A Wee Blether With... Tim Maskell

The film location manager finds Scottish places for feature films and TV series - including Shetland

- Words: DANIELLA THEIS

Can you describe your role?

I’m usually one of the first people on set. Usually you've got the producer - who's the first sort of freelancer underneath whatever production company it is that's creating the show - then a line producer, and then you've got myself as a location manager. Quite often I'm on the job even before a designer or a director because I'll be doing a sort of recce or scout to basically try to get the ball rolling with finding locations.

How do you think of and find locations?

When I get the script, I do a location breakdown of all the scene headings and different locations that are written in - even down to the point where, let's say, you've got a hero house, which is your main house. You have to think: how many bedrooms are there? Are there one or two versions? Are they in the bathroom, in the kitchen, in the dining-room?