Outgrowth of Production Growth Fund aims to bring post work to Scotland from non-Scottish productions

Gotham HBO Max

Screen Scotland has revealed the first successful applicants to its PGF Project Post pilot fund. 

Launched as an immediate response to the writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023, and growing from Screen Scotland’s Production Growth Fund, the fund aims to bring post and VFX work to Scotland when it would otherwise have been completed elsewhere. It has now been used with a number of large productions, including HBO Max’s The Penguin, which is released in the UK on Now TV today, 20 September, and had VFX work completed by Glasgow-based FixFX.

Applications to the fund are ongoing, with 31 October the deadline to submit. Applications have to be made by the production company, as they will be required to submit a Scottish spend cost report certified by the company director. Applicant projects must be in an advanced stage of development and financing, and aiming to commence post-production within 4 weeks of a decision being made - decisions can take up to three weeks.

David Smith, director of Screen Scotland, said: “Scotland’s studios and locations have been busy across the last few years with the physical production of hit films and shows. Big productions like Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein or Douglas Mackinnon’s Good Omen’s 2 now regularly come to Scotland to work with our renowned crew, and access Scotland’s studios and locations. 

“The post-production work on big film or TV projects can happen anywhere in the world, it’s not tied to any specific location and very specialized. With PGF Project Post we’ve worked with Colin and the team at Fix, as well as other Scottish facilities for the first time to win post-production work on films and series that didn’t physically shoot here in Scotland.  

“It is really encouraging that just in this pilot phase of the fund we’ve managed to attract projects of the scale and ambition of The Penguin to work in Scotland, enabling us to showcase Scottish post-production/VFX talent globally on a critically acclaimed series.”