Biography of 'Templar Films '

Films associated with 'Templar Films '

Production company

Templar Film Studios was formed in 1949 by Robert Riddell-Black, David Low and Bill Russell, in a rented attic in Hope Street, Glasgow, moving to Clyde Street in 1951. The company was officially incorporated and registered as a business on the 4th March 1950, and by 1954 they had moved to larger premises in Lyndoch Street, Glasgow. The name was inspired by the medieval Knights Templar, who had at one time been so poor that two knights had to share one horse. Black and Low had one camera between them!

For the first six years Templar Films worked on a shoestring, shooting news for NBC in America, Gaumont-British News and the BBC Scotland's Television Newsreel. They began to make religious and current affairs programmes such as Panorama for the BBC. In 1955 Low was shooting weekly football coverage and doing film-processing work for television. The company's commitments to the BBC were growing and by 1960, it was given the production of a weekly programme called 'Compass'.

Templar attracted many new entrants to the industry who as trainee cameramen and directors learnt their craft on production of documentaries for agencies such the Films of Scotland Committee and industrial sponsors. Templar Films along with Campbell Harper and Thames & Clyde became a mainstay of the Scottish film production industry in the 1950's and 1960's. Their best known title Seawards the Great Ships, took two years to make, and in 1961 won the first Hollywood Oscar in the short live action short category.

The company won over 30 international awards for its documentary and industrial films. While several directors and cameramen left, David Low became a director/cameraman and remained Riddell -Black's right-hand man throughout most of the company's life. Their partnership split in the mid 1970s when Black closed the Lynedoch St studio and moved to an industrial unit in Broadmeadows Industrial Estate, Dumbarton. The company finally ceased trading in 1980.

Researcher: Joan Allan