Richard, who guests at Inverness Film Festival next Thursday, will use Inverness and the surrounding area as his location for next movie Helter Skelter.

But the script for the film which sees two men carrying out a deadly duel across Highland hills calls for some dramatic aerial shots.

And because independent film-maker Richard is working with a small budget for the movie, he is appealing for anyone with a small plane who would be prepared to help him capture dramatic footage flying across the glens.

Richard – whose last film New Town Killers is up for three Scottish BAFTA awards this weekend, including best feature film and best director – said: "I'm hoping to shoot the new movie in January and February. I'm excited about coming up to do the film.

"But I think I'm going to need someone with a private plane who might be able to help me get shots that I need flying through the mountains.

"I know I don't have that kind of budget, so if there's anyone out there who would be up for helping out, it would be great."

When Richard comes north next week to present a masterclass at the film festival in the Highland capital, he'll be talking about his own belief that small budgets shouldn't mean dull movies.

"If I was going to criticise films made in Scotland, I'd say too many of them are about people sitting in a room talking. Real cinema should be a full audio-visual experience with dialogue only being used as part of the whole equation.

"Scottish film in general where there's little or no budget, seems to be small in ambition," he said.

"They tend to use character and language instead of giving an ambitious visual language. I think you can be very ambitious."

In his masterclass, Richard will be revealing now over the past five years, his award-winning films 16 Years Of Alcohol and A Woman In Winter have broken new ground using small amounts of money yet still managing to aim for high production values. Partly, he'll tell his audience that he's managed it through using new, breakthrough technology which allows him to use limited resources to get some of the spectacular effects he's looking for.

Richard, who first came to national attention in the late70s as frontman of Scottish punk band The Skids, used his background to explain.

"If you're in a punk band, you've got a guitar, drums and bass and three chords to make your sound. But as long as you have something to say, you've immediately got huge potential up and running.

"Even with a small budget, you can do special effects and have high quality, striking visuals. In New Town Killers in real terms I had a budget for half a million pounds, but I went out to do something that felt like a proper big movie. I wanted to make a film for an audience used to being thrilled by big budget movies.

"And it felt fresh to me to try to do that in the Scottish urban landscape."

Currently, Richard is finishing his latest movie The Journey, a drama documentary about human trafficking that he's making with actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson.

Richard will be introducing The Journey as a work in progress at the festival.

"Emma is a supporter of The Helen Bamber Foundation which helps women who have been trafficked to rebuild their lives and she wanted to put together a drama documentary to capture the experience of a young woman being trafficked from Eastern Europe to the UK.

"The story is set in a storage container which becomes the woman's home and she never leaves it. But we decided to use real action with 3D animation too so we've worked with games company Axis Animation in Glasgow.

Actress Alison Playford in The Journey.

"But Emma wanted to do something different – there have been things made about the situation before and we felt it wasn't affecting to do something like a film telling the story again.

"So we hope that by using different media in a way that has never been seen before, we tell this ultra-violent story in a new way that will get people to sit up and take notice.

"We wanted the audience to see into the head and body of someone who has been violated and abused with a brand-new approach to film-making.

"It is pretty much triple-X stuff and people should expect that. When she goes into the container, she's entering a black 3D wormhole, a claustrophobic world where she starts to lose herself."

With New Town Killers the first of the three chase movies Richard wants to make, Helter Skelter will be the second. And like, New Town Killers, there is a game at the heart of it.

"I can't tell you any more than that two men take their fight into the landscape – otherwise I will give away the point of the movie," explained Richard.

He already has the third part in mind and it focuses on a young soldier in Afghanistan.

"When I was in The Skids, a friend of mine joined up because he thought he was going to get a job as a mechanic, and then he ended up in Northern Ireland," said Richard.

"I want to capture the weirdness of that world where someone is playing a game with your life."

Music fans who remember The Skids should be familiar with the title too – it's Into The Valley, title of the band's top 10 hit.

First up, there's Helter Skelter to work on