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Title: FIRST REELS INTERVIEW: Mark Torrance, The Animator

Reference number: 8135

Date: 1993

Sound: sound

Colour: col

Fiction: non-fiction

Description: First Reels - a joint short film initiative from Scottish Screen (and its predecessor body the Scottish Film Council) and Scottish Television. First Reels was launched during 1991 by Scottish Film Council in response to a perceived need for small grants to help young and first time film-makers to make or complete their first film or video project. Scottish Television came in as co-sponsor at an early stage and as well as contributing to half the funds they have given the scheme a tremendous public relations boost by running three half hour documentaries showing excerpts from the First Reels. Applicants were invited to submit projects in any format and on any subject they chose. All entries were considered by a jury and thirty five projects were given grants varying from £50 to £2000. On show at the GFT are a representative selection of the best of the films and videos supported by the scheme. [Editorial from Scottish Film Council held in paper archives]

Credits: [interviewee Mark Torrance]

Shotlist: Raw interview footage with director Mark Torrance, concerning his short film THE ANIMATOR, made under the Scottish Film Council and Scottish Television's First Reels scheme.

Tape 1
Discusses: The story is concerned with what happens if you let work overtake you. This is told through an animator and the character he created. The animator is making his first film in his basement, when he discovers that the character is becoming more real than he is, and has a mind of its own. Film-maker has been working with plasticine models since school. Animated models need a lot of patience. "My only hope is I don't have the same fate that my character does." This was his first attempt at animation. [continued on Tape 2]


Tape 2
[continued, as above. Various re-takes]