Researchers: Nelson Correia and Dr Alistair Scott
Project delivered in collaboration with National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive at National Library of Scotland at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow in July 2025.
As a PhD researcher at the School of Arts and Creative Industries, in July 2025, I had the opportunity to deliver a public engagement event in connection with my research on the history of the screen production workforce in Scotland. The event was called “From ‘Film Bang’ to Filming Boom: Fifty Years of Career Trajectories in the Scottish Film and Television Production Sector” and was held at the National Library of Scotland’s facilities at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. It consisted of a public debate session on the past, present and future of screen production in Scotland, from the perspective of technical and craft production workers. The panel was formed by three well-established Scottish film and television freelancers, who discussed diverse aspects of their careers, revealed details about the behind-the-scenes of Scottish-based films and TV shows, and answered questions from the attending public. The audience was composed of people of various age groups, including members of the general public, young people with an interest in pursuing a career in film and television, and members of the Scottish filmmaking community, both actively working and retired.
The event offered the opportunity for individuals unfamiliar with the film and television industry to gain new insights into it and for industry professionals to connect with peers, while celebrating the achievements of the Scottish filmmaking community. As well as promoting public discussion and bringing these communities together, another main motivation for me to apply for Edinburgh Napier’s Public Engagement Fund was to promote some of the outputs from my PhD research.
The project was developed as a collaboration between Edinburgh Napier, the University of Edinburgh, the National Library of Scotland, and the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities, and involved the recording of a series of video-based interviews with long-established freelance technicians discussing their career trajectories. Due to their historical value, these recordings are being transferred to the Moving Image Archive of the National Library of Scotland for long-term archiving and public access. The event served as a platform to create public awareness of these materials and encourage the public to visit this new collection, contributing to the preservation of Scotland’s screen heritage and benefiting the wider community.
