Film crew hire/Edinburgh/Studios and set builds
Film studios in Edinburgh. Stages, coves, green screens and set builds.
Edinburgh’s stages are at FirstStage Studios on Bath Road in Leith, home to The Rig, Anansi Boys and Department Q: five stages, two of them about 24,000 sq ft, two gantry cranes and a 25-metre pit that fills as a tank. For product, interviews and anything keyed later, there are coves, green screens and daylight studios on the Shore, in Gorgie, at Broxburn and by the Pentland Hills, some of them priced online. Here’s who has what, what a day costs, and how a set gets built, with the crew booked by our producers.
Stage B · FirstStage
24,000 sq ft
Tank · Stage C
25 × 5 × 5 m
Green screen · Broxburn
19 × 6.1 m
Daylight studio · Gorgie
£350 a day
On this page
01 Which kind of space
Stage, cove or a room with character?
For builds
Sound stage
A big, quiet box for builds: commercials with sets, drama, anything with walls that move. FirstStage Studios in Leith, with five stages and a tank, or the Pyramids at Bathgate, out along the M8, when it has to be bigger.
For product and interviews
Cove, green screen or blackout
A blacked-out room with a cove or a green screen, for product, interviews, music videos and anything you’ll key later: Freakworxx on the Shore and M2 Films in Leith, East Mains Studio at Broxburn, Edinburgh Film Studios at Nine Mile Burn, and Edinburgh College’s TV studio at Granton.
For interviews
A room with character
A Georgian room in the New Town, a boardroom on St Andrew Square, a stone warehouse on the Shore at Leith, or one of the council’s own libraries.
Worth asking first
For a one- or two-person interview, a studio isn’t always the answer. The client’s own floor off George Street, or a New Town room with tall windows, says something about the company that a green screen can’t. Our guide to filming in Edinburgh: locations and permits is the place to start.
02 Stages
Stages in Leith, and within reach
Edinburgh’s big stages are at FirstStage Studios in Leith: five of them, each below from the studio’s own specifications. It publishes no day rate.
| FirstStage Studios | Floor | Height | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage A | 14,759 sq ft | 26 m | A 20-tonne full-reach gantry crane; an 8.9 × 6.9 m door; up to 800A three-phase |
| Stage B | 24,000 sq ft | 26 m | A 60-tonne full-reach gantry crane and a mother truss; up to 1,200A on powerlock |
| Stage C | 24,294 sq ft | 19 m | A 25 × 5 × 5 m build-down pit under removable covers, which fills for water work (787,500 litres); up to 800A |
| Stage D | 9,882 sq ft | 14.7 m | A 6 × 4.9 m door; up to 400A three-phase |
| Stage E | 9,675 sq ft | 26 m | A 7.2 × 5.9 m roller shutter; up to 1,200A on powerlock |
| Workshop 4 | 29,000 sq ft | Ask | Offered as a blacked-out build space or stage as well |
Around the stages, the 8.9-acre site has about 35,000 sq ft of workshops, the mill among them, 18,000 sq ft of production offices, room for more than 300 vehicles, and access for articulated trucks throughout. It sits close to the Shore, about 15 minutes from Waverley and under ten minutes’ walk from a tram stop, by its own account.
FirstStage has been home to The Rig, Anansi Boys and Department Q, and hosted The Outrun, including the studio’s first underwater shoot. It takes commercials and brand productions as well as drama, and hosts unit bases for features shooting in and around the city.
On a stage, the lighting plan sets the bill as much as the floor. The gaffer brings the kit or hires it in, with a spark or two to rig it, and FirstStage has its own riggers, with lifting plans for the two gantry cranes. Our guide to film equipment hire in Edinburgh lists who has what.
For more floor, the nearest stages are out along the M8 at Bathgate and towards Glasgow, about 45 minutes from Edinburgh by train.
