country.” 

Greg McHugh, 

writer and performer 


(Gary’s War) 

“It feels incredible especially 

being up against those other 

programmes – Still Game and 

Delta Forever, which I also 

wrote. The odds seemed stacked 

against us. I’ve been writing and 

performing comedy since I was 15 

and I’m 28 now, so, it’s great to get 

this kind of recognition.” 

20

Behind the scenes at the BAFTAs 

By John Young 

n Sunday 9 November 2008, the 

crème de la crème of Scotland’s 

Oscreen industry converged at the 

Glasgow City Halls for the 2008 BAFTA 

Scotland Awards. The atmosphere was tense 

as the nominees waited with baited breath to 

find out who would win the coveted prizes. 

Behind the scenes, my fellow students and 

I were working hard to provide the audiovisual 

entertainment, and also cover the 

event for broadcast. 

The work began weeks ahead of the event, 

when editors from Cardonald College began 

work on the montage sequences to be 

shown throughout the ceremony. Working 

closely with the Production Co-ordinator, 

Dario Sinforiani, and Edit Supervisor, Ian 

Shand, they trawled through footage and 

worked into the evenings, while trying to 

compete with course and work demands, 

to create some excellently crafted short 

sequences, which kept the audience 

captivated and built the tension before the 

presentation of the award. 

My work began on the Friday before the 

ceremony. I was part of the camera crew 

and would be involved in the build, so the 

first job was to get the equipment. I jumped 

in the van with Technical Supervisor, Dave 

Johnston, and we headed off to Edinburgh, 

where the kit was being collected. This was 

The crew: 

John Smith - Director (BBC) 

Dario Sinforiani - Production Co-ordinator (Cardonald lecturer) 

Ray Tallan - Production Co-ordinator (RSAMD lecturer) 

Dave Johnston - Technical Supervisor (Cardonald lecturer) 

Gavin Rizza - Technical Co-ordinator (RSAMD Lecturer) 

Ian Shand - Edit supervisor (Cardonald lecturer) 

John Cooke - Event Camera (Cardonald College) 

John Young - Event Camera (Cardonald College) 

Steven Ferguson - Event Camera (RSAMD) 

Kayleigh Little - Event Camera (RSAMD) 

David Van der Zanden - Montage Editor (RSAMD) 

Jonathan Metzstein - Interview Editor (Cardonald College) 

Karen Gardiner - ENG Crew 1 Interviewer (RSAMD) 

Heather Faulds - ENG Crew 1 Camera (RSAMD) 

Gillian Park - ENG Crew 1 Sound (RSAMD) 

Muzafar Chaudry - ENG Crew 2 Interviewer (Cardonald 

College) 

Caroline Finn - ENG Crew 2 Camera (Cardonald College) 

Amanda Doherty - ENG Crew 2 Sound (Cardonald College) 

Krysty Wilson - Stills Photographer (RSAMD) 

Eamonn Jones - Technical Rigger Assist (RSAMD) 

Neil Dallimore - Runner (Cardonald College) 

Stephen Sinclair - Runner (Cardonald College) 

the largest project I had been involved with 

to date and the amount of gear reflected that. 

The van was full almost full to the brim and 

we had to pack it very tightly to make sure 

it would all fit in. It was a slow drive back to 

Cardonald, where it was being stored, but 

we got there and with a little help from the 

students who were in that day, managed to 

get it all inside before we were locked out by 

the Estates guys. 

The next morning was an early start as 

there was much work to be done to make 

sure everything would run smoothly. Dave 

worked with Technical Co-ordinator, Gavin 

Rizza (from the RSAMD), to oversee the 

camera, edit and runner teams setup. After a 

quick brief, we all got to work to get the build 

underway. The rest of the camera crew and 

I got our equipment set up quickly, placing 

two cameras either side of the stage with 

tri-ax cable connecting us to the control 

room. Once they were plugged in, it was 

just a matter of making sure they were all 

calibrated to the same settings, and we were 

sorted. The edit team set up next door to the 

control room, where they would be receiving 

tapes throughout the evening, and cutting 

them for a short montage of the night’s 

events to be shown at the end of the show. 

Once all the kit was plugged in, we all 

headed home for a good nights' rest before 

the event, feeling confident that things would 

go well. 

The morning of the show, once again saw 

the camera and edit crew start the day, with 

a later call time than previously planned, 

having rigged the equipment so quickly 

the day before. A quick power up of the kit 

revealed a few small gremlins, but they 

were soon rectified in time for the technical 

rehearsal with the show’s director, John 

Smith from the BBC. 

Interviewing Robert Carlyle 

Later in the afternoon, the student ENG 

crews (from both Cardonald and the RSAMD) 

arrived and began preparation for their 

evening’s work, under the supervision of Ray 

Tallan. They would start on the red carpet, 

filming the guests as they arrived and getting 

short interviews with them where possible. 

Braving the wet weather, they successfully 

recorded enough footage to be used as 

the final evening’s video, before heading 

indoors ready for the next setup. This took 

place backstage where they would meet the 

winners of the awards after they exited the 

stage for a short interview, which would be 

used for broadcast later in the week. Once 

everyone was set up, we had a short break to 

get ourselves fed and have a rest before the 

night kicked off. 

The show itself was a great success. 

The crew worked very well together and 

remained calm, focused and professional 

throughout. Quality camera work, good 

direction and efficient editing combined to 

produce a technically impressive, highly 

entertaining and memorable experience for 

all involved, both guests and crew. 

After all the awards were given out and the 

guests had headed off for dinner, the camera 

crew and runners began the de-rig. This ran 

smoothly, in keeping with the rest of the 

show, and enabled the team to leave early 

while also minimising the amount of work to 

be done the following day when collecting 

the equipment. 

The crew then retired for the evening. I 

headed to the after party with one of the 

other camera operators, John Cooke, to join 

the guests for some celebrating, while other 

crew members went to town near the venue 

for a bit of well deserved relaxation. All 

agreed the event was enjoyable experience 

and an excellent opportunity. 

John Young is a 2nd Year 

HND Creative Industries: 

Television student. 

John Young 

21

Celebrat 

An interview with Helen An 

roughcuts caught 

up with the new 

Director of BAFTA 

Scotland before 

her first awards 

ceremony at the 

helm. 

Helen, who started off at RSNO in 

Scotland, worked in the theatre 

for a number of years, including 

the Stephen Joseph Theatre in 

Scarborough, the Theatre Royal 

in Wakefield and the Lyric in 

Hammersmith, London, before 

returning to Scotland to take up the 

position at BAFTA Scotland. 

Although her background is in the 

performing arts, the worlds of theatre 

and moving image are not so very 

different, she believes. “It’s all about 

storytelling,” she says, citing working 

with Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen 

Joseph Theatre as being one of 

those pivotal experiences. “He really 

inspired me; he tells great stories for 

audiences here and around the world 

to see.” 

It was while working with Ayckbourn 

that Helen saw at close quarters how 

film and theatre can work together 

when Alan Resnais made Private 

Fears in Public Places, an adaptation 

of one of Ayckbourn’s stage plays. 

“I got to see how the film related 

to the play and if it changed, how 

it changed, and also how people’s 

reaction to the film differed to the 

stage play,” she explains. She is 

interested in how moving image can 

tell stories in a different way, reaching 

new audiences. 

Working in Scarborough and 

Wakefield also helped Helen 

appreciate that you don’t need to be 

based in London to work in the arts, 

believing instead that, “you can make 

great art anywhere and it can make 

a difference to people’s lives.” She 

says: “You could argue that film, 

broadcasting and theatre are based 

in London, but my experience has 

shown me that you can make top 

quality productions anywhere, and 

you limit yourself if you say, ‘I’ve got 

to be in the south east’.” 

When the job at BAFTA Scotland 

came up it seemed like a logical 

step. So what specifically appealed 

to Helen about the position: “I really 

wanted to work for an institution 

like BAFTA that’s got such a great 

reputation and to be able to take it 

forward,” she says. 

Despite being new to the film and 

TV industry here, Helen is quickly 

getting to know everybody in what is 

a relatively self-contained industry. 

Rather than viewing her outsider’s 

perspective as a hindrance, Helen 

appreciates this. “I liked the idea that 

nobody would pre-judge me because 

I was coming from outside, and it’s 

meant that I could come in with a 

relatively fresh eye.” 

Starting in her new role just a couple 

of months before the awards meant 

she has had a very short period of 

time to get up to speed. So, how are 

plans progressing? Very well, she 

says and is full of praise for her team 

who at the time of the interview are 

full steam ahead with preparations. 

This year they’ve opened up the 

awards to Scottish talent based 

outside the country meaning that 

Ashley Jensen, Bryan Elsley (Skins), 

and Steven Moffat (Doctor Who) 

were amongst this year’s nominees. 

“Rather than Scotland being a step 

ladder on to somewhere else, it 

should be part of a circle. You can 

work in Scotland, and then work in 

Hollywood, and then London and 

Scotland again. Similarly, more and 

more non-Scots are choosing to live 

and work here. We need to recognise 

this,” Helen explains. 

“BAFTA Scotland is more than 

just the awards but they are a 

cornerstone of what we do,” she says, 

acknowledging that they have a key 

role to play in rewarding excellence 

and being a “point of inspiration”. She 

is keen to widen out the awards and 

try to engage more people, showing 

them what can be achieved, and 

sending out a very clear message 

that you can do it here. 

22

xBAFTA awards special 

ingExcellence 

derson 

“There’s excellence and elitism, and they’re In terms of the awards categories, the 

not the same thing,” says Helen. “Our 

multimedia section is a particularly 

door’s open to everybody and we try to interesting one, which has evolved over time. 

encourage as many people as possible to “It is now very clearly linked into BAFTA”, 

submit entries. We have high standards says Helen, “which makes sense as many of 

and a benchmark that people are judged the skills and proficiencies are the same as 

against, and there’s nothing wrong with in film and TV. It’s a fast moving part of the 

that, but I never want anyone to think they industry and we need to keep ahead of the 

can’t put themselves forward for BAFTA and game.” 

particularly a BAFTA Scotland award.” 

This is also an area which Helen would 

This year’s awards were hosted by Edith like to see grow in terms of numbers of 

Bowman; Helen explains: “We want to show submissions and also to raise the profile of 

the door’s wide open; Edith appeals to a this sector which has a higher concentration 

slightly different audience, which helps us to of interactive industries in Scotland than 

reach out to new people.” 

anywhere else in the UK. “It’s something 

that BAFTA Scotland really should be 

And the ceremony was webcast again; in fact championing,” says Helen. “We need to show 

BAFTA Scotland trailblazed the way forward the sector that they can have confidence in 

for this last year, having the first live webcast us – it’s important they feel included and 

BAFTA ceremony. However, they are looking want to become members.” 

to get a broadcaster on board for next year 

- “it’s the moving image industries and it And then there are the New Talent awards: 

should be televised,” says Helen – especially another first for BAFTA Scotland. Earlier this 

so to meet the aim of widening out BAFTA year, they combined the New Talent Awards 

Scotland’s reach. 

with Scottish Students on Screen, having 

been delegated responsibility for the event 

“It’s important for us to be able to say, ‘here by Scottish Screen. “They seem to be a really 

we are, this is what we do’,” says Helen. nice fit together,” agrees Helen, who is keen 

“The industry knows this and we’ll still be to build on this year’s event. “I want it to 

attentive to that, but the wider public should have a separate identity, to be more laid back 

know who we are and what it is possible to and informal, but still about excellence, still 

achieve here in Scotland.” 

part of the BAFTA family.” 

