The city's under water in a movie to float your boat

Published on Wednesday 18 May 2011 19:52

A BUS floats down Princes Street, past a crumbling Balmoral Hotel and a deserted Scott Monument.

MONUMENTAL: Matte images from Boat, which offers a vision of post-apocalyptic Edinburgh

Meanwhile, shanty huts line the walls of Edinburgh Castle and the Forth Bridge is underwater.

The eerie image is one of the powerful scenes from a new short film set in the Edinburgh of a post-apocalyptic world.

Local writer and producer David Lumsden, who lives on Slateford Road, is putting the finishing touches to the film, called Boat, and he plans to premier it this autumn.

Although he hired actors to play the low-budget film's two roles, the rest of the crew worked for free to create the powerful and rather depressing piece, which David describes as a cross between Inception and The Road.

• Watch a video about the making of Boat

David, 28, said: "It's a story about a post-apocalyptic world featuring a father and his son who are basically trying to survive at sea and find a place to live. They sail between different buildings, a bit like a version of The Road on water, looking for somewhere to call home. The father is under a lot of pressure and there are a lot of dream-like sequences that might be real or might in his head, which makes it a bit like Inception.

"The reason Edinburgh has become that way is only really hinted at, but there's an environmental element to it."

After writing the film in late 2010, David found matte painter Anthony Devine on the internet. He has designed all the backgrounds, including the city centre, crumbling flats at Sighthill and a submerged Forth Road Bridge. The crew also includes his friend, Edinburgh-based Katie Crook, who has produced the short under her company, Blue Iris Films.

The team spent four days filming Boat in January, three of which were shot using a green screen that will have the backgrounds added to it later, and one day beside Edinburgh Castle.

David added: "We want to get as many recognisable things in as possible, including the Balmoral, the Castle and even Lothian Buses, as that will make it more eerie.

"The Forth Road Bridge will be rusty and have moss hanging off and the Castle will be covered with rubbish with shanty huts built along the side. It will be familiar but tainted.

"A team at Abertay University have kindly offered to help us with all the visual effects, based on the concept paints. We'll be starting the next leg on Monday and we hope to take the film around festivals in autumn."

The two actors in the film are Jake Wilson, 11, from Lanarkshire, and Owen Gorman, from Paisley. Edinburgh-based Krish Shrikumar is director of photography.

David previously created a local five-minute horror film, called 5 Steps, which won the Halloween Horror Challenge in 2008. He studied a BA Honours and Masters in film and TV at Edinburgh College of Art.

Fans can check out their progress at www.boatthefilm.com.