| Studio | Where | What’s there | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pyramids Studios | Easter Inch, Bathgate, West Lothian, off the M8 at junction 3A | Two stages, of about 45,000 and 60,500 sq ft, with production offices, support space and a backlot. Planning permission is in place for another 120,000 sq ft of studio. | Has hosted T2 Trainspotting, Outlaw King, Good Omens 2 and The Buccaneers. Operated by The MBS Group, quoted on enquiry. |
| Wardpark Studios | Wyndford Road, Cumbernauld, off the M80 · G68 0BA | Seven stages of 5,500 to 14,000 sq ft, soundproofed and blacked out, with paint and plaster shops, construction space and production offices. | Outlander’s home for eight series, and for Outlander: Blood of My Blood. 300 parking spaces on site. |
| BBC Studioworks, Kelvin Hall | 1445 Argyle Street, Glasgow · G3 8AW | One 10,500 sq ft studio, 35 × 28 m and 10.2 m high, fully soundproofed and blacked out, with production, sound and lighting galleries and 12 en-suite dressing rooms. | Has hosted The Weakest Link, Bridge of Lies and Balamory. Truck access from Old Dumbarton Road, and a crew booking service with the studio. |
Not a stage yet
Pentland Studios, the big studio planned for Straiton in Midlothian, won planning permission in principle on appeal in December 2017, then stalled in a dispute over the land; in 2019 its developer proposed a site at Saltersgate, near Dalkeith, instead. In October 2026 neither site is on Screen Scotland’s studio list, so there’s nothing there to book.
03 Coves and green screens
Coves, green screens and blackout
For product, interviews, music videos and anything keyed later, in Leith, Gorgie and just outside the city. Two publish a current price on their own site. Checked October 2026.
| Studio | Where | The space | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freakworxx Studio Facilities | Broad Wynd, the Shore, Leith · EH6 6QZ | A 14.7 × 6.76 m floor with a 10 × 5.73 m infinity cove, 3.85 m to the lighting rig. White, full blackout or a 360° green screen; 100A three-phase; make-up, dressing and green rooms, and Freakworxx’s own post suites on site. Not soundproofed, Screen Scotland’s list says; the studio says it suits interviews and sync sound, so ask. | Half and full days, on enquiry. The cove is included; repainting it can be charged. |
| East Mains Studio | Dunnet Way, Broxburn, West Lothian · EH52 5NN | 4,200 sq ft (21.5 × 18 m), 8 m to the roof and 6.3 m to the beams. A 19 × 6.1 m green screen that runs straight or curves 9 m round the corner, a 4 × 4 m load-in door and 400A three-phase. Low-noise, but not a sound stage, it says. | £1,200 a shoot day, £600 a build or rehearsal day. Power £150 a day, the green screen £50, an electrician £350. Weekly on request. |
| Edinburgh Film Studios | Nine Mile Burn, Midlothian, off the A702 · EH26 9LT | A 1,450 sq ft soundproofed stage, 13 × 10 m and 4 m high, with an infinity cove, a pre-lit green screen, blackout drapes all round, a 30 × 40 ft lighting grid and 600A three-phase. Make-up, green room and office; lighting, distro and grip on site. | On enquiry. An undated rate card on its own site says £300 a day for film or video, with electricity on top. |
| M2 Films | Swanfield, Leith · EH6 5RX | About 1,000 sq ft (11 × 8 m) on the ground floor of a light industrial unit, 11 ft to the ceiling, blacked out throughout, with a 32A supply and a full kitchen. Not soundproof. Profoto flash, LED and HMI lighting to hire. | On enquiry, by the full weekday, 9am to 6pm. Half days only on top of a full day; weekends on request. |
| Burgh Studios | Gorgie Road · EH11 2RN | 1,175 sq ft of daylight on the ground floor: 4 m ceilings, six south-east windows and an 8 × 5.4 m white shoot area with a 90-degree corner. Blackout as an option, Film Edinburgh’s guide says. | £350 for eight hours, £200 for four (usually same-week only), £40 an hour overtime, plus VAT. |
| Edinburgh College | West Granton Road · EH5 1QE, and Sighthill | A TV studio with set lighting at Granton, with a technician and cameras for an extra fee; photography studios at Sighthill, one a double studio with an infinity wall. | On request, from its space hire team. Weekdays 9am to 9pm, weekends 9am to 5pm. |
Bigger, emptier rooms
Film Edinburgh’s studio list adds three spaces that aren’t studios as such. The Big Shed at Drummohr, near Musselburgh, is a converted riding arena, 8 × 20 m and 6 m high, hung with black curtains, with a set and prop workshop next door. The Edinburgh Corn Exchange on Newmarket Road is a listed building of seven spaces, used apart or together. The Paper Factory on Turnhouse Road is 210,000 sq ft of a former paper factory, left as it was when the last occupier moved out in early 2024, for industrial interiors, storage and unit bases.
04 Our bookings
Rooms and sets we’ve booked
None of the first three was in Edinburgh, and each says where it was. They’re here because the same calls come up on an Edinburgh shoot: a studio at short notice, a quiet room, a set dressed from nothing. The last is how we’d crew a studio day here.
