The recent Edinburgh Scottish Filmmaker’s Network meeting starred a disaster movie. One that was born out of disasters all of its own. But the movie’s maker, Mark Scott, refused to be beaten. Right from the start the director’s approach was ambitious. Mark explains; "I was fascinated to meet a man who built scale models of famous ships – and then blew them up. I decided to make a short documentary about him, his lovingly-made models and his demolition of them."

At this point inspiration took over for Mark. It was inspiration derived from the subject, but it would need to be tackled on an epic scale. " I saw his beautiful scale model of the "Titanic". I suddenly thought, says Mark, if he’s going to sink the Titanic, then I’ll film it, I’ll remake the whole of James Cameron’s epic here in Leith."

But it was not just the scale of the disaster Mark was determined to recreate in his film. Technical considerations made him go for a silent movie treatment. "I didn’t have much experience with sound so I decided to make the whole film ‘in period’ – to shoot it as a silent movie and then to doctor the footage so it would look just as if it had really been shot in 1912."

Sinking the model was one thing, but creating transatlantic liner sets was out of the question. Fortunately, there was a perfectly good location close at hand, in Edinburgh’s port of Leith. Mark explains: "The Royal yacht, "Britannia" is berthed in Leith, not far from where I live. I thought – ‘It can’t hurt to ask!’ - so I introduced myself to them as an independent filmmaker and they gave me permission to film on board!"

Inspired by Robert Rodriguez, Mark was his own writer, director, producer and crew. The cast were plucked from the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary’s Accident and Emergency department, where Mark works as a clinical support worker – so they were used to working under pressure. …"This was just as well, "Mark continues, "as just before we were ready to go, the Britannia’s PR company thought better of their offer and tried to put me off by reducing my shooting time to three hours! I think they reckoned that would make me go away."

By this time, Mark had been seriously bitten by the film bug, so he was not to be put off by something as straightforward as a little time pressure. Like any confident director, he rose to meet the challenge. "I looked at my shooting schedule – I needed 96 shots in 180 minutes," Mark explains, " so I organised the shoot like a military campaign and we went ahead. As it was a silent movie – I just told my actors what to do right before each scene. And we shot in reverse chronological order to get the light right."

It was a scramble, but Mark’s careful planning paid dividends, though the camera was still turning right up to the last minute in order to meet the deadline that had been imposed. There was never a moment to lose. "We tried to do two takes for each scene but were left with only ten minutes to shoot the final ten scenes! We finished with ten seconds to spare before being politely escorted ashore."

Finally, the model "Titanic" was sunk off Musselburgh, though it needed coaxing to sink the "right" way. With a sense of intense relief Mark realised that his movie was in the can – but more problems lay ahead, as he discovered when his film came back from processing. A filmmaker's ship of dreams was turning into something of a filmmaker's nightmare, it seemed. As Mark explains, it was a bitter blow. "All my film was from a bad batch. I nearly threw in the towel at that point. I had no option but to digitally enhance every single frame."

A good filmmaker always learns to turn adversity to advantage, however. Mark realised that the extra work he was going to have to do frame-by-frame gave him opportunity to add some very special ambience to the film and give it that "period" feel and that "too many times through the projector" look. "The appearance of the film was then aged, by amongst other things, superimposing strings on the original footage to make wobbling vertical lines."

The first Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. How long had Mark’s Titanic taken before it slipped beneath screen waves? "From first thought to first showing – a year out of my life," says Mark wistfully.

And in that time he had learned, what? "That I need more money, more cameras, more crew, and more time!"

Mark’s next challenge brings him back from the past and into the present, inspired by the TV series X Files, but it is a story based on fact, rather than fiction. Recently, he’s been spotted shooting on location around Dollar Glen. This time though, the writer, director, producer has a crew to help him make it, and a large cast – "about 30".

Mark describes The Extra-File: "It’s a mixture of the X-Files and Taggart with King-Fu and Witchcraft thrown in. It’s pretty action-packed." Action packed, and no curfews - just the way he likes them.