There is currently something of a groundswell in favour of ‘low-budget/ no-budget’ filmmaking in Scotland. Simultaneously, but without prior consultation, several individuals have set in train initiatives which, in diverse ways, have addressed the question. The present writer published a piece in Sight and Sound magazine; the former Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), Jim Hickey, announced his move into film production with a series of low-budget ‘exploitation’ movies based on the 1960s practice of Roger Corman in the United States; and EIFF's present Director, Penny Thomson (1950–2007), included in the Festival's 1993 programme two events which broached different aspects of the question: Visionary Tactics, which explored both the common ground and contradictions between low-budget orthodox cinema and video art, and a series of viewings and discussions under the thematic heading, Just Do It. The latter was mainly concerned with the experience of contemporary American independents and particularly with that of Robert Rodriguez, whose debut feature, El Mariachi (1992), was reputedly made for $7,000. The processes of discussion at Edinburgh revealed that even venerable British film institutions like British Screen, up until now mainly associated with orthodox, quasi-European art cinema aesthetics and financial structures, have been attempting to devise mechanisms which would lower British feature production budgets drastically.

All of these initiatives may represent a challenge to those institutions charged with the public funding of filmmaking in Scotland, the Scottish Film Council (1934–97) and the Scottish Film Production Fund (1982–97), both of which are widely suspected of favouring relatively high-budget, orthodox narrative films intended to compete for attention on the European, if not the world stage. One says ‘suspected’ because both bodies operate with a certain degree of sleekitness, to use an evocative Scots word. This evasiveness is expressed in their claims to be all things to all people while demonstrably making an attempt to create an orthodox narrative cinema in Scotland their main financial commitment. Each body would proclaim its autonomy from the other, but both are chaired by the same man – under the name Allan Shiach, the Chairman of the Macallan Glenlivet whisky firm, and under the name Allan Scott, a successful screenwriter, most notably in his collaborations with Nicolas Roeg (1928–2018).