There’s a new office in Hengrove, a call centre to be precise, not different in any way to any other office building in Bristol. There are rows of keyboards and desks full of the detritus of working life. In this office, there is even a fish tank to brighten up the space.

But this is not a real office at all, it’s a film set. Walk out of one of the doors and you find yourself in a huge deserted warehouse, with cavernous empty spaces.

This is the Bottle Yard, a new 300,000 square foot dedicated production facility in the former Harvey’s wine warehouse on Whitchurch Lane.

The Bottle Yard is a partnership initiative supported by the South West Regional Development Agency and Bristol City Council, and managed and promoted by South West Screen.

On a visit yesterday, I spied a huge set for a forthcoming television programme that I have been sworn to secrecy about, and was then taken to see the office space, the set of Eight Minutes Idle, a comedy starring up-and-coming young British actors Tom Hughes (Cemetery Junction, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll) and Ophelia Lovibond (No Strings Attached, 4.3.2.1., Nowhere Boy).

It’s not non-stop excitement on a film set. In fact, it can be quite boring with all the waiting around. The crew on Eight Minutes Idle, however, are making sure that this is a slick operation. With a budget of only £300,000 the entire film is costing less than some Hollywood special effects that last for seconds on big-budget movies.

As well as the interior shots in the call centre, filming will also be taking place at Cabot Circus and the Thekla. Yesterday evening, the production moved to Turbo Island on Stokes Croft.

In Eight Minutes Idle, Hughes (below) plays Dan, a man forced to move into the call centre where he works after being kicked out of the family home. The film is directed by BBC New Filmmaker finalist and multi award-winning shorts director Mark Simon Hewis and based on the novel by Matt Thorne.

Eight Minutes Idle is the second film being made under iFeatures, South West Screen’s groundbreaking micro-budget filmmaking scheme. Three films, backed by BBC Films, Matador Pictures and Bristol City Council, have been greenlit, with the aim of providing a pathway to features for the city’s most outstanding creative talent as well as attracting some of the best emerging filmmakers from across the UK and Europe to Bristol.

All three films, Eight Minutes Idle, In the Dark Half and Flying Blind, will be released in the cinema later this year.