Scotica Film

Scotica is so excited to be able to reveal our teaser for “It’s All Downhill From Here”!

Our short and sweet film follows runners Trina & Gloria in the Italian Alps - hiking, running, talking. We explore connection, belonging, and what it means to get older in this outdoor space.

The bright warmth of the sun, the laughter, Type II fun and energy of this film bring some summer back into the autumn.

A big thank you to Ellis Brigham & HOKA for helping us bring this story to life. You can watch the film at its premiere screening at Kendal Mountain Festival later this month.

Watch the full trailer: https://vimeo.com/1026479949
Tickets: https://tickets.kendalmountainfestival.com

Presented by Ellis Brigham & HOKA
Directed by Rachel Sarah
Produced by Gregor D Sinclair
Photography by Leonie Maya Isaac
Featuring Trina Dawkins & Gloria Sarpong
Fixer Christopher Wallace Tarry
Graphics Everyday Something
With thanks to Run the Alps
A Scotica Film Production

We’re well and truly settled into autumn now - a time of real visible change here in the Scottish Highlands.

These are the days of colder temperatures and darker evenings, where we try and grab any time in the sun that we are able, aware of its brevity, as we marvel in the yellows, oranges, browns of the landscape and dial into cycles of the earth.

That time between the the colours turning and leaves falling is a beautiful time to shoot, capturing a moment in time before the cold becomes deeper and we start looking at those crampons and axes.

We’re so excited that our documentary short, Finding Bo, will be screening at Kendal Mountain Festival this year, bringing Karen and Bo, and the beautiful Scottish Highlands to the big screen.

Finding Bo has been such a lovely project, one created from a love of animals, of connecting with them, and sharing them with others. We also hope that it will have impact, inspiring others to spend their time connecting with nature and animals around then, as it’s such an important tool in understanding how the world is shifting and changing around us, and what we can do to create change.

”You’re experiencing, for just a short period of time, the conditions that they live in” - a moment from Finding Bo that feels so real, as we’re immersed in the moment, in the weather.

See you all at Kendal Mountain Festival in a few weeks time.

In association with Mammal Society
With thanks to MPB

A small peek of what’s been in the edit recently. In August we found ourselves in the Italian Alps, basking in the sunshine and the beauty of the mountains.

It’s been a joy to work on this short piece - a snapshot of the Trina & Gloria’s story, their connections to one another and to the outdoors.

It’s All Downhill From Here, coming to screens next month, where it’ll be having its premiere screening at Kendal Mountain Festival 🌞

Presented by Ellis Brigham & HOKA
Directed by Rachel Sarah
Produced by Gregor D Sinclair
Photography by Leonie Maya Isaac
Featuring Trina Dawkins & Gloria Sarpong
Fixer Chris Wallace-Tarry
With thanks to Run the Alps & Everyday Something
A Scotica Film Production

Earlier this month our documentary Hardangerfolk won Best Documentary at The HB Film Festival, the perfect end to the festival run of the film.

Over the last year it’s been beautiful to see the film at festivals and screenings in the UK and beyond. Hardangerfolk is a film 80 years in the making, blending archival footage with the present - a delve into an important history that still echoes in our lives today.

After a brilliant time of seeing it on the big screen, we’ve got some exciting news about the film coming next month that we can’t wait to share with you

A Scotica Film documentary
Produced by Matthew Smith
Directed by Gregor D Sinclair
Additional editing Eilidh Munro
Featuring SOE Expeditions
Supported by Keela Tactical and Commando Spirit Whisky

From shooting expansive, rugged landscapes to capturing the smallest of details. Back in the summer the team at TCO London joined us up here in the Scottish Highlands and we shot something a little different to our usual adventure style. Shooting for GORE-TEX Brand and their campaign to encourage more folk to care for their kit, we got the probe lens out and really got into the intricate details of the fabrics.

- A Scotica Film edit with some of our favourite shots.

A lovely wee shoot and a brilliant team behind it.

Shot for GORE-TEX Brand
Directed by Hendrik Faller
Produced by Sarah Rimassa
Cinematography Gregor D Sinclair & Rachel Sarah
Assistant Fred Murray

It's almost time! Finding Bo premieres this weekend at Montrose LandxSea Film Fest, a Scottish film festival showcasing environmental and outdoor stories.

