The Scottish Film Industry is dying according to an article in The Herald.
Scottish Screen, the agency charged with promoting Scotland as a film venue, said the nation was losing out to its European rivals and the latest Harry Potter film, the Goblet of Fire, could be the last of the series to be filmed in Scotland.
There are fears the fifth in the series, the Order of the Phoenix, will be filmed in the Czech Republic because it is cheaper than Scotland.
That’s quite a blow, but for me what is more hurtful is that movies such as Burns are struggling for money to get made, and Mary Queen of Scots and the recently announced Macbeth are not going to be filmed in Scotland at all, the country in which they are set. The Macbeth film looks set to film in the Isle of Man
The Scottish Executive spent around √Ǭ£200,000 in 2003 to help bring much of the filming of The Jacket…north of the border…The filming of The Jacket is said to have generated about √Ǭ£6m for the economy.
“I went to speak to the producers of the [forthcoming] Mary Queen of Scots film, and asked them why they were not shooting in Scotland but in Ireland, and they said: ‘We know we can shoot the film there, but we have no financial incentive to go, whereas we do in Ireland’.
It’s a sad time for Scottish Film, when we can produce such great movies as Local Hero, Trainspotting, Dear Frankie, and have such great locations such as Dunnottar Castle used in Gibson’s Hamlet. It’s heart aching for me being born and bred in this beautiful country that true Scottish movies are being filmed in other countries, and away from their real life locations.
The Government need to realise that spending the money can bring it back in, and attracting movies to Scotland, particularly those about and set in the country, will help with tourism and trade. Any fellow Scots feel the same? Do you have similar problems in your country?
