Pride and the importance of performance

The London Film Festival starts tomorrow and for the first time our DFTV course is represented. The Search is a film directed by Mark Buchanan and written by Gregor Barclay, who were graduates of the first DFTV course. It has been selected as an official entrant in the LFF Short Film section which is something of a coup for us. And it is a double celebration for the course because Believe, a short film by Paul Wright who graduated the year after Mark and Gregor is also being screened at the LFF. This comes in a year in which Believe was also selected for Edinburgh and won a prize at Locarno. The industry is already predicting great things for Paul http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/london_film_festival/article6867715.ece

Obviously with a new cohort of first year students taking their initial steps into the industry the achievements of their predecessors - and recent predecessors at that since the course has only been running for six years - can hopefully act as an inspiration.

What is so inspiring about both The Search and Believe is the quality of performance. These are great looking films but, within reason, a lot of people can do that. What sets them apart are the nuanced shaded performances that Mark and Paul have drawn from excellent casts. And in a year when so many Scottish films are blighted by weak scripts and performances barely worthy of the name, it is genuinely encouraging to see work such as this. I remember when Paul's graduation film Hikikomori screened at the RSAMD and at the end there was that wonderful beat of awed silence as the audience realised they had seen something special before the Concert Hall erupted into sustained applause. I overheard someone afterwards saying 'You know with most student films you wonder when it will end, with that one I wondered how it would end'. That's a rare compliment.

Both Believe and The Search deal with big themes - almost epic in fact - but they also deal with real people and that's why they are so accessible and so successful. You will wonder how they are going to end but you will be haunted and touched by the way that they do.