Seeing stars

City film office is 20 years old

Silver screen

Encouraging werewolves and meerkats to roam the capital’s streets may sound odd, but it’s all in a day’s work for staff at Edinburgh Film Focus (EFF).

Set up by the Council in 1990 as Scotland’s first film office, EFF is the first point of call for incoming productions, working with photoshoots and documentaries to TV drama and feature films.

It handles around 350 productions a year, bringing in £3 million. It is funded by Edinburgh, East and West Lothian and Scottish Borders councils to market these areas as complementary filming locations. Production crews use EFF’s services to tap local resources, understand local rules and find great locations.

With the office’s help, a German TV drama brought snow to the south side in June and Abercromby Place was transformed into 1960s London for a French movie, Imogene.

Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns are favourite locations. But Sighthill, Wester Hailes, Greendykes and Muirhouse have also had starring roles, from Restless Natives (1985) to the action thriller New Town Killers (2008) and the horror Outcast (2009).

EFF’s film commissioner Ros Davis says bigger productions – such as TV drama Burke and Hare and cult adverts for comparethemeerkat.com – generate most money and excitement. But smaller crews are in the city most days filming documentaries and keeping Edinburgh on our screens.

Ros says Edinburgh’s success is down to its film-friendly reputation and the active co-operation of Council services and police.

But there’s another vital ingredient – our local residents, who cheerfully enter into the spirit of things to turn movie dreams into filmed realities.

No wonder Edinburgh was voted the world’s sixth most iconic filming location in a 2009 Sky TV poll.

Need to know

For more information, visit www.edinfilm.com