The students from Cardonald College and Helen talks of a “ladder of opportunities” 

RSAMD were involved again this year in for talent in Scotland and BAFTA Scotland 

producing and broadcasting the ceremony. and the New Talent awards have a clear role 

This kind of partnership is something 

to play in this, along with other key partner 

Helen sees as being of great value: “It is organisations. “We need to establish our 

giving people the real-life experience of place in the creative loop of the Scottish arts 

covering a major live event and also the industries, including working with Creative 

opportunity to work alongside experienced Scotland,” she says. “This is the bit we are 

BBC professionals. And this level of highly good at – celebrating excellence. And the 

experienced support means that quality isn’t fact that we have a separate awards for new 

compromised at all.” 

talent says something about the abundance 

of new talent here in Scotland, and the 

The awards are about excellence and Helen concentration of top class institutions and 

is keen that the guests at the ceremony have training providers.” 

an excellent experience, especially as they 

are coming to Scotland from all over the UK. The New Talent awards proved a great 

“It’s about more than just celebrating moving success, receiving more submissions than 

image; it’s about celebrating it in the context ever and they repeating the experience. Next 

of Scotland and what we have to offer.” year’s New Talent Awards will take place 

on Friday 13 March following on from the 

This year’s awards were again held in the Scottish Students on Screen event during 

Glasgow City Halls and the Hilton hotel. 

Although very happy with the current 

venues, Helen and her team are her team 

are always on the look out for new, exciting 

spaces, across Scotland. “We need to be 

creative in what we do and keep the awards 

fresh and innovative.” 

the day. Again, Helen is keen for the appeal 

to be as open as possible: “it’s about new 

talent, but that doesn’t mean it has to be 

young talent,” she says. 

While Helen is full of praise and respect for 

BAFTA Scotland and what it has achieved 

over the years, she is keen to move the 

organisation forwards and there is a sense of 

a new chapter. 

Other areas that she is keen to see evolve 

include BAFTA Scotland’s educational remit. 

“While I knew that BAFTA had a great 

reputation, I didn’t realise until I started 

to read up on it that BAFTA is in fact a 

charity with charitable aims and objectives. 

And part of that is to provide learning and 

outreach opportunities to people.” This is 

something that clearly interests Helen. “A 

lot of my experience in the theatre had 

been community-based, about creative 

engagement and that really appealed to me. 

There is,” she says, “a huge opportunity to 

develop this side at BAFTA.” 

While Helen is proud to be part of an 

organisation with a reputation of BAFTA, she 

feels it’s important for BAFTA Scotland to 

have an identity of its own. “We are part of 

the BAFTA family. We want to get the best of 

both worlds,” she says. “I want to build our 

brand equity by being closely allied with the 

BAFTA but at the same time the audience 

here is very different so we need to respond 

to that.” 

Looking to the future, she sees the key 

challenge facing the moving image industries 

as balancing quality with quantity: “We need 

to maintain the quality of excellence whist 

keeping the momentum going to ensure 

more projects and more people meet these 

high standards.” 

She also recognises that Scotland is not 

great at celebrating things and this is why 

the work of BAFTA Scotland is all the more 

necessary. “The awards are important: it’s 

saying on a big platform, ‘here we are, here’s 

Scotland’s talent – you can do it here.’” And 

with more entries than ever before to the 

BAFTA Scotland awards, it seems the signs 

are good. “It feels like there’s a renewed 

confidence and positivity out there, which 

can only help to make good things happen,” 

says Helen. And that’s something worth 

celebrating. 

23

Mark and Bill: photo by Neil Shirran, Aberdeen City and Shire Film Office 

Pennan from the sky: Emma McGuire, Senior Photographer, Aberdeenshire Council 

24

film news 

Pennan’s 

Local Hero 

Celebrates 25th Anniversary 

In 1982, the small coastal village 

of Pennan in Aberdeenshire was 

one of the main film locations 

for Bill Forsyth’s much loved 

eighties classic film, Local Hero. 

A quarter of a century on, the 

veteran Scottish filmmaker 

marked the 25th anniversary of 

this British cinema masterpiece, 

with his first return visit to the 

Aberdeenshire village. 

Anniversary celebrations 

included a special free 

screening, an insightful one-toone 

interview, and an excellent 

live performance by originally 

featured Local Hero ceilidh 

band, the Acetones. 

All celebrations were filmed 

by the BBC2’s flagship arts 

programme The Culture Show. 

Presenter, film critic and Local 

Hero aficionado, Mark Kermode 

said: “Being given the chance 

to meet with Bill Forsyth in the 

very place where Local Hero 

was filmed has been a real 

thrill. Coming into the village 

today was like coming into a 

magical place, I could hear the 

soundtrack ringing in my ears.” 

In his introduction to the 

screening, BAFTA-winning 

director, Bill Forsyth admitted: 

“You know, I haven’t actually 

watched the film for 23 years. I 

can’t think of a better place to 

watch it than here in Pennan, 

the location that inspired its 

legacy. It is also a surprise and 

delight that people still like the 

film. After all it’s not many films 

that get a 25th anniversary 

party.” 

With locals and Pennan 

residents turning out in force, 

the event really brought the 

whole community together. 

With some locals having made 

appearances as extras in the 

film, the evening was one of 

reflection on experiences, 

memories and the impact the 

film has had on the village. 

Anniversary celebrations 

were broadcast on Tuesday, 

November 18, highlights of 

which can still be seen on the 

Culture Show website www. 

bbc.co.uk/cultureshow. 

The story of Local Hero is of 

an oil billionaire who sends an 

employee to Furness (Pennan) 

Scotland, to buy the entire 

village property rights, where 

they plan to build an oil refinery. 

The canny locals cannot believe 

their luck and look forward 

to their new fortunes. Their 

dreams are however hampered 

by a local hermit and beach 

scavenger who lives and 

owns the Furness beach. The 

billionaire flies out to settle 

negotiations but ends up falling 

in love with the village, deciding 

instead that it’s of great natural 

significance. 

Aberdeen City and Shire Film 

Officer Neil Shirran remarked: 

“This was a fantastic event. 

Local Hero is a personal 

favourite of mine, so I was 

extremely pleased to meet both 

Bill Forsyth and Mark Kermode, 

helping to celebrate Local 

Hero’s 25th anniversary. Local 

Hero is not only a great Scottish 

(funded and made) international 

success, it also serves as a 

prime example of the benefit 

of film tourism to not only 

Pennan, but Aberdeenshire and 

Scotland as a whole. With film 

tourism accounting for 10% of 

the total value of tourism in 

the British economy, at around 

£1.8 billion a year, it is clear 

to see why the film, television 

and photographic industries 

are so important to the Scottish 

economy.” 

The Aberdeen City and Shire 

Film Office provides advice and 

information on all film related 

issues in the Aberdeen and 

Aberdeenshire area. It offers 

assistance with locations, 

sourcing crew and equipment 

and providing business advice 

for those looking to acquire 

project funding. 

For more information about the 

Aberdeen City and Shire Film 

Office please visit the website 

on www.filminginscotland.com 

or contact them on enquiries@ 

filminginscotland.co.uk. 

Photo by Neil Shirran 

Photo by Emma McGuire 

25

festival report 

Summer in Rome 

By Kenny Glenaan 

Kenny Glenaan 

In Berlin you may be lucky enough to win the 

Golden Bear. At the Rome festival I recently won 

the Golden boot! A pair of CATS, to be precise! 

Our film, Summer, was in 

competition in the Alice in the 

Cities section. On arrival, myself 

and writer Hugh Ellis were whisked 

off to a 'Gifting Suite'. This does not happen 

at every festival, I warned the first-time 

screenwriter. We were led into an Aladdin’s 

cave full of free gifts. Everything from Gucci 

bags, silk shirts, the best perfume, pens, 

sweatshirts, Italian jeans, watches, jewellery, 

the finest of wines and CAT boots. 

It brings out the best and worst of you. 

Appalled at the indulgence and delighted to 

be getting a bargain, we choose our gifts. 

So, feeling very smart in out new CATS 

and smelling sweet as a nut, Hugh and I 

apprehensively went onstage to do the Q&A 

with the audience and jury. 

It was the first time the film had played in 

Europe. Would they get it because of the 

language and geographical barriers? The jury 

is made up of 15 to 17-year-olds from Rome, 

who live, eat and breathe film together for 

two weeks. The only qualification for entry 

onto the jury is to tell the festival why you 

like cinema. It is a fantastic opportunity for 

young people to learn about cinema and a 

great chance to be ambushed by stories from 

Iceland to Kenya - and Scotland - as well as 

honing your critical skills and having the 

responsibility of awarding the prestigious 

best film award. 

But here was a film about two men in their 

forties looking back at what had shaped 

their life. It was all about the past, and when 

you are a teenager you are not particularly 

interested in the past because you are too 

busy doing it for the first time, literally! The 

depth of observation was incredible and the 

connection with the film very strong. Game 

on, here we had a story that could transcend 

the barriers of language and talk to people 

elsewhere in the world. What a vote of 

confidence. 

A week later, back in wet and windy 

Glasgow and grateful for my CATS, I get 

a call to hot tail it back to Rome. Summer 

had been awarded best film and a cheque 

for 25,000 euros! Our crew and cast, like 

the Rome jury, had a lot of first timers in 

a new environment. The award is fantastic 

encouragement to all the young team on 

Summer to follow their instincts and pursue 

their dreams. To be formidable, to have the 

arrogance to change the world for the better 

through their own stories and films. Maybe 

it is time we had such a jury in Scotland, 

maybe at the Edinburgh International Film 

Festival? 

Summer is released on 5 December. It was supported 

by the National Lottery through Scottish Screen’s 

Content Production funding. Summer won the Best 

Film Award at this year’s Scottish BAFTAs and Kenny 

Glenaan picked up the award for Directing in Film or 

Television. 

26


27

news festival report 

Red Oil 

Red Oil and the 

Sheffield doc/fest 2008 

by Lucinda Broadbent of media co-op, Glasgow 

S 

heffield doc/fest is always a self-indulgent 

treat for a documentary nerd like me: 

one of the only UK chances to enjoy 

a non-stop orgy of back-to-back worldwide 

documentaries. This year was extra special, as 

Sheffield had selected my latest film Red Oil. 

On top of that, there was a Scotland strand at 

the festival for the first time, with a Scotlandthemed 

party – cue tartan on the tables, haggis 

on the menu, free shots of whisky, a sprinkling 

of kilts, and a ceilidh band all the way from 

Tiree. And just in case this starts to feel like a 

national cliché, I should add that it wasn’t just 

a ceilidh, it was a ceilidh on roller blades, held 

at the wondrously tacky Mayfair roller disco in 

downtown Sheffield. The international crowd 

picked up the finer points of the Gay Gordons 

surprisingly fast (considering all that free 

whisky they’d already downed), and Stripped 

the Willow with aplomb. 

The screening of media co-op’s Red Oil at 

Sheffiled doc/fest was a world premiere, 

and was sold out. It was a strange sensation 

to see my film on the big screen with a live 

audience, so soon after the weeks shut in a 

cutting room; and gratifying to hear it get both 

the laughs and the gasps I’d hoped for. Red 

Oil is a political story about building socialism 

with oil profits in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, 

told in a soap opera format with a reggaeton 

soundtrack. Not only unconventional in style, 

the film also takes a few risks in the content: 

alienating some viewers by siding with the 

aims and aspirations of the Chavez revolution, 

while challenging hardline Chavez fans by 

airing criticisms of the way the revolution’s 

being carried out. I was ready for some flak at 

the Q&A after the Sheffield doc/fest screening, 

but the audience was in a generous mood and 

let me off lightly. 

Aimara Reques, my mediaco-op colleague and 

the producer of Red Oil, spilled the beans about 

the behind-the-scenes soap opera, speaking on 

the Beyond Our Borders panel about Scotland’s 

experience of international co-production. 

Aimara gave a run-down of the tortuous 

journey to finance Red Oil by the co-pro route: 

MEDIA development cash via our German copro 

partner, pitches at Edinburgh, Sunny Side, 

Sheffield MeetMarket and IDFA, culminating in 

an elaborate financing package with Channel 

4, Scottish Screen, Al-Jazeera English, the 

Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, YLE 

from Finland, NRK from Norway, SBS from 

Australia, and MDM from Germany. Aimara 

was also busy at doc/fest rustling up support 

for a new media co-op co-pro The Boy From 

Georgia, set to be a documentary detective 

thriller. 

