IT is right to welcome the £7million, year-on-year increase generated by screen productions in Scotland. Film and TV productions such as Outlander, Sunset Song, and Trainspotting 2 have helped spending by the industries reach a record £52.7m. Growth over the last eight years has been impressive.
However it is worth pointing out that £50m is the budget of one not particularly huge blockbuster movie. The potential is there for Scotland to do much better.
This weekend it will be one year since the Scottish Government called in a planning application which would give the green light to a major film studio complex in Midlothian. Until ministers make a decision the privately-funded project is stalled.
Scotland has already lost ground on its competitors. Belfast, where the massively successful TV series Game of Thrones is filmed; Cardiff which has a film studio and benefits from the BBC’s drama base. London is a competitor, of course, and even Yorkshire has plans for a major new studio complex.
Even without a studio, Scotland has become a huge draw, with proven appeal to film-makers for both its rural and urban locations. But the need for a proper, multi-stage film complex has become the longest running drama in the arts world.
Given the strong Remain sympathies of many in the arts world and the opposition of the Scottish Government, leaving the EU could provide another option. Rules on state aid which hindered government investment in a studio could disappear. But while we have dithered, others have forged ahead and we cannot afford to fall further behind. The Association of Film and TV Practitioners Scotland (AFPTS) want the Midlothian plan approved as soon as possible.
These new figures on income, published by the Scottish Government itself, demonstrate what can be achieved without such a studio. It is very clear that much more could be achieved with one.
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