How 85,000 T in the Park extras helped create You Instead

Out this week, “free-wheeling rock ‘n’ roll love story” You Instead was filmed during last year’s T in the Park – and the festival’s sell-out crowd changed the movie with some of their famous banter.

Normally films take about five weeks to shoot, but You Instead was shot guerrilla-style in just five days during last summer’s T in the Park.

Described by its film-makers as a “free-wheeling rock ‘n’ roll love story set against the backdrop of Scotland’s biggest rock festival”, the film posed quite a few challenges.

Not least there was the unpredictable weather, 85,000 extras and any number of unforeseen unknowns.

Director David Mackenzie told us: “Almost all the interactions with the crowd changed the movie in a way.

“We’d been doing a lot of filming behind the scenes, and suddenly being in the middle of it was a completely different atmosphere.”

Before anything could be filmed organisers at T in the Park had to be persuaded, but they didn’t need much persuading.

Organiser Geoff Ellis said: “I think it’s great. Obviously for them it meant it would have costed them millions to have created a festival site for a film, which would have been impractical, so they needed to have a festival that was already taking place.

“We’ve got a cast of 85,000 extras all willing to be a part of it, so it was a fantastic experience.”

For the cast it was also a unique experience – but very rewarding. Gavin Mitchell explained: “You become a very tight group quickly, but you do go ‘Oh my God, we’re in this together.’ It’s just like jumping out of a plane, and you really have to go for it.”