Your guide to filming on location - page 10-11

With the growing amount of productions
heading to the UK due to its attractive tax
incentives, innovative VFX industry and
experienced crew, Scotland will no doubt
see an increase in the amount of projects
over the coming years.
When World War Z announced it was to
film in Scotland, the industry realised it had
that all important opportunity to prove itself
and show the industry it was ready for a big
blockbuster movie to film in its largest city
centre.
Pringle, who worked as one of the location
managers on the film, says: “It was a long
prep – six weeks for what essentially was
four days filming in the city centre itself but
turning Glasgow into Philadelphia took two
days alone.
“It was quite amazing how a big shoot like
that can transform a city in just a few days.
And the other way around is true too. We
finished filming on the last day at 6pm and
we knew that legally we had to have all the
traffic lights re-installed by midnight that
night. It was a nail-biting time but literally at
the stroke of midnight the last traffic light
was working again and the city was restored
to its usual self.”
Glasgow is well organised when it comes to
filming. Every department in Glasgow City
Council has signed the film charter which
basically means that if a production comes
in and needs help they will all be pro-active,
positive and optimistic about the work that
needs to be done. [Edinburgh has recently
made a similar promise to the film and TV
industry.] “So if it is at all possible they will
make it happen,” Pringle says.
The film offices also know that there are
other benefits to filming in their cities, they
don’t just see pound signs and facilitate
only blockbusters. The stats have shown
that there are clear economic benefits to
bringing any kind of filming to a city and film
tourism is big business – making sure you
are on people’s screens makes financial
sense.
When World War Z came to Glasgow
though, it was the first time that level of road
closure had taken place in the city, which
meant there was a lot of responsibility on
the shoulders of the main location manager
Michael Harms: this shoot was going to be
the pre-requisite to whether that type of
filming would ever be happening again in
Glasgow. Fortunately, the city was quickly
awarded an appraisal from Hollywood when
not long after the World War Z shoot, Fast
& Furious 6 came to town, looking to make
use of the same services.
And this, of course, wasn’t the last high-
profile production to travel to Scotland.
Aside from a range of television and indie
productions, Jonathan Glazer brought
Scarlett Johansson to several Scottish
locations in the recently released film Under
the Skin.
It’s almost two years since Brodie Pringle set up shop as a locations manager for Creative Scotland. Heading
up the agency’s locations services department, Pringle works hard to promote Scotland as a location for
national as well as international film and television productions – and so far she’s having a lot of success.
By Alexandra Zeevalkink
“By the stroke of midnight
the last traffic light
was working again and
the city was returned to
its usual self”
Left: Glasgow city centre is transformed into Philadelphia.
Photo courtesy of Glasgow Film Office.
Above: Shooting the final scenes for Under the Skin. Photo
courtesy of Eugene Strange.
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Location Location:
Scotland is
ready for thebig
blockbusters
Filming on Location
9
1,2-3,4-5,6-7,8-9 12-13,14-15,16-17,18-19,20
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