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FringeReview Scotland 2025

Short Film Triple Bill – Upcycled, Composting, Night Shift.

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Emergence Festival.

Genre: Fringe Film

Venue: Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow.

Festival:


Low Down

Between the three short films, the first two having a link between them made them a double bill, gave us a horror set in Scottish woods filled with an Appalachian slant. The third film, Night Shift, had a futuristic view of escape and how we view ourselves which worked well. The narrative within all three was well enough structured but, importantly, the cinematic value that each brought to the screen was well imagined and delivered.

 

Review

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Emergence Festival is specifically set to showcase the MFA Acting, Directing, Classical and Contemporary Text programme. It is designed as a provocative series of performances and gripping short film triple bills over two nights in January at the Centre for Contemporary Arts.

My evening began with this intriguing triple bill. Upcycled and Composting, the first two films linked, started with someone in the woods in a cabin crafting whilst listening to a podcast on real crime. Between the innocuous hobby and the juxtaposition of real death in audio form, it hooked you into its world of dangerous world of cross stich and crochet.

It was not long before the presenter of the podcast became central to both narratives. Our first film saw an attack, an escape and death. Of just who became clearer when the podcaster from the first went in search of a brother who had gone missing, in the second.

This work dependent a lot on the horror of the effects along with the depth of the narrative and in both was pretty good. The visuals worked incredibly well, editing was smart and slick and in both Composting and Upcycled the visual imagery managed to dovetail with the narrative structure. The cleverness of the twists and turns provided for the warmth of the audience reaction. Much of horror is particularly humorous and that elicited the requisite response and laughter from an enthusiastic and supportive crowd that sat and watched it.

Having said that even if it had not been a group of people who knew the participants well both films would certainly have held their own anywhere.

The narrative was strong, the performances were great, there was very secure direction, and the cinematography gave us that sense of menace. Much was made of the setting which was in itself quite interesting and menacing and the way in which it had been shot, particularly when the man in the first scene was killed. The gory killing scene brought out lots of gasps and many people probably holding on to their lunch.

As for the third of the three films, Nightshift, this took a different narrative jump starting in a cafe with the enticing central performance by Chris Ginesi holding this together.

A portal in that café brought two people to keep him safe and then two followed with more murderous intent. He was someone of value to somebody somewhere.

This again enjoyed clear cinematography, even with the challenge of things being in half light.  The directing was fairly fluid with the narrative structure of it all competent enough though I was less enthralled with this than I had been with the previous two. Part of that reason would be I think because it’s not a genre that I am particularly keen on and therefore is not my go-to choice of genre in any medium.

It was, however, good to have the opportunity to expand my horizons and that’s part of why the Emergence Festival is so vital in terms of how Scottish theatre is and of itself. Creatives from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will have the opportunity to launch themselves into a career in the arts with the opportunity to take risks. This should always be encouraged.

To that end I was pleased to see the level of skill being in each of the three short films, however, I would have loved to have a little more avant garde in their approach with experimentation to indulge pushing the boundaries.

Having said that, there was nothing wrong with the more mainstream feel of all three of the films on show and it certainly gave me a great deal of pleasure to sit and applaud at the end feeling that the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is once again providing great platforms for creatives to pounce from.

A shout out has to go to the person who got me there which was a speculative email that came to me from director, writer, producer and indeed star of the first two, Alison Kurtz. The opportunity taken for RCS future graduates to make connections within the profession prior to them leaving should always be welcomed by people in the profession. An opportunity to go and see what students are doing allows us to indulge ourselves in knowing and believing what may be coming in the future perhaps, but more importantly gives people the opportunity to put their work in front of an audience that is going to be critical.

That takes a degree of confidence and the chutzpah that Alison Kurtz showed in inviting me along is one of the things that delights me every time I get there. I think it’s a great experience to get an invitation from a student at the RCS because it means that they are ready to be judged and therefore with that confidence it is our responsibility and job to support that confidence to grow and not diminish by being their less than friendly critic.

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