I'm fed up – what's the point in Spider-Man taking over Glasgow?

The Herald Scotland

19 hours ago

Once again, the streets of Glasgow are being taken over by some uncanny valley New York City simulation. Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues filming for most of this month, with The Herald reporting that its stay in the centre has just been extended.
Read more:
Marvel extends Glasgow shoot for new Spider-Man movie
The spectacle of major Hollywood productions arriving in Glasgow still draws huge fanfare. Spectators are crowding the set even on non-filming days just to soak up the scene. On filming days, curiosity peaks when large-scale movie magic is being constructed and executed right in front of our eyes. And who could miss the small chance of power couple Tom Holland and Zendaya possibly making an appearance in front of the little people?
But it is a disruption with diminishing returns. Glasgow has already suffered through this rodeo before with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Batman – and saw a huge waste of resources and labour thrown at the Batgirl film that was eventually cancelled and shelved altogether. In the end, its $90 million budget resulted in a neat little tax write-off for Warner Bros, but not much else.
As Glasgow continues to transform into a playground for Hollywood executives taking advantage of tax, labour, and location incentives to keep their budgets down, how long will the public accept the everyday disruption to their lives?
It may still seem novel at this point, and able to capture stars in eyes, but there will come a time when the glossy façade becomes second nature, and the logic and purpose behind these elaborate shoots in the dense city will come up empty. I suppose the people of Glasgow could just be eternally grateful that Hollywood continues to prefer the city as a shooting location, but then I would like to think Glasgow has more dignity than that.
The story of Glasgow becoming a satellite state for Hollywood production is twofold. On one side, Hollywood studios are contracting more production work outside of their native California, citing the large toll of the state's tax and labour costs.
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One egregious example is the game show The Floor, hosted by Rob Lowe. It is standard trivia game fare that doesn't require much more than a soundstage (something that Hollywood studio backlots are full of), yet it films on a soundstage in Ireland.
That's right, it is somehow cheaper for Hollywood to ship the set, the crew and its star host over to Ireland than it is to film in their literal back garden. The entire system of production is backwards and hilariously broken.
From this broken mess comes the other side, where ministers in the Scottish Government observed the beneficial scraps that other smaller countries like Ireland and Denmark were receiving and wanted in on the action.
Now, Scotland competes with these other countries and will need to provide ever-increasing incentives to stay in the picture. There's nowhere to go except a race to the bottom in accommodating the ever-bigger demands of the major studios.
How much longer will large-scale productions continue to dazzle a spectating public? (Image: Colin Mearns) The government and Screen Scotland's rallying cry when pushback arises to the spectacle is that such large productions boost the local economy and promote tourism. In what ways and how is still a mystery, and there is little transparency, as if they are being wilfully obtuse about the tangible benefits of it all.
And it seems counterintuitive, considering how such shoots block off and shut down chunks of the local economy while filming runs. Councils pay off the businesses to shut down, but that's to the businesses, not the workers. Many of the workers based on these streets are under zero-hour contracts and won't see a penny of restitution. These workers, who likely survive month to month, are seeing their income shrivelling the more production takes up space and resources.
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How the Scottish Government's deal with Hollywood failed
I'm sure the whole operation works out nicely for a governmental body looking to promote something, but is this really the way for government and councils to seek economic opportunity? It, in effect, turns our arts and culture sector into a business, with all its major decisions branching from its economic standpoint.
Something never, ever asked is this: what artistic and cultural value do these large-scale public shoots contribute? Forget the suit talk of economic and tourist benefits – you're never going to personally experience that money – what about these shoots enriches Glasgow and Scotland in its heart, its soul, or its spirit? My guess is nothing. Zilch. Nada.