We are delighted that the director of the new ITV 3-part miniseries Tina and Bobby will be taking time out from his busy schedule to work with students at Screen Academy Scotland in 2017. Scottish film and television director John McKay will be at the Screen Academy production centre at Edinburgh Napier University to work with students on the MA Screenwriting and Kino Eyes European Masters film courses. The funding to provide this support comes from Creative Skillset Course Enhancement funding through the BFI.
John Mackay is an accomplished director of both feature films and television series. He directed Reichenbach Falls, a 75-minute drama for BBC Four, adapted from an Ian Rankin short story by our own James Mavor (Programme Leader on our postgraduate screenwriting courses). Mackay also wrote and directed another drama for BBC Four, We’ll Take Manhattan, about the relationship between model Jean Shrimpton and photographer David Bailey. His third full-length feature film, Not Another Happy Ending, was the closing film of the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2013.
John is very supportive of our students and recently produced a short film for the Scottish Film Talent Network directed by Screen Academy alumnus Gordon Napier and shot by Bafta Scotland award-winning cinematographer and Screen Academy alumnus Julian Schwanitz.
Tina and Bobby aired on ITV on January and can be seen online on the ITV Player.