A lack of studio space and specialist staff means Scotland is not ready for blockbuster movies to be entirely filmed in the country, MSPs have been told.
Screen sector bosses said even if a major studio facility was established in Scotland, other “infrastructural challenges” – such as the need to have sufficient specialist crew to work in it – would be an issue.
Parts of Scotland have often served as a location for filming parts of Hollywood movies – with work on the new Batman production recently taking place in Glasgow – but MSPs were told it would be a “long time” before studio-based films could be shot in the country.
READ MORE: The Batman: New pictures shows second day of filming in Glasgow
Eric Coulter, director of Surefire Television Productions, told Holyrood’s Culture Committee: “Those big studio films, the Mission Impossibles, the Star Wars, those kind of things, we’re not in that league.
“And won’t be for a long time.”
He said the lack of studio facilities has been an issue for the sector for decades.
He told MSPs: “I have been working in this business almost 40 years and one of the first things I did was look for build space for studios, and I’m still doing it 40 years later on productions. And it is just dreary and boring.”
Film producer Bob Last also addressed MSPs, adding: “We need to have a central belt crew base to service big productions and that will take a long time to develop.”
Industry body Scottish Screen is seeking to develop facilities at the former Pelamis site in the Port of Leith, but Mr Coulter questioned if that would be a success.
MSPs asked about the impact the lack of studio facilities is having on Scotland’s screen sector (Andrew Milligan/PA)
He told MSPs: “I think any studio, and I know there has been all sorts of different projects mooted, should either be on the west side of Edinburgh or the east side of Glasgow.
“I think Leith personally, having just been involved in quite a big television production where we were looking at studio space, we didn’t even look at Leith because we wouldn’t get the crew.
“I know Leith is where the effort has been put into, sorry to pour water on that, but I think that would become an issue.”
READ MORE: The Batman begins filming in Glasgow city centre
His comments were echoed by Arabella Page-Croft, producer and co-founder of Black Camel Pictures, who said: “What I have picked up from crew is people are really concerned about travel time between Glasgow and Edinburgh into Leith, because it is the wrong side of Edinburgh for the majority of crew who are Glasgow based.”
With streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime investing in filming, she added: “We are in this golden age of television and we just can’t be missing out on these millions and millions of pounds worth of productions. We need to get on with it.”
Labour’s Claire Baker expressed her frustration about the lack of progress on a studio, saying: “We took evidence from Screen Scotland almost two years ago who told us that they were limited about what they could say because of commercial sensitivities but there was this option of facilities down in Leith.
“So far we’ve had no studio announcement so we still don’t have any significant studio space in Scotland.”
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