The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
A film-star SOS saves Scotland's Screen Machine mobile cinema — £1.49m raised
When the Highlands' mobile cinema broke down, Collective London made it the hero of its own trailer — Alan Cumming narrates, and £1.49m buys a new vehicle.
Regional Screen Scotland · Collective London
What it had to solve
The Screen Machine, a mobile cinema serving over 34,000 people across 44 remote Scottish communities (half of them islands) for 26 years, had finally broken down; the temporary replacement was costly and could not fit on every ferry. A new vehicle would cost £1.7m, so Regional Screen Scotland needed public donations and pressure on major funders to secure it.
How it works
For 26 years the Screen Machine has brought Hollywood to the remotest parts of Scotland — a mobile cinema delivering the latest films to more than 34,000 people across 44 communities, half of them islands, and selling about 21,000 tickets a year. When its vehicle finally broke down, the future of the service hung in the balance.
Regional Screen Scotland turned to Collective London, whose senior copywriter Zack Gardner had discovered the Screen Machine after asking his grandmother on Harris whether she had seen 'Oppenheimer' — she had not, because the Screen Machine had not been yet. Together they launched 'Save Our Screen Machine', a fundraising campaign fronted by a short film narrated by Alan Cumming.
The film made the van itself the hero of a Highlands Hollywood trailer: village names spelled out in Hollywood-sign letters, dramatic Highland scenery, a soundtrack donated by Tide Lines, and a cliffhanger shot of the Screen Machine teetering over a precipice — a salute to 'The Italian Job' that stood for its precarious future. The cliff gag was built in realtime 3D because a practical recreation was far beyond the campaign's very tight budget.
The appeal asked the public for an initial £100,000 to push potential major funders, including the Scottish Government, into action. The donations came, and the funding followed.
Why it lands
- Treating a beloved community service as a movie star made the fundraising film itself an act of love, not a plea.
- Cinema language — Hollywood signs, an Italian Job homage, a table-read script ending in 'And action!' — made the medium echo the cause.
- Realtime 3D let a tiny budget deliver a spectacular cliffhanger with no van harmed and no Hollywood price tag.
- The film turned a logistical problem into a story everyone could root for, converting audiences into lobbyists and donors.
What it did
The crowd appeal succeeded and the wider campaign closed in December 2025 having raised £1.49m: over £110,000 in public donations, a £500,000 Scottish Government grant announced in May 2025, £350,000 each from SSEN Transmission's Community Fund and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, £150,000 from the Anne Duchess of Westminster's Fund and £35,000 from other trusts. A new vehicle was ordered and was expected to arrive in June 2026, securing the service into the 2040s.
What you can take
For a cause people already love, write the appeal as a love letter: make the threatened thing the star of its own trailer, and the audience becomes the backer that green-lights the sequel.
Since then
The appeal drew donations and support across Scotland and beyond, with Alan Cumming sharing it himself. In May 2025 the Scottish Government awarded £500,000, allowing an order for the vehicle, and in December 2025 the £1.49m target was reached — over £110,000 in public donations joined £350,000 each from SSEN Transmission and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, £150,000 from the Anne Duchess of Westminster's Fund and £35,000 from other trusts. The new vehicle, built in France, was expected in June 2026.
Sources
- Scotland's Mobile Cinema Launches SOS Appeal to Bring Hollywood to the Highlands
- Fundraising for new Screen Machine mobile cinema is complete
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