Film Making, unlike Art, was not a frequent hobby in the School until the early 2000’s. Despite this, a few names have emerged for inclusion in this category, a feature which your editors apologise for its somewhat unkempt appearance at the moment.
Nigel McIsaac
Nigel is credited with filming and editing the famous 1951 short film The Singing Street Nigel wasn’t strictly an FP, but teachers are members of the RHS Club ‘ex officio’ while still teaching, and is credited by several Former Pupils as being a major influence in their post-school endeavours
Ian R C Cowie (1972)
Ian was a BBC sound and vision man for thirty years until hanging up his headphones a few years ago and becoming the longest serving RHS Club President since 1949. Ian’s contribution to the Royal High community film output has been substantial. In 2018, he made several films to support the Barnton 50th anniversary, including the sponsored walk to Barnton from the Regent Road campus, and three interviews of famous RHS personalities.
Starting in 2020, he made a series of ‘Covid Schola Regia’ videos, chronicling the experiences of the Rector, School Captain, and other senior pupils during the Covid pandemic. Click any of the following three years to view the videos – 2020 Covid Schola Regia, 2021 Covid Schola Regia 2, 2023 – Covid Schola Regia 2023 Early in 2023, a recording was made of an organ concert played on the recently refurbished school organ. Ian’s co-conspirator on most of these projects has been best boy, key grip and dogsbody Alastair Allanach, who is also occasionally given production credits.
Stewart Mackinnon (1965)
Stewart started out his career as an artist, then started his film career in 1976, and has gone on to script-write, edit, produce and direct a long list of successful films, working on the way with such luminaries as Ridley Scott, Dustin Hoffman and Ralph Fiennes. Click here for an introduction to Stewart’s school, apprentice, journeyman and impresario life. Some of the document refers to Stewart’s offer to the school to provide pupil.mentoring. The slideshow below is a small selection of Stewart’s films.
Click on any of the images below to enable a full screen slideshow.
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RHS pupil films
RHS Pupils have been making films for many years, but a school film club-led interest produced some winning performances in the 2000’s and early 2020’s at the Edinburgh Film house. Click here to see the 2008 winners, and click here to see the activity in the school edit suite in action in 2019.
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The Royal High School Club 