Let The Gamez Begin

So how did Gamerz come about? "Gamerz arose from an idea I had on the back burner", says Fraser. "Scottish Screen were running a scheme called New Found Films, essentially a competition where they administered the funding, and it seemed to offer a nice structured way to write a screenplay one stage at a time and not feel like you were pissing your life away. I had this idea to do a comedy about role playing because it was a fun part of my teenage years. It's naturally funny because you've got these geeky kids tying themselves in knots over obscure rule systems."

And then? "STV put up half the cash and the budget at that stage was £250,000, which may seem like a lot of money, but it evaporates like snow off a dyke. As soon as you breathe on it, it's gone. But we made the film and then began the task of selling it."

So how frustrating was the wait to get it out there? "The sales process hasn't been frustrating so much as chastening", reckons Fraser. "Myself and the producer, Paul Gavin, propelled ourselves into the market and found we didn't really know what we were doing. You hear about films becoming instant hits at Sundance, but when you're selling a film, it takes a very long time to do business with potential partners."

One of the most impressive aspects of the film is the gaming sequences, presented as animated silhouettes inspired by Ralph Bakshi's 1978 version of Lord of the Rings, but Fraser reveals that they still managed to achieve startling effects on a budget: "When it came to the animated shadow-play sequences, it would have been very expensive but we came up with a solution where we basically went to the student community for help and constructed a team of remote rotoscopers to animate individual frames. They were paid by the frame and some of these guys managed to make some decent money."

The prohibitive cost of multiple film prints was another problem facing Gamerz, but the growth of digital presentations has helped enormously. "I was beginning to despair somewhat of the true efficacy of digital cinema, that it only existed to help distributors with lots of money get on to more screens, but I have to say if it hadn't been for the D-cinema initiative, we wouldn't be able to afford to get our film into the cinema."

How do you think the film will be received outwith Scotland, and are there any plans to release it internationally? "We think the market for Gamerz is as big as the global fantasy market - the film has gone down extremely well in America and we'll push to get a release in every market we can. We think it will make good sense to any distributor."

The question remains though, can Gamerz appeal beyond the gaming crowd? "I think so. We're getting really good feedback from girls so I think there's something in it for everybody. I used to try and convince myself that because it was about freaks and geeks, and because it was sort of a piss take, then if you like fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons, you'd like the film because it was about something you were interested in. And if you had contempt for those things then you'd also like it because it was taking the piss out of them. But I think that was glib and I've backed off from that now. I do think it will appeal to people not interested in fantasy because the characters are true to themselves and it has a humanity and it's not a piss take. I think what I've tried to make is a comedy with characters that work and are appealing and it shouldn't matter whether they're playing D&D or puggies or poker – it's all about people having fun with that. So I hope it does have appeal beyond the hardcore gamer: anyone who enjoys the atmosphere of Harry Potter or has a nose for the fantastical will enjoy it."