COULD Airdrie be the next Hollywood?
No. Probably not. But a bunch of movie mad kids are trying their best to make NL just like LA and get Monklands on the map of the stars.
They are the budding Kubricks of Caledercruix, the possible Capras of Coatdyke, and the potential Cecil B DeMille’s of Chapelhall.
The 19 kids, aged between eight and 18, who take part in the town’s Applebox and Fluidhead film clubs, are currently working on a sci-fi film about an orphaned toddler being raised by a computer. It’s the latest big project from the film club established just five years ago.
Deep Fried Movie Festival director Martin Greechan organised the club because all other film-making courses he came across were short and intense.
“That gave them a taste,” he told the National, “but they then had no follow-up. This was a way of providing sustained access to film-making.”
When David Lowe first came to the club in 2011 it was to pal along a friend. He thought it sounded interesting but it wasn’t really his thing.
The 18-year-old has now just finished the first year of a film-making course at Edinburgh Napier University – something that wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for the Applebox.
The biggest thrill for Lowe in his time with the club was seeing a film he had worked on up on the big screen. Filmed as part of the First World War Centenary, Fallen Heroes, was screened at the Town Hall for an audience of dignitaries.
Lowe, who co-directed the film, said: “I don’t usually like showing people stuff that I’ve made, I’m usually very self-critical.
“But I think once I got past the initial ‘this-is-happening’ shock, it was great.”
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