Zach Finch is a lecturer and academic advisor for the Film Studies programme at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is the co-editor of Directory of World Cinema: Scotland (2015, Intellect) with Bob Nowlan. His dissertation focused on the short fiction films of Scotland.

Directory of World Cinema Scotland Volume 27

Intellect Ltd

Contents

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT PRODUCTION

The past twenty years have witnessed an unprecedented flourishing of cultural activity and expression in Scotland, embracing a wide range of artistic forms from literature and painting to cinema and theatre.

(Duncan Petrie 2004: 1)

Scotland has been a site of cinematic interest since the very beginnings of film-making. Many early practitioners sought to create and capture Scottish scenery and way of life. As the cinema boomed in the early twentieth century, film-makers from England travelled to Scotland in hopes of capturing its culture on celluloid. Producers from England and abroad instigated many productions, often as a way of testing new film stocks, such as the Kinemacolor two-strip colour celluloid, and were able to capture Scottish locations and culture. Early experimentation in colour celluloid can be found depicting Scottish culture as a means for tourism for those who could not afford to travel. Even today, Scotland relies heavily on film-makers from outside its borders for production. Film-makers like Ken Loach and Danny Boyle identify strongly with Scotland and have built strong relationships with Scottish talent, such as Robert Carlyle and Ewan McGregor, as well as with Scottish writers Paul Laverty and John Hodge, which, as a consequence, attracts Scottish funding. Hollywood has also made many attempts to capture Scotland, such as early adaptations of Sir Walter Scott's novels, including Heart of Midlothian, which became A Woman's Triumph (J Searle Dawley, 1914). After World War II, Hollywood produced many more populist films set in Scotland, such as the musical Brigadoon (Vincente Minnelli, 1954) and Greyfriars Bobby: The True Story of a Dog (Don Chaffey, 1961), which was remade in 2005, and Loch Ness (John Henderson, 1996). Big-budget Hollywood efforts such as Braveheart (Mel Gibson, 1995) present, some would argue, a highly distorted version of Scottish history. These films prompted a sharply divided response amongst Scots: 'From the moment of its announcement as a possible project to its delirious European premiere in Stirling and beyond, it has convulsed Scottish society, seen by some as manna from heaven and by others as an unmitigated curse' (McArthur 2003: 123).

Although the history of production in Scotland is heavily associated with documentary, particularly the works of John Grierson, identified often as 'godfather' of the genre, recent Scottish productions are heavily associated with 'social realism', a form that tends to depict urban, working-class social issues with gritty characters and downbeat imagery. Film-makers, such as Ken Loach, who pioneered this approach south of the border in England with films like Kes (1969), have developed a body of films reflecting contemporary social issues, such as Carla's Song (1997) and My Name is Joe( 1998), sympathetically representing the conditions and advocating on behalf of the interests of the socially marginalized. Loach's critical and, to some extent, commercial success has encouraged many film-makers in Scotland to adopt this approach to develop personal stories within constricted budgets. Social realism has become a staple genre of British film, and of Scottish cinema in particular. The genre proceeds from a long tradition rooted in television drama: from Ken Loach and Tony Garnett in the 1960s in England through Peter McDougall and John Mackenzie in Scotland in the 1970s and 1980s. From a less commercial perspective, Bill Douglas's work has had a heavy influence on Scottish social realism, particularly the trilogy of films he created focusing on his childhood, which itself was inspired by 1940s Italian neo-realism. Social realism in Scotland blends into 'art cinema' with Douglas, and with contemporary film-makers such as Lynne Ramsay and Peter Mullan, who have used the traditional urban working-class themes and settings of social realism to experiment with and create stylistically diverse dramas such as Ratcatcher (1999) and Orphans (1998) respectively. Both films deploy socially grounded poetic and magic realisms.

In terms of cinematic output, Scotland sees a relatively small number of indigenous films produced and released annually, especially counting films pitched outside of a relatively small, niche market. Yet, independent producers have, in the early twenty-first century, nonetheless taken it on themselves to establish Scotland as a site of new film -making, working to create films in diverse forms and styles to help establish a viable Scottish cinema. Despite an under-developed film industry, producers, such as Gillian Berrie, have been successful in establishing relationships with film-makers from other nations, particularly Denmark. Lars von Trier's and Peter Aalbæk Jensen's company, Zentropa, has been co-producing with the Glasgow-based company, Sigma, since early in the new century, instigating a kind of cinematic presence within Scotland. Their Advance Party Initiative, in which they co-finance projects using the same cast and crew for different films, has led to successful films such as Andrea Arnold's Red Road (2006). This approach aids in establishing the beginnings of a significant transnational cinema that may signal an opportunity for long-term sustainable growth.

