A new Scottish horror comedy film about mutated killer midgies has entered its first stages of production.
The new teaser trailer for the movie titled ‘Midgies’ has been released, with filming for the full-length feature set to begin next year.
First reported by BBC News, the film is the creation of Fort William-based author and screenwriter Barry Hutchison, who initially posted the idea for the movie on social media last summer as a joke.
However, the author who writes crime novels under the name JD Kirk, did not anticipate the reaction from the public.
The response has since led to Midgies going from an online joke to a near full scale production, with cast and locations now being considered ahead of the plans to film in 2025.
Hutchison said the teaser trailer will be used to pitch the feature to film production companies and potential funders, but there were some practical difficulties to consider.
READ MORE:
- New film highlights threats facing one of Scotland’s last true wilderness areas
- BAFTA Scotland: Full list of nominations announced
He said: “We were hoping to be a little further on.
"Writer and actor strikes in the US ground film production globally to a halt in many ways. As a result of that we lost our US producer."
"We are looking to shoot next year in the summer, although we will be plagued by actual midges which could be problematic."
Filming locations are likely to include the Scottish Highlands, but footage captured for the teaser trailer was shot in Balloch Country Park in West Dunbartonshire.
The trailer features a scientist fleeing a laboratory attack mixed with some fairly graphic clips of his colleagues meeting their demise.
He then comes across to Scottish hillwalkers who proceed to brush off the prospect of killer midgies before their jaws drop at the site of a massive midgie wave soaring above them.
The trailer was shot by Glasgow-based filmmaker Alessio Avezzano, who is known for films including Islelanders, Swedish for Hello and Zei Wei.
Speaking about the teaser, Avezzano said: "Every day we scouted locations it was overcast - perfect midge environment.
"And then on the day of production it was the nicest day you had ever seen and every person from Glasgow came to have a good time in the park.
"We adapted by moving the production further into the trees."
Scottish companies including Motif Studios, which worked on visual effects for a Mad Max film, and digital entertainment firm Blazing Griffin were involved in making the three minute-long short film.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here