Glasgow’s former Govan Town Hall is to be transformed to become the ‘new focal point for Scotland’s film industry’. Guru wonders what, in the name of all things tartan, was the old focal point for Scotland’s film industry. Ewan McGregor’s beard? A Braveheart poster? Six pints of Tennent’s Super tastefully filmed against a boarded-up chip shop?
Don’t get Guru wrong. He likes Scotland. Seriously, he loves the rugged Highlands countryside, enjoys a perfectly distilled single-malt whisky, and has even been known to toss his caber now and again on a lonely Tuesday evening.
And Guru has given Scottish film a chance. He watched an art flick in Glasgow once, but he couldn’t understand what anyone was saying so he left early and went to the pub. The scene that greeted him in the pub turned out to be grittier than the horror movie he’d been watching in the cinema, but that is for another day.
Scotland has many strengths. But its film industry is not one of them. However, watch this space as the proposals for the former Govan Town Hall include ‘ambitious plans to create more space within the building for film, media and creative companies… including an expanded, dynamic environment for creative and media collaboration’.
Disciples, this will either be an example of what you can achieve with the power of positive thinking or a lesson in sticking to your strengths.