Scotland's film industry is typically evaluated as part of Britain as a whole. This poses a problem for a developing Scottish 'national cinema', in terms of both its production and its reception:

For many small national cinemas it can be unclear whether films that are successful on the festival circuit present a 'national' viewpoint and can even be seen as representative of a country like Scotland, or whether they are appreciated internationally because they conform to preconceived notions of how 'Scotland' should appear in cinema. (Martin-Jones 2009: 220)

Where Scotland is identifiable through its history of literature, this can overshadow its cinematic output. As a national cinema, it is relatively small and thus is overlooked in comparison with literature and theatre:

Scotland [...] with its long history of literary output in both the elevated and public domains, its own long-standing press and theatre, and even its own small -scale cinematic and televisual output, has at its disposal a range of discourses of national identity stretching back well over two centuries. (Castelló, Dobson and O'Donnell 2009: 470)

Scotland has been depicted in small- to large-scale productions and, recently, used as a key location for large-scale films including World War Z (Marc Forster, 2013) and The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012). However, Scotland has made very little contribution to these large-scale productions other than providing some locations and some crew. Most prominent cinematic depictions of Scotland within larger-scale productions are from Hollywood:

Since the very beginnings of the cinema a great many films have been made which feature Scottish subject-matter [...] But practically all of these have, by and large, been initiated, developed, financed and produced by individuals and companies based either in London or Los Angeles. (Petrie 2000: 15)

Yet it can be argued that Scotland is working slowly toward establishing its own film production to represent its own identity: 'After a century of (almost all) cinematic representations of Scotland and the Scots having been produced furth of Scotland, mainly in Hollywood and the Home Countries of England, indigenous film production structures have emerged. (McArthur 2003: 6)

In the early years of cinema, we can locate multiple examples of film's engagement with Scottish culture. Documentary was one of the first cinematic forms to attract a significant audience, as the idea of capturing reality, including as it is experienced in different cultures, was a way to provide cheap tourism. Many films of the 1900s tried to capture traditional images commonly associated with different nations, including Scotland, such as Highland landscapes, tartan patterns, bagpipes and whisky. Early experimentation with colour can also be placed in contact with Scottish culture. Film -maker GA Smith, an Englishman, conducted significant early experiments with the new Kinemacolor film stock. Considering one of Scotland's most iconic images is the tartan, it is unsurprising that Smith tested Kinemacolor on different tartan cloths. Tartans of Scottish Clans (1906) was an experiment to see how the new stock would work: 'Tartans of Scottish Clanswas one of Smith's Kinemacolor experiments, a very simple idea (essentially, a sequence of Scottish tartan cloths, each appropriately labelled) which nonetheless demanded colour in order to convey the necessary information' (Brooke n.d.). In 1908 Smith developed his experiments further with tartan in Woman Draped in Patterned Handkerchiefs, one of the first two-strip colour British films. Again, its simplistic approach was merely to test the new form of colour stock.

John Grierson first became prominent in the 1920s by producing and directing documentaries. His legacy is significant to this day: 'The British documentary film movement, and Grierson in particular, had a considerable impact on film culture and theory in Britain and abroad in the 1920s to the present day' (Aitken 1990: 4). Documentary, moreover, plays an important part in Scottish film history: 'The documentary occupies a position of particular significance in the historical relationship between Scotland and the cinema, particularly in terms of sustenance of indigenous film production' (Petrie 2000: 97). Grierson's methods, and his innovative conception of, and approach to, documentary remain pertinent: 'The use of institutional sponsorship, public and private, to pay for his kind of film-making, rather than dependence returns on box office, was one key Grierson innovation' (Ellis 2002: 363). By maintaining his Scottish identity, Grierson was instrumental in maintaining a film industry within Scotland and Britain: 'Despite his association with the nurturing and projection of a British national culture, Grierson nevertheless retained a strong attachment to the land of his birth and to his own identity as a Scot' (Petrie 2000: 97).

Gradually, documentary practices began to exert an impact on fictional films, especially of a social realist vein. Scottish cinema, particularly contemporary productions, has come to be identified with social realist subject matter, with gritty, urban Scottish landscapes and working-class protagonists. However, how do we identify social realism?

