Filming of a new movie by the production company behind This is England began in a sleepy Mearns village at the weekend.
The crew of Bafta-award winning director Paul Wright’s Seaside Stories filmed a memorial scene featuring a large congregation of around 100 people attending a service at St Cyrus Church.
The scene involved the congregation listening to the minister, singing a hymn, standing for prayer, leaving the church and gathering outside just after the service.
The Burns Quoir, which draws its members from Stonehaven, Drumlithie and Auchenblae, took part in another scene in which they sung a hymn that was interrupted by the main character.
Villagers signed up as extras for the movie which is about a tight-knit Scottish fishing community, in mourning for five men who have died in a fishing accident at sea.
The choir was asked by the filmmakers to sing the navy hymn Eternal Father during the memorial service scene which ends with the lyrics, ”for those in peril on the sea”.
The Mearns is the setting for large parts of the film by UK production outfit Warp Films, which has a reputation for innovative, low-budget film-making which has earned Baftas, Sundance hits and Cannes awards.
Seaside Stories features Kate Dickie in the leading role who is best known for starring in Red Road and Ridley Scott’s Hollywood blockbuster Prometheus.
Principal photography is taking place between Aberdeen and Dundee for five weeks although pre-production for a number of crew started on July 30.
Filming will also take place in Gourdon, Johnshaven and Stonehaven during the next fortnight with locals signed up as extras for scenes including a parade, a ceilidh and a gathering of villagers on the shore.
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Many locals have found themselves with parts as extras as well as speaking parts following auditions in Gourdon village hall.
Stonehaven woman Celia Craig explained how the choir were chosen to take part in Saturday’s memorial service scene with Kate Dickie.
She said: ”Several weeks ago we learned from Sue Briggs, who is our treasurer and also a senior community learning and development worker at Mearns Community Centre in Laurencekirk, that Marie Shaw, the arts development officer (south) Aberdeenshire Council, had passed on the information that there was to be a Gourdon-based film and that we could make ourselves available for singing in the film.
”We agreed and forgot about it. When the film team delivered flyers to all the houses in Gourdon where I was brought up, another choir member told me the details.
”I phoned the contact because I knew I would not be at the casting meeting in the village hall and wanted to know what it was about she was not there but later phoned back and during our conversation I mentioned that the choir had agreed to be available.
”This call was followed up by another of the team who informed me that they would like the choir to sing at the ‘funeral service’ event in St Cyrus Church.”
Just last year a 70-strong film crew descended on Auchmithie, just outside Arbroath, for five days of shooting for sci-fi film Under the Skin starring Scarlett Johansson.
Warp X, the low-budget digital slate, was launched in 2006 with the UK Film Council, Film4, EM Media and Screen Yorkshire.
It has had a string of recent hits including Paddy Considine’s Sundance award-winning directorial debut Tyrannosaur and Ben Wheatley’s hot-seller Kill List.
After a decade of theatre work, Dickie slowly broke into television, getting small roles in Scottish TV dramas such as Tinsel Town, Still Game and Taggart, before catching Andrea Arnold’s eye when casting for Red Road.
She is best known for her portrayal as the security camera operative Jackie in the gritty thriller, for which she was given several awards as best actress, among other things at the Bafta Scotland Awards and the British Independent Film Awards in 2006.