It's not the most inviting of job descriptions. No time off. Sickness not allowed. Stress guaranteed. And absolutely no pay.
Not that any of this was enough to discourage Glenn Millar. The
38-year-old knew the problems attached to making a film in Scotland, but was still determined to make the unlikely leap from storyboard to multiplex.
Millar started with just (pounds) 3,000 and an ambition to make a sci-fi epic. In Dundee. The result was Godsend: Episode II, a comedy, fantasy horror that has won recognition in Cannes and interest from movie distributors. It was not an easy journey.
''Making the film was the most difficult thing I have ever done and I hope I never have to do anything quite so hard again,'' he says. ''You have to throw energy and enthusiasm into it all the time.''
It is not surprising, though, that Millar was willing to endure these conditions for he has many of the qualities a
low-budget, high-hopes film-maker needs - no sense of embarrassment, no doubts, and something many would call arrogance. And there is one other, overpowering motivation: the five-year-old son he has seen only three times.
''I have a son who I don't get to see. Eventually he is going to come looking for his Dad and when he does, I want him to find someone he's proud of. A huge part of my motivation is to leave him a legacy.''
Now that the film is complete, Millar feels he has made an important point about film-making: if he can make a movie, anyone can. ''It used to be that with film, only big companies could afford to do it. Now by going down the digital route, film-making is virtually cost free. All you need is the knowledge.'' The beginning of the end of the blockbuster may just have begun in Dundee.
Godsend: Episode II is showing at Dundee Contemporary Arts Cinema from Friday.
MARK SMITH
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