Media Task (I Chose

Scotland)
Name 10 films set in Scotland

1. Braveheart
2. Trainspotting
3. Dog Soldiers
4. Lassie Come Home
5. My Name Is Joe
6. Shallow Grave
7. Rob Roy
8. The Wicker Man
9. Local Hero
10. Whiskey Galore

And of course Scooby-Doo And The Loch Ness Monster.

The Devil's Own (1997)

Directed by Alan J. Pakula

Beneath are two synopsis’s which were provided directly from IMDB.

A thriller about an IRA gunman who draws an

American family into the crossfire of terrorism.
Frankie McGuire is one of the IRA's deadliest
assassins. But when he is sent to the U.S. to buy
weapons, Frankie is housed with the family of Tom
O'Meara, a New York cop who knows nothing about
Frankie's real identity. Their surprising friendship, and
Tom's growing suspicions, force Frankie to choose
between the promise of peace of a lifetime of murder.

One of top Northern Ireland IRA terrorists, Frankie McGuire, escapes to NY, where
he, under the name of Rory Devaney, with support of friendly judge Peter
Fitzsimmons, lives in the house of Irish cop Tom O'Meara, who doesn't know who
Frankie really is. Rory tries to buy some weapons from dealer Billy Burke, while
Tom has moral problems covering up his partner cop Edwin Diaz. The problems
arise when Tom begins to suspect something about Rory's identity.

Famous Scottish actors

Sean Conerry –
• Born 25 August 1930 in Edinburgh, Scotland,
United Kingdom.
 • His mother, Euphamia C. Maclean, was a cleaner, and his father, Joseph
Connery, worked in a factory and was also truck driver. He also has a
brother named Neil Connery, who works as a plasterer in Edinburgh.
• Before acting, Sean had several jobs, such as a Milkman,
lorry driver, a laborer, artist's model for the Edinburgh
College of Art, coffin polisher and bodybuilder. Joined the
Royal Navy, but was later discharged due to medical
problems. At the age of 23, he had a choice between
becoming a professional footballer or an actor, and even
though he showed much promise in the sport, he chose
acting and said it was one of his more intelligent moves.
• His first major film role was in 1957 in No Road Back. This lead to many
television-movies e.g Macbeth in 1961. He also appeared in The Longest
Day, in 1962 along side many other stars.

• Later in 1962 came Conerys major breakthrough with his role as James
Bond in Dr No. From this he went on to play Bond again in 6 more
productions.

○ From Russia With Love – 1963

○ Goldfinger – 1964
○ Thunderball – 1965
○ You Only Live Twice – 1967
○ Diamonds Are Forever – 1971
○ Never Say Never Again - 1983

• All movies were big box-office hits, if not critically acclaimed as well.
Among his many distinctive "Bond girls" were Ursula Andress, Lana Wood,
Barbara Carrera Jill St. John and Kim Basinger.

• After and during the success of the Bond-films he has maintained a

successful career as
○ Marnie (1964)
○ The Hill (1965),
○ Murder on the Orient Express (1974),
○ The Man Who Would Be King (1975),
○ Time Bandits (1981),
○ Highlander (1986),
○ Der Name der Rose (1986),
○ The Untouchables (1987) (which earned him an Oscar for best
actor in a supporting role),
○ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989),
○ The Hunt for Red October (1990),
○ Rising Sun (1993),
○ The Rock (1996),
○ Finding Forrester (2000),
○ The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003).

From his expansive acting career so far he was won a total of 17 awards ranging
from Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in The Untouchables, to Baftas
and Golden Globes.
Salary
The League of Extraordinary $17,000,000
Gentlemen (2003)
Finding Forrester (2000) $15,000,000
Entrapment (1999) $20,000,000
Playing by Heart (1998) $60,000
The Rock (1996) $15,000,000
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves $250,000
(1991)
Highlander II: The Quickening $3,500,000
(1991)
The Hunt for Red October (1990) $4,000,000
Never Say Never Again (1983) $5,000,000 + 5% of the net US profits
($6,410,000 total)
Zardoz (1974) $200,000
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) $1,200,000 plus 12.5% of the gross
Shalako (1968) $1,000,000 + % of profits
You Only Live Twice (1967) $750,000 + 25% of the net
merchandising profits ($1,000,000
total)
Thunderball (1965) $750,000
Goldfinger (1964) $500,000
From Russia with Love (1963) $250,000
Dr. No (1962) $100,000

