Bathgate might not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of Hollywood glamour, but the town is fast making a name for itself in the movie industry.
Multi-million pound film studios have been created at the Pyramids, following investment from Amazon, which filmed scenes from hit show Good Omens starring the town’s own David Tennant.
Scenes from Trainspotting 2 from Sony Pictures and Outlaw King from Netflix have also been filmed at Pyramids Studios.
Now, Bathgate Cinema has created its own in-house studio complete with a green screen in the hope of attracting more film companies to bring their projects to the town.
The studio has been funded and built by No Reel Productions team Kevin Wells, Sebastian Kulwicki, Jay Mack, Heather Dow, Scott Kempik and Andrew Henderson, who already have music videos for the likes of The Snuts under their belts.
They are also some of the names behind the hit podcast Jibber Jabber, which organised a special screening of Lost Boys in 2020 and brought over Gerard MacMahon, who wrote the song Cry Little Sister for the film’s soundtrack for a special performance.
The podcast specialises in all things cinematic and Kevin Wells, who is also the manager of the cinema, said they have made some important contacts over the years in Hollywood thanks to their work.
He said: “The cinema is huge so we basically went in, stripped some of it out and created the green screen.
“The great thing is we have a lot of friends in Hollywood now through years of podcasting and a lot of them will be coming over here to the Pyramids to film whatever the next blockbuster is, so when that happens there will be some scope to come here and shoot,
“Aside from the cinema, which is the day job, we’re really trying to boost and bring more to the cinema through the green screen.”
Kevin said the No Reel Productions team raised more than £5000 needed to create the green screen space.
He continued: “We’re all people from Bathgate and surrounding areas who have been doing this kind of thing for free for the past five years and are now trying to make it our day job, which would be an dream job for me to be able to work within the movie industry.
“On top of that, because there are so many unused and untapped wells with the cinema, we will be bringing bigger names to the town to do Q&As and things.
“There’s going to be a lot of things going on because we have a really nice space with a stage and cinema so altogether it works really well.
“We’ll be spreading the message that the cinema is the place to be if you want to get a bit closer to Hollywood.”
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