Filming in Edinburgh 2024 - Film Edinburgh News

114% uplift in film/tv spend in Edinburgh and SE Scotland in 2024.

Filming in Edinburgh in 2024 was continuous from January through to November across all genres. In addition to a 35% increase in filming enquiries from 2023 (345 in 2024), the Council’s film office, Film Edinburgh, supported 210 productions filming in Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders in 2024, up from 202 productions in 2023. Together, these productions spent £23,237,973 in Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders, an uplift of 114% from the 2023 figures.
(Figures based on the British Film Institute’s (BFI) local production spend rate card for local spend per day of filming and verified with the production companies wherever possible.)

Filming in Bellevue Crescent, 2024

The City of Edinburgh itself hosted 186 film and TV productions, up from 178 productions in 2023. These amounted to 441 days of filming in the city in 2024, with a direct local spend of £18,816,870 (ref. BFI rate card), a 101% increase on spend in Edinburgh since 2023.

Furthermore, revenue to the City of Edinburgh Council from filming (location fees and service charges) increased 124% in 2024 to £206,245, due to the scale and duration of the drama productions that chose to film in the city.

2024 Drama production: 47 drama productions enquired about filming in Edinburgh and south-east Scotland (up from 38 drama enquiries in 2023). 15 drama productions took place in Edinburgh and south-east Scotland over 249 days, spending £21,249, 224 (92% of the total spend across all genres). Of these, 14 drama productions filmed in the City of Edinburgh over 145 days spending £17,239,620. Local production spend increased significantly once FirstStage Studios opened in 2020, providing a base for large-scale drama for months at a time, creating opportunities for local employment and service hire. Highlights in 2024 included:

Netflix series Department Q which was based in FirstStage Studios in Leith and filmed all over the city for 6 months including locations in Wester Hailes, Burdiehouse, Leith, Liberton, Marchmont, Morningside, Portobello, Abbeyhill, Southside, as well as the City Centre;
Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, also for Netflix, filmed on location for a week in the Royal Mile with over a year of planning and 3 weeks preparation;
Son of Sardaar 2, a major Bollywood production, filmed in the city centre and Craigleith in July ahead of the Festival;
Borges and Me, a road movie about the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, filmed in Dalmeny in September;
Apple TV’s Buccaneers series 2 filmed in Old and New Town in September and November;
and Sky’s Lockerbie: The Search for Truth, filmed in Kingsknowe, Ratho and the Old Town in the spring.

2024 Factual production: 71 factual TV productions took place in Edinburgh and south-east Scotland, spending £816,000 over 157 days. 62 of these filmed in the City of Edinburgh spending £784,500 over 142 days. Highlights include:

Tiny Wonders made by Leith-based Freak Productions for CBeebies;
the Netflix documentary series Six Nations Full Contact by the makers of Drive to Survive;
The Piano filmed talented local musicians in Waverley Station;
Michael Mosley’s Just One Thing filmed on Calton Hill;
House Hunters International visited Edinburgh three times;
Interior Design Masters refurbished premises in the Old Town, Tollcross and the southside;
and The Bachelor, the USA’s longest running entertainment show, brought this year’s bachelor to Edinburgh, under the local production services of Leith-based LS Productions.

2024 Commercial production: Edinburgh is home to several production companies specialising in production of commercials and corporate films. Over the last few years, there has been a decline in commissioning in this area due to changing viewing patterns leading to a fall in advertising revenue. However, in 2024, 76 commercials were filmed on location in Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland (15% increase from 2023), spending £1,058,249 over 114 days. Of these, 66 commercials were filmed in Edinburgh spending £779,750 over 94 days.

Short films/other projects accounted for the remaining 48 productions taking place in Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders (44 of which in the city of Edinburgh).