Our work · London · Mar 2026
A studio in four days, for AlTi
AlTi Tiedemann Global needed an announcement from its Global Chief Investment Officer, Nancy Curtin, filmed within four days. We found a studio, booked a crew under NDA and filmed it on 23 March 2026, a conversation lit to look clean rather than staged.
Our work · Hackney Road, London · Nov 2024
HIDE and LOFT, Perseverance Works
About 2,000 sq ft of daylight on a top floor for AlTi’s interviews with three senior staff on 12 November 2024, 14 cast and crew in all. We booked the floor below as well, to keep noise off the sound, and set up the afternoon before.
Our work · Upper East Side, New York · Sep 2026
A library dressed from empty, for Nevis × Focus
A panelled library came empty, so everything on screen was brought in, down to the chairs, for three interviews and a three-way conversation on five cameras, all in one afternoon.
How we crew it · Edinburgh
A cove in Leith, or a stage on Bath Road
A product or interview day in a Leith cove needs a small crew: a DOP, a sound recordist and a gaffer with a van, with kit from Lights Camera Scotland or Live Systems on North Leith Sands when the crew’s own won’t cover it. A build at FirstStage brings in the art director and set builders for the days before the shoot, and the gaffer plans power and rigging with the studio’s riggers.
05 Set builds
Set builds in Edinburgh
A set build runs in four stages: design, construction, dressing and strike. The art director designs it, set builders and scenic painters make it, the props team dresses it, and the same people take it down and clear the stage.
Edinburgh’s build space includes FirstStage’s four workshops, about 35,000 sq ft with a mill, for productions on its stages, and The Big Shed near Musselburgh, which has a workshop for set building and prop making beside its floor and a venue manager with contacts for makers, carpenters, welders and riggers.
Film Edinburgh’s production guide lists Carnival Chaos, an Edinburgh design studio that builds sets, stages, signs and props, freelance set carpenters with film and TV drama credits, and Tower Productions and Live Systems for power and rigging. When a build needs more hands than are free in and around Edinburgh, builders come from elsewhere in Scotland, the north of England or London, with the travel on the quote before anything is booked.
On a stage, ask about load-in before anything is drawn. FirstStage’s stage doors run from 6 × 4.9 m on Stage D to 8.9 × 6.9 m on Stage A, with access for articulated trucks throughout; East Mains loads through a 4 × 4 m door; Freakworxx’s entrance is 3 × 2.5 m.
Building, fitting out and taking down a temporary set for film or TV falls under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, the HSE says. On location in Edinburgh, the Film Edinburgh application asks about special effects, animals, firearms and nudity, and its 2026–27 fees put hoarding at £158 for under 28 days, a site hut or container at £137 a unit for under a month, a cherry picker at £63 a day per location and a crane at £126 a day, all plus VAT (checked October 2026).
Through us, an art director is £675–878 a day and a set builder £341–512, before the 10% booking fee and 2% insurance. The rest of the art department is on our props and wardrobe guide.
06 Costs
What a studio day includes, and what costs extra
The rate
Two publish a current price. Burgh Studios on Gorgie Road is £350 for an eight-hour day and £200 for four hours, plus VAT; East Mains Studio in Broxburn is £1,200 a shoot day (checked October 2026). FirstStage, Freakworxx, M2 and Edinburgh College quote on enquiry, and Edinburgh Film Studios’ only published rate is on an undated rate card.
What’s in the day
Ask before comparing. At East Mains the 400A supply is £150 a day and the green screen £50 on top of the room; Freakworxx includes its cove and standard facilities and may charge to repaint the cove; Edinburgh Film Studios keeps lighting, distro and grip on site to hire.
Set-up and strike
Usually extra, and on a build they can be most of the booking. East Mains prices a build or rehearsal day at £600, half its shoot day; elsewhere, ask for build and strike days priced on their own.
Hours and weekends
M2 hires by the full weekday, 9am to 6pm, with half days only on top of a full day and weekends on request. Burgh’s half days are usually for same-week bookings, and Edinburgh College hires its studios until 9pm on weekdays and from 9am to 5pm at weekends.
Parking and load-in
FirstStage has room for more than 300 vehicles and takes articulated trucks; Edinburgh Film Studios has drive-in access around the clock and parking for up to 25; East Mains has a 38-space car park and room for two trucks by its 4 × 4 m loading door. Freakworxx has on-street parking on the Shore, and M2 has two or three spaces.
