Winning the screen battle

SCOTLAND'S film and television industry has had its best yearsince the quango Scottish Screen started keeping records in 1993.

Scottish Screen's preliminary estimates show a production spendof GBP 25m in 1999, money spent before any of the films or TV seriesare released. The figure tops the annus mirabilis of 1994 when theblockbuster Hollywood movies Braveheart and Rob Roy helped raiseproduction spending to GBP 22m. "And it's at least double the spendin 1998," said John Archer, Scottish Screen's chief executive.

Investment in films is volatile and can be skewed by a bigproduction in a single year. "But what's encouraging is the recordspend in 1999 included a lot more smaller-scale, indigenousproduction involving local skills and talent," said Archer.

The bald statistics show 1,500 people employed in staff jobs inScotland's screen industries, though the prevalence of freelancersmeans as many as 4,500 may be working at any one time.

Thirteen movies were shot either partially or entirely inScotland in 1999 and eight television dramas, either singleprogrammes or series such as Monarch of the Glen, the Ecosse Filmsproduction which has its premiere on location at Rothiemurcustomorrow night and debuts on BBC1 next Sunday.

A second series of Monarch has been commissioned and will shootthis year, one of 11 major productions lined up and due to startfilming from the spring onwards, as well as another 17 possibles.

The investment climate remains difficult with the internetcontinuing to attract financiers' attention. However, theconvergence of content-hungry new media with traditional film and TVbodes well for the latter.

Films shot under the Tartan Shorts scheme run by Scottish Screenalong with BBC Scotland have been shown worldwide on theatomfilms.com website of short films, for example.

Sites such as atomfilm allow consumers to order films on DVD orvideotape. "Eventually, people will be able to see complete works inquality on the net," said Archer.

Digital will help some Scottish film-makers over the distributiondilemma - how to get wider viewing for their products whendistribution through the big cinema chains, and for any length oftime, is hard to crack.

"Traditional distribution is a very expensive way of gettingthings about, so it's difficult to get people to experiment with newmaterial and to keep it available for long," said Archer.

Digital technologies at the heart of the internet are alsocutting costs for film and TV producers along with multi-skilling,said Archer. "It means people can start to play the portfolio gameby making a number of lower-budget, but acceptable quality, films."

Scotland is a competitive location for film-makers looking forthe right package of skills, cost, ease of logistics andcommunications and hospitality, Archer will this week tell Filmingin Britain, a major conference in California, after attending theAmerican Film Market.

Concessions negotiated by Scottish Screen to help Scotlandcompete with low-tax locations such as Ireland include special low-cost hotel and car hire rates. Recent UK tax changes ushered in amore favourable regime for the way capital expenditure is treatedafter shooting is complete.

National Lottery Funds -GBP 2.5m in 1999 - are available fordevelopment or production capital where the bulk of the film, rarelyTV, is shot in Scotland and involves a Scottish production partner.

Scottish Screen also administers an annual development fund ofGBP 200,000, mainly to promote indigenous talent. Projects whichsimply use Scotland as a location cannot be prioritised unless theynurture local industry.

The Glasgow Film Fund invests up to GBP 150,000 per project tostimulate feature film production in the city using local crews.

Rob Roy and Braveheart boosted both Scottish tourism and interestamong other film-makers in choosing Scotland as a location. Archerhopes Monarch of the Glen, a drama set in contemporary ruralScotland, will have a similar effect. "We've also got Tinsel Towncoming on BBC2 later this year, which will show film-makers thepossibilities in urban Scotland."

Tinsel Town is an innovative, younger, hip Glasgow story producedby Barbara McKissack and Scott Meek at the BBC and Robbie Allen atRaindog TV in Glasgow. It is being described as a downmarketScottish version of the cult drama series This Life about a group ofyoung professionals sharing a flat. "You couldn't have a greatercontrast in two series," said Archer. "I don't think Tinsel Townwill please the National Viewers and Listeners Association, if itstill exists."