It was high glamour in the Village Hall of the Loch Fyneside village of Furnace tonight as Furnace Primary School hosted the world premiere of a film, A Jar of Butterflies researched, written, filmed at Carnasserie Castle, directed and edited by the pupils with their school staff and some former pupils.
The evening began with early comers eagerly awaiting the arrival of the young actors and film makers.
And they waited.
Then a full-on Holywood-style white stretch limo purred to a halt just beyond the red carpet – out of which emerged the pupils and staff – after a pre-Oscars do in Inveraray, all in fine fettle.
Head teacher, Deborah Munro and her colleague, Karen Baird gave the red carpet the full welly as they followed their young stars into the hall.
At the other end of the red carpet, waiting for the glitzy cargo of the limo, was an impressive battery of photographers and a cheering audience.
The film was, of course, hugely well received – with the production team even willing to share the out-takes – which they called the ‘Oopsies’. The stunt director and the choreographer for the film earned the Oscars to come, with the young cast fighting [and all surviving] a series of hand-to-hand combats in a tournament, the sound effects for which were pretty daunting.
A short interval during which the Furnace Screen Academy – of which all present became instant members - nominated candidates for the full diet of the award categories and voted on the list [sustained by delicious cup cakes].
Voting done, a debonair Academy member raised a glass to the decisions taken.
Proud parents anticipated Oscars coming home later with their children – and they weren’t wrong. To wild cheers of delight for their peers – every one of the participants in this awfully big and awfully creative adventure was recognised as a star.
Master and Mistress of Ceremonies Mike and Syb Masters did the honours – with Mike announcing the categories and making the jokes and Syb reading out the nominees for each one – opening the envelopes and presenting the Oscars.
They may have been smaller that those flash American Academy trophies but they were indisputably Godlike.
The young stars’ acceptance speeches were a model of compression, with a simple ‘Thank you’ a grace note for Holywood’s finest to adopt; and the school staff paying tribute to the generous spirited collaboration in the project they had all had from staff at Kilmartin Museum.
Current Head teacher, Deborah Munro and a former Head teacher, Mary Gillies – whose own creative stimulus of the early development of pupils at Furnace Primary was a hallmark of her long tenure and who is now an exhibited photographer – were caught in the same frame on a night to remember.