LIGHTS CAMERA £OCATION

by Julie Craik, Screen Liaison, Tayscreen

It's just possible that media is the 'best-known, least-known' industry in Scotland. We are all exposed to it in one form or another every day – advertising, films, posters, hoardings, music – through our TVs, mobile phones, computers or consoles. Content, of course, costs money and for Scotland this currently translates into £5 billion of gross domestic product and over 75,000 full-time jobs. In the Tayside area alone it's reckoned there are over 2000 companies in the creative sector. So in the spirit of investigative journalism, let's ask the question.

Loch Rannoch & Shehalion

How come? We all know the film industry itself can be fickle. Over the last twenty years or more, we have all witnessed spates of successful films produced in the UK generating headlines that we do have a film industry. The roller coaster that defines this process, equally dictates death knell predictions during fallow periods.

OK – answer the question, how come? Because thankfully, media - bread and butter media - is more than films. It is advertising, TV, stills photography, music promos, drama, current affairs entertainment, online, games…………..Modern communications have the potential to liberate the industry even further with different stages in the production chain being distributed all over the globe. The recent "Lord of the Rings" productions were transmitted over broadband connections between several different countries, including New Zealand, the UK and the USA during the post-production process.

And knowing that this income, those jobs, those new businesses must go somewhere, Perth and Kinross Council along with Angus and Dundee City Councils and Scottish Enterprise Tayside acted to find out what would sell to and attract this multi-faceted industry.

As part of this strategy, the decision was taken to set up a joint screen industry office – TayScreen. Additional funding came from the European Regional Development Fund given that the creative industries are a key area of support. In Perth and Kinross, the initiative was driven forward by Ken Macdonald, Paul Kyle and Kay Lamb of Economic Development. Adding their invaluable local knowledge and specialist services to the project are the regional tourist boards for Perthshire and Angus and Dundee.

TayScreen officially got underway in March 2002 coinciding with with my appointment as project manager. A native Scot, I worked in London for Deutsche Bank. Having specialised in media finance, I was intrigued by the opportunity to study production technology at Duncan of Jordanstone. TayScreen was the ideal opportunity to develop a new project in the media industry – the cherry on the top is the chance to be based in one of the most beautiful and enigmatic places on the planet. Feel free to call me biased!

One of the reasons the industry is 'least-known' is because it is in large part a cottage industry. Many of the service providers – such as, camera, sound, special effects, editing and other post-production – are businesses operated by a core team of just two or three people. Inevitably, this means limited time or resources for consistent market research and marketing. Selling is a key aspect of the work of TayScreen. The process involves detailed research and direct, personal contact with production companies, agencies and location managers.

The other major part of the job is providing a specialist (and free) service to the production industry. It is in doing this that we help to sell the area and its services and drive work towards those that can benefit financially. A fundamental need of productions of all types is information. But to provide a service that will get projects here and, more importantly, keep them coming back, we have to make sure they get what they want – this means information we have personally checked. From day to day this can mean location scouting and photography, taking production teams to locations (recces), talking to hotels and restaurants, liaising with the Police or other public bodies, or finding production crew.

Right from the off serving this industry means we have to keep asking ourselves if we are providing the right information and assistance. Essentially, projects want photographs of potential locations and to be put in contact with services such as production or accommodation. Especially in the case of advertising and music promos images are required on the same day if possible and within 24 hours at the most. For production crew and services, it is not enough to hand out names and telephone numbers. We try to work with service providers to brief them and make sure they're interested in the needs of each project. It's essential that the promotion we give to the area will stand up on delivery. The thing about this cottage industry is that news – of good service, or bad - spreads fast.

Menzies Castle

Scotland is certainly on the international locations map and Scottish Screen Locations (SSL) has made a significant contribution to this along with the work done by individual offices such as the Scottish Highlands and Islands Film Commission, Edinburgh Film Focus and the Glasgow Film Office. TayScreen is pleased to plays its part within the SSL network and makes sure that the area is represented at major industry events such as The Edinburgh Film and TV Festivals and the Production Show in London.