Northern Lights is a film about Scotland made by you

As part of the Year Of Creative Scotland 2012 we asked members of the public to collaborate with us in the creation of a unique feature-length documentary film.

We asked you to take out your cameras and record your own personal videos about Scotland’s past, present and future.

Project submissions were open from 20 March to 21 June 2012 and you could submit as many video contributions as you liked.

We then gathered together all this footage and edited it into a unique, first in a lifetime, vision of Scotland in the Year 2012.

During the 3 month submission period we asked the public to consider three questions:

What Can You See?
What Do You Wish You Had Seen?
What Would You Like To See?

Anyone could take part in the project and we were particularly interested in submissions from first-time video makers.

During the submission period we also delivered 55 filmmaking Workshops throughout Scotland.

Northern Lights also distributed £10,000 of awards to those selected by our judges as amongst the best contributors to the project within the 3 month submission period. Visit the Awards to see the winning submissions.

To keep up to date with all the news on the project and the final feature film that we have created follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or sign up for our newsletter via the homepage.

For more information please see our FAQs and read our Terms & Conditions.

So what did people choose to share about their Scotland?

If you haven’t seen the film yet keep an eye on our Screenings page to rediscover Scotland through the eyes of those who took part.

Show us your Scotland!

Northern Lights is all about having your say and sharing your Scotland with us.

For Phase 2 of the project from June 2013 onwards, we’re inviting more submissions which will be exhibited on this site and digitally at a number of key events during 2014, the Year of Homecoming in Scotland.

The best ones will also be championed on our social media channels. You don’t need to be  a filmmaker. We’re looking for raw talent and authentic voices, people with something to say.  Simple pieces to camera work best – just be yourselves and have fun!

If you are a first-timer, you might want to check out our videos on Preparing, Shooting and Submitting your footage.

Get in touch

Sign up for information to receive occassional emails about the project.

You can contact the production here >

For any press related enquiries please contact Alison here >

About our Funders:

Creative Scotland is the national leader for Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries. It’s our job to help Scotland’s creativity shine at home and abroad.
We invest in talented people and exciting ideas. We develop the creative industries and champion everything that’s good about Scottish creativity.
Scotland boasts an incredible range of talent, from award-winning directors and writers to widely recognised actors and internationally renowned visual artists, architects and digital companies. As a result of the wealth of indigenous talent, Scotland produces a huge volume of home-grown productions and products each year.
We think Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries are worth shouting about. We’ll lead the shouting.

The Year of Creative Scotland 2012 celebrated and promoted Scotland’s cultural and creative vibrancy, shining a spotlight on our creative assets, providing a test-bed for new initiatives and a launch platform for activity to support the Year of Homecoming in 2014.

Year of Creative Scotland provided a chance to work together to promote Scotland’s festivals, our great cities, to get Scotland dancing, to shine a spotlight on the contribution that people and places play in making us a leading creative nation. This is a chance to recognise our great historic names of culture and to celebrate our contemporary icons. It is also a chance to create a platform on a world stage for the talent of today’s Creative Scotland.

As with all the Focus Years, the Year of Creative Scotland steering group is led by EventScotland on behalf of the Scottish Government. Creative Scotland is the key partner in this year, working with Visit Scotland and VOCAL on behalf of local government. Activity supported through Creative Scotland’s budgets in the year will benefit from the additional profile offered through Year of Creative Scotland, and London 2012. The year will help to position the cultural sector’s work and reputation strongly with the people of Scotland, actual and potential visitors and creative peers in other countries.

By presenting a year-long programme, the Year of Creative Scotland helped to frame the cultural offer for the London 2012 activity taking place in Scotland within the wider context of Scotland as a creative nation. It will also use the 3-year opportunity, afforded by the concurrence of Year of Creative Scotland with the Olympic Games, Paralympics and the Cultural Olympiad, and the run up to Commonwealth Games in 2014, to highlight Scotland’s strengths as a creative nation. Year of Creative Scotland aims to exploit the significant media platform offered by London 2012 to raise awareness of and participation in Scotland’s rich cultural programme.

First In A Lifetime Fund: Scotland is a creative nation with world-class artists and creative practitioners, but not everyone gets to enjoy or take part in creative activity. They may have been prevented from doing this because of lack of opportunity, financial constraints, social inequalities, location, access issues or just lack of confidence.

We want to help exceptional artists and creative people, and organisations of quality, to increase “first in a lifetime” opportunities for people who do not normally get the chance. We are looking for projects that will have a big visible and lasting impact, either through the scope of activity or through depth of engagement. This may mean a national programme involving many participants and places, or very precise targeting of a specific area or group to affect profound change. 

The proposed engagement must be qualitatively new, creative and meaningful. Participation methods need to be rigorous and imaginative with the potential for collaborative, innovative partnerships. They should connect people and their communities through the arts and creativity.

This project relates to the Participation strand of Year of Creative Scotland investment.