MADE entirely of Scottish film archive, ‘From Scotland with Love’ is a 75-minute film by award-winning director, Virginia Heath with what is being described as a “transcendent score” by Scottish musician and composer, Kenny Anderson, aka King Creosote.
Says publicity about the programme: “A journey into our collective past, the film explores universal themes of love, loss, resistance, migration, work and play. Ordinary people, some long since dead, their names and identities largely forgotten, appear shimmering from the depth of the vaults to take a starring role. Brilliantly edited together, these silent individuals become composite characters, who emerge to tell us their stories, given voice by King Creosote’s poetic music and lyrics.”
It is produced by Faction North, Crossover and the National Library of Scotland Scottish Screen Archive – in association with BBC Scotland and Creative Scotland. Soundtrack released by Domino Records on vinyl, CD and for digital download over the summer of 2014.
The film is being broadcast at 2200 on Sunday, on BBC Two Scotland.
Here, Virginia Heath, the director of the film, and part of Edinburgh-based production company, Faction North, answers the questions…
Who commissioned the film?
The producer, Grant Keir, pitched the idea of an ‘archive and music’ feature-length documentary, based only on Scottish film archive, to Creative Scotland and BBC Scotland in response to a call for proposals for the cultural celebration of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014.
He was inspired by a live performance of ‘From the Sea to the Land Beyond’ at Sheffield Doc/Fest. When the National Library of Scotland Scottish Screen Archive showed interest, the project came together very quickly, and has just been finished in time for the Games. There will be the first public screening of the film with a live performance of the musical score by King Creosote on Glasgow Green on July 31, at 7pm.
Explain the thinking behind the production’s ‘look and feel’
As director of the film, I knew I wanted to make a poetic and cinematic documentary, relying purely on visual crafting of the archive footage along with music and lyrics to tell the story.
The film has a unique look and feel partly because of the very close collaboration between me as the director and composer, Kenny Anderson.
Right from the start, we would send each other visual and musical sketches with the music supervisor, David McAulay, often acting as a go-between. Kenny sent handwritten lyrics that affected my cutting of the material, whilst my ‘emotional temperature map’ of the film suggested the kind of moods I wanted for each section and the transitions from one theme to another.
This helped Kenny trust his own immediate reaction to the images and the melodies and lyrics started to take shape.
Who are the key personnel? How were they recruited?
I had already worked with David McAulay, music supervisor and sound designer, on another project and he suggested Kenny, for his lyrical ability to tell stories through song.
I already loved the Mercury-nominated ‘Diamond Mine’ album King Creosote had done with Jon Hopkins, so we approached Kenny and were delighted when he decided to come on board the project.
Along with his long-time producer, Paul Savage, Kenny brought in musicians he knew and trusted, such as cellist, Pete Harvey, who did amazing string arrangements, Derek O’Neill (keyboards), Andy Robinson (drums), Pete Macleod (bass), Kevin Brolly (clarinet), Amy MacDougall (backing vocals) and a string quartet.
What kit and software?
I spent several months researching in the archive watching hundreds of films on VHS tapes with archive researcher, Stella Heath Keir – a very detailed, analogue experience!
Together, we sifted and selected material to bring into the digital domain of the Avid cutting room.
As I started to shape sequences with editor, Colin Monie, Kenny was doing rough first drafts of the music.
There was a constant back and forth, and once we settled on some of the songs, David McAulay booked out a residential studio in Loch Fyne so the musicians would have time to experiment and flesh out arrangements.
As the film cut started to take shape, we moved to the Chem19 recording studio, beginning a whole new process of recording and mixing the music.
The final online and grading of the images was done by David Leishman and Ben Mullen at Serious Facilities and the sound mix was done by Kahl Henderson at Savalas, Film City in Glasgow.
Right up until the last moment we were changing the way the music and images responded to each other.
What were the main production challenges?
It was a very open project from the beginning, so there was pressure on me as the director to come up with the overall narrative of the film.
It was also quite daunting for the key musical talent to undertake the project as the music was so crucial to way the film’s story is told.
We also wanted to use sound design as a way of giving the people in the archive film a strong presence on screen.
There was no real template for what we wanted to do. Often, a film like this is cut to pre-existing music. Or the composer is given the completed film to write the score.
But I wanted the direction, editing and musical composition to be a dynamic, interactive process from beginning to end.
That became the attraction – that openness, the desire to create something new and special. This is so often the way with film production: the challenges are what give the film its unique quality.
What did you most learn and enjoy from the experience?
As a director, I had often used archive in documentaries, but I had never had the challenge of crafting a 75-minute film purely from archive footage and I found it a really exciting challenge.
I loved working in such close collaboration with a composer and all the musicians who brought the sound track so magically alive.
I learned a huge amount about the music recording process and working at Chem 19 with Paul Savage and David McAulay was fascinating.
And I’m very excited about the fact that Domino Records are releasing King Creosote’s ‘From Scotland with Love’ sound track as a double vinyl album in the Summer.
One of the most satisfying aspects of ‘From Scotland with Love’ is the film’s ability to reveal more every time I see it.
I love the fact that when you watch the flickering, grainy footage you are transported into a whole other world, almost like a dream. You are travelling back into the past and yet when you focus on the characters on screen, it feels very contemporary – they have the same feelings, hopes and dreams as we do now.
Pic: A preview screening – at the Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow – at the beginning of this month.
