broadcastnow.co.uk 23 August 2019 | Broadcast | 21
PROMOTIONAL FEATURE
Commission, which is a team within Screen
Scotland led by Brodie Pringle, who is one of
the most sought-after location managers,”
says Davis. “They’re industry professionals
with a real handle on who’s around, who’s
available, what other productions might be
shooting and what the lay of the land is across
the fi lm offi ces and Scotland’s local councils.”FRINGE INITIATIVE
August is, of course, when the world comes
to Edinburgh, with crowds fl ocking to the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Edinburgh
International Book Festival rubbing shoulders
with the TV industry. In direct response to
questions about how business during the
month works, Davis proposed the new Screen
Fringe initiative. “It’s almost a candy store of
new and exciting talent, new stories and new
material and new IP, some of which might
well be right for TV or fi lm,” she says.
“We know there are many talent scouts
and producers in Edinburgh at this time,
and we wanted to put a bit
of muscle behind that.
We’ve now got fi lm and
TV producer Lizzie Brown
in the Edinburgh Fringe
Arts Industry offi ce creat-
ing bespoke itineraries,
facilitating those all-
important connections and
tracking the availability of
rights across about 3,000
productions.” ■CASE STUDY: Synchronicity Films
Claire Mundell
Founder and creative director
What inspired you to create
Synchronicity Films and how did it start?
I’ve always felt passionate about making
high-quality, distinctive work from Scotland
for UK and international audiences. I spent
10 years in network TV at the BBC before
setting up Synchronicity in 2006, and was
hungry to see what running my own company
would be like. I believed the out-of-London
Ofcom targets could, in time, provide a
strong foundation for a high-end scripted
business, genuinely based in the nations.The Cry was one of the BBC’s biggest
dramas of 2018. What were the biggest
challenges and successes of fi lming
between Scotland and Australia?
The non-linear storytelling of The Cry was
one of the show’s most successful and most
challenging aspects. As an emotional thriller,
it called for precision in the nature and
timing of the revelations in lead character
Joanna’s story. A non-linear style enabled
us to hook the audience and deliver on
genre notes, while at the same time creating
empathy for a woman spiralling deeper into
a complex web of lies, borne from making
some bad choices. We had an average
nightly share of 7.3 million on BBC1, andgained fantastic critical reception.
It’s an extremely high-quality, international
piece of work that has sold all over the world.How are you using the international
demand for UK content to your advan-
tage, while attracting the best talent
to deliver captivating content?
Increasingly, our approach is to target
prestigious IP and use that to attract the
best writing and directing talent. Our slate
includes the Sunday Times/New York Times
bestseller The Tattooist Of Auschwitz, a
book indicative of the type of material we’re
drawn to – big stories that cut through in a
crowded marketplace and have something
pertinent to say about our world. Other high-
profi le IP includes Hanif Kureishi’s novella
The Body and the period thriller His Bloody
Project. On originals, we’re driven to work
with writers with distinctive voices, who
share our desire to tell stories that balance
compelling, hooky narratives with meaningful
themes and give audiences something to
think and talk about.CASE STUDY: Happy Tramp North
Neil Webster
Managing directorYou recently set up Happy Tramp North- the Scottish arm of Happy Tramp.
How did opportunities in Scotland
come about and which processes did
you need to put in place to expand?
Happy Tramp North came about almost by
accident. I made the move with my family to
the Highlands from London for a nicer life. I
pitched some ideas that, fortunately for us,
BBC Scotland and the BBC network liked,
and Happy Tramp North was born. We
haven’t really expanded yet: we’re a tiny, truly
independent production company, which
thus far has
preferred to
make a
few shows
as best we
can. Happily,
most of
them are
now set
and shot
in Scotland.
How has the Broadcast Content Fund
allowed you to produce scripted
comedy in Scotland?
It has been crucial. We’re now in a market
where shows increasingly need multi-source
funding. Screen Scotland has been an
incredible asset in building our shows and
our business, not only from a funding per-
spective but also in terms of the experience
and support it provides in Scottish production.
It really is an exciting time to be producing
scripted shows with them in Scotland.What lessons have you learned by
working on the fi rst joint drama com-
mission for the new BBC Scotland
channel and BBC2, Guilt?
The main lesson is that with the right idea
and the right team – from commissioners and
funding partners through to the production
team – it’s still possible for small companies
to pitch and produce big ideas in the current
market. Guilt was an ambitious project from
the outset, and with the belief and support of
BBC Scotland, BBC2, Screen Scotland and
our co-producing partner Expectation, we’re
really proud to have created an exciting, darkly
comic thriller, full of twists and turns.gained fantastic critical reception.thus far has
preferred to
make a
few shows
as best we
can. Happily,
most of
them are
now set
and shot
in Scotland.
Neil Webster: ‘it’s an exciting
time to be producing in Scotland’Claire Mundell: ‘we’re driven to
work with distinctive voices’