THE Scottish film maker working on the hotly anticipated new Star Wars movie has backed a call for the country's proposed film studio to be located in Govan.
Tommy Gormley, who is currently co-producer and first assistant director on Star Wars Episode VII, being made at Pinewood Studios in England, said Scotland "has needed a film studio for many years, and our industry has without question suffered from the lack of one".
"We are currently missing a huge trick in not having such a facility available," he said, adding that Pacific Quay was the obvious choice for a new film studio.
Gormley, from Glasgow, has worked in the film industry for 25 years and on more than 50 films and TV shows. He has experience of working in major studios in Rome, Hamburg, Budapest, Dublin, Vancouver, Cape Town, Luxembourg and many in Los Angeles.
Gormley said: "I don't think I have worked on any major project which either didn't utilise a proper studio or sound stage, or which wouldn't have hugely benefited from using one. It is a basic building block of film making."
He said that although Scotland was used for location work, whether in rural areas or cities, the "real trick would be to bring movies to Scotland not just for our landscapes and cityscapes, but because we have the talent and the infrastructure to be globally competitive".
"We have the talent without question," he said. "The part which is in imbalance is the infrastructure, which is woefully poor."
Gormley added the initial money invested in a studio with multiple sound stages would be "repaid many times over many years of use - it is long term thinking, not short term-ism, as film making is a cyclical business."
Yesterday, Scottish Enterprise said it was essentially in favour of a film studio, and working on various financial models in a feasibility study that will be published early next year.
The enterprise body has looked at 600 sites in Scotland but is backing a model in the central belt.
Gormley said in his opinion "the only place" to site this facility was Glasgow, with Pacific Quay the obvious choice.
He said: "The majority of the great pool of technicians in the Scottish industry are Glasgow-based and always have been historically, and to site it any where else would be perverse in the extreme. Building on the critical mass of the media hub which has been created at Pacific Quay is a no-brainer."
He praised the work being carried out at Cumbernauld, where the US show Outlander is filming.
He added: "It's a good facility and it is a great achievement to have that in Scotland already up and running. But it is not a panacea. Both of its two stages are already full for a considerable period.
"If those stages stay full, either because of Outlander or another project, Scotland has no other genuine studio space."
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