The Low Emission Zone
Edinburgh’s zone circles the city centre, from Tollcross to Palmerston Place, Queen Street, Picardy Place, Abbeyhill and the Pleasance, around the clock. There’s no charge to pay your way in: a car or van below Euro 6 diesel or Euro 4 petrol is sent a £60 penalty (checked October 2026). The Edinburgh studios on this page are all outside it, but the drive to an Old Town location isn’t, so we only book vehicles that meet it. More in our guide to shoot logistics in Edinburgh.
Power
Check it against the lighting plan. FirstStage has up to 3,500A on site and up to 1,200A to a stage; Edinburgh Film Studios has 600A three-phase, East Mains 400A, Freakworxx 100A three-phase, and M2 a 32A supply.
Insurance
Every studio wants a public liability certificate, and Freakworxx says so on its studio page. On a crew hire it’s yours, as producer of record; on a full production it’s ours, naming the studio. Filming on council land, Film Edinburgh asks for £10m.
Need a studio in Edinburgh?
Send the dates, the set-up and how many people. We’ll come back with the right space, the build and the crew, priced line by line. Or call us on 07412 543822.
Quick contact form
07 Questions
Film studios in Edinburgh: questions
How much does it cost to hire a film studio in Edinburgh?
Most Edinburgh studios quote on enquiry. Two publish current prices on their own sites (checked October 2026): Burgh Studios on Gorgie Road is £350 for an eight-hour day and £200 for four hours, plus VAT, and East Mains Studio in Broxburn, West Lothian, is £1,200 a shoot day and £600 a build or rehearsal day, with power and the green screen on top. FirstStage Studios in Leith quotes by date and stage.
Which Edinburgh studio has the biggest stages?
FirstStage Studios, on Bath Road in Leith. Its biggest stages, B and C, are each about 24,000 sq ft; Stage B has a 60-tonne gantry crane and 26 metres of height, and Stage C a 25-metre pit that fills for water work (checked October 2026). For more floor, the Pyramids at Bathgate, between Edinburgh and Glasgow, has two stages of about 45,000 and 60,500 sq ft.
What has been filmed at FirstStage Studios?
The Rig, Anansi Boys and Department Q, and The Outrun, which included the studio’s first underwater shoot. FirstStage also takes commercials and brand productions, and hosts unit bases for features shooting in and around Edinburgh, by its own account.
Where can I find a green screen or infinity cove in Edinburgh?
Freakworxx on the Shore in Leith has a 10 by 5.73 metre infinity cove and can be set up as a 360-degree green screen. East Mains Studio in Broxburn has a 19 by 6.1 metre green screen that curves round a corner, Edinburgh Film Studios at Nine Mile Burn has an infinity cove and a pre-lit green screen, and Edinburgh College’s Sighthill campus has a photography studio with an infinity wall (checked October 2026).
What happened to Pentland Studios?
There’s nothing there to book yet. Planning permission in principle for a studio complex at Straiton, Midlothian, was granted on appeal in December 2017; the project then stalled in a dispute over the land, and in 2019 its developer proposed a site at Saltersgate, near Dalkeith, instead. In October 2026 neither site is on Screen Scotland’s list of studios, so the stages near Edinburgh are FirstStage in Leith and the Pyramids at Bathgate.
Can you book the studio for us?
Yes, on the same quote as the crew. We check what’s free for your dates, and on a crew hire the studio goes on at the same 10% booking fee and 2% insurance as everything else we book. Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours.
Can you build a set for an Edinburgh shoot?
Yes, through us: an art director designs it, set builders make it in a workshop or on site, and the same team strikes it. At FirstStage a build can use the studio’s workshops and riggers. On location, Film Edinburgh charges for hoarding, site huts, cherry pickers and cranes, and its application asks about special effects.
Studio or location for an interview?
For one or two people in Edinburgh, often a location: the client’s own floor off St Andrew Square, a New Town room or a warehouse on the Shore gives the film a sense of place a green screen can’t. A studio wins for product, music videos and anything you’ll key later, and in August, when the festivals fill the Old Town, a studio in Leith or out at Broxburn keeps the day clear of the crowds.
Around the crew
More for Edinburgh shoots
01
Kit rental
Kit houses in Leith and out towards the airport, the crew’s own kit, and what comes from Glasgow or London.
02
Locations and permits
Film Edinburgh, Historic Environment Scotland, Waverley, the kirkyards, the trams and the drone rules.
