The warehouse powering Edinburgh's new era of screen success

The Herald Scotland

a day ago

But a new era of screen success for the city is now being propelled behind closed doors on the edge of the city's docklands – in a former wave power plant, which was originally built 25 years ago by an engineering company.
Matthew Goode and Alexej Manvelov star in the new Edinburgh-set thriller Dept Q. (Image: Netflix)
Launched by former record company film producer Bob Last and actor director Jason Connery, son of the Edinburgh-born screen legend Sean Connery, FirstStage is now said to be generating tens of millions of pounds for the economy every year and allowing the city to capitalise on the streaming platform boom.
New Netflix series Dept. Q, which stars Leah Byrne, Matthew Goode and Alexej Manvelov, was shot at FirstStage Studios in Leith. (Image: Netflix - Department Q)
The conversion of the vast blue warehouse complex into a long-awaited permanent film studio for the city got underway just as the global screen industry was being put into lockdown by the pandemic - and hosted its first major production as soon as Covid restrictions were lifted across the UK.
Five years later, FirstStage Studios has played host to some of the biggest players in the lucrative world of 'streamers,' including Amazon, Netflix and Sony, and transformed Edinburgh's ability to play host to productions.
Two seasons of the supernatural thriller series The Rig were shot at FirstStage Studios in Leith. (Image: FirstStage Studios)
These include two seasons of the supernatural thriller The Rig, which were set in the North Sea and the Arctic Circle, the feature film The Outrun, for scenes set in London's nightclub scene and the time travel fantasy saga Outlander, for a final series expected to be set during the American Revolution.
But its most recent production is being seen as another game-changer for the city's screen industry – with FirstStage used for the first time for a new nine-part thriller set in modern-day Edinburgh which is hoped to become a long-running series.
The feature film The Outrun was partly shot at FirstStage Studios in Leith. (Image: Bob Last/FirstStage Studios)
Locations across the Scottish capital were deployed for the latest Netflix thriller Dept. Q, which focuses on a new cold case unit set up in the heart of a police headquarters in the city.
Although detective Carl Morck and his team appear to be based in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, the inside of the atmospheric HQ and its grimy basement were created from scratch at FirstStage, along with other elaborate sets that feature in the show.
A pit that can be used for underwater filming sequences is one of the key assets at FirstStage Studios in Leith. (Image: FirstStage Studios)
The Downton Abbey and Crown actor Matthew Goode and a host of Scottish screen stars, including Shirley Henderson, Kate Dickie, Mark Bonnar, Jamie Sives and Leah Byrne, spent around six months making Dept. Q in Edinburgh – with around half of the film done inside the Leith studio.
Eagle-eyed viewers may also be able to spot locations as varied as the City Chambers, the Signet Library, Greyfriars Bobby's Bar, Mortonhall Crematorium, Wester Hailes, the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena near Ratho and the Codebase building, on Castle Terrace, which stands in for the exterior of the police HQ.
Launching the show in Edinburgh, writer-director Scott Frank, creator of the hit Netflix series the Queen's Gambit, described the extensive shoot on Dept. Q - which is based on Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen's novels - as 'the happiest experience' of his career.
He said: 'You have great crews, you have great people and everything about shooting here is easy.
'The weather is interesting. It's the only place I've ever been where you can all four seasons in one day.
'The studio was wonderful. We had some pretty big sets and, partially because of the weather, we shot around half the show there. It was terrific. I loved working there.'
Successive generations of Scottish screen industry leaders had lobbied for years for the country to create its own studio facilities.
But the long-held dream did not become a reality until the Scottish Government and its screen agency agreed to help support Sony and Starz to find a home for its new show Outlander, which began filming in 2013 in a warehouse complex beside the M80 motorway in Cumbernauld.
Four years later, the Leith Docks site, which was lying empty after a wave power company had gone into administration, was used for the first time by Marvel Studios while they spent around seven weeks shooting scenes for the blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War in the city's Old Town.
Within months of the superhero being released, the Scottish Government and its Screen Scotland agency had launched a bid to create a permanent studio facility there, with Bob Last and Jason Connery announced as the successful team to take the project forward in March 2020.
Bob Last said: 'When I was an independent film producer there was a lot of talk about studios, but I wouldn't have been able to afford to use one if it had been there on the budget of an independent film.
'There wasn't really enough demand for a studio until the streamers started making the level of content that they did. I saw that they were completely changing the way that people consumed content.
