Talisman Films Scotland was formed in 1982 as a film group of friends, Bill Gourlay, Gordon and Marianne Ellis.

Their first project was a remake of the film – ‘Now and Then’ which Gordon and John Somerville had previously shot as a silent film in 1974. The original version had been quite well received by audiences at various cine clubs.

By the 80s Gordon was familiar enough with ‘Live sound’ cine cameras to want to produce a drama with dialogue and the ‘Now and Then’ script was an ideal project to update.

The inclusion of live sound proved a major challenge but the end result greatly enhanced the story and this was borne out by audience and critical reaction with the film picking up a large number of awards.

This ambitious production involved a lot of people and generated a good deal of interest, to the extent that the first public showing of the film was in local Dunfermline Cinema, ‘The Orient Express’.

At the same time as ‘Now and Then’ was in production, news came out that the Dunfermline Opera House was scheduled for demolition to make way for the Kingsgate shopping centre. Talisman films had an ideal second film subject, although they initially set out to merely record the building as still photographs (some of which were featured in The Dunfermline Press). It very quickly dawned on them that this would make a good documentary. The publicity of the Dunfermline Press coverage generated a number of interviewees and each interview seemed to produce many more leads to be followed and people to interview. One of Scottish Music Hall’s leading lights, Jimmy Logan, was appearing at the Adam Smith Theatre in Kirkcaldy and was only too delighted to talk to the group and let them film an interview about his appearances in the Opera House.

1985 was British Film Year and Talisman Film’s contribution was the drama ‘Mini for Sale’. Lessons had been learned from the previous drama and the whole production was tightened up in the script, camerawork and editing departments. These improvements were appreciated on the club circuit and the film went on to considerable success.

Another film that began as a photographic exercise was also started in 1985 and was all about what had been at the time an absolute music icon – the Glasgow Apollo. This was to be the group’s most ambitious project at that time and involved many hours filming the immense building itself and interviewing the people who were linked to its story. Dougie Donnelly of Radio Clyde and Liz Kristiansen of STV kindly gave their time in this production. STV themselves made a studio available to help the group. This production helped hone Talisman Films interviewing and filming techniques. The history and character of the building meant there were numerous astonishing stories to be told, some too libellous to commit to film! The film continued a rich vein of form and garnered numerous awards.

The Apollo had been the biggest project the group had dealt with and it would be 1989 before the next new production commenced; ‘The Obsession’ was a return to drama and was the first film shot with new group member, John Davis. The title referred to film making and used local amateur dramatic talent; it represented the groups first (intentional) attempt at comedy.

1992 saw another drama; ‘The Babysitter’ used cast members from local amateur dramatic group Incognito. Cameron Kilcoyne who had previously helped with post-production on recent efforts, joined the group at this point. The film had a darker edge than earlier productions.

VE Day events were held throughout the country in 1995 and Talisman films set out with a very ambitious project to capture people’s recollections of the war as well as the events of the present day. This was the last production Talisman Films were to shoot on super 8.

Filming went far afield including north to Carnoustie and the US Airforce base at Edzell.

After this filming was done on video.