This film has been a real labour of love for all of us involved, and we're so proud to finally release the trailer for Finding Bo, a film about creativity and connections with nature.

Find out more about the screening at Montrose here: https://www.landxsea.org/notesfromsheepland2024

A Scotica Film production
Directed by Rachel Sarah
Cinematography by Rachel Sarah, Emma Crome, Gregor D. Sinclair & Roxanna Barry
Edited by Rachel Sarah & Gregor Sinclair
Featuring Karen Miller Photography
In association with Mammal Society
With thanks to MPB

What does it mean to be connected to nature? There are so many ways to feel more connected, and one of those ways, for so many folk, is through a lens.

For photographer Karen Miller Photography, looking through her camera is her way to connect with the animals she photographs. Karen’s photography feels intimate and altogether quite different to a lot of other wildlife photography we’ve seen.

And so this short film, Finding Bo, was born, and we have spent a lot of time understanding Karen’s process, both out in wild spaces and in front of the edit screen.

We are so excited to put out the trailer next week ahead of our premiere screening at Montrose Land and Sea festival next weekend.

- A fleeting moment from the film.

A behind the scenes moment from our latest shoot in the Italian Alps. A real mix of Type 1 & Type 2 fun - relentless, sweaty uphill, achey legs, tent shivering, and a lot of snack breaks with sensational views. And also the joy of witnessing pastel alpine light dance across the mountains, starry skies, and waking up to the warm sunshine on our faces.

Filmmaking in these spaces isn’t always easy, but these moments of perfect conditions, of feeling so tiny in grand spaces, and the contentedness from the simplest things, it really is unrivalled.

We’ve been off grid the last couple of days, soaking in the mountains views a little further afield than home. There’s something pretty magic about watching the sun go down in the mountains, about the journey to getting there, and the lasting emotions that experiences like these bring. Whether it’s commercial or documentary, it is a privilege to shoot in these spaces, and it’s always feels real.

- some moments from a past shoot, in the shadow of the Cuillin, on the beautiful Isle of Skye.

Director: Gregor D Sinclair
B-Cam: Eilidh Munro
AC: Charlie Harris
AD: Michael Yeoman
HMUA: Emma Gandolfo
Models: Ben Oakes /Andrew Wood / Emma Hamilton / Rita Yost
Client: Talisker
Agency: Fold7 / Kate Hinton / Verity Fine Hosken / Chhaya Kapila

Scotica Director, Gregor, has been out this week tending to the honeybee apiary, and had these musings to share:

”Honeybees are fascinating and remarkably intelligent beasts. But what a lot of folk don’t realise is that, for the most part, they’re essentially livestock. Apis mellifera ligustica, the most common species in commercial beekeeping, is a domesticated variety from Italy, while our own native ‘dark honeybee’, Apis mellifera mellifera, is confined only to a few isles in the Outer Hebrides.

”Beekeeping is a wonderful way to connect with your environment and produce delicious local food. However, we have lost two thirds of our pollinators in the past twenty years alone, a sobering statistic. And competition with large commercial honey farms has only exacerbated the issue.

”So when we talk about ‘saving our bees’, let’s concentrate on the hundreds of other species our isles are home to - such as the 24 varieties of bumblebee, or mason bees, or my personal favourite, the ashy mining bee. And let’s bring back Apis mellifera mellifera!”

A moment from one of our latest shoots, camera in hand and exploring what's beneath the surface in our UK waters.

Did you know that seagrasses are the ocean’s only flowering plants? Over millions of years seagrass has slowly ‘devolved’ back into the water, and as such provides a truly unique ecosystem for countless fish, invertebrates and microscopic life. According to Project Seagrass, these ecosystems can support up to 30x the number of species as surrounding areas. And, like kelp forests, they are a fantastic store of carbon.

Seagrass ‘meadows’ have been one the decline in the UK for the past century, thanks in part to disease, dredging and sewage dumping. It’s more important than ever to make sure these incredible habitats are protected and restored.