Filmmaker from Muirhouse gets big break from TV boss

HE BEGAN his filmmaking career shooting the graffiti he himself had daubed on the walls of north Edinburgh.

But now Garry Fraser has signed the deal of a lifetime after securing the backing of one of the industry's best-known names.

The 32-year-old has been commissioned to film a 10-minute movie for Channel 4.

And once the project is complete, he will be taken under the wing of senior producers to work on shows such as Shameless and Hollyoaks.

It is thanks to ringing endorsements from the likes of screenwriter Shane Meadows and Channel 4 boss Stuart Cosgrove that the Muirhouse father-of-two has been given his big break.

His focus on life in the impoverished schemes of Edinburgh has won him widespread praise and awards, including the piece which earned him a vandalism conviction from Edinburgh Sheriff Court in 2007.

He had spray-painted a series of slogans on walls in Silverknowes, alleging people there got an easier ride from police compared to neighbouring Muirhouse residents.

He said: "It's an amazing feeling when I think about how far it's all gone.

"I've been talking over ideas with them for a while - they know what I can do and I know they're the type of organisation that will take a chance on me.

"Stuart Cosgrove, from the start, has been fantastic. They've told me they'll take me from being a class director to a world-class one."

Work will have to start immediately on the Christmas project, which will be shown after the Channel 4 flagship news programme in December. It will feature soldiers returning to Edinburgh from Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder.

And while Mr Fraser accepts he will probably have to leave Edinburgh for London as his career flourishes, he is determined to give something back to the council estate community in which he grew up.

"Where I can I will be casting local kids, because they can give you something extra," he said. "Of course you need to use trained actors for other things, but I want to give the youngsters some opportunities, because the films are about them and where they live.

"I came up with the soldiers idea to show I'm not a one-trick pony, and it is something I have seen for myself."

Once the film is screened the reaction to it will be gauged, before Mr Fraser works more closely with Channel 4.

"It's about learning on the job," said the filmmaker, who is currently based at Freakworks in Leith. "It's the same route Shane Meadows took, and he's someone I really admire."

Mr Cosgrove, who is director of creative diversity at the channel, said: "Garry is a young filmmaker who is deeply rooted in his community in Muirhouse in Edinburgh, and is determined to tell stories from the frontline of life."