'When I was introduced to this building it was the first time that I felt there was a viable way of providing the scale that these huge shows needed. If we were going to attract shows to Scotland it was all going to be about competitive cost.
"There used to be a lot of talk about building new studios from scratch in Scotland. But the cost of that would have meant that any such studio would have priced itself out of the market.
'We've been extremely busy since we opened pretty much on the first day of lockdown. We've had Amazon, Sony and Netlix shows in now, and have also been doing a rolling programme of work on the building, which has all sorts of unique and extraordinary elements.
'The pit that we use as a tank is one of the most interesting assets we have. If you were building a studio from scratch it would be insanely expensive to build, but it has turned out to be extremely useful.
'We also have 60 tonne and 20 tonne cranes, which have also been used by productions. You would never install them in a studio.'
Chloe Pirrie is one of the stars of the new Netflix series Dept. Q, which is set in Edinburgh. (Image: free)The Scottish Government's film and TV agency Screen Scotland describes FirstStage Studios as a 'unique proposition' due to its size and facilities. The complex, which covers 8.9 acres, boasts 115,000 sq ft of shooting space up to 82 ft high, as well as offices, workshops and on-site parking for more than 200 vehicles.
A spokesperson said: 'FirstStage has a number of key advantages.
"It is one of very few UK-based studios to host a tank for underwater shooting, which has been used in productions including The Rig and The Outrun.
'Because of its height, FirstStage also has the capacity for very large set builds, and the large backlot as well as production offices and ancillary buildings on site.
'On its opening in 2020, once Covid restrictions were lifted it immediately became home to The Rig, Amazon's first UK drama commission. Created by Portobello-based writer David Macpherson, it perfectly highlighted the versatility and quality of the studio. An incredibly ambitious project, it was shot entirely in Scotland, and largely inside the FirstStage studio and surrounding lot.
"Dept. Q from Netflix has built further on the potential first realised by The Rig and has again shown that FirstStage can deliver against the expectations and requirements of large-scale international productions.'
Bob Last said: "If we knew the budgets of our customers we wouldn't be able to talk about them.
"When a big show comes in here they will spend a lot of money in the city. We can have 200 people working here at the same time.
"We are certainly anchoring tens of millions of pounds in direct spending ever year."
Rosie Ellison, film commissioner at Film Edinburgh, the city's long-running film office, highlighted the transformation of the screen industry since the advent of the Leith studio.
'Edinburgh used to pick up a couple of days of or maybe a week or two of filming on productions.
'A production based at FirstStage might be here for a full six months of filming, plus another two or three months of preparation, plus another month or so winding down the production.
'The economic impact of a production and the opportunities it creates are very different to what they were before we had the studio. Productions are spending a lot when they are here, they are hiring local services and creating jobs for our young people to get involved in the industry.
'Dept Q was based at FirstStage, but they were also out and about every month, making use of our urban, rural and coastal locations, different kinds of architecture and office spaces. All sorts of landscapes will appear in that show, including places that people have never been seen on screen before."
FirstStage Studios in Leith has been up and running for more than five years. (Image: FirstStage Studios)Hugh Gourlay, supervising location manager on Dept. Q said: "We filmed in something like 13 of the city's 17 council wards.
'There's such a variance in the architecture in Edinburgh: you've got the New Town, the medieval parts, the narrow closes, the wide streets, and the high-rise flats of parts of the city."
For Bob Last, the city itself is a major selling point to help attract big-budget productions to FirstStage.
'Ware now on that global map because of the shows that have been here. When people are sitting in LA going down a list of studios we are on that list. That's where we need to be.
"For us, Edinburgh as a city for someone to come and live and work in for six months is a massively important asset. There are five stars hotels near the studio and Michelin-starred restaurants literally walking distance away.
'These kind of shows are bringing people in from a global talent pool. If you're going to live and work somewhere for six months Edinburgh is a pretty cool place to do that.'
Speaking at the Dept Q premiere in Edinburgh, showrunner Scott Frank said: 'When I came to Edinburgh I immediately knew we had to shoot here. I felt instantly inspired.
'It made me want to work even more in terms of the story to make it work more for Edinburgh. It was a really easy decision to film here.
'I loved living here and it was very easy to work here. I found Edinburgh very inspiring.
'I would love to come back. We'd all love to come back. We really enjoyed ourselves and I think we all got very close. I think we have a really good way of doing the second season. I hope people watch the show and we get to do it again.'