Ewan McGregor

• Was born on the 31 March 1971, Perth, Perthshire, Scotland, UK

• McGregor made his feature film debut in 1993 in Bill Forsyth's Being
Human.
• Following year in 1994, earned widespread praise
and won an Empire Award for his performance in the
thriller Shallow Grave, which marked his first
collaboration with director Danny Boyle.
• His major international breakthrough soon followed
with the role of heroin addict Mark Renton in Boyle's
film version of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting.
• He is now one of the most critically acclaimed actors
of his generation, and portrays Obi-wan Kenobi in the
first three Star Wars episodes.
• He was ranked #36 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars
of All Time" list (October 1997).
• And was originally up for the lead role in The Beach (2000/I), which would
have reunited him with director Danny Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge
who collaborated with McGregor on Shallow Grave (1994), Trainspotting
(1996) and A Life Less Ordinary (1997). The role went to Leonardo
DiCaprio. While McGregor blames studio influence for the casting decision
he has not spoken to neither Boyle nor Hodge
since.
• His best friend is actor Charley Boorman, whom he
traveled around the world with on motorbikes
("Long Way Round" (2004) trip). They met on the
 set of the 1997 movie The Serpent's Kiss (1997). Leading from this they
completed another series on the motorbikes called Long Way Down.
• He had won several awards such as two BAFTA’s on for best actor in
Trainspotting and another for best Scottish actor in Young Adam.
• His most recent appearnance was in the film
adaptoion of Dan Browns Angels and Demons.

Gerard Butler
• Gerard James Butler (born 13 November 1969 in
Paisley Scotland) is a Scottish actor known for his
portrayal of King Leonidas in 300, The Phantom in
the The Phantom of the Opera, One Two in
RocknRolla and Clyde Shelton in Law Abiding Citizen.
• Auditions for the film Trainspotting inspired him to become an actor. He
was then cast as Ewan McGregor's character Renton in the stage
adaptation of Trainspotting. His film debut was as Billy Connolly's younger
brother in Mrs. Brown in 1997. His film career continued with small roles,
firstly in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies later that year and
then Russell Mulcahy's Tale of the Mummy (1998).
• Since then he has appeared in Reign of Fire (2002) as Creedy and Lara
Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) as Terry Sheridan, alongside
Angelina Jolie.
• In 2007, he starred as Spartan King Leonidas in the Warner Bros.
production 300 (2007), based on the Frank Miller graphic novel
• Most recently he has starred in Gamer by Mark Neveldine / Brian Taylor.
• He was nominated for four awards all centred around best actor in 300.
And he won the best fight in this film at the MTV movie awards in 2006.

Scottish Directors

John Grierson
• Dr. John Grierson CBE (1898-1972) was born in Perthshire, Scotland, and
was the son of a local school headmaster.
• He has been labeled as the father of British and Canadian
Documentary.
• His ground-breaking work on the Scottish herring fleet, Drifters,
had its premiere in 1929 alongside the first British showing of
Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin. In 1936, he produced the
celebrated Night Mail, directed by Harry Watt with script by
W.H. Auden and score by Benjamin Britten.
• Drifters in 1929 was the only film that Greirson directed.
• A prolific director and producer, he was particularly influential
through his creation of film units within the Empire Marketing Board and
the Post Office, nurturing a whole
generation of documentary makers, including
Edgar Anstey, Sir Arthur Elton, Stuart Legg,
Basil Wright, Harry Watt and
Cavalcanti. Among his many
achievements, John Grierson
established the National Film Board of Canada
during World War II, and served as
UNESCO's first Director of Mass
Communications and Public
Information in 1947.
• Throughout his long career, he was in some way responsible for the
production of well over 1000 films and television programmes.
Bill Forsyth
• Was born on the 29 July 1946, Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK, he is
know for his directing and commitment to film.
• Forsyth first came to attention with a low-budget film, That Sinking
Feeling, made with youth theatre actors and featuring a cameo
appearance by the Edinburgh gallery owner Richard Demarco.
• Relative success of the film was carried to a far higher level by his next
film Gregory's Girl in 1981. This featured some of the same young actors,
in particular John Gordon Sinclair, as well as the acting debut of the singer
Clare Grogan. The film was a major hit and won 'Best Screenplay' in that
year's BAFTA Awards.
• In 1983 he wrote and directed Local Hero, produced by David Puttnam,
and featuring Burt Lancaster. It was rated in the top 100 films of the 1980s
in a Premiere magazine recap of the decade.
• Forsyth's next film was the 1984 Comfort and Joy, about a Glasgow radio
DJ caught between rival ice cream companies, which again featured Clare
Grogan.
• Forsyth had limited success in Hollywood. The 1987 Housekeeping was his
first American film.
• Another movie, Being Human, was shelved by the studio for four years
after Puttnam was ousted. Gregory's Two Girls from 2000 appeared as a
sequel to Gregory's Girl, with John Gordon Sinclair playing the same
character, but it received mixed reviews. In a June 2009 interview on BBC
Radio 5 Live, Forsyth stated that he is currently working on a new film
project with the working title of Exile.

