Compact Pictures gears up for growth with dedicated film and TV labels
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 07 December 2020
Four years after being set up by award-winning TV and film writer/director John McKay (Life on Mars, We’ll Take Manhattan, Crush, Tina and Bobby), Glasgow-based indie Compact Pictures is expanding to create two new businesses under its parent label.
Compat Productions 7Dec2020
The two new businesses will be Compact Films and Compact Vibe. As its name suggests, the former will focus on producing independent features, while Compact Vibe will develop and create a range of young adult and genre series for television.

To fuel the anticipated growth across both businesses, Compact has appointed Laura McBride (pictured left) as its first head of development. McBride joins from Synchronicity Films, a company she had been with for a number of years, supporting creative director and founder Claire Mundell during recent Synchronicity projects, including psychological drama series The Cry and feature film Only You. McBride’s other credits include Sigma Films’ Get Duked and World Productions’ upcoming BBC drama series Vigil starring Suranne Jones.

McBride will be bringing in and developing new projects, as well as working with McKay on Compact’s existing development slate. For Compact Films, this includes The Empty Space Inside My Heart, the debut feature of Tim Courtney (My Loneliness is Killing Me) and David Harrower’s crime saga 9 Deaths. For Compact Vibe, the current slate includes My Brother is a Superhero, in development for CITV, and Baltic noir series Chosen, being developed in collaboration with Canada’s Reel One Entertainment.

Commenting on the appointments for the new divisions McKay (pictured centre), said: “Compact Pictures has gained a great deal of traction…and on the back of recent International Emmy, BANFF and BAFTA success with Katy, and a rapidly growing slate, the time felt right to re-focus the company with the launch of the Compact Films and Compact Vibe labels. I am delighted to have Laura and Misha now join me; while I have a lifetime of experience in making films and TV series, their fresh perspectives, broad experience and youthful energy will be sure to define Compact’s output going forward and make it even more distinctive.”

“I am thrilled to be joining Compact Pictures during this exciting period of expansion and am really looking forward to working with John on developing a diverse slate of projects,” McBride added. “My focus is on finding engaging, contemporary stories from both Scotland and further afield, while helping to raise Compact’s profile and also reminding people what a vibrant creative hub we now have in Glasgow.”

Compact also recently recruited Misha McCullagh (pictured right) in a development support and communications role across the business. McCullagh, an actor and creative arts producer, is best known for being part of the young podcasting collective Persistent and Nasty, which seeks to create more opportunities for women and gender minorities in film, TV and theatre.