

Filmmaker Q&A: May Miles Thomas on the making of Voyageuse
May Miles Thomas's Voyageuse premiered last month at the Glasgow Film Festival, tracing the life of Miles Thomas's mother-in-law, Erica, from her origins in Hungary, from where she fled with her family to England in 1938, through education at Cambridge and Oxford, her struggles in a career as a scientist, to marriage, children and her relationship with her own mother. Without funding and in the absence of a crew, Miles Thomas skillfully pieces together Erica's life through a

Democratising The Filmmaking Process Volume 2: DIY PR – How To Get Your Film Reviewed and Written Ab
DIY PR – How To Get Your Film Reviewed and Written About. Democratising The Filmmaking Process Volume 2. Making a film is but merely one of the many battles involved in the great movie-making wars. If you have already reached this stage you are likely acutely aware that not everyone is currently sharing your unbridled enthusiasm for your efforts. You (and we) know you've created a work of genius but sadly the rest of the world has not been given the opportunity to offer their

Democratising the Filmmaking Process Volume 3 : DIY Distribution : How to Get Your Short or Feature
Democratising the Filmmaking Process Volume 3 : DIY Distribution : How to Get Your Short or Feature into a Film Festival This is our third DIY Distribution guide. Part 1 was how to make your movie available on Amazon Prime and Part 2 was how to get your movie reviewed and written about. Of course there are other options for getting your film seen by the public, and one of the most traditional is Film Festivals. In recent years Film Freeway has become one of the most useful di

New Films. TF13 and TF 18. Filmmaker Q&A: Graham Hughes on A Practical Guide to a Spectacular S
We're delighted that Graham Hughes's latest film – Death of a Vlogger - will join Year Zero Filmmaking as Tartan Features #18. Graham has a very long history with Tartan Features, going way back to 2014 when Write-Shoot-Cut presented a revolutionary series of Scottish independent feature screenings, including A Practical Guide to a Spectacular Suicide. In fact, his history with us goes so far back that we can't actually remember why APGTASS was never a Tartan Feature in the f


Filmmaker Q&A: Tim Fraser-Granados on Blood's a Rover
Blood's a Rover is the debut feature from Tim Fraser-Granados, telling the story of a detective chief inspector, a millionaire's wife, a psychiatrist and a loner whose lives unravel in a labyrinthine plot of murder, blackmail and political conspiracy in Scotland's capital. We chatted to Tim about making a Scottish neo-noir, navigating first-time feature-filmmaking and the possibilities in micro-budget filmmaking shortly after he'd wrapped principal photography earlier this mo


Filmmaker Q&A: Douglas Sannachan on Starcache
Starcache is the debut feature from Glasgow actor Douglas Sannachan (That Sinking Feeling, Gregory's Girl, Taggart). The comedy horror follows the weekend of a group of geocachers (the collective term for a group of people partaking in geocaching - a GPS, smartphone enabled treasure-hunt) on the search for a $1,000,000 cache. The pursuit of the prize soon becomes a battle to stay alive; who is in the woods picking off the cachers one by one? Made on zero budget, with five yea

How To Safely Back-Up Your Data on Location - Simple Data Wrangling
Everyone can back-up data. It's simple and you do it most days when copying photo's from your camera or phone to your computer (or online).
Backing up footage from film shoots is not that different but a little more care should be taken.
So here is a guide on how to do it safely, and to insurance bonded standards.
This is not a guide to becoming a DIT but it will make sure you don't loose your footage!
I'm going to keep it really simple and straight-forward. There are


Filmmaker Q&A - Colin Bell & Gregor Barclay on Ribbons
Tartan Features #17 - improvised psychological thriller, Ribbons - got off to a shaky start earlier this year when the shoot schedule was thrown out the window following the Beast From the East. Starring Robert Jack (BBC's Gary: Tank Commander) and Ali Craig (Outlander, Trust Me and Shetland), Ribbons follows a small group of four very different characters trapped in a confined space - a windowless bunker that pushes relationships to breaking points, and minds to the brink of


Filmmaker Q&A: David Newbigging on Darkness Comes
Brand new to Amazon - and Tartan Features - Darkness Comes is David Newbigging's debut feature film. The film's production acted as a crash course in filmmaking for a group of young people local to the film's set in Greenock. We chatted to him about the making of the film and inclusion in the industry. Tell us a little bit about Darkness Comes - how did it come about? Darkness Comes was originally titled Dying Light. I worked for years in community arts companies and third se


Tartan Features #16 Darkness Comes Available Now on Amazon
What was your first time like? For Eddie it's going to be the most memorable night of his life. Waking up to find himself tied to the bed of the mysterious Suze may have been a fantasy, but torture and being initiated into an ancient cult has now become his nightmare. A nightmare which will change the course of Eddie's life, and all those he meets. Tartan Features is delighted to announce the release of TF #16, Darkness Comes, from BAFTA award-winning director David Newbiggi