Two weeks, eight days, a lot of miles and more laybys than I care to count. The Screen Scotland database refresh took me across Stirlingshire with a camera and a list – familiar ground, seen with fresh eyes.

In June 2023 I was sent out alone to find a small coastal town somewhere on the west or north coast of Scotland. Two weeks, my own car, and one of the finest early summers in recent memory. It's rarely that simple.

In the summer of 2019 I got a call about a two-episode Scottish shoot on a show called Succession. I should say I was already a fan. What followed involved Gleneagles, the V&A in Dundee, Kendall's rap, and one of the Roy siblings in my back seat asking "how bout here?" with increasing urgency.

Everyone assumes location management is just travelling around finding beautiful places. It is, for about a third of the time. The rest is permits, parking, and the shitty stick.

There's an unwritten rule in Scottish film and TV production: stay within an hour of Glasgow or Edinburgh. It's understandable. It's also leaving a lot of great locations sitting unused.

I spent ten years as a professional musician before stumbling into location management. Turns out the two jobs have more in common than you'd think.