The term social realism is one which is often used uncritically and indiscriminately in popular film criticism. It is something of a catch-all term which conveys an idea of a text's content, its concerns, and its visual style. Social realist texts are described as "gritty" and "raw", offering a "slice of life" or a view of "life" as it reallyis. (Lay 2002: 5)

When we consider social realism we associate the term with everyday life rather than life perceived in escapist cinema:

Social realism in films is representative of real life, with all its difficulties. The stories and people portrayed are everyday characters, usually from working class backgrounds. Typically, films within the social realist canon are gritty, urban dramas about the struggle to survive the daily grind' (Strozykowski 2008)

As social realism focuses, typically, on the working class, it is then practical to cast unknown actors, at times non-professional actors, in the key roles, adding further 'realistic' performances to the film, clearly suggestive of a kinship with documentary coverage of 'the real' 'as it is' and 'as it happens'. Many productions eschew the use of named stars which could weaken a film's overall examination of working-class, urban life: 'Social realist films [...] do not use international stars, which would undermine the film's ability to focus on the social conditions and milieu they evoke' (Lay 2002: 34). Ken Loach is an English social realist film-maker working within Scotland who can be accepted as a representative of a transnational form of film-making, or he can be considered a British film-maker working in northern Britain: 'Such visiting film-makers have made good use of Scottish material and talent and have expanded cinematic representations of Scotland. However, their very success helps to obscure the underlying fragility of Scotland's indigenous industry' (MacPherson 2012: 226). Loach's relationship with writer Paul Laverty has created many features that focus on social issues confronting troubled working-class characters. As Loach is an established film-maker, this helps Scotland break through barriers, not just in the United Kingdom but internationally:

Scottish cinema has been, and can in some respects still be, regarded as part of a larger British national cinema which itself struggled to survive in the face of the apparently unassailable dominance of Hollywood at the British box office. (Petrie 2000: 153)

However, film-makers such as Loach, who at first embraced the notion of social realism, have grown weary of the label: "the words 'social-realism" [...] and the adjective "gritty" is one that's worn out, I think' (Maytum 2012).

Where Loach has been able to make critically acclaimed social realist films, Scottish film-makers such as Bill Forsyth have been able to infuse naturalistic scenes with humour. Forsyth's Gregory's Girl (1981) and Local Hero (1983) are his most well-known films, with small-town Scottish settings, focusing on comically desperate groups of characters: 'Audiences and critics often associate Scottish film -maker Bill Forsyth with a whimsical and absurdist sense of humour' (Lay 2001: 97). Forsyth's magic realism contrasts with the typically stark, downbeat narratives of Loach's cinema.

Audiences for Scottish films are then limited as many productions are made on low budgets, mainly financed by funding bodies such as Creative Scotland, the British Film Institute and, at times, through the MEDIA initiative. Compared to major studio releases with massive budgets capable of pursuing extensive marketing campaigns, social realist films – and, in general, low-budget independent films – suffer as they cannot afford that same kind of publicity. It is then up to niche markets to fill the gap; these typically consist of audiences who frequent independent, arthouse cinemas where most social realist films are shown before given a life on the DVD market:

Film-makers who make social realist texts, to varying degrees eschew mainstream audiences but run the risk of being accused of "preaching to the converted." Or worse, of making films from a liberal middle class perspective for liberal thinking middle class audiences about (but not for) the working classes.' (Lay 2002: 34)

Yet Britain, certainly including Scotland, cannot afford to compete with Hollywood. As British films, particularly those that are created with a social realistic aesthetic, reach smaller audiences, British cinema struggles as a consequence. Social realism attempts to replicate the real and not romanticize locations, characters or themes. But this runs directly counter to mainstream Hollywood cinema norms: 'the position of social realism in British cinema has been portrayed as characteristically anti-Hollywood and this was [...] deemed to be enough to be "typically British"' (Lay 2002: 102). Lynne Ramsay's debut, Ratcatcher, set during the 1973 dustbin worker strikes, is at first glance a social realist film, with the expected urban setting and working-class environment. However, Ramsay departs from tropes common to the form by exploring the lead character's dreamlike existence, and by eschewing reliance on gritty, urban, masculine figures rife within preceding Scottish social realist films:

Though set in the bleakest of urban landscapes [...] Ramsay's film still manages to find hope through the impulse of her central character to dream beyond his surroundings and though the startling images that she makes of the details of the lives that are also not sentimentalized. (Blandford 2007: 78–79)

This subversion of the social realist form offers promise of a kind of Scottish cinema. Ramsay has, moreover, been able to cross national borders, creating projects in the United States, while maintaining a strong connection with her national identity as a Scot. Contemporary Scottish cinema can, in a sense, be regarded as increasingly transnational as influential film-makers, such as Peter Mullan as well as Lynne Ramsay, have worked internationally yet maintained their Scottish identity: 'The contemporary Scottish cinema [...] is one defined by international migration and exploration on the part of local artists' (Murray 2012: 401).

Recent developments in working to create an indigenous film industry in Scotland are exemplified in the working relationship between the Scottish Sigma Films and the Danish Zentropa. This partnership establishes Scotland as a transnational collaborator and practitioner, forging a viable cinema that strives to break boundaries, in terms of form and style as well as in terms of content and theme:

A still ongoing process of collaboration between individuals and institutions working within the Scottish and Danish production sectors represents perhaps the most visible example of contemporary Scottish cinema's systematic move beyond a single set of national borders in both industrial and representational terms. (Murray 2012: 403)