On the same panel, Noë Mendelle spoke 

about the Scottish Documentary Institute’s copro 

track-record, and the successful Scottish 

financing of The New Ten Commandments 

(screening at Sheffield after its successful EIFF 

premiere). BBC Scotland Commissioning Editor, 

Ewan Angus, and DP, Stuart Greig, presented 

the story of their Australian co-pro Desperately 

Seeking Doctors. In their case, the Scottish and 

Australian broadcasters transmitted different 

cuts; Stuart revealed that the Aussie version 

didn’t include any of his material about the 

scandalous medical neglect of Aborigines. 

Barbara Orton of True Film and TV gave the 

audience valuable advice on how to pull off 

a co-production, even with an international 

project that has no UK broadcaster. 

Barbara was also practising what she preached, 

taking her latest project Secret Nazi History 

of Coca-Cola to Sheffield’s brutally-titled 

pitching event the MeetMarket. Among the 53 

projects running the gauntlet of broadcasters 

and buyers this year were two more Scottish 

participants, Marie Olsen of Autonomi with 

The Master, The Slave and The Bank Manager, 

and Sonja Henrici of the Scottish Documentary 

Institute offering Future for Sale. 

The SDI fielded an impressive crop of shorts 

in this year’s festival selection: the phone call 

doc Calling Home by Maria Eduarda Andrade 

and Marcelo Starobinas; Adrian McDowall and 

Finlay Pretsell’s sports shorts Standing Start 

and BAFTA-winning Ma Bar, about a champion 

cyclist and 73-year-old weight-lifter; and at 

the other end of the age spectrum, Conor 

McCormack’s Christmas with Dad, featuring a 

23-year-old awaiting the arrival of his eighth 

child. 

Some memorable moments from some other 

sessions I went to: if you ever feel overwhelmed 

28

news 

Hot in Scotland party 

Sheffield doc/fest Hot in Scotland party Red Oil 

Gay Gordon: 

by overshooting, spare a thought for the 

producers of C4’s doc series The Family. 

With 21 cameras secreted all over the 

family’s home running from morning till 

night, they generated over 5,000 hours 

of rushes. The Dart Centre’s session, 

Toxic or Titillating?, raised rarelyacknowledged 

dilemmas of ethics and of 

filmmakers’ mental health, exploring the 

emotional impact on both contributors 

and filmmakers when we bring stories of 

trauma and atrocity to the screen. Sam 

Kiley, intrepid war reporter, turned the 

tables when he told of coming home, 

scarred from years of covering genocide 

in Rwanda and war in the Congo, only to 

turn on the telly and see the latest wave 

of UK reality shows, and think, “what’s 

happened to human decency and 

civilised values - get me out of here!”. 

As for sitting in the dark watching movies, 

with 154 films screening (whittled down 

from 1,545 hopeful submissions, by 

Sheffield’s new programmer Hussain 

Currimbhoy), the festival spoils you 

for choice. Highlights included Darren 

Hercher’s Sighthill Stories, a delightful 

insight into one of Glasgow’s multi-racial 

primary schools, that had me laughing 

at one moment and wiping away a tear 

the next – the film’s closing scenes are 

the kids’ last ever day at primary and 

the demolition of the Sighthill tower 

blocks. Another UK film that stood 

out was Richard Parry’s Blood Trail, 

a truly longitudinal story, following a 

war photographer for 15 years no less, 

from wet-behind-the-ears wannabe in 

Sarajevo to cynical drug-fuelled hack in 

Baghdad - a chilling but unforgettable 

journey. 

Corridor #8 from Bulgaria’s Boris 

Despodov, the Italian Megunica by 

Lorenzo Fonda, and Miloslav Novák’s 

Czech film Peace With Seals are all 

magnificent yet truly wacky films that 

were a privilege to watch at Sheffield 

because you suspect they won’t get 

mainstream distribution. 

More available to mortal viewers is 

Havana Marking’s Afghan Star (coming 

up, like Red Oil, on More4’s new season 

of True Stories on Tuesdays at 10pm). It’s 

the inside story Afghanistan’s version 

of Pop Idol. If you remember how 

recently the Taliban banned music in any 

form, you’ll see how, in context, this is 

revolutionary television - especially with 

women contestants (and no burkhas). 

Did the Afghan production company pay 

for the format rights? Is Simon Cowell 

big enough to go Kabul and ask them? 

Watch and see….. 

Lucinda Broadbent attended Sheffield doc/fest with support 

from Scottish Screen National Lottery through the Markets 

& Festivals fund. For more information about investment 

opportunities at Scottish Screen, please see 

www.scottishscreen.com/investment. 

Lucinda Broadbent, Steve Sklair, Aimara Reques 

29

training 

Director Dale Corlett outside the Camelot Theatre 

Producer/ Actress Suzanne Adamson works in the delegate centre 

The man on the side 

of the road 

in the desert 

For a film that was shot in New Zealand and edited in Scotland, I 

guess it was appropriate that its world premiere was half way in 

between, in Palm Springs, California. 

Being selected for official competition was a great honour and 

meant that a trip to sunny California was planned in late August 

for producer Suzanne Adamson and director Dale Corlett, just in 

time as the lack of summer in Scotland was starting to dominate all 

conversations. 

Arriving in LA we decided to hire a car and go on a road trip to 

Palm Springs (not sure a one and half hour trip down a freeway 

constitutes a road trip, but when in LA… hey). 

Having lived in Scotland for the past ten years, Dale was not going 

to miss the chance to travel in a convertible in the Californian 

sunshine, so we headed off in that most American of cars, a Ford 

Mustang, to the desert of Palm Springs and a unique film festival 

experience. 

Arriving looking a lighter shade of tomato red, we checked into our 

hotel, a beautiful 5 star hotel that - thanks to the weak US dollar - 

was less than a meal for two at a Scottish restaurant. We then went 

along to the delegate centre to check in and receive our passes and 

goody bags. 

Not quite as good as the Oscar goody bag (so I’ve been told) but 

some interesting things none the less: namely a book of every US 

film industry contact you would ever need in your life, which had 

we brought back would have cost the equivalent of a business 

class ticket in excess luggage; the standard amount of DVDs and 

promotional material from all the industry suppliers that you tend 

to get at these festivals - something you have no real use for and 

that just adds to your overflowing production office. We also got 

this funny little thing that you soak in water and then put around 

your neck when you are hot (and in Palm Springs in August, you 

are always hot) and a bottle 

of Evian connected to a fan to 

spray yourself when you are too 

hot (see above). 

The delegate centre and market 

place are in the Hilton hotel, 

an inviting place where the 

volunteers made you feel like 

you were the most important 

person at the festival. (Or 

maybe we were.) It was always 

stocked with refreshments and 

nibbles to help you through 

the day, a great place to meet 

people, chill out or catch up on 

e-mails and plan your festival 

strategy. The market place was 

a videoteque with a number 

of screens available to watch 

the thousands of films; it also 

housed the press department of 

the festival and the guys from 

Mini Movie Channel. 

Now although Palm Springs is 

not a big place with an average 

temperature of around 110 

degrees it becomes like the 

Sahara Desert when you are 

trying to find the rental car 

place, as three Brits and a lone 

kiwi were doing on the last 

day, slightly hungover, with 

one of us from Nottingham 

starting to look like Renton from 

Trainspotting by the end of it, 

but that’s another story. So the 

free shuttle service the festival 

offers between the delegate 

centre and the Camelot Theatre, 

where all the films are screened, 

is very welcome indeed. 

The Camelot Theatre is a 

beautiful building with three 

screens and a small café and 

bar area. It was the perfect 

venue for the festival as 

it enhances the close-knit 

community feel while the 

projection quality was great in 

all three screens. There was 

a lot of local support for the 

festival; everywhere you went 

people would ask you about 

your film, when it was screening 

and wish you well - a great local 

community feel to a very big 

film festival. The audiences for 

every screening we attended 

were also very good. The 

amount of people, considering 

this is their ‘off season’ and the 

fact that a lot of the screenings 

are during the day, surprised 

us, although I guess if the 

average age of your population 

is something like 70 then 

maybe that helps. We did see 

a sign for the ‘late night dinner 

special’ starting at 7.30pm. That, 

30


Suzanne Adamson and Dale Corlett attended Palm Springs Shortfest 2008 

with support from Scottish Screen National Lottery through the Markets 

& Festivals fund. For more information about investment opportunities at 

Scottish Screen, please see www.scottishscreen.com/investment. 

and the fact that before each 

screening the head programmer 

Kathleen McInnis would warn 

people about turning off 

their cellphones, pagers and 

pacemakers maybe speaks for 

itself, I guess. 

The festival has over 300 films 

in competition and thousands of 

films in the film market. There is 

a real sense that you are close 

to the hub of the US screen 

industry (namely that thing 

called Hollywood) with lots of 

links and people coming out 

from la la land for the festival. 

The attendance of a certain 

Jessica Biel, Kirsten Dunst 

and Justin Timberlake didn’t 

do anything to change this 

perception. 

The festival is focused on 

short films (that’ll be why 

its called the Palm Springs 

shortfest then) and this year 

they had workshops, seminars 

and one-to-one chats with 

industry-based people on all 

areas of distribution, festival 

programming and career 

development. We attended 

numerous workshops and 

talks, with the highlights being 

masterclasses with actor Bill 

Pullman, and cinematographer 

William Fraker (Rosemary’s 

Baby), giving us an insight into 

their individual techniques and 

approach to their work; a ‘meet 

the programmers’ event, where 

professionals from some of the 

biggest festivals around the 

world talked about the selection 

process for their festivals; 

and one-to-one meetings with 

various industry personnel to 

discuss both our short film and 

feature film projects. 

Following a day of screenings 

and seminars each night, the 

festival had a programme of 

events and receptions for all the 

filmmakers. This ensured that 

the opportunity for networking 

was maximized throughout the 

festival while sleep was kept to 

a minimum. 

Our film, the man on the 

side of the road, was very 

well received. It secured 

international distribution and 

was even voted an audience 

favourite and so screened again 

on the last day of the festival. 

Following our screening, 

writer/director Dale Corlett 

participated in a Q&A with the 

audience. There was a lot of 

interest in the Q&A sessions 

after each screening, with 

some very insightful and 

thought-provoking questions. 

It was obvious that this was a 

film-going audience we were 

playing to. 

Our eight days in Palm Springs 

were both productive and 

entertaining. The opportunity 

to watch some amazing short 

films from around the world, 

to meet industry professionals 

and develop new working 

relationships and to promote 

both our short film and our 

recently completed feature 

film collaboration, Running in 

Traffic, was a unique one. And 

to do it in such an amazing and 

supportive environment was 

great. 

As we were lying in the pool 

of our hotel on the morning 

of the last day, staring up into 

the cloudless blue Californian 

sky, beautifully framed by the 

palm trees and mountains in 

the background, we thought 

to ourselves, who needs a 

Scottish summer anyway? 

We could get used to this... 

Director Leon Chambers (UK) and Executive 

Producer Rita Mbanga (UK) with Director Dale 

Corlett and Producer Suzanne Adamson enjoying 

the closing night party 

Suzanne Adamson participates in the Kodak 

16mm Film workshop 

31

film festival 

The letter 

By Norman McClandish 

Richard Jobson is a fine chap, as 

well as being this year’s Most 

Stylish Scotsman. Mind you, there 

were times when I had doubts. Changing 

a puncture at 8am on Loch Lomondside 

with the rain bucketing down was one of 

them. An unsolicited phone call from the 

Scottish Style Awards 2008, was another. 

This year was our second film festival. We are the Heartland Film 

Society and we’re based in Aberfeldy. We wanted to call it The 

Heartland Film Festival, but some folk in Indianapolis seem to have 

got there first. They’re lucky – they have lots of sponsors. We run 

a raffle at our film nights throughout the year, which pays for film 

hire. The rest we blow on the festival. 

