In the afternoon, the main Filmhouse auditorium was packed out for the Launching The Lab event. Running against a strict time limit (Stuart Cosgrove wanted to watch a football match), Robbin Gutch of FilmFour described a new initiative to encourage original filmmaking in Britain. In addition, four Edinburgh Bytes short films were screened -- an impressive acheivement when you realise they only started scripting them a week ago.

It was also an absolute sell-out for the premiere of Bill Forsyth's sequel to the much loved "Gregory's Girl" -- aptly named "Gregory's Two Girls". As well as the director, some of the cast members including John Gordon Sinclair were there at the UCI. Inside Out Film talked to Bill Forsyth about what he likes most about the festival: "Being a delegate and being able to flash a badge and get cinema tickets for nothing." So even famous Scottish film directors get a kick out of getting freebies. We're in good company.

Another premiere was also taking place at the Cameo, where the star of "Dreaming of Joseph Lees", Samantha Morton, made an appearance, along with director Eric Styles.

Meanwhile, over at the Lumiere, the world premiere of the newly restored print of Hitchcock's "The Lodger" opened with a brand new score by Jody Talbot (of Divine Comedy fame). But this event certainly wasn't without high drama. The performance by the acclaimed Matrix Ensemble was only five minutes into the film when a vital piece of equipment failed and the film melted dramaticaly on screen. After half an hour of frantic work, things were fixed and take two of the performance was problem free and an extremely enjoyable experience.

Trinity