The Scotsman Bulletin Friday August 4 2023

The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin. I'm Alan Young, I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman.

00:04 I'm joined today by who else on Festival Friday, our Arts Correspondent Brian Farriston. Hi Brian.

00:11 Morning.

00:11 Let's have a look at the front page first. And we lead today actually on Brian's exclusive.

00:20 This is around the Filmhouse cinema saga last year when the cinema closed down and the Film

00:28 Festival also went into administration. It's been boarded up since and a brother now

00:36 knew hopes that it could reopen next year. We'll speak to Brian about that in just a minute. And

00:43 we picture on the front there Nicola Benedetti and Prince Street Gardens ahead of the big

00:50 festival launch. So Brian, it must feel a bit like Christmas Eve for an Arts Correspondent.

00:56 Absolutely.

00:58 Get ready to get underway. Tell us firstly though about the Filmhouse. I mean that is linked to the

01:08 festival.

01:09 Absolutely. Yeah. I mean it's been ever since it opened in the late 70s it was the home of

01:14 the Film Festival and very much the epicentre of the Film Festival in August. So many filmmakers

01:23 that have appeared there over the years and launched films and it will be a big loss that

01:30 venue will not be open this month. The Film Festival will of course be coming back in quite

01:36 reduced scale. It's going to come back as part of the International Festival which as you know as

01:43 a result of a lot of work behind the scenes ever since October really when the charity that ran

01:48 the Filmhouse and the Film Festival basically went into administration both those institutions

01:55 closed down almost immediately. Well 10.10 in the morning all the staff were told they would

02:00 be made redundant. So ever since then there's been a huge effort behind the scenes to get both

02:06 these institutions back up and running. We're in a very complex situation on both of them

02:12 basically. I don't even know which one has been easier. I don't think either of them have been

02:17 particularly easy. The Film Festival like I say pretty much had to start from scratch. There's a

02:24 kind of twin track process where and as I said there's a small event happening this year. Andrew

02:29 MacDonald the producer of Sunshine and Leith and Trainspotting is chairing a brand new organisation

02:36 and company which will be taking the Film Festival forward from next year. So he will be in charge of

02:43 the process of getting some funding together, putting a team together and in tandem with that

02:49 there's a group of former staff led by Ginny Atkinson who ran both these institutions over

02:57 10 years ago now. I've been working behind the scenes ever since that day to try and

03:02 rescue what's in the all the cinema equipment that's in the building and basically get it try

03:08 and salvage it as a home for cultural cinema as it's described. Basically trying to preserve it

03:16 as an art house cinema for the city ever since then. There was a lot of discussions with the

03:21 administrators, they ran a crowdfunding campaign, there was a lot of work behind the scenes

03:25 trying to get filmmakers and actors and high profile figures to show their support for the

03:32 film house and they were hoping that they could have raised enough to buy the building outright.

03:40 They weren't successful enough to do that and it was bought by a pub company, Caledon Inheritable,

03:48 that people might not have heard of but a lot of people on Edinburgh would have been to

03:51 some of the places, particularly Ryan's Bar on the West End and the Dome on George Street

03:59 is the most famous one. So they bought the building and I think at that point there was

04:04 quite a bit of doom and gloom that this was inevitably going to be turned into a bar

04:09 restaurant complex. There was a really important thing that happened, the administrators tried to

04:15 transfer the license for the building during the sale process and were basically blocked by

04:23 councillors who didn't want to open the door to this place becoming a licensed premises,

04:31 which it was to an extent obviously but its main purpose was to show films. So that created a

04:37 problem for any potential new buyer is that they may end up with a building that they couldn't get

04:42 approval to operate from. So there's been a lot of discussions behind the scenes between

04:49 the group of former staff who've been trying to save the Filmhouse and this company and despite

04:55 my initial cynicism about the whole process it does still appear to be a bit of a gore

05:01 and it's got to the point now where finally both parties have come out and said a little bit about

05:06 it and to be fair to Caledon Inheritable, they do at the moment seem to be fairly supportive of this

05:12 whole idea of the Filmhouse reopening and the big development is there has been a new charity set up

05:20 by Jenny Atkinson and her team and they are talking pretty hopefully now about this place

05:28 potentially reopening next year. There's a bit of work being done by Caledon Inheritable on the

05:34 outside of the building but I think everyone who'd been there in recent years knows that it certainly

05:39 needs an investment inside so there's a hell of a lot of work will have to be done firstly to get

05:44 this agreement over the line. I think there's things still to be negotiated about potential

05:50 rent guarantees, it's a brand new company with no funding behind it at the moment and then that

05:57 obviously is another big thing is how will this new institution be funded at the same time as

06:04 there's obviously going to be requirements to fund the film festival as well and we're obviously in

06:08 a funding climate which is as any arts organisation in Scotland will know is very difficult and could

06:16 get more difficult in the next year or so when some key funding decisions have to be taken. Having

06:21 said all that the situation over the Filmhouse building is probably looking a bit more optimistic

06:28 now than it was at any point since last October basically and the same would apply to the film

06:33 festival so I don't think it's the world's biggest coincidence that this news is coming out today.