I tell a lie, Dewars’ Whisky sponsor our major competition, the 

Palme Dewar. We select some Scottish shorts, screen them in 

competition and Dewars put up a bottle of whisky. We provide 

an illuminated certificate. The audience vote using our famous 

beanometer system. At the end of the screening you each get a 

dried bean which you put in a plastic cup with the name of the film 

of your choice. You don’t believe me? Check it out on our website. 

Don’t type in Heartland Film Festival or you’ll get those folk from 

Indianapolis. 

Anyway, Richard Jobson. This year our theme was Made in 

Scotland and Charlotte (who makes the best handmade chocolates 

in Scotland by the way) phoned up Richard Jobson to see if he’d 

come and open our festival. This was back in late summer. We’d 

decided to screen A Woman in Winter (great, spooky film) so it 

was worth seeing if Richard would come. Well, she didn’t actually 

phone him up. She went on his website and left a message. He 

called her and said yes. He’d bring some clips including some 

footage from New Town Killers before its premiere at the London 

Film festival. Terrific! Our publicity department (the rest of the 

committee) was ecstatic. 

Made in Scotland. You know, there have been a lot of films made 

in Scotland. Not all of them are festival material. Most of the 

rest have been screened to death on late night television. Our 

community is rural, farming, so Mike Radford’s Another Time, 

Another Place was a clear favourite as the festival centrepiece, 

particularly as it hasn’t been over exposed. It’s beautifully shot, 

has a strong story and fine acting from Phyllis Logan and Giovanni 

Mauriello. We knew Mike Radford fans would come and we could 

sell it locally as a dramatised historical documentary about farming 

in the 1940s. We wanted to screen on 35mm but village hall 

acoustics and projector noise don’t mix, or so said Claire. Claire is 

our technical expert and is seriously scary. She works for the Hydro 

and controls all the big dams in the area. She could drown us in 

our beds. So it would have to be DVD. There’s no source in the 

UK for a DVD of Another Time, Another Place. Our DVD has Dutch 

subtitles. 

Do you know Jos Stelling’s work? Surreal, fantasy, with silent 

movie acting, all done with style and intelligence. I’d never heard 

of him. He shot De Wisselwachter at Corrour station. You’ve missed 

it at our festival but I’ll bet very few film fans in Scotland have 

ever seen the film. This gem we’d never have discovered without 

a committee scouring websites for Made in Scotland. Now you 

might think Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is an unusual choice for Made in 

32

film festival 

Richard Jobson with Julie Craik 

Scotland. True, it hasn’t got a lot of Scottish 

footage, but it came highly recommended 

by our local restaurant, who agreed to 

provide Indian snacks at the interval for the 

screening. 

This left the Sunday morning slot. Last 

year Dave Peat gave a wonderful treatise 

on documentary honesty. This year, Mike 

Marshall from Scotland’s Larder and 

The Food Programme was trenchant 

about cookery programmes as wallpaper 

entertainment and the need for popular food 

politics to replace the present candyfloss. 

Back to the letter S and Richard Jobson. 

Generously, Richard waived a fee, but 

we had to sort out transport. Ever tried 

to contact a director when he’s pushing a 

dubbing deadline for a film? Richard had the 

London Film Festival as a deadline with New 

Town Killers. Between text and email we 

worked out a schedule ok, and with Karen, 

our accountant’s reluctant blessing, I booked 

the flights – Easyjet, no personal insurance 

or baggage allowance. 

We had everything in place for the festival. 

Then came the Sunday Herald and the 

News of the World. HOLYWOOD COMES TO 

ABERFELDY, DOUGRAY FLICK PREMIERES 

IN VILLAGE. 

We thought this was a bit of an 

exaggeration. We had said Richard would be 

showing clips of New Town Killers and our 

website had used the word premiere in this 

context. 

To say Richard was not best pleased would 

be an understatement. Both the London 

Film Festival and his sponsors wanted to 

know what the hell was going on and he in 

turn wanted answers from us. Chastened, 

we immediately amended the website and 

issued disclaimers all round. Charlotte 

remembered that Richard had said ‘a clip’. 

We had added the letter ‘s’. A period of 

silence followed and I sent a very apologetic 

email. Our festival started on Friday, three 

days away. We all crossed our fingers. 

Next up was a phone call from The Scottish 

Style Awards. Had Richard spoken to us? 

They were holding their annual awards in 

Glasgow, on Friday. They knew Richard was 

booked with us, but could we get him back 

to Glasgow by 10pm for the presentations? 

Glasgow is 2 hours by car from Aberfeldy. 

Would he come to us or just head for the 

Awards? Friday morning saw me on Loch 

Lomondside in the rain with a puncture. 

I was going to miss meeting the flight. A 

phone call from the Style Awards told me 

that he was on the afternoon plane. Phew. 

But would he still come? Paranoia was 

setting in. 

He arrived, he was great and he spoke 

passionately about filming, showed clips, 

four from New Town Killers and got 

our festival off to a great start. Once he 

started we couldn’t get him to stop but 

we got him back to Glasgow by 10.20pm. 

Richard Jobson is a fine chap and the most 

stylish man in Scotland. We had a great 

festival. Next year we’ll have another. Why 

don’t you all come along? Check out our 

website: www.heartlandfilmsociety.org. 

uk. Not Heartland Film Festival, they’re in 

Indianapolis. 

33

news 

news 

Blooded 

W 

hen we set out to make our first 

feature, we wanted to make a film 

about the land. Time and again 

we’d come across the accepted wisdom that 

American films can do landscape in a way 

that British films just can’t. Stateside, they 

have landscapes with cinematic grandeur - a 

quality of visual sublimity that British films 

just can’t compete with. 

This is only half true. 

Blooded is an independent British feature film shot 

largely on the Isle of Mull, written by James Walker 

and produced by Nick Ashdon. 

British films tend not to concern themselves 

with landscape because British stories tend 

to be focused elsewhere. The industrial 

heritage of The Full Monty dictates 

Sheffield. Vera Drake is not concerned about 

countryside. There’s precious little park in 

Gosford Park and when the Trainspotting 

crew briefly make it to the countryside we’re 

left in no uncertain terms what they think of 

it. 

But of course Britain has landscape which 

inspires, a land that makes viewers gasp and 

wonder, “where the hell is THAT?” It’s not 

that we can’t do landscape, it’s that we don’t 

do landscape, because British stories tend 

not to concern it. 

And partly because the story of Blooded 

had been inspired by a specific place, partly 

because we thought it would be cheap, partly 

because we were too green to realise what 

we were taking on, we chose the Isle of Mull 

off the west coast of Scotland as the setting 

for our film. The logic was simple. If you 

want to capture wilderness on film, go to 

wilderness. That makes sense, huh? 

Yes and no. 

We wanted wilderness and that’s what we 

got. It takes a day to get anyone to Mull, 

even if they’re coming from somewhere 

relatively close on the mainland. It takes 

days to get replacement kit sent over to 

Oban and then another to get it across on 

the ferry. Phone reception? Dream on. And 

you very quickly find out the shortcomings of 

even the best walkie-talkies. 

And when your unit has no communication 

for a whole day with your unit base, it makes 

filming tricky. As the vehicles roll off at 

6.30am into the next valley, they might as 

well be travelling to the moon. And being 

on the moon might actually have helped as 

the big vehicles, rolling into the next valley, 

rolled off the small lanes. But as it was, 

gravity was not our friend, and we needed 

lots of ropes. 

We were very much guests of the island and 

its community. You need the permission and 

support of people to film in certain locations 

of course, but we learned that you also need 

some sort of allowance from the land itself. 

That sheep may be ruining the shot, but it 

has more right to be there than you do. And 

how the hell did it climb that cliff anyway? 

How are you going to? (More pertinently, 

who is going to?) Because if those hills look 

big, they feel a whole lot bigger with HD 

camera kit. And that’s when it’s dry. Then the 

weather changes in an instant and, continuity 

concerns aside, can be dangerous. Crew, kit 

and mudslides do not mix well, and once the 

rain starts it can literally take your schedule 

out for weeks. 

The crew rose to the challenge magnificently. 

Low budget films have to trade in other 

currencies than just cash, and we were 

lucky to have a crew rich with passion, 

determination and an amazing attitude in the 

face of driving rain. As we huddled on the 

edge of a windswept track, an elderly couple 

(the only car passing that day) might pause 

to watch a naked figure running for his/her 

life across that desolate heath - attended 

at a distance by a small army of people in 

muti-coloured Berghaus. Yes, this indeed was 

filmmaking of the kind nothing could have 

prepared us for. 

But all that was fitting, given that Blooded is 

about technology-dependent people (as we 

mostly all are) and their fight, when what 

they take for granted is taken from them: 

easy communication, effortless transport, 

the luxury of warm clothes, the protection of 

the law. 

One of the characters in Blooded, before 

she is fairly traumatised by her experiences, 

says, “There’s a special magic to those hills. 

34 

All pics ©2008 Zac Frackelton

It’s one of those places in the British 

Isles where you think ‘Wow, this is my 

country’”. And when people in Scotland 

and the rest of the UK see Blooded on 

the screen, that’s what we want them 

to think. Wow. And a little later to feel 

pride, because, yes, it is their country. 

It’s not like watching Lawrence of Arabia 

or The English Patient and thinking 

it’d be nice to go somewhere warm on 

holiday. It’s not like watching Insomnia 

or The Shipping News and booking that 

trip to Alaska or Canada. It’s here, it’s 

ours, and it’s world-class beautiful. 

So while wilderness is not a film crew’s 

natural habitat, it does something 

incredible for our film. It puts us in 

our place. Those hills are big and 

dangerous, but by God they’re beautiful 

too. The colours and textures of the 

land are gorgeous. It is massive; we 

were lucky to have a helicopter to try 

to encompass its majesty on screen. It 

is inspiring. Yes, it made sense to film 

there. 

And while the landscape is British, 

the story has to fit it. The controversial 

issue of blood sports is central to 

Blooded and nearly everyone has an 

opinion. Even on location, observers 

wanted to know if the film is ‘pro’ or 

‘anti’? Halfway through the shoot, the 

legendary landlord of the area’s only 

pub mentioned that some of the local 

community were concerned. They were 

keen we didn’t make a film which ran 

at odds with the ethics shared by many 

who depend on blood sports of one 

kind or another for their livelihoods. 

Like the landscape, the issues raised 

by Blooded are big and unpredictable. 

They’re British too, and important, 

and need respect and care when 

approaching them. 

So Mull was perfect for us. Its 

landscape and aspects of its heritage 

are central to our film. Furthermore, 

it’s too small for a big film to go there. 

We were an independent film, finding 

our feet and learning as we went. There 

were logistical nightmares sure, but 

there’s another general wisdom we’d 

heard about filmmaking: you never 

get something for nothing. And the 

vast beauty of those hills and their 

dispassionate savagery have given our 

film something priceless. 

Blooded is currently in post-production 

at Films at 59 in Bristol, to be 

completed early 2009. Directed by 

Ed Boase. Produced by Nick Ashdon. 

Written by James Walker. 

35

production 

Dark Nature 

Screenwriter and parttime 

journalist Eddie 

Harrison writes about his 

first feature, Dark Nature. 

“If you want to write for cinema, that’s 

fine. But get a day job you can do in the 

meantime, it’s not easy…” 

After my first film was made under the Tartan 

Shorts scheme, this advice was given to me 

by Sir Richard Attenborough, and proved 

to be soundly practical. Working in cinema 

journalism for the last decade provided an 

ideal vantage point from where to observe 

how films are made and marketed, and to 

make connections with filmmakers. It helped 

me gain practical experience about the highs 

and lows of the film industry, from writing 

drama episodes for BBC One to doing 

development work and rewrites on four 

features, all of which have gone in front of 

the cameras. But like many writers, the first 

feature proper was still proving elusive. 