List of films which he directed

• That Sinking Feeling (1980)
• Gregory's Girl (1981)
• Andrina (1981)
• Local Hero (1983)
• Comfort and Joy (1984)
• Housekeeping (1987)
• Breaking In (1989)
• Being Human (1993)
• Gregory's Two Girls (1999)

Peter Mullan

Was born on the 2 November 1959, in Peterhead, Scotland, UK

• At the age of 19 he became interested in film, and due to this
experimented by making many short films.
• He wasn't admitted to the National Film School, so he decided to dedicate
himself to acting, and made his debut in the theatre in 1988 before
moving to cinema and television.
• Fame came with the parts he played in such films as Riff-Raff (1991) by
Ken Loach, Braveheart (1995) by Mel Gibson and Trainspotting (1996) by
Danny Boyle, but above all when he won for best leading actor at the
Cannes Film Festival in 1998 for My Name Is Joe (1998), once again by
Loach.
• The Magdalene Sisters (2002) is the second feature-length film he has
directed. He also directed a few episodes of the BBC TV series, "Cardiac
 Arrest" (1994), which earned him a best director nomination from the
Royal Television Society.

• Over his career he has claimed a total of 22 awards these for several
reasons. Which tend to be centered around My Name Is Joe and The
Magdalene Sisters.

Useful resources for Scottish cinema

• http://www.scottishscreen.com/

• http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/screen/

• http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/

• Contemporary Scottish Fiction: Film, Television and the Novel (Paperback)

• by Duncan J. Petrie

• Scotland in feature film: The country’s screen-image then and now, with
focus on the City of Glasgow and the development of a Scottish film
industry (Paperback) by Sandra-Elisabeth Haider

Key themes and topics…

• Nationality

• Representation
• Countertypes
• All are set in Scotland… obviously
• Stereotypes are also portrayed such as in Whiskey Galore, where drinking
is a key issue in the narrative and even the title of the film.
• Sentimentality in Lassie.

• Most tend to be socially realistic.

Similarities and differences to mainstream British Cinema…
The majority of the cast tend to be Scottish, which is
easily identified due to their accents, which is similar
to British cinema, as the characters tend to be in the
majority English with accents that easily identify the
nation. Such as the posh southeastern accent.
The films tend to be aimed towards a predominantly
Scottish audience, due to the use of slang and local
terms. This could also seen in certain British films
with the use of cockney slang.
One of the main differences will be the setting, as Scottish films will use their lush
available scenery as well as the cities. Where as British cinema tends to be either
on farmlands or crammed into urban areas.
Both tend to be similar in terms of realism and national identity with the lower
budget films, but the more higher budget films play to the stereotypes to increase
the market for their production.
In both types of cinema special effects tends to be non-
existent or on a minimal level.
Overall they both are similar in terms of having a low
budget though and this is reflected in the casting. They
tend to have one main big star, which is surrounded by
home grown talent. This tends to be more apparent in the
Scottish films though as British films will appeal to a wider
market so better known faces could be used.