Acclaimed production house Blazing Griffin’s investment in a cinema-standard grading theatre aims to keep creative talent and a key part of the film-making process rooted in Scotland rather than London
It was on the streets of London that Charlotte Walsh projected a clearer view of the future of post production for film in Scotland.
“A lot of us came from a freelance background, and we did a lot of work down there over the years, cutting our teeth,” said Walsh, one of the key players in the first decade of one of Scotland’s most prolific production houses.
“You realise when you’re there that everywhere you turn, you see Scots.
“People want to work at home. But the landscape didn’t exist for them at that time in the way they wanted it to, so it was good timing for us.
“Now it’s time to push it, build it. The creativity and the talent are here, and wants to stay here.”
What Walsh and her fellow silver screen visionaries have been pushing and building for the last decade is Blazing Griffin, a BAFTA-award winning film, TV and games production house.
Having grown from a single figure employer to an industry leader in Scotland, with credits including recent hotcakes like BBC drama Half Man, starring Richard Gadd, and James McAvoy’s directorial movie debut California Schemin’, the production company now counts its workforce at around 100.
The newest addition to its movie-making kit at its Kinning Park-based HQ is its latest statement of intent.
Cinema-standard post-production – the term used to describe the time-consuming processes like editing, sound design, visual effects, colour grading and final delivery – has typically been done down south, or even overseas.
Blazing Griffin’s recent six figure investment in a purpose built cinema standard grading theatre facility, the first of its kind in Scotland, is a determined move to keep a key part of the film-making process north of the Border. The technology enables filmmakers to see their work on the type of screen audiences do, as they go along.
Walsh said: “The only way to make sure you know exactly what your audiences are getting, what it will look like to people, is to create it in the same calibrated environment on the same scale, and that’s something we haven’t had in Scotland before.
“Scotland has always been hugely attractive as a shooting location. Things come from abroad all the time to shoot here but they don’t finish here. “Quite often you’ll have a shoot for about six weeks, but post production can be nine months to a year or more.
“And that’s a lot of the work that isn’t being captured here locally. People come, they shoot, they take their footage and they leave. A big part of what we’ve tried to do at Blazing Griffin the whole time, and most recently with the investment in the grading theatre, is to capture that work and have it serviced locally.”
The move comes at a key time for the industry in Scotland, especially in the light of BBC Scotland’s decision to cease production of River City, the Scottish soap which won a major reputation as a training ground for all aspects of telly-making.
Recent years have also seen major scrutiny fall on the number of jobs given to creatives from outwith London, with Highland-filmed The Traitors especially attracting criticism from industry over the number of jobs it provides for film and TV workers in Scotland. The subject became such a hot topic that it was a matter for the Scottish Affairs Committee earlier this year.
Walsh talks of productions widely regarded as “Scottish shows” which have been sent elsewhere to have the time-heavy processes of grading applied.
She said: “It’s not just about the high end film projects we could finish here, it’s also about growing an industry, and training. So many of us in my generation went elsewhere to train and learn to work at this level.
“Now what we are trying to build and develop is homegrown talent, people who can come and work and develop on projects made here which are successful worldwide.
“Glasgow has always been a very creative place, it just needs the infrastructure there to help it and continue to grow.”
The new facility was backed by Scottish Enterprise funding, which, Walsh says, covered 30% of the cost. Blazing Griffin will also benefit from Screen Scotland’s Project Post Fund which provides a 20% rebate on all post production done in Scotland.
“It’s specifically targeting productions that wouldn’t otherwise do the work here,” said Walsh. “In order to access this fund you’d need to bring the work here.”
The installation includes a 4K Christie CP4420-Xe cinema projector, a bespoke cinema screen, and a Baselight grading system, among the spec components also designed to create an environment for their clients to view the final product ahead of signing off.
For senior colourist Gareth Bishop, a key player in the company’s picture-finishing team, the increased tech-spec represents a beacon-like development within the UK industry, one which could turn cinematography heads away from the south east.
“If you are doing a film that is going to cinema, you really have to watch it on a cinema screen,” he said. “You can’t really finish it on a television because it’s such a different viewing experience.
“If you’re going to entice anyone up from Scotland, then you’re not going to entice them to come up and work on a telly. If something’s shot in Yorkshire, then they’re not coming to Scotland if it’s being finished on a telly. They’ll go to London. Even films that are shot in Scotland go to London for the final stages of editing. So we are putting ourselves on par with companies in London.”
The benefits of such developments aren’t just for those twiddling the knobs in edits. For Bishop, Blazing Griffin’s ambitions have lifestyle benefits beyond work, which, he thinks, could see a pattern-shift with more post-production creatives looking to get out of the UK capital permanently.
Originally from New Zealand, Bishop established his career in London before making the move to Scotland. “A lot of creatives are moving out of London. You talk to directors of photography and directors and a lot of them are getting out of there, they don’t see it as the place they need to be based.”
He added: “Rents are going up and I think we’ll see more bigger companies pop up outside of London. There aren’t many opportunities outside London for high end post production and that’s what Blazing Griffin are offering. It is the first one that is offering that high end film and TV production.
“I have a young child and we were keen to get out of London, it’s so expensive to live there. You spend part of your life commuting, which I just didn’t want to do. Now it’s 15 minutes to work and I can get home for bedtime.”
For Walsh, the ambition goes beyond turning heads away from London. “We are working to prove what we already believe to be true, she said.
“It takes a while to prove the quality of work to the rest of the world in this industry, but that’s what we’re doing. We can take projects that are established elsewhere and say we can do them here with no compromise. We’re confident in that.”
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