So when Glasgow’s Mandragora 

Productions offered to make my feature 

script, Dark Nature, I jumped at the chance. 

Rather than the marriage of convenience, 

which so often seems to collapse under 

the stress of a low budget production, the 

production would be directed by Marc de 

Launay, who, like me, had come up through 

Scottish Screen-funded shorts like Winning 

Streak and Contorted Hazel. I’d previously 

worked with Marc on an award-winning 

short called A Small Piece of Paradise, and 

through him we were able to assemble a 

production team including Ted Mitchell (First 

AD on Paddy Considine’s BAFTA winning 

short Dog Altogether). 

A straight-forward thriller based around 

traditional narrative hooks and suspense, 

Dark Nature’s story revolves around a 

family holiday gone wrong, as a mother and 

daughter’s trip to an isolated community 

turns into a nightmare. An eco-thriller, 

Dark Nature’s plotting took inspiration 

from the zeitgeist of 1970’s productions 

like Deliverance, Long Weekend and Island 

of the Damned, (the latter two had both 

announced remakes as we completed our 

production). 

Always with one eye on sales, Dark Nature 

aims to connect with both commercial 

and art-house audiences, and the use of 

Scottish locations helped us find the look, 

which would give the film a unique visual 

selling point. Working with cinematographer 

Andrew Begg, Marc and Ted intended to 

exploit the natural beauty of remote costal 

locations, filmed at the turn of autumn to 

winter, and contrasting the visual splendour 

with the grim toughness of the survival 

story. And spending an extra £300 on an 

insect wrangler helped us capture exactly 

the right kind of wildlife to depict our central 

theme of atavism. 

With a tested production team on board, 

Mandragora was able to raise finance on a 

private finance model similar to that used 

for London To Brighton by filmmaker, Paul 

Andrew Williams. In the case of Dark Nature, 

that meant a limited number of investors 

creating our initial capital, combining with a 

selling script to secure the key aspect of DVD 

distribution: the investors’ best chance at 

getting their money back. Mark Geddes from 

South West Screen was on hand to help us 

get the best possible value for our spend on 

our Dumfries and Galloway locations, and 

our shoot finally took place in September 

and October 2008. 

One danger of a low-budget is that there’s 

no room for overspends, so Dark Nature 

was conceived to make the best of minimal 

finance. Although a location shoot inevitably 

cost more in terms of accommodation 

and catering, shooting for a month in and 

around Dumfries and Galloway’s The House 

on the Shore meant that the crew could 

enjoy the same kind of uninterrupted focus 

that a big budget closed set would provide. 

The ‘who-dunnit’ nature of the story was 

ideal for the shoot, allowing us to work with 

different members of a large cast over short 

periods of time, and also to offer deferrals 

to our actors and crew with the knowledge 

that the small budget and guaranteed 

distribution at least made it a possibility for 

them to get properly paid for their efforts. 

Now in the editing stage, Dark Nature 

would only have been possible with the 

generosity of spirit and camaraderie offered 

by everyone associated with the film’s 

making, enabling us to harness the skills and 

enthusiasm of many people who were keen 

to make the jump to features. In the current 

economic climate, making films is still a 

risky business. But the ability to make good, 

low-budget features is a more highly prized 

skill than ever, and getting your first film in 

front of the cameras is worth sacrificing a 

day job for. 

Dark Nature is set for release in 2009. 

36

All pics by Alec Barclay 

37

distribution 

Midnight Madness 

38

production 

Beyond The 

I met with Charles-Henri 

Belleville and David Boaretto 

at the 2007 Raindance Film 

Festival after the premiere 

of The Inheritance. Charles- 

Henri told me then, “You only 

have one £5,000 film in you.” 

I met them again two months later, the 

morning after the British Independent Film 

Awards, where their micro budget Scottish 

road movie won the Raindance Award, an 

award given to films made against all odds 

with no industry support. It had been a long 

night and I found them both scavenging 

through basketball footage at David’s flat. 

Hundreds of mini DV, DV Cam and Digibeta 

tapes and three hard drives where piled on 

the floor around them. 

I don’t think they realised then that they had 

embarked on an even more difficult and 

daunting task then their previous £5,000 

endeavour. 

I am a former professional basketball player 

myself and I knew David and a film crew had 

followed Midnight Madness in the summer of 

2007; it's an extreme basketball tournament 

that takes place at night across the United 

Kingdom. 

David explained that he had come back from 

the tour with a couple of hundred of hours 

of footage hoping to piece together the first 

European basketball film, but that the original 

director had walked out when faced with the 

enormity of the task ahead. 

After 2 months of filming only £500 remained 

from the original £15,000 budget and no 

editor was on board. This is when he phoned 

Charles-Henri to ask him to have a look at the 

footage and see if there was any chance of 

salvaging the project. 

Possibly anyone other than Charles-Henri 

would have declined there and then. 

However, touched by what Midnight Madness 

stood for, he decided to start patiently going 

through the footage convinced he could make 

something happen. Charles-Henri recollects, 

Madness 

“What I found exciting was that you always 

hear about the negativity, the knifing and 

the gangs in the media, but a lot of people 

only focus on the problems rather than 

finding the solutions. What I witnessed with 

Midnight Madness was a tournament that 

was changing thousands of young people’s 

lives across the UK and that was incredible. 

At Midnight Madness, I was seeing white 

kids, black kids, Asian kids, men and women 

indiscriminately coming together through 

their love of the game.” 

As the film shows, Midnight Madness, or 

MM as the players call it, was started in 

1999 in a local gym in Harlesden by a former 

professional player called Nhamo Shire. It has 

since become one of the biggest basketball 

tournaments in the world, and every year 

thousands battle it out through the night 

to be one of the ten basketball players who 

will win an all-expenses trip of a lifetime to 

the United States to take on their American 

counterparts. 

Charles-Henri and David spent the next two 

months together locked away, logging and 

capturing the 200 hundred hours of footage 

to which had been added another 200 hours 

filmed over the previous 8 years and given to 

them by the players and spectators. 

An editor then came on board only to leave 

two weeks later to work on Wes Anderson’s 

next film The Fantastic Mr Fox. One week 

later a new editor, who had just arrived from 

Portugal, joined the team. She was the third 

editor to have worked on the project. It was 

her first English language film. 

Charles-Henri decided to then momentarily 

leave the editing room and shoot the footage 

he needed to pull the narrative and the film 

together. After The Inheritance, it was back 

to no budget filmmaking and he ended 

up shooting nearly half the film on the 

outstanding £500 budget. 

Anyone else would have nightmares 

recalling these times but Charles-Henri with 

his characteristic untameable enthusiasm 

recalls: “What was incredible was how 

welcome I felt by the Midnight Madness 

‘family’ and the community around them. 

What was inspiring when I interviewed the 

By Almamy Soumah 

players was how much they wanted to talk 

and open up. It felt like they had been waiting 

for someone to finally listen to what they had 

to say. Their truthfulness really inspired me 

as a filmmaker. It comforted us that we were 

making this film for the right reasons.” 

Charles-Henri, David and the editor, Claudia, 

then worked for the next 6 months without 

being paid, cash-flowing rent money and 

other little income they had to finish the 

production. 

They put together the most eclectic of 

soundtracks ranging from classical music to 

jazz and hip-hop by launching a competition 

on MySpace to find the freshest unsigned 

UK artists and contacting the multi-talented, 

Edinburgh-based, artist, Freemore who had 

previously worked on The Inheritance. 

Once the editing was locked, they graded the 

film and did the online editing at night and on 

weekends for free at a post-production studio 

in London for 2 months. Other ‘memorable’ 

incidents include corrupted tapes on a fullday 

steady cam reshoot just before locking 

the film, drives breaking down with 150 

hours of footage and the film nearly losing 

two weeks before locking picture, and of 

course … not being able to pay rent on time 

to keep the editing going. 

In July 2008, they put the finishing touches 

to the sound mix and the film was finally 

complete. 

Midnight Madness was then submitted and 

selected for the 2008 Raindance Film Festival. 

The thrill came when the players watched the 

film for the first time on the big screen. Their 

joy at having been represented truthfully in 

the film as well as in the soundtrack, with the 

presence of UK artists rather than US ones, 

was overwhelming. The recognition and the 

respect meant the world to them and in turn 

was the most gratifying reward of all for the 

team. 

There, Charles Henri turned to me and said, 

“never again on five hundred pounds”. We 

looked at each other and laughed. 

39

Mondo’s search 

for the sun 

By Jana Prchalova 

How it all started... 

Eight years ago after graduating from the Film 

Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) 

and finishing my second movie, Desire, coproduced 

with Czech TV, I decided to get a bit 

of fresh air and some new experiences. So I 

left to work as an au-pair in Scotland. In those 

days I was planning to stay only six months 

maximum and it would never have crossed 

my mind that Scotland would become 

my new home. After nearly twenty hours 

travelling, I arrived into the cold Buchanan 

bus station at six o’clock in the morning, just 

ten days before Christmas. I had a degree in 

English but it was simply just not useful for 

the Glaswegian accent. I felt terrible, lonely 

and isolated, like being on a desert island, 

only one with monsoon rain. 

Since I was kid, I often escaped my sadness 

through my art and writing. I imagined the 

places I wanted to be. Places with lollypops 

instead of trees and lemonade running in the 

river. And it was at that moment, in the bus 

station, when Mondo came into my life and 

stayed there forever. My feelings projected 

so strongly into developing his character 

that sometimes I felt that I was Mondo. The 

story has changed and Mondo has grown up 

through the years in the same way I have. 

Mondo is a lonely grumpy old man who lives 

locked in solitude until he is forced to go on 

journey and change his destiny. He finds lots 

of things that he lost years before, which 

help him find the answers he needs, as he is 

slowly reborn. The journey is very symbolic. 

Mondo finds The Kingdom of Lost Property, 

where he finds a missing sock. (I often, as a 

kid, imagined that there were secret doors on 

the other side of the washing machine, where 

all the socks went, leaving you with only one 

left - now I know it is most likely inside duvet 

cover.) In the end, Mondo realises that it is not 

about what you have got, but, who you have 

got to enjoy it with. 

I originally planned the story as a children’s 

picture book, because I didn’t expect to find 

myself back in the animation industry. I had 

no contacts and not enough confidence to 

go for it. But luckily I was accepted into the 

Scottish Screen training scheme NEATS (now 

known as GASP!), which totally changed my 

future direction again. Thanks to that I have 

learned how to use computer programmes, 

when before I wasn’t able to even send an 

attachment in an email. 

I was lucky to spend my first placement with 

Ink Digital. I worked there with so many 

talented people, who helped me to refresh 

my 2D skills and, most importantly, get back 

my confidence. At Ink I started thinking of 

Mondo as an animation, a better alternative 

to a book. 

My second placement was at Once Were 

Farmers' studio. I had no idea what to do 

there in the beginning because they were very 

3D and I just wasn’t up for that! But, thanks to 

them, I later realised that I could still use my 

2D, East-European-feel drawings, together 

with 3D space, without them hurting each 

other. It was like a vision! The two techniques 

came together, just as the two cultures came 

together. I knew that that is how Mondo 

should be presented to the world. 

Together with the boys, we worked constantly 

on the story and proposal. We were extremely 

lucky to get support from Czech Television, 

who agreed to buy the film and broadcast it 

once it’s finished. The boys worked for days 

and days, in return only for my steak pies, 

until the moment we got the good news 

through. We had received a generous, full 

funding from Scottish Screen! 

Looking back I am grateful for cold Buchanan 

bus station and all the rainy days. Scotland 

has a great film industry and I am so happy 

to be part of it. 

Mondo’s Search For the Sun has received 

Short Film funding from Scottish Screen 

National Lottery funds. 

For more information about investment 



40

Mondo’s Search for the Sun 

41

news filmmaking 

Shooting People Turns Ten 

On 22 November 2008, Shooting People, the institution that 

director Morgan Spurlock describes as, "a necessity for anyone who 

works, lives and breathes independent film", celebrated its tenth 

birthday. 

