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 Scottish Screen, the first "one door" screen agency in the UK, is signalling a change in direction, away from funding features for cinema and towards marketing and promotion of locations and skills and digital content.
 The agency's budget from the Scottish Executive is over £3m a year and it invests a further £3m of lottery funds. In the past five years it has invested £11m of public money into more than 50 Scottish movies, but the agency is now saying it will no longer support projects which do not have a guarantee of being made and will be more cautious about the films it funds.
NOT JUST FILM PRODUCTION
Ken Hay, who was appointed as Scottish Screen's chief executive just over a year ago, said: "The difference now is that we are taking seriously the whole of what the screen industry represents in Scotland and not just the production of films. He said the Scottish film industry must focus on getting digital content into portable DVD players, websites and mobile phones.
Traditional regional cinemas were working on a 25-year-old business model, he said, and needed to turn their "passion and expertise" to a new world. Even the Edinburgh International Film Festival, he suggested, could develop a "year-round presence" on a website to download films.
RECENT SUCCESSES
Among the films Scottish Screen has supported there have been some recent successes, such as the award-winning low-budget dramas My Name is Joe, Young Adam and Red Road, which is in competition at Cannes this year.
The agency spends around £4m each year on films, but it will now concentrate on other ways of boosting screen industries, such as education, training, marketing and the promotion of locations and skills. Other schemes will cost an extra £5m over the next two years and will further push the agency away from concentrating on big screen projects.
"Yes, we are there to help on anything being produced in Scotland, but not just film.," the Mr Hay said. "There are the digital industries, television productions, and all the rest. We are taking a more holistic approach."
A PROJECT OF THE FUTURE
The agency's chief said Red Road, filmed in Glasgow and now in the running for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival, was an "ideal" example of a project of the future with a "sensible" cost, a local crew, homegrown talent and a strong script. However, even award-winning Scottish films have often struggled to pull in big audiences.
The new strategy comes at a delicate time for the body as Scottish Screen is due to close in the coming years when it will be merged with the Scottish Arts Council to form a new body, Creative Scotland.
MAKE SHARE AND SEE
"The world we are living in no longer sees screen as purely film or television," he said. "The digital age is here and people now make, share and see moving images on digital formats and platforms at home, work, school, in the cinema and on the move in cars, planes and trains - even the back of taxis."
"We have to ensure that there are audiences and a marketplace for Scottish content," said Mr Hay. He cited the work of Mixipix, the Glasgow-based firm whose software delivers animated messages to mobile phones, and Cabtivate, which supplies entertainment screens to Scottish taxis.
Ken Hay called for Scotland's 11 regional film location offices to work together to bring films to the country.
INTEGRATED MESSAGE
"There is increasing competition from across the world and the challenge to the film office network across the country is to come together and establish and present a simple and integrated message for the whole of Scotland to potential productions."
Mr Hay said he was doubling funding for Scottish Screen's education programmes, in an effort media education in the classroom. There will be a series of joint initiatives with both Scottish Television, and the BBC to provide "opportunities for writers, directors and production companies to develop their skills and experience in the broadcast arena".
OFFERING A TEMPLATE
After the merger with the Scottish Arts Council takes place the new body replacing them will be called Creative Scotland. Mr Hay said he was offering a template for the new organisation.
Scottish Screen will continue to spend £3 million a year on feature films and other production and development. It is doubling spending on audience and market development initiatives, and boosting spending on training.
KEN HAY BACKGROUNDER
Ken Hay, born in Edinburgh, before being appointed to Scottish Screen had been Chief Executive of EM Media in Nottingham since it was set up in 2001 to bring together the EMMI Production Fund, the East Midlands Screen Commission, the film development unit of East Midlands Arts and the East Midlands element of Midlands Media Training Consortium. EM Media was instrumental in the development of the career of innovative directors Shane Meadows and Chris Cooke.
Speaking of his appointment Ken said; 'This is a fantastic time to be joining Scottish Screen.
The cultural economy of film and media in Scotland continues to develop rapidly, particularly with the opportunities presented by the ongoing shift to digital - both for audiences and producers. Scottish Screen needs to be leading the development of the sector from the front, ensuring its commitment to talent, opportunity, enterprise, inclusion and access are constantly met.
'I'm really looking forward to working with the whole of the Scottish film and media community in seizing these opportunities.'
Announcing Mr Hay's appointment on 12th January lasty year, Ray MacFarlane, Chair of Scottish Screen said: 'I am delighted that Ken will be joining Scottish Screen. He has been working in a similar role in the East Midlands for the last three years so brings very relevant experience from another UK screen agency. It's great to know he will be able to hit the ground running and provide a fresh perspective on our activities here in Scotland.'
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Handing money to Skillset and TV companies isn?t a solution, it?s an admission of defeat. Becoming a branch office of Visit Scotland in the hope of attracting outside productions isn?t a strategy, it?s a shot in the dark, particularly in the context of current UK tax legislation. To propose that hosted production will guarantee meaningful employment to local crews is just fantasy, in a country with few facilities ? no proper studio, no digital-supportable film lab, no world-class post houses. The best local talent can hope for is low-paid service sector jobs, maybe, not HOD positions.
More worryingly, to place faith in video virals and short-form digital content reduces our ambition as filmmakers. From this perspective, I believe there?s a deeper trend ? a state sanctioned erosion of any truly cinematic sensibility. Long before Scottish Screen and the Film Council were established, films were made on an ad hoc basis, films inherently risk taking but non-commerical ? e.g. those produced by BFI Production. But the use of public money for film has always been contentious. Without it, we would not have the early films of Terence Davies, Derek Jarman and Bill Douglas, films made without a premium placed on profit, or even the need to repay investors. Is the National Theatre of Scotland, with its ?7.6 million budget required to return a profit?
Now, films cannot be made in this country without broadcaster involvement. This is policy, and an increasingly common requirement to secure even development funding (and don?t get me started on public bodies demanding rights). Funds that were previously allocated to theatrical feature film production are now bolstering TV output and since TV doesn?t give a fuck about cinema ? the BBC rarely shows films at all and on very few occasions has invested in a Scottish film ? any hope of bringing truly fresh ideas or voices to the screen is lost, and ought to be a cause for protest.
Whether Scottish Screen?s swansong can improve an already dire situation is unlikely. There are some who may argue that developing audiences and training a new generation of filmmakers is a positive step. But not if there?s no films that reflect our culture and no films being produced that provide role models and offer a useful experience to future talent.
A sad day for all, when all we can look forward to is a short in the back of a taxi.