06:40 I think symbolically, I think people have been quite keen to get this news out before

06:46 the festival start and also crucially before the film festival comes back to life two weeks today

06:52 I think which will be a huge moment and the kind of incredible news since last October really which

06:59 you know this time last year nobody could have predicted what would unfold so it's been an

07:04 incredible story it's probably worth a book in itself the story of the last year and it's

07:09 you know there's plenty more chapters to be written as the kind of weeks and months unfold I think.

07:15 So it's yeah so it's fingers crossed really in the final negotiations as they

07:22 they try and strike a deal to reopen in time for next year but that's for next year hopefully we'll

07:27 see it back again in time for the festival. The main festivals will really kick off today

07:33 and I know last night you had a first look at the tattoo. Yeah the tattoo

07:42 it's an incredible reinvention that a guy called Michael Braithwaite who's from New Zealand

07:48 his own creative guru that was brought in trying to shake up the tattoo this year last year and

07:53 there's some incredible new visual elements and musical elements in the show now that are very

07:59 different to what came before. What they've done with the tattoo is quite a tricky thing to do

08:05 which they were doing in the past to an extent but it's got a lot more razzle-dazzle I would say

08:10 than it had. The tricky thing to do is to kind of try and maintain all the traditional elements that

08:16 the tattoos or especially their core audience who go back year after year you know all the

08:22 things they would expect but also you know try and give the audience something new every year so

08:28 you know there's some I think they introduced last year was a kind of

08:33 electropipe sequence which was an absolutely you know it's absolutely mind-blowing the visuals

08:39 and the you know kind of neon outfits that were very cinematic it's like you're watching

08:46 something out of a movie at times. The theme for the tattoo last year was story, last night was

08:52 for this year's stories so you know there was almost like a big story book on the facade of

08:58 the castle itself and you know probably the star attraction for overseas is the from Trinidad and

09:05 Tobago you know it was a tremendous sequence which you know I was at the health and safety

09:11 briefing for all the camera crews in the media beforehand. I mean the tattoo were quite worried

09:18 about what could potentially happen if people got in the wrong spot but yeah there was a lot of

09:22 fire involved and a bit of limbo dancing as well but limbo dancing and fire in the one sequence so

09:29 yeah it was great. The great thing the tattoo's done and again they've done this to an extent

09:34 before but they've certainly been doing a lot more of it is to bring in some contemporary music

09:40 that people might know again from a range of acts you know Scottish acts like Tidelines and Runrig

09:47 their music was used in the finale but there was some really old classics, a tune called The Race

09:56 by the band Yellow that people might remember, some Cool and the Gang which was a mash-up with Lizzo

10:02 and the theme for Rocky which I didn't actually know was going to be in the show which was a big

10:08 surprise when that was near the top of the show so again that was a moment who would have thought

10:13 that the theme from Rocky would be blasted out at Edinburgh Castle Esplanade but I think the thing

10:18 with a tattoo is you know I think traditionally people knew what they were going to get when you

10:22 go to the tattoo and that's why they would go back. I think now you know they're trying to

10:27 deliver that but also deliver things that people would never possibly anticipate seeing not only

10:34 at the tattoo but anywhere else across the Edinburgh Festival, the scale that they do things

10:38 and the backdrop of the tattoo is obviously way beyond the kind of shows that are unfolding

10:44 elsewhere in the city. I counted up the other day how many possible events are on, 4,600 I got to

10:51 so there's quite a lot on in Edinburgh over the next few weeks. Absolutely we will let you go

10:58 because I'm sure you've got a really busy day ahead and you'll be heading out into the streets

11:02 thanks very much for that Brian. Please do keep an eye on scotsman.com though throughout the day

11:07 where we will have all the festival related news as it happens. If you can do subscribe then you

11:16 will not miss a thing and please do also keep an eye out for tomorrow where we will have our first

11:22 print 28 page festival supplement including Brian's Festival Diary, not to be missed I'm sure

11:31 but for me and for Brian it's bye for now.

11:35 [no audio]

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