Filmmakers Cath Le Couteur and Jess Search set up Shooting 

People in 1998 as a bedroom project, after making their first short 

film. Shooting People launched with a single e-mailed bulletin 

to 60 of Le Couteur and Search's London filmmaker friends. Via 

reputation, word of mouth and marketing drives, Shooting People 

now sends out over half a million of these bulletins, to over 37,000 

members across the UK, in New York, and California. 

Initially a free service, paid membership was introduced in 2002 

(£30 pa) to help Shooting People grow as an independent and 

sustainable organisation. In 2006, the organisation opened in 

the USA ($40 pa) to extend the possibilities for global filmmaker 

collaboration between filmmakers more widely. Two hundred films 

are cast and crewed each week using Shooting People. 

Shooting People's membership comprises directors, producers, 

actors, editors, and crew, and organisations right across the 

independent film sector, all of whom passionately believe in 

collaboration, innovation and getting independent film made and 

seen. 

receive a bonus ten weeks 

membership – 62 weeks for the 

price of 52. One member a day 

will receive a birthday present 

from Shooting People, which 

range from a £1000 AVID training 

package and a £350 Short Film 

Training weekend from Met 

Film School, to film magazine 

subscriptions, and DVDs of 

independent feature films. 

Shooting People is hosting 

a special interactive web 

birthday space for the occasion: 

members upload photos of 

their workspaces with ten 

word captions, and / or ten 

word testimonials (http:// 

shootingpeople.org/birthday). 

In time for their birthday, 

Shooting People proudly 

announces a new key strategic 

partnership to broaden its 

reach and involvement in the 

independent film sector. 

Skillset is sponsoring Shooting 

People, utilising our bulletins, 

calendar and website better to 

inform our members of all the 

opportunities the Sector Skills 

Council for Creative Media 

offers to boost independent film 

careers. 

In the past decade, Shooting People has diversified into publishing 

textbooks, DVDs of award-winning short films, and worked 

as an independent film distributor. Shooting People regularly 

organises educational events at festivals, and in 2009 across the 

UK, Shooting People and partner BAFTA will roll out their joint 

Short Sighted events, day-long intensive training sessions which 

teach filmmakers how to harness the internet in marketing and 

distributing their short films. 

Amongst the many features that Shooting People has added in 

the last ten years are: a member search, to enhance collaboration; 

free downloadable resources, including contracts and best practice 

documents; a podcast hosting area, with interviews with leading 

practitioners; three independent film expert-curated blogs; an 

independent film calendar; a member profile service, to assist 

members casting and crewing each other; and the Watch Film 

facility, where members upload their own work for flash video 

streaming, exhibiting themselves to their peers, the industry and 

the world. 

Commenting on the birthday, Shooting People co-founders Le 

Couteur and Search said: "We are proud and we want to do more. 

The possibilities and opportunities for filmmaking and independent 

distribution are thrilling, challenging and continue to be driven by 

thousands of passionate individuals." 

As part of the celebrations, Shooting People has collaborated on 

an irreverent and hilarious ad campaign from top creative team 

Al Brown and Algy Sharman. They commissioned director and 

Shooting People member Jonathan Hopkins and his production 

company Between the Eyes to produce two viral films. Both can be 

viewed on multiple platforms, including Shooting People's Watch 

Film facility. 

All independent filmmakers get a present from Shooting People 

between 10 November and 10 December: anyone who joins will 

Ten Things You Didn't Know About Shooting People 

1. The Shooting People official anagram is Pigeonhole Post. 

2. It took filmmakers Cath Le Couteur and Jess Search all 

day to think of the name Shooting People in a messy bedroom 

in 1998 when they launched the network with 60 filmmaker 

friends signed up to help each other make films. 

3. Shooting People shares its birthday with 349 of its 

members on 22 November. That makes Shooting People 

Sagittarius. Sagittarians are sometimes distracted, but this 

is only because they are so forward thinking that they forget 

about the present. 

4. Director Shane Meadows (Room for Romeo Brass, This 

Is England) was the first guest to speak at a Shooting People 

event – in 1999. He had to sit on the bar with a microphone 

because there was no stage. Cheers, Shane. 

5. Someone once posted in asking for a flea-training expert. 

They got one. 

6. 1.3m people have watched Shooting People's Watch Film 

facility since its launch last December. 

7. Shooting People has crewed up over 50,000 films in the 

last 10 years – fiction, animation, documentary, and music 

videos every week. 

8. As far as we know NO ONE has ever got married because 

of Shooting People. Sorry. 

9. Shooting People sends out 7,500,000 packed email 

bulletins to Members a year. That's a lot of envelopes to lick. 

10. Shooting People is celebrating its tenth birthday this year, 

just like Google. Shooting People acknowledges that Google is 

a slightly bigger brand and wishes them all the best. 

www.shootingpeople.org 

42

distribution 

BeyondTartan: 

The Dilemma of Distribution - a view from the eye of the hurricane 

by Paul Smith 

H 

ere we are, in the business of making 

films, watching them, scrutinizing 

them, developing them, trying to 

shape a film industry as well as a lasting 

heritage. But of crucial importance has 

always been how do we actually get to 

see them. Well, let's be more specific. If 

you wanted to watch independently made, 

foreign language films, invariably it was 

independent distributors and the art-house 

cinema circuit who were energised by the 

desire to reach out to a more discerning 

audience, hungry for variety and artistic, as 

well as provocative stimulation alongside 

their entertainment. But of course, the big 

revolution came with the birth of home 

entertainment. 

Hamish McAlpine 

Video rental stores were breeding faster 

than rabbits and companies such as Tartan 

Video, owned by the irrepressible Hamish 

McAlpine, sprang forth with a range of films 

for the budding cineaste with early work 

from Pedro Almodovar, Todd Haynes, Derek 

Jarman and John Woo, amongst others. 

Simultaneously, it revered the masters of 

cinema too such as Eisenstein, Truffaut and 

Bergman. Of course, this was also a time 

when many of these films were regularly 

programmed on TV, but over a quarter of a 

century later and how times have changed! 

Gone are the complete auteur seasons that 

were so much a part of Sunday nights on 

BBC Two. Videotapes have un-spooled into 

antiquity and been reborn as DVDs, but 

already mutating into Blu-Ray. Cinemas 

have streamlined their choice and Tartan has 

rolled its final credits. 

No more Larry Clarke brawls or supersize 

meals with Morgan Spurlock. No more 

kisses from Monica Bellucci or dinners 

with Beatrice Dalle. If only Tartan had 

managed to find a partnership as lucrative 

as Optimum and Canal Plus, or Lionsgate's 

acquisition of Redbus. If only there had been 

a foreign investor who could have helped 

Metrodome or indeed, Icon, which is now 

set for renewed vigour as part of Stewart 

Till’s Stadium network, the phoenix-like 

resurrection of Polygram in all but, name. 

Instead, after the day of the administrators, 

it is US-based Palisades Media Corp that has 

acquired the catalogue with future plans of 

re-branding as Palisades Tartan. 

Having worked for Tartan for nearly eight 

years, I was fortunate enough to have been 

a part of the close-knit team promoting bold, 

provocative new directors from around the 

world, many of them premiering at festivals 

such as Edinburgh. Films such as La Haine 

and Irreversible, Sex and Lucia and Funny 

Games, Battle In Heaven and documentaries 

from the heartfelt warmth of Etre Et Avoir 

to the culturally explosive entertainment 

of Supersize Me and the emotionally 

devastating Capturing The Friedmans. 

As Tartan grew in reputation, its range grew 

too, incorporating independent Englishlanguage 

films such as Secretary, The 

Woodsman, The Machinist and Little Fish. 

However, perhaps Tartan’s single, most 

significant contribution to the industry was 

launching that group of horror-laden chillers 

from Japan, Hong Kong and Korea: the 

fiendish birth of Asia Extreme - The Ring, 

Audition, Battle Royale, The Eye, Oldboy, 

Lady Vengeance. 

I was there at the beginning and yes, at the 

end too, when it fell to Sadako's cursed 

video. Or more precisely, to the perils of 

market-driven prices. The average price 

of a DVD has fallen dramatically with 

continual sales, half-price campaigns, and 

supermarket discounting. New releases 

from the big studios are now hovering 

below £10. So who pays the premium rate 

anymore when you can play the waiting 

game for a pocket money-priced cinematic 

treat? Maybe we should question whether 

this undermines those movies in terms 

of their artistic or cultural qualities, let 

alone their entertainment values? Then 

again, comparisons could be made to 

the publishing industry after the net book 

agreement was abolished. That hasn't 

stopped people from reading, although let's 

not even start to question what dubious 

tomes become top sellers. 

OK, so it was not strictly a curse but it is a 

product of the rapidly-changing face of the 

industry, which is fumbling around in the 

dark as old methods start to break down. 

The speed of technology is almost outpacing 

the ability to adapt. Betamax lost in its fight 

with VHS, until DVD muscled in. Now Blu- 

Ray is chasing its tail, having seen off HD in 

a less subtle battle, but not every film can 

be visually and audibly enhanced. Internet 

may have started the revolution, but digital 

is now promising to be a knight in celluloid 

armour, answering all our prayers in terms 

of film making and viewing. But even that is 

not foolproof. Currently the UK Film Council 

is stating that it won't be able to pay for 

every cinema to go digital if the venues can't 

afford to make the switch. Does that suggest 

a marked advancement or the possibility of 

a cinematic third world, struggling to attract 

audiences and maintain choice? Maybe 

that's why there seems to be a growth in 

film societies or themed salons run by local 

enthusiasts willing to share their passion in 

more informal surroundings. Festivals too 

can nurture that passion and recreate that 

shared sense of fun and excitement. 

Tartan surrendered the Metro part of its 

name along with the cinema, over five years 

ago. Had it retained a venue for screening 

films, it could have resolved one of the 

increasing issues many distributors are 

having to address: finding a sympathetic 

exhibitor. Artificial Eye, has strengthened 

its position by merging with the Curzon 

group of cinemas, so that in theory they 

don't need to worry about where to screen 

the films they buy. However, there's also 

a profusion of titles being released with 

the sole intention of creating a big screen 

platform for a DVD release a few weeks later. 

In theory, there's a gentleman's agreement 

between distributors and the Cinema 

Exhibitors Association to allow a 16-week 

window between a film's theatrical release 

and its availability in stores. Occasionally, 

there are attempts made to erode that gap 

and reach for that day-and-date scenario. 

That has already been tested with Edge of 

Heaven and Road To Guantanamo, each 

going for simultaneous cinema and VOD/TV 

availability. 

Now Revolver aims to release Mum & 

Dad in cinemas, VOD, electronic download 

as well as rental/retail DVD options 

simultaneously. Will this set a precedent 

or will it be just another possible solution, 

still not suggesting a clear way forward for 

distributors? One thing's for certain, this 

is a time of change, of evolution, maybe 

even mutation for distribution and with 

new companies still emerging there's no 

fat lady singing yet! There may be plenty 

of stumbling forward in the aisles for 

the foreseeable future but in the muchmisquoted 

words of Al Jolson, “You ain't 

seen nothing yet”. 

43

Leo on location 

filmmaking 

East meets West: 

Leo Saidenough and Sharon McCance 

As Diversity Films prepares to kick off a new programme of training, 

mentoring and production in communities in Glasgow in the 

New Year, they caught up with two of the stars of the first year of 

Diversity’s filmmaking activities: Leo Saidenough (33), a musician 

from Russia, who is now immersed in the world of post-production, 

and Sharon McCance (22), a bright young Easterhouse resident 

who’s equally keen to throw herself into new opportunities and learn 

all things film. 

So, Leo and Sharon, how did you get involved with Diversity Films? 

Leo: I joined Diversity Films in summer 2007, when they came to 

our area to do workshops about filmmaking using professional 

cameras, microphones and editing. Since then, I have been a big 

part in our filmmakers group, Kingsway Eye, which was set up by 

Diversity Films and Kingsway Court Health and Wellbeing Centre. 

