Three film graduates of the University of West of Scotland have formed a production company and their work is earning them recognition from film festivals around the country.

Reece Steel, Cameron Strachan, and Shonagh Mackenzie all graduated from the Filmmaking and Screenwriting course at the university’s Ayr campus and shortly after formed 9:39 Cinema.

Their short film SOCO, about a Crime Scene Photographer, premiered at the 2019 Loch Ness Film Festival and was selected for other festivals such as the Out of the Can Film Festival. It’s now available to be viewed online.

Their short film Worlds Apart, which was meant to shoot last year but has been delayed to this year due to COVID-19, has been officially backed and supported by both Creative Scotland and CrowdFunderUK, helping raise over £5000 for the production.

Individually, Reece produced the Sci-Fi/Comedy/Drama short film UFO which has been selected for the Glasgow Short Film Festival, Edinburgh Short Film Festival and Encounters Film Festival. Additionally it won the award for Best Postgraduate Drama at the UK-wide 2020 Royal Television Society Student Awards.

In 2020 Cameron shot two short films The Daily Paw and The Santa Paw, both were commissioned and distributed online by the production company Visible Fictions to rave reviews.

Shonagh has worked in the camera departments of high-quality TV productions.

They’re thankful to the lecturing staff at UWS: “Our lecturers often keep in touch with us and continue to provide advice and feedback even though we’ve graduated. It’s wonderful that they remain interested in our careers and genuinely wish for us to improve and succeed on our own.”