Cast director sets tone for training studio

A SUMMER school for kids hoping to work in the likes of radio and TV could hardly have received a more ringing endorsement: within an hour of opening for business at the start of the week, it received a visit from a movie casting director.

Orla O’Connor was looking for a 12 year-old boy to play actor, Robert Carlyle’s son in a new movie, called Summer. And O’Connor – from Victoria Beattie Casting – had pitched up to the Edinburgh Studio, set up by broadcasters, Alison Craig and Diane Lester.

The movie is being produced made by Sixteen Films, the company behind Kes, Carla’s Song, My Name Is Joe, Sweet Sixteen and Ae Fond Kiss.

Edinburgh Studio is aimed at ten-to-16 year-olds and offers training in musical theatre, photography and drama, as well as radio and TV.

Said Lester: “She liked the look of three of them – but we don’t know yet.”