WE are writing to protest in the strongest terms against the plans to reduce Edinburgh's Film Focus office to a single film officer ("Producers claim cuts will damage city film-making", The Herald, March 7).
We are leading members of the film and television community and Film Focus is vital to the work we do. The office has been in operation since 1990, and the two current officers have detailed and specialist knowledge of what producers need when choosing to work in and around Edinburgh.
We have read the statements from Marketing Edinburgh that its organisation is fully equipped to take over Film Focus's responsibilities. In the first instance, no production wants to work with a team called "Marketing". Marketing the city is a by-product of what we do. Any film team needs privacy and specialist help in co-ordinating the many and varied requirements that filming demands.
Marketing Edinburgh as a tourism, conference and event destination is vastly different to promoting it as a film and television location. The two existing staff members, with their in-depth industry knowledge, are able to respond quickly to location briefs, logistical briefs and the crazy left-field inquiries that can come from a film or television production. They have personal industry relationships that they have built up over years and cutting the film office budget will send a signal to the industry in the UK and worldwide that Edinburgh is no longer committed to having a film and television industry. Film and television projects come here because there's a good film office. Edinburgh attracts international productions that use the city's spectacular locations. But producers want a film office that will protect and support their work, not a marketing team.
As Scottish-based producers, we have relied on Film Focus to facilitate our production needs. We strongly object to key decisions about our industry being made without the industry's participation. We need Film Focus and are well served by it.
This decision is short-sighted, and does not serve our industry. We would welcome the opportunity to meet those responsible for this decision, as a matter of urgency.
Mark Cousins, Filmmaker; Andrea Gibb, Screenwriter; Murray Grigor, Grigor Films; Andrea Calderwood, Slate Films, 9 Greek Street, London, and 64 other leading film-makers and producers.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article