We have made several films such as International Kingslink Carnival 

2007/ 2008 and Kingsway Come Dancing, about two young and very 

talented ballroom dancers who live in Kingsway. We’ve also made a 

community chat show pilot called GET REAL!, and are now planning 

more episodes. We would like to make more new films with different 

content including a drama. 

Sharon: I was on a short media course with Glasgow East 

Regeneration Agency when we were introduced to Marie, one of 

Diversity Films´ producers, to help learn more about the media 

industry. First, I did some volunteer work with Diversity - subclipping 

and logging footage for a project called East by North East 

(ExNE). This led to me doing some of the camera work on the project 

too. I really enjoyed being more directly involved with the project 

and found that the footage I’d seen during the logging process 

helped me understand what I needed to capture for the film. 

Leo: I met and worked with Sharon on ExNE – The Movie. We are 

both really interested in editing and worked with a professional 

editor, Cassandra McGrogan, who taught us a great deal. 

As well as learning new filmmaking skills, what do you get out of 

being involved with an organisation like Diversity Films? 

Leo: All my life I’ve made films, but with Diversity Films, I spend 

more time on the films, and make films of a different quality, much 

better. The experience I get is not just about how to use a camera, 

but also professional editing and how to make your film interesting. 

Diversity also organises trips, and I have been in professional 

studios watching and talking to engineers and professionals at Arc 

Facilities and BBC. This gives you more experience and new ideas to 

work with. It was also great when I got the opportunity to compose 

the music for the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival ident. 

The festival team were really pleased with it and it meant my work 

was showing in cinemas across Scotland. 

Sharon: After ExNE – the Movie, I got the opportunity to work on 

Wasted Nation, a documentary film about gang culture in Glasgow, 

which was nominated for a BAFTA Scotland award, and for which I 

was given a Producer’s Secretary credit. Most recently, I filmed the 

British Urban Collective when it came to Easterhouse. This was my 

first solo documentary project. I recorded the process from audition 

stage, to the final gigs. Now, I’m editing the project, supervised by 

Diversity Films. Some of the footage will also be edited into a music 

video for one of the groups taking part in the Collective. You can 

clearly see the progression I have made while working with Diversity 

Films. This has given me the confidence to try and push myself 

further with every project I do. 

Do you think the work Diversity Films does is important and why? 

Leo: I think access to filmmaking opportunities is important for 

everyone who wants to deliver their message to people. Involving 

cameras can help sort out peoples’ problems. For example, in our 

high-rise block, the water pressure was changed and water was 

coming out of the pipes on almost every floor for a long time. When 

we filmed it and showed it to the right people, the problem was 

fixed in the next few days. It’s also great to see work you have made 

shown at festivals, like the Document and Scottish Mental Health 

Arts and Film Festival. 

What about the future? What does it hold for you? 

Leo: I’m looking forward to being involved in more projects at a 

more advanced level and also working with Kingsway Eye to help 

new people learn the skills I learned, which is also important. 

Sharon: The experience and knowledge I have gained from working 

with Diversity Films and on my college course has convinced me 

that my future lies in the media industry. My dream would be to 

have my own media centre/college with a wide range of media 

resources. I am sure that the contacts I have made through working 

with Diversity will be of huge benefit when it comes to realising this 

dream. I hope to keep working with them in the future too. Watch 

this space……… 

Diversity Films is funded by Scottish Screen National Lottery through the New 

Talent Development Initiative fund. For more information about investment 

opportunities at Scottish Screen, please see www.scottishscreen.com/ 

investment. 

Platform 

Sharon on set 

Leo shooting GET REAL ! 

44

facilities 

The L.A.B 

learn@ BBC Scotland 

“What about you just have one alien and 

drop the motorbike?” Not the kind of thing 

you hear every day, but not that uncommon 

for us in the L.A.B at BBC Scotland. When 

you are storyboarding stop-frame animation 

with 10-year-olds, coming up with ideas is 

not a problem, trust me! It’s getting those 

ideas honed down and creating something 

do-able in our four-hour workshop session, 

which is the goal…to go from an idea to 

world premiere in a day. Incredible though 

it may seem, it’s usually achievable … if 

you drop an extra alien spacecraft and 

motorbike! 

The L.A.B, learn @ BBC Scotland, is a fairly 

new initiative coming out of the Learning 

department to work with groups of adults 

and children helping them create their 

own digital media content. What that really 

means is getting past the technology and 

helping people find the tales they want to 

share; it’s all about folk and stories. We work 

across all ages and abilities hosting various 

entry-level workshops: make a movie in 

a day, stop-frame animation, audio and 

video podcasting. It might sound scary 

to some but the relaxed atmosphere and 

good humour soon calms even the most 

technically challenged. 

So what have people made? Well, as 

well as a host of primary and secondary 

schools coming along and making their 

movies, we have had a community café 

celebrating getting their healthy eating 

award; adults with literacy challenges 

telling their stories through the wonders 

of stop-frame animation (it’s amazing what 

some plasticine, a few pipe cleaners and a 

huge dollop of imagination can achieve!); 

and the Golden Girls from Plean, sharing 

wonderful audio stories of how a wee 

village has changed during their lifetime. 

We also helped Holy Cross Primary school 

in Govanhill reflect some of the diversity 

of their multicultural school, by making a 

couple of news-style programmes reflecting 

on positive things about their community. 

One of the most rewarding groups to have 

visited us was Stepping Stones, a charity 

working with people who have mental heath 

challenges. They brought in fantastic models 

they had made and a script, which followed 

the character’s struggle to get up out of bed 

and back into the outside world…a most 

powerful story called, Moving On. The best 

bit for us though was spending a most 

creative day working with a great group of 

folk. 

Groups come to work with us in the BBC 

at our new Pacific Quay headquarters in 

Glasgow. It’s a great building for filming in 

and many of the locations we use will be 

familiar to you if you are a regular viewer of 

BBC Scotland. We also have our own L.A.B 

space, complete with news set including the 

facility to use green screen technology…. 

allowing you to transport yourself to 

anywhere in the world…or even out of this 

world. We will give you the basics to get you 

going and show you the processes you will 

need to make your next film. That’s what we 

are about in the L.A.B, giving groups a taste 

of what is possible, which will hopefully 

inspire them to keep filming and recording 

their own content. 

It’s fantastic when you see people engage 

with such a rich task as making a film and 

watch them communicating, collaborating 

…sometimes arguing (it has to be said), 

but the confidence boost most groups get 

when they see the end result on the big 

screen is amazing. From the BBC point of 

view, it’s great to share with our audience 

and fulfil our public service remit. It’s a way 

to let our audiences see how our industry 

functions and allows our groups to work 

with industry professionals. The facilitators 

who work with our groups all come from a 

BBC production background and are more 

than willing to share their skills and top tips, 

but to be honest I think the BBC staff get as 

much from the groups as they give to them. 

I was delighted when a six-year-old was able 

to show me a different way to get music 

into the film we were working on and I have 

since passed on to others how you use your 

mobile phone to video you sneezing through 

a wall…a top tip from a 13-year-old! 

Our workshops last for about 4 hours on 

weekdays and are free of charge. We work 

with groups of between 6-18 people. We 

are particularly interested in working with 

groups of adults who have stories to share, 

especially in the 50+ age group. If you want 

to find out a bit more about us and get 

creative yourself have a look on our online 

site www.bbc.co.uk/labscotland. 

Johanna Hall, Project Leader 

45

film festival 

Cromarty 

film festival 

5-7 December 2008 

By Don Coutts 

Screening of The Maggie on the Cromarty Rose ferry 

at the launch of the festival 

46

film festival 

Cromarty is hosting its 

second My Favourite 

Film Festival over the 

first weekend in December. This 

unique event allows invited 

guests to nominate their top five 

films, one of which is selected to 

be shown at the festival. 

Last year, the town of Cromarty took full 

advantage of 2007 The Year Of Highland 

Culture. The townsfolk ran two festivals, a 

summer and winter one. The first Cromarty 

Film Festival was born. Guests last year 

included John Byrne, Eddi Reader and Ali 

Smith. Everyone went home with a smile on 

their faces, so a decision was made to run 

the festival as an annual event. Successfully 

gaining funds from Awards For All and Scottish 

Screen, this year’s festival looks like a winner. 

Guests this year include TV journalist and 

presenter, Kirsty Wark, Capercaillie vocalist, 

Karen Matheson, BBC arts correspondent 

and DJ, Janice Forsyth, and film directors, 

David Mackenzie, and Michael Caton- 

Jones, who will also introduce their 

own films, Rob Roy and Hallam Foe in 

Resolis Village Hall. The local Resolis Arts 

Group have twinned with the Cromarty 

Film Festival to help organise the event. 

Each screening begins with a short chat with 

the guest about their own film memories, 

what they think makes a good movie and 

why they chose the films they did. After the 

screening there is an opportunity for the 

audience to share their own impressions of 

the film and to ask questions of the guest. 

Guest Janice Forsyth will broadcast her 

Saturday morning Radio Scotland show live 

during the film festival, discussing many of 

the festival highlights, including a series of 

lectures and short films, hosted by the Royal 

Hotel. 

The curator of the Scottish Screen Archive, 

Janet McBain, and her colleague Allan Mackay, 

the Gaelic film archivist, will introduce a 

programme of Gaelic shorts, and the first film 

made with a live Gaelic soundtrack, A Poem of 

Remote Lives (1934). Anthony Farquhar-Smith, 

who worked on the animated film, Corpse 

Bride, will give an illustrated talk with film 

clips followed by a screening. All the lectures 

will take place in The Royal Hotel where will 

be live music every night, and of course 

food and drink available throughout the day. 

Afternoon films will be screened in the 

pizza restaurant, Sutor Creek, including the 

much-loved The Maggie, introduced by 

Janet MacBain and screened together with 

a documentary, The Last Puffer Spartan. The 

restaurant will also host late night screenings 

of food-themed films accompanied by pizza 

and wine. The late night food films this year are 

Couscous, Tampopo, and A Touch Of Spice. 

Cromarty is a small (population 720) town on 

the very tip of the Black Isle, 27 miles north 

of Inverness. More than just a location on 

the shipping report, the town has a history 

of hosting Scottish royalty such as King 

Duncan and Macbeth, saw the beginning 

of Scottish fossil collection and is home 

to more than 130 bottlenose dolphins. 

More recently a finalist in Restoration Village 

and one of Scotland’s best preserved towns, 

its well-preserved Fishertown, charming 

vennels and three museums in a row, are 

an attraction for visitors from near and far. 

The town has an active arts community with 

regular music, theatre and visual arts events 

throughout the year. Boasting a dedicated 

arts centre where Runrig recorded their 

most recent album, a converted brewery 

with workshop and performance spaces, 

two hotels and an award-winning restaurant, 

Cromarty plays host to conferences 

and historical and educational groups. 

The film festival was born out of the 

Cromarty Film Society, who show films 

throughout the year to a loyal audience. The 

town is far enough away from the nearest 

cinema to benefit from a film society, 

which encourages communal film viewing. 

For more information and a full list of films to 

be shown go to 

www.cromartyfilmfestival.org. 

Cromarty Film Festival is supported by Scottish Screen 

National Lottery through the Audience Development 

fund. For more information about investment 



47

facilities 

Arc 

Arc does films – not a lot of people know that. 

Arc Facilities 

Glendogie Bogie Sensless Trouble Sleeping 

Seachd Downhill Racer 

Arc 

is best known for offering a 

full range of post-production 

services for television. 

However what you may not know is that 

they are increasingly using their technical 

and creative expertise on a range of film 

projects. 

As well as numerous shorts, Arc has also 

worked on its fair share of features. This 

work has increased since Arc moved to its 

new south-side location last year, and added 

sound dubbing. Senseless, a Plum Films/ 

Matador co-production was cut at Arc by Bill 

Gill and went on to be shortlisted for Best 

British Feature at the Raindance Festival. 

Trouble Sleeping, a Theatre Workshop/ 

Makar Productions film was graded by Ian 

Ballantyne, with John Cobban and Travis 

Reeves doing the sound. 

Arc is located just south of the river Clyde 

in Dalintober Hall in Tradeston. The unusual 

architecture of the location has proved 

to be a big hit with clients who like the 

atmosphere there. The new facility includes 

two sound suites, 6 offline suites, two online 

suites and a graphic design department. 

Now Arc offers a complete post-production 

package all under one roof – the roof, that 

is, of the splendid old Victorian Hall, which 

houses the custom-built facility. 

Three features are currently in post: 

Mandragora Productions’ Dark Nature 

(also featured in this issue of roughcuts), 

directed by Marc de Launay is being cut by 

Arc’s Joe Speirs; it is a dark, tense thriller in 

which a young woman fights to protect her 

family when they come under attack while 

on holiday at a remote location in Scotland. 

This low budget feature was shot entirely 

in Dumfries and Galloway and has already 

secured a DVD distribution deal that will see 

its international release in mid 2009. Marc 

has another feature lined up for next year 

with, he says, “a proper budget”. 

Directed by Caroline Paterson and Stuart 

Davids of Raindog, Wasted will be the 

fruition of a creative process that has been 

developed over the 17 years Raindog has 

been in existence. The improvisational 

method for creating new and fresh 

approaches to drama has been successful 

for Raindog in theatre and television, and 

now Wasted, they are using the same 

approach on a feature film. Wasted was shot 

on Panasonic’s P2 format and cut on FCP by 

Jim Hamilton; grading and sound will be 

completed through November/December 

with release in January. It is funded by 

Scottish Screen National Lottery funds. 

Principal photography began in Ireland 

on November 10 for Wide Open Spaces 

written by Arthur Mathews, co-writer of 

the infamous Father Ted. It stars Ewen 

Bremner (Fool’s Gold and Trainspotting), 

Ardal O’Hanlon (My Hero, Father Ted) and 

Owen Roe (Alarm, Intermission). The film is 

directed by Tom Hall (Bachelors Walk) and 

shot by Tim Fleming (Once). 

The film is a belated coming-of-age comedy 

set in a remote part of Ireland about two 

slackers working to pay off a debt by helping 

to build a Famine Theme Park for a dodgy 

local entrepreneur. With a classic doubleact 

at the centre, Wide Open Spaces is a 

unique take on male friendship and how 

it is easier to break up with a girl than 

with your best friend. The film is a coproduction 

between Irish company Grand 

Pictures (Spin the Bottle, Stew, Paths to 

Freedom) and Scottish company Mead Kerr 

(Night People). Funding came from Bord 

Scannain na hEireann (The Irish Film Board), 

Scottish Screen, RTE and BBC Scotland. 

Entertainment One is handling world sales. 

Wide Open Spaces is being shot on RED, 

with Arc handling the transfer of media from 

the RED files into AVID whilst tracking all the 

necessary metadata. It is currently the first 

week of the shoot, and the assembly edit 

runs up to Christmas with a further 7 weeks 

from January, with grading and sound in 

March. Whilst this is the first feature shot 

on RED that Arc have dealt with it’s not their 

first RED project. A recent series of promos 

for the BBC’s new Scotland’s History series 

was also shot on RED and post-produced 

at Arc, so the workflow is already tried and 

tested. 

Brian Suttie, Arc’s technical director and MD, 

feels that next year will see a big increase in 

tapeless projects: “A lot of people are rightly 

nervous about moving from traditional tape 

formats, but with careful attention to the 

planning of the post workflow there are real 

benefits to be obtained.” 

For post or other enquiries call 0141 420 

0900 or e-mail info@arcfacilities.com 

48

Pooh's Hellalump Movie 

exhibition 

Access Take 2 

By Jennifer Hunter-Mackenzie, 

Education Assistant 

In a first for Scottish cinemas, Glasgow Film Theatre 

(GFT) has recently introduced autism-friendly 

screenings entitled Access Take 2, as part of the 

GFT’s Take 2 programme of Saturday morning family 

films. Supported by funding from Glasgow City 

Council, the Take 2 series of free films for Glasgow 

children and their carers has been running for four 

years, helping consolidate the GFT’s role as the 

Scottish Screen-designated 'hub' cinema for West- 

Central Scotland. 

The aim of Take 2 is to encourage family viewing, to 

diversify the films watched by young people and to 

promote the 'big screen' experience. This has been 

extremely successful, with young people attending 

both mainstream and non-mainstream films. The 

Access Take 2 autism-friendly screenings are helping 

GFT to widen access to the Take 2 experience. 

Similar initiatives to Access Take 2 exist in English 

cinemas, such as the Clapham and Greenwich 

Picturehouses, The Metro (Derby), Wells Film Centre, 

The Plaza, The Phoenix (Leicester), and Broadway 

(Nottingham); however it is the first service of its 

kind to take place in Scotland. The screenings take 

place in a relaxed and accessible environment 

designed specifically for the needs of autistic 

children. One mother commented, “I am thrilled 

that the GFT is able to do this as my little boy 

loves movies but has difficulty with the volume most 

films are shown with.” Parents and teachers have 

been very supportive and are keen to share their 

experiences. For one parent, Access Take 2 was their 

child’s first cinema outing: “This is the first time I’ve 

felt able to take my 6-year-old to a cinema, and he 

was able to stay to the end and enjoy himself.” 

An intense, sensory sensitivity to sound and light 

can make cinema-going difficult for autistic people; 

fast-changing sound and light levels from a film, 

whispering neighbours, and even rustling from 

sweet papers can possibly make those with autism 

perceive the cinema environment as disturbing 

or distracting. Being invited among a crowd of 

people and having to be in close proximity to other 

cinema goers might also prove challenging to 

some children. However, through these dedicated 

screenings the GFT is seeking to overcome any 

potential difficulties. GFT staff have been provided 

with autism awareness training, delivered by an 

educational psychologist. 

Access Take 2 films are played at a reduced volume 

with the house lights on low, and the number of 

cinema-goers is purposely reduced so that the 

children can have more of their own definable 

space if they wish. There is a balancing act between 

allowing some children to move around during the 

film, perhaps occasionally being noisy, while others 

might want to move to a calm ‘break-out’ space in 

a neighbouring room, for a quiet interlude. To build 

a comfortable routine for the children, the GFT uses 

the same cinema and ‘break-out’ spaces for each 

screening, and screenings occur at the same time on 

the first Saturday of each month. 

The screenings generate excitement for the 

children, and at the first autism-friendly screening 

of Surf’s Up, I observed the young audience were 

as much interested in each other as the on-screen 

animation. Several children exchanged sweets 

and played with their peers while exploring the 

cinema environment, such as the screen itself, or the 

projection box seen through the window at the back 

of the auditorium. One parent related: “What tickled 

my child was being able to see the projectionist at 

work and being able to say hello to him, and then 

getting a hello back.” Some children stayed in their 

seats, mesmerised, as soon as the film began, but 

most alternated between playing and watching 

the screen. Another parent commented, “My son 

(5) is not usually a cinema-goer because he finds 

it challenging to stay seated and to focus. It was 

great that he had the freedom to walk about and 

then watch when he wanted. Because there was no 

pressure on the parents to keep their children in one 

place, the children were also more relaxed.” Perhaps 

what most benefits an autistic child’s ability to focus 

on the film is the new opportunity our screenings 

provide for a child’s parents to speak to them aloud, 

and explain what is happening around them. 

Tickets for Access Take 2 and Take 2 are available from the 

GFT box office. Glasgow Young Scot and Kidz Card holders 

get free entry to Take 2 and Access Take 2. One child’s ticket 

admits one adult free of charge, all other tickets are £3. 

Access Take 2 screenings take place on the first Saturday of 

each month at 12.30pm. 

For further information, contact GFT Learning 

on 0141 352 8604 or e-mail info@gft.org.uk. 

GFT is supported by Scottish Screen. 

Kirikou and the Sorceress 

Kirikou and the Sorceress 

Surf's Up 

Surf's Up 

49

F 

locations 

LOCATION OF THE MONTH 


ounded in 1845, The Glasgow Academy 

was based in Elmbank Street in the 

centre of Glasgow but relocated to 

Kelvinbridge in the West End of the city. It 

is the oldest fully independent school in 

Glasgow and has recently put forward their 

property as a film friendly location. 

Jennifer Reynolds, Film Commissioner for 

Glasgow Film Office said: “We are so happy 

that such a well respected establishment 

with a wealth of varied property has decided 

to join our location database. The Glasgow 

Academy will be a welcome addition to our 

growing bank of film friendly locations.” 

The location is accessed through a private 

gated road, which ensures an easily 

manageable and controllable set. Terraced 

townhouses on one side of the road and 

leafy trees on the other, lead to the new 

Prep and Senior Schools. If you don’t need 

a school location, then this location can also 

double as a traditional west end street – 

without the parking worries and the traffic 

control issues! 

There are a variety of individual buildings 

that can be used within the grounds, which 

have the added bonus of having complete 

privacy and discretion. The Senior School 

itself boasts separate buildings for most 

disciplines including chemistry, physics, 

gymnasium, sports hall, dining hall and art 

& design and music block. The main building 

dates back to 1878, and was designed by 

renowned Scottish architects Hugh and 

David Barclay. The imposing, classical lines 

of the original grand Victorian building 

foreground the later developments on the 

campus. 

The Nursery and Kindergarten are housed 

in a bright and airy building, which includes 

several imaginative features including a 

castle and drawbridge! The recent addition 

of a brand new modern Prep School enjoys 

a unique riverside location with superb 

panoramic views over the River Kelvin. 

The best views of the building are from the 

bridge on Belmont Street from where the 

glass-fronted classrooms facing the Kelvin 

can be seen. The rooftop terrace is covered 

by a large canopy: a must have for the fine 

Scottish weather, and has excellent views 

over the west end of Glasgow and the 

University. The colourful playground at the 

Prep School was designed by the children 

themselves and is just a small section of 

the outside space available at this versatile 

location. 

The interior of the Prep School has bright 

natural light in abundance, with top of 

the range features including state-ofthe-art 

white boards and wireless access 

throughout, this modern clean lined building 

will fulfil all your technical needs. 

But if you’re looking for the classic 

traditional classrooms with the old style 

desks and benches, the main building will 

not disappoint. The school also features 

some traditional style teaching laboratories 

housed in the 1903-built chemistry block – 

all complete with bunsen burners, flasks, 

pipettes and all the other features fondly 

remembered from double chemistry! Other 

period features include a gymnasium with 

wallbars and climbing ropes. The refectory 

also retains some of the original dining 

benches. 

Malcolm McNaught, External Relations 

Manager at The Glasgow Academy would be 

happy to facilitate your filming needs: “We 

would be delighted to accommodate filming 

activity at the Academy; all enquiries will be 

dealt with on an individual basis, and we 

will consider filming out of hours during the 

week and of course out with term time.” 

If you would like more information on this 

location or any location in Glasgow, please 

contact Hamish Walker at Glasgow Film 

Office. 

Glasgow Film Office is the film commission 

for the city and can offer all kinds of 

logistical support from finding the right 

location, crew and facilities to locating build 

and office space. They can also assist the 

brokering of deals with local hotels and 

liaising with local authorities and ancillary 

services. Check out their website at 

www.glasgowfilm.com for more 

information. 

Glasgow Film Office, City Chambers 

Glasgow, G2 1DU 

Tel: 0141 287 0424 

info@glasgowfilm.com 

www.glasgowfilm.com 


The rooftop terrace 

50

locations 

The dining hall 

Gymnasium with wallbars and climbing ropes. 

Chemistry lab 

Classic traditional classrooms 

1903-built chemistry block

Seasons Greetings 

from all at 

Scottish Screen 

Mondo’s search for the sun By Jana Prchalova

Download pdf - Scottish Screen

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?