{spotlight} blog

Stone of Destiny will be released in cinemas all over the UK tomorrow, Friday 10 October 2008.

The Glasgow Film Office supported feature film Stone of Destiny, starring Charlie Cox, Kate Mara, Billy Boyd and Robert Carlyle, retells the fascinating and true story of four young Glaswegian students, led by the then 25-year-old Ian Hamilton, who in 1951 outwitted the British authorities in their successful attempt to take back the Stone of Scoune back to its Scottish home.

A red carpet screenng of the film will take place at 1pm on Friday 10 October 2008 at the 241-capacity independent cinema Highland Theatre in Oban, the home town of the story’s main protagonist, Ian Hamilton. Both Ian Hamilton and director Charles Martin Smith will be present at the screening.

Hurry is you want to apply - the deadline for applications for The Berlinale Talent Campus is Wednesday 8th October.

Berlinale Talent Campus is part of the 59th Berlin International Film Festival and is an amazing opportunity for professional networking. It includes a combination of practical learning as well as masterclasses with some of the biggest names in the business. Previous speakers have included Ridley Scott, Frances McDormand, Walter Salles and Dennis Hopper.

For full details on the application process and the programme for 2009, visit www.berlinale-talentcampus.de for more info.

Applications are now open to new entrants seeking to become freelance Assistant Production Accountants.

Funded by the Skillset Film Skills Fund and the UK feature film industry, selected trainees will over a ten month period, undertake a programme of short courses and attachments to features and television drama. Successful candidates will receive a tax-free training allowance of £300 per week.

Application parks are available from the Production Guild website, and the closing date is Friday 24th October 2008.

TRC’s Researcher Development Programme (RDP) is now open for applications from indies in the nations and regions.

This unique training initiative, delivered by TRC media in partnership with Channel 4, enables independent production companies to employ a development researcher for a period of 12 months.

The RDP polishes researchers’ skills and ideas to network standard and offers top-flight training together with unprecedented access to UK network and digital commissioning editors.

Full guidelines and application forms are available from the TRC website. Deadline for submissions Tuesday 28 October 2008.

BBC ALBA - the new Gaelic television channel - has unveiled the premiere package that will celebrate the channel’s launch tonight at 9pm.

The channel will go live with a new version of the classic Runrig song Alba, specially re-recorded for the occasion by a host of Gaelic stars, including Karen Matheson from Capercaillie, Tony Kearney from River City and traditional singers Arthur Cormack and Cathy-Ann MacPhee. Children attending the Glasgow Gaelic School will also feature in the video.

The launch of the channel will be celebrated with a major outside broadcast - a live music special from the Isle of Skye featuring Mary Ann Kennedy, Julie Fowlis, Skippinish and others - and a launch party in Edinburgh.

This will be followed by an original drama Eilbheas set in 1970s Lewis and starring Greg Hemphill as Elvis, and a gripping drama/documentary Peter Manuel - Deireadh an Uilc (The End of Evil?) starring Andrew Clark.

BBC ALBA - a partnership service between MG ALBA and BBC Scotland - will deliver high quality, distinctive home-produced programming and will broadcast up to seven hours a day.

For more information, please visit www.mgalba.com.

Outpost the low budget thriller produced by Glasgow indie Black Camel Pictures, is released in the UK on DVD today.

The action/thriller Outpost, written by Rae Brunton, with director Steve Barker making his feature debut has a multi-national cast that includes Ray Stevenson (The Punisher: War Zone, HBO’s Rome), Julian Wadham (The Madness of King George), and Richard Brake (Batman Begins, Hannibal Rising).

The DVD features commentries from director Steve Barker and producer Kieran Parker, behind the scenes featurettes and deleted scenes. Check out Black Camel Pictures from more information.

The new feature from writer and director Richard Jobson, New Town Killers, will premiere at this year’s The Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival (15-30 October 2008).

Supported by Glasgow Film Office, New Town Killers is produced by Luc Roeg (Spider) and stars Dougray Scott (Desperate Housewives, Enigma, Mission Impossible II) and Alastair Mackenzie (Monarch of the Glen, The Last Great Wilderness).

The film follows two private bankers, Alistair and Jamie, who get their kicks from playing a 12-hour game of hunt, hide and seek with people from the margins of society. Their next target is Sean Kelly, a parentless teenager who lives with his sister in a housing estate on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

The film shot in and around Edinburgh in March and April of this year, and utilised many Glasgow crew and facilities.

Owen Thomas of Savalas Audio Post Production recently attended the Edinburgh Television Festival and has kindly provided GFO with a short report. Check out our features section where you will find his observations on this annual event. What are your views? Feel free to add comment..

Life of Riley is a major new sitcom for BBC ONE starring Caroline Quentin (Men Behaving Badly / Jonathan Creek).

Caroline plays Maddy who, through a second marriage, suddenly finds herself at the head of a modern day extended family – made up of a complication of children, step children, step siblings and half siblings – with a few ex partners and in-laws thrown in.

Life of Riley will be recorded in front of a live studio audience at the new BBC Scotland Studios, Pacific Quay,

The recordings are on Fridays at 4pm on:

Friday 26th September
Friday 3rd October
Friday 10th October
Friday 17th October
Friday 24th October
Friday 31st October

Last call for tickets will be the Thursday before each show.

If you would like to be part of the audience please email lifeofriley@bbc.co.uk

Don’t forget to leave your name and a contact number. The places for each week are limited, so get in touch early.

Glasgow based indie La Belle Allee Productions was recently awarded the Best Film Trophy for their documentary ‘The Colour of Sound’ at the 2008 SCINEMA Festival of Science Film in Brisbane.

Produced by Karen Smyth and directed by Vince Hunter for La Belle Allee Productions, The Colour of Sound took the Best Film Trophy “for the engaging way it conveyed a whole tapestry of science,” judge Anna Littleboy of the CSIRO told the crowd.

La Belle Allee Productions, have also just completed a 10 week shoot on Nicolas ’Jang’ Winding Refn’s Danish-Scottish-French co-production Valhalla Rising The film stars Mads Mikkelsen (of Casino Royale fame) starring as the mute warrior One Eye. Valhalla Rising is a major international epic, already set to a 2009 late summer release in Scandinavia, France and the UK, among other territories.