On Making Heehaw’s Second Feature Film
Winter is Coming
What better way to see out the summer than by delivering a Christmas film. In a way it has kept us in the spirit all of 2023 so far, and in perfect timing for the arrival of the chillier months.
Christmas in Scotland is our second feature as service producers for Reel One Entertainment. The plot revolves around an installation designer from New York travelling to Scotland with her father to investigate their Scottish lineage, only to become wrapped up in a plan that would see the local community work together to create a festive celebration of Christmas, despite the interventions of the local land owner. Probably goes without saying that she’s going to find love along the way!
It was fantastic to pull together many of the collaborators we worked with on our first feature, Meet You in Scotland, and tackle a new project. The film was bigger in scope, and was not without its own risks, especially given budget limitations. Luckily Reel One are excellent to work with when it comes to adapting one of their scripts to the practical needs of shooting a micro budget feature in 17 days, during winter, featuring many external scenes and well over 100 extras. We weren’t able to guarantee snow for example, but we worked this into the story and luckily the weather was kind enough not to decimate our budget with re-shoots!
We did bring some snow of course, with a few choice days of practical snow effects enhanced by VFX in post. In fact the weather in February was a little too nice! We had lots of crisp and cloudless days, and ended up having to add frost and light snow to the scenes digitally, along with enhancements to Christmas lights, sky replacements and swapping a 30ft Christmas Tree for one covered in coloured bulbs. We’ll do a blog post about our VFX work for this and other projects soon, so keep an eye out for that. In the mean time, here are some BTS to give you an idea of what we got up to, shooting mainly between Culross in Fife and the wonderful Dundas Castle in West Lothian. Huge shout out to the wonderful Sonja Blietschau for all photography!
Christmas in Scotland
Was directed by David Lumsden, produced by Penny Cobham and Jiki Lim, shot by Graham Pritz-Bennett and Gav White, and edited by Jonathan Worman. Keep an eye on our social channels for any updates regarding international distribution.