Blog:
H1: Filming a Music Video Underground in a Cold War Nuclear Bunker in Edinburgh
Meta description: Go behind the scenes of filming a music video at Barnton Bunker, Edinburgh’s largest Cold War nuclear bunker.
Body:
Filming recently took place at Barnton Bunker as part of a music video project created for The Wild Song Film Fest, which will be screened at the Cameo on 12 March. The project was produced by Strange Goose Productions, with Torya. The production team returned to Barnton Bunker to film musician Gareth Overton performing piano.
The team had worked at the bunker before where they needed a flexible space that could adapt to an unknown brief. The bunker's tight corridors, industrial textures and the long tunnel spaces helps create striking visuals on camera, offering filmmakers a backdrop that feels cinematic while still adaptable to different genres and ideas. A traditional filming location simply can't offer that.
"We wanted a location that was really unique and interesting," explains Torya from Strange Goose Productions. "Something that could be used for a variety of different things."
For this music video, though, they came back for something specific: the pure silence.
"There's a very particular stillness," Torya says. "It's so creepy. You can't hear traffic, you can't hear anything else at all. It's like being in a void."
That quality, the total absence of outside noise became central to the creative approach. Rather than fighting against the bunker's atmosphere, the team leaned into it. The result is a music video that feels intimate despite being filmed in a space designed to withstand nuclear attack. Torya said: "We could have filmed him playing a piano in his house, in a studio, wherever. But we wanted something that wasn't an obvious location and I think it worked well."