“Seeking Glass”
In the depths of the Scottish winter, a bludgeoned body outside an old church unravels a dark mystery surrounding Saint Columba's glass book.
Director Biography
Charles Scott, 21, lives on the wild west coast of Scotland, on a small forested island. The films which he writes and directs are inspired by the history and landscapes of this beautiful place. He is currently studying Film and Media at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh.
Director’s Statement
This is a little background to my film 'Seeking Glass'. I began writing it in the winter 2020/21 and it became very much a feeling of the winters which I have experienced living on the remote west coast of Scotland. The project was not initiated though my university course, I created it of my own accord. I drew from the history of my local area in the use of Saint Columba, one of those attributed with spreading Christianity to Scotland. I am not a religious man but the history of where I live is very much rooted in religion and I had a great interest in using that Christian imagery in the film.
I was responsible for pretty much all of production and it was filmed in March during the most recent full lockdown in Scotland. The church which we were granted permission to film in had laid empty since Christmas but the emptiness and abandonment of the locations ended up adding to the bleak emptiness of the Scottish winter. The underground scenes were filmed in the dungeons of a victorian mansion which lies in ruin in a remote woodland several miles from any sort of village. Props and set pieces had to be carried in by hand by four of us and we set up an altar in one of the old cold storage dungeons. I built the entrance to the crypt, as shown in the film, as an appropriate location did not exist. It was a large wooden screen with a door and it was clad in paper mache rocks. The cross which adorns the door is made of clay gathered from a local river.
A little on the actors, the part of 'Evans' is played by Daníel Arnar Verbeek, an Icelandic-Dutch film student. While the part of 'Robert' is played by Pavel Daskalov, a Bulgarian nutrition student, who also wrote 'Road', the song used at the end of the film. The part of the Chief Inspector is played by Blair Duncanson, who is a professional actor and has appeared in many plays in Edinburgh's Fringe Festival.
To acquire the music for the film I visited a small caravan which lies on top of a hill and overlooks the many islands which spread out across the Atlantic Ocean. Hannah Boaden and Paul Standing live here. In one day they managed to compose and perform the entire soundtrack.
The film was finished at the beginning of June and was shown in the local Oban Pheonix Cinema in September 2021.
Thank you and enjoy!
Charles Scott