We would like to invite you to tender for our new exciting film work “The Dynamism of the Inner Solway”. The is an important piece of work for SCAMP Landscape Connections because it will help engage people with the inner Solway highlighting it’s unique and dynamic environment.
The deadline for submissions is the 29th April 2026 at 5.00pm. The deadline for the completion of the film is February 2027.
Film Brief
To create an empowering, emotive film that explores the atmosphere and dynamic changing environment of the inner Solway. From where three rivers enter the Solway at Gretna to the changing movements of the sand and mud. The Inner Solway is eerily beautiful and yet also is laced with danger; were one to get caught out on the merse or the mudflats at the wrong time of day when the weather and the mists come in. The film will capture this sense of place that reverberates through time.
The Inner Solway is a place where traditions have faded and disappeared into the mists of time. People have more recently become disconnected from the dynamic, changing and dangerous environment. We would like to explore how these connections and disconnections have changed through time and what people might like for the future of this unique environment. For instance, how to restore and respond to the challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change in this coastal and marine seascape with all its dynamic shifting sands, saltmarsh and estuaries.
Background
Our planet is in trouble, and this is felt acutely in our coastal environments. Predicted sea level rises, oceanic acidification and warming are all risks to biodiversity and people living around our coastal zone. Healthy ecosystems can and will mitigate many of these pressures – nature already has the solutions, but we need to give a helping hand.
There is hope! The council’s environment team working with partners, other environmental bodies and communities across the Solway, have been working on a seascape scale nature restoration project which will be one of the most ambitious projects for coastal and marine nature restoration in the UK.
Habitat restoration is primary aim of the SCAMP project. Habitats such as seagrass meadow and saltmarsh can lock up huge amounts of carbon and provide rich biodiversity, rivalling that of a tropical coral reef. Seagrass can provide shelter, territory and important food for fish and other marine organisms. On the edge, saltmarsh can protect inland communities against storm surges and coastal woodland locks up carbon and cool our air. Connected healthy habitats can work together to provide an eco-system service that helps sustain coastal living for all species.
As well as restoring fragile habitats and helping them to expand, we are also working closely with the communities that live across the Solway seascape to involve them in all aspects of the habitat restorations and explore the benefits this might bring to their communities. Young people will be involved with SCAMP science and ecology from the start; building a sense of purpose and creating opportunities for people of all ages to help nature thrive.
Voices of the Inner Solway
Although this film will carry valuable information, the primary aims is to evoke emotion, empathy and insight for the natural world within the Inner Solway. It will be up to the filmmaker to drive how this is achieved, for instance, it may give the estuary, saltmarsh, nature a voice, or through the words of people and place communicate deeper connections.
How do local people view the Inner Solway and how do naturalists, conservationists, ecologists, tourists and people working within this environment feel when they are experiencing it. Do they love it, respect it? Fear it?
How has the past influenced how we perceive the seascape and its marine environment? What are the opportunities for the future nature restoration?
The film should help connect people with this special foreboding dynamic seascape and evoke a sense of curiosity and a desire to explore and restore the ecology and beauty of this special place.
Style
The film can be moody, eerie and revealing about the complex ecology of the seascape of the inner Solway.
The film might, through its content, design and emphasis, communicate the potential for this habitat to thrive and provide nature-based opportunities and solutions for invigorating its interconnected habitats (including human interactions with the habitats) and protect against the challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change.
The film may use aerial drone footage and would get access to people and equipment through the SCAMP Landscape Connections team and their partners.
Where
The seascape of the Inner Solway, from Gretna to Southerness. To film within the coastal environment and its dynamic changing landscape and estuaries. Saltmarsh is likely to be the primary habitat, but coastal woodlands and sand dunes are in existence in this are too.
Process
You will be working closely with Jan Hogarth from SCAMP on the development and delivery of the film. Jan will help support and advise on who might be helpful and recent SCAMP developments, connecting you with people, equipment and environments as required.
To Apply and Deadline
Please provide short written proposal of how you would approach this film and why you are interested in the opportunity, including past experience you feel to be relevant including links to previous films which you feel are relevant (maximum 3 sides of A4). The deadline for interest is Wednesday 29thApril
Timescale
Deadline: end of February 2027.
Fee
£6000 (including travel and expenses) excluding VAT
Examples of Films:
The primary aim of this film is to evoke emotion, empathy and insight for the natural world within the inner Solway.
Making Rewilding Happen (Scotland the Big Picture)
Billy and Molly The seasonal nature and visual imagery…
Coastodians Charting the Future of Scotland’s Solway Coast
Film & Video :: Dalziel + Scullion – Environmental Art
Cairngorms Connect: A Wild Landscape in the Making Cairngorms Connect
