A few years ago, I was in Glasgows' BBC studios' trying to presuade a Programme Director to commision a sitcom I had written based on a cartoon I read in a national daily paper. The work was not bought and I returned home where I met my brother in a local bar for a drink. During a conversation we were having about my enthusiasm for writing, he suggested that I had the 'writing bug', and could probably write about anything, even an ashtray.

Inspired by that challenge, I began to write and eventually came up with the idea of a short film about the narrow compassions of specific individuals. Thinking about the concept of  it being like a fly-on -the-wall documentary, I created an ashtray-on-the-table comedic drama with the same principal idea of being able to hear and see everything in a specific space without being seen. Joining forces with a local film-maker, whom I had contact with through my brother,  www.pistachio-films.com  ,  we took the script to the next level and, after recruiting the right actors and location for the film, my first venture into film-making was underway.

After three weeks of filming, interrupted by our own daily lives and work patterns, 'The Ashtray' was finished at the shooting stage. My associate then began to edit it whilst I organised it to be transferred from CD into VHS tape format in order to submit it to the many Film Festivals I eventually sent it to. The Film appeared in the pre-programme for the 2004 Edinburgh International Film Festival, and has been recieved well overall.

'The Ashtray' was made on a no-budget scale and I paid for all the expenses out of my own pocket in order to make it work. The film was completely based in Edinburgh and filmed on the streets, as well as in a local bar, 'Harry's Bar'. Backed by a cracking soundtrack from a local city band, 'Magic Drive', and the association with another short film collaborator,  www.pistachio-films.com,  'The Ashtray' is a ten-minute short film that focuses on the faults and mis-givings of human nature, with a few pinches of comedy, deceit, sexual frustration, Political conspiracy and even incest.