PRODUCTIONS shot in Scotland, such as Outlander and Sunset Song, have helped boost the film and television industry, enabling it to spend a record £52.7 million, figures show.
The figure for 2015 is an increase of £7m on screen production cash spent in Scotland in 2014 and marks a nearly £30m increase since 2007.
Films shot in Scotland in recent years include Trainspotting 2, the ongoing Outlander series, Churchill, Calibre, Hush, Etruscan Smile, In Plain Sight, Loch Ness, Tommy’s Honour, Sunset Song, Macbeth and The Wife. The figure demonstrates the continued attraction of Scottish locations to film-makers, even as the lack of a major international studio in the country was again highlighted this week by film makers north of the Border.
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This week the Association of Film and TV Practitioners Scotland (AFPTS) said the Government should approve the pending Pentlands Studios plan as soon as possible and not let the situation descend into a “travesty”.
This weekend marks the anniversary of the Government calling in the planning application for the privately funded project by PSL Land Ltd. It wants to build a major studio complex at Straiton, Midlothian, on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop announced the figure yesterday after meeting the crew of The Wife, which stars Glenn Close, while it was filming on location at the National Museum of Flight in East Fortune, East Lothian.
Ms Hyslop said: “Our uniquely beautiful rural areas to bustling urban cityscapes provide excellent backdrops and our highly skilled crews are in hot demand.”
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The figures are an accumulation of those supplied by the Scottish Locations Network, as well as information from Creative Scotland’s production enquiries database.
Producer of The Wife and Churchill, Piers Tempest said: “We had an extremely positive experience filming Churchill in Scotland earlier this year, and it really felt like the natural place to bring our next film The Wife, which is currently in production Glasgow.”
Natalie Usher, director of Screen at Creative Scotland said: “This proves that Scotland’s talent, crews, facilities and award winning locations continue to be of huge attraction to major international productions.
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