Keith Bruce tracks a Tartan Short.
THERE is always a particular pleasure in knowing the instant when a
project was conceived. Writer Liz Lochhead is far too direct and
unpretentious about her work to seek to clothe such moments in mystery.
During the Edinburgh Festival last year she visited the Camera Obscura
next to the castle, the clever Victorian contraption of lenses and
mirrors that gives tourists a living movie of the Athens of the North.
The woman operating it would little know what her explanation of its
beginnings would lead to, or that her translation of its name (''it's
Latin for a dark room'') would provide the title for one of the most
eagerly awaited products of the Scottish film industry.
The reason for the anticipation is down to a short, but impressive
pedigree. Latin For A Dark Room is one of the second batch of Tartan
Shorts, and follows the conspicuous success of the first year's product.
Intitially planned to span three years, Tartan Shorts is a
collaboration between The Scottish Film Production Fund and BBC Scotland
and provides grants (#30,000 last year, #35,000 this) for the making of
short film dramas. Two out of three of last year's projects -- Eleanor
Yule's A Small Deposit and Peter Capaldi's Franz Kafka's It's A
Wonderful Life -- have been nominated for next month's Baftas.
Capaldi's film already has a couple of awards -- including a Scottish
Bafta -- under its belt, so expectations of this year's Tartan Shorts
are riding high. Latin For A Dark Room is the hottest tip. Directed by
Joe Ahearne and produced by Catherine Aitken, it was filmed last week in
Glasgow and Edinburgh, with Siobhan Redmond and Neil Pearson (stars of
BBC's Between The Lines) in the main roles.
Location work has included Calton Hill and the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society's Victorian pharmacy in Edinburgh, and Glasgow School of Art.
The camera obscura itself was recreated in the BBC's Glasgow studios,
designed by Annette Gillies.
Lochhead is at pains to point out that ''the story is a complete
fiction,'' but the similarities with the truth have extended uncannily
beyond her knowledge when she began the project.
Edinburgh's Camera Obscura was created by optician Maria Short in
1853. Married to an older man, she scandalised Edinburgh society with
her affair with a younger sculptor. Lochhead's Maria, as portrayed by
Redmond, conspires with her artist and photographer lover (played by
Pearson) to murder her older husband (Bob Carr). Then she begins to
doubt the fidelity of her putative partner-in-crime.
The team chose to site the camera obscura on Calton Hill to avoid the
complication and expense of dressing the Castle Hill tourist trap (where
it is now located) to look suitably Victorian. In fact it turns out that
Short only set up shop by the castle after she was asked to leave Calton
Hill by the Royal Society, following the revelation of her affair.
Partly also inspired by last Festival's mammoth Waking Dream
photography exhibition, Lochhead says that the film is concerned with
ways of seeing things, and so in some sense it is about cinema itself.
When she says that she wrote the script ''like a poem'' (not to say very
quickly, with the deadline for the Tartan Short awards approaching), it
is clear that there are layers of meaning beyond the simple narrative.
There is still room for the performers to influence the story. ''What
you've written as a double entendre comes out as a Freudian slip,'' says
Lochhead, who wrote the piece with Redmond in mind. Their association
goes back to the writer complimenting the actor on her performance in a
university show.
''But we have had no chance to work together recently, because she's
been doing such fabby things,'' says Lochhead. It happened that Pearson
also had a week-long gap in his schedule before the pair start filming a
new series of Between The Lines.
Although most of the film's budget has been spent by the art
department on set and costumes, there has been little of the reliance on
favours that has become a self-defeating part of the Scottish film
industry. Catherine Aitken confirms that ''nearly everyone is being
paid,'' even if some people have accepted a reduced fee for the
oportunity to extend themselves into a new area of work.
In terms of budget, however, it's a far cry from Lochhead's last movie
project -- writing a voice-over for Theresa Russell to link the five
segments of Bill Forsyth's Being Human, which stars Robin Williams and
has been on the stocks for longer than the whole Tartan Shorts
initiative has been going. She loyally defends the film and Forsyth's
unique vision against reports that she was involved as part of
post-production salvage job.
''The editing took a while, but there is nothing abnormal about
that,'' she says.
Latin For A Dark Room, however, will be complete and ready for showing
by the early summer. Aitken hopes to have it attached to a feature for
commercial screening and if Being Human takes much longer to appear, it
could turn out to be the obvious film. Trouble is, if the Cassandras are
correct, it might blow it clear off-screen.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article