Tartan Features Changes to Year Zero Filmmaking
From The Archives May 2016
As you may have noticed, our name has changed slightly. Well, there are a few reasons why we've done this. For the past few months we've been using TF in our posts rather than Tartan Features, which we aim to keep so it's not been a quick decision.
We strongly feel that Scotland has a flourishing independent film community with a serious talent that's waiting to be discovered. And in order to best show this we need to have a more international outlook. The Tartan Features name was really started as a tongue-in-cheek approach to what we felt was an out-dated method of filmmaking – Tartan Shorts. TS was really the movies answer to Emerson, Lake and Palmer in a world of film equivalents of The Clash. It also really did not convey the feeling of boldness which we wanted to present. Basically it was not a great name, and it caused more confusion as to what we were about so it had to change. We are only making this up as we go along! When we say we want to work on an international level, the aim really is to show what can be achieved in Scotland, and importantly that we can run things from here ourselves. This also extends to our friends in Northern Ireland, Wales and The North of England - that filmmaking does not have to be centred on London. We want to work with them and also people in other countries. Support and connections is a good thing. We also have to be clear that we have no intention of being parochial – although we understand the reason and accept the shortbread approach to marketing Scotland this is not something we wish to be part of. Being insular does nobody any favours and we want our films – and yours shown around the world. Scotland is starting to make a name for itself in independent filmmaking, currently there is an exciting genre scene emerging. Scotland and this scene are starting to be mentioned in US and European magazines, blogs and importantly to international distributers.This is something we wish to promote and be part of, among many other areas in independent film so we feel the name change will help. No dollar signs! You will variously hear us referring to our films as Year Zero Pictures and our motivations as Year Zero Filmmaking. And usually with the legacy TF prefix. We can't do this on our own and we need like minded people. By like-minded people we mean people who don't spend their time complaining about a lack of opportunities online or people who get angry when they see other people doing things. We want to meet people who don't wait for permission, people who have ideas for films with the resilience to see them through to completion. We don't expect everyone to present completed films, and if we can we want to help but we are looking for people with that ambition who can help grow Scottish independent filmmaking around the world. Don't mistake the tone for being grandiose or lofty. We're just excited. We've a lot of new films to announce soon, new friends to work with and even a little festival in June. And we'll have some very special guests.
