First Light film-makers

A rainy Sunday morning in Glasgow. A crowded bar, most of its patrons distinctly underage. This might not look it, but it's the gala launch of two new films - films made by these young people themselves. Soon the excited crowd proceeds through into the Grosvenor's Screen Two to watch Party On and Last Chance, Final Rep.

"The film's about a weightlifter who's got lots of problems," said director Sean Boyle of the latter.

"It's a metaphor for what a lot of teenagers experience," star Kevin Mains added. "It's about what they want to do and what other people want them to do. They say 'I want to do this, it makes me happy,' and adults say 'But you're not going to make any money doing that - we want you to do this'. But then the character revolts and goes against that."

I asked Sean how he came to be involved with the film.

"Ifty [Iftekhar Gafar] wrote the script and then I helped to develop it. We worked more and more on it until it came together. I made my first film in 2005 - that was a documentary - and I remained interested."

"I just really like acting. I'm doing an acting course just now, so I wanted to get involved when I had the opportunity," said Kevin, who shows considerable promise as the troubled weightlifter Kenny.

Jacqueline Thornton says GMAC hope to run more projects in the coming months

Both confirmed that they plan to make more films in future and that they hope to develop careers within the industry. They got their start through GMAC, which aims to develop the talents of new film-makers throughout the Glasgow area. GMAC representative Jacqueline Thornton described the day's event from her perspective.

"Basically it's two films that were funded by First Light movies, which is a film scheme specifically aimed at under-18s. I produced Last Chance, Final Rep, which emerged from a script competition launched by GMAC last June. It was made by a very mixed group, with the participants ranging from 11 to 18 years in age and having varied levels of film experience. After developing the script they got together all the crew and actors, and today they finally get to see the film in a public environment. It's their reward for making the commitment to be film makers and for being prepared to come along week in, week out for what's been almost a six month process. We would like to work with these young people again. We try to be a real access point for film making, so we won't just drop them after one project. We're hoping to have more projects up and running in the next few months."

And what about the other film which screened at this event?

Danielle Hardy and Dean O'Connor were on the crew of Party On

"Party On was made with young people from Kilpatrick School who have learning difficulties, so they were new to film making altogether. Making this film was a very organic process. It soon became clear that they couldn't work with a formal narrative so we just tried to bring together ideas."

"The film is about three girls who're planning a party, but their big brother doesn't want it to happen, so he tries to stop them. He's going to crash the party," explains Danielle Hardie, who was part of the crew of Party On.

So were the film-makers sympathetic to the aggrieved big brother, or did they sympathise more with the film's heroines?

"I thought the girls were in the right," said fellow crew member Dean O'Connor. "They just wanted to have a party and the big brother was trying to spoil it."

Getting access to locations for a short film can be tricky. I asked Dean where this film was made.

"We met at GMAC and then we went to a house in Maryhill. We spent a few days getting it ready, then set up the cameras and equipment. I really enjoyed being part of the crew."

Like their counterparts in Last Chance, Final Rep, Danielle and Dean loved the film making process and are keen to try it again in the future. They were enthusiastic about receiving the certificates which proved what they had achieved.

Doubtless there'll be young people reading this who'd like to get involved in similar work themselves. I asked Jacqueline what they should do in that event.

"Go to our website, which is www.g-mac.co.uk, and send an e-mail to GMAC Second Unit to voice an interest. As and when we have projects running, we'll get in touch."