England
England is a world leader in film and TV
production, matched only by a handful
of territories. Recent titles to have been
filmed in the country include Guardians
of the Galaxy, Skyfall, Maleficent, Jupiter
Ascending and the new Star Wars movie.
The main reasons for England’s success
are its high quality crews, excellent studios
(Pinewood, Shepperton, 3 Mills, Leavesden,
Elstree, Twickenham etc), world class
post production and VFX companies,
and attractive film and TV industry tax
incentives.
In addition, the country has great
infrastructure and support agencies.
Between them, Creative England and
Film London provide filmmakers with all
the information they need to make their
production experience in the UK relaxed
and efficient.
London is a big draw for filmmakers,
recently hosting productions including
Spectre, Mission: Impossible – Rogue
Nation, The Man From U.N.C.L.E and Man
Up. It has proved itself very film-friendly
in recent times, shutting down Trafalgar
Square for Tom Cruise movie The Edge
Of Tomorrow and allowing Suffragette
inside the Houses of Parliament, the first
production ever to be given access.
There are also numerous production
hotspots around the rest of the country,
including the Northwest, West Midlands
and Yorkshire. Liverpool, for example, has
hosted recent productions such as Captain
America: The First Avenger and Sherlock
Holmes. The latter two areas also have
substantial funds for producers that base
projects in their regions.
Location-wise, the UK offers a great mix of
antiquity (castles, villages and churches)
and contemporary cityscapes. It doesn’t
have deserts or snow-capped mountains
but it does offer verdant green scenery and
a spectacular coastline, as seen recently
in the Cornwall-based television drama
Poldark.
In the UK, films with total core expenditure
of £20m or less can claim tax relief of up
to 25% of UK qualifying expenditure. Films
over £20m can claim tax relief of up to 25%
on the first £20m and 20% thereafter.
Scotland
Scottish productions benefit from the same
tax incentives as their English counterparts.
Scotland has a range of studio, build space
and conversion opportunities to facilitate
the largest film and high-end television
productions.
Wardpark Studios, currently the home
to the second series of Outlander, offers
135,000 sq ft of production space within
which there are now four soundstages.
As well as Wardpark Studios, Scotland
boasts the OKI building in Cumbernauld,
which has 80,000 sq ft of space, with a
additional workshop space and offices.
The focus is not solely on large-scale
production however; and the nation can
cater for every budget and provides
professional facilities as far north and
remote as Stornoway and Skye. The nation
also has great crews, a good infrastructure
plus varied locations.
The rural locations – notably the Scottish
Highlands - are the highlight and have
been used to great effect in movies such
as Skyfall, Under The Skin and 47 Ronin.
Creative Scotland sums it up by saying:
“Scotland boasts a fantastic array of natural
landscapes, 6,000 miles of coastline, an
impressive selection of period castles
and mansions and unspoilt villages, As a
bonus, we have the longest daylight hours
in the UK with up to 18 hours of light in the
summer.”
Scotland also has beautiful cityscapes,
captured in films such as One Day and
Sunshine On Leith. The cities are good for
doubling. Glasgow, for example, hosted a
stunt sequence on Fast and Furious 6, a
piece of filming that required a number of
TheUK’scountriesshow
off theirstrengths
Want to shoot dangerous stunts in the heart of a city in the middle of the day? In the UK it is possible, as productions such
as World War Z and Edge of Tomorrow demonstrated when they shot in the centre of Glasgow and London respectively.
But there’s much more to the UK than this, as Andy Fry reveals.
by Andy Fry
Alicia Vikander in Yorkshire on the set of
the feature film Testament of Youth
The second series of Outloander
will be filming once more at
various locations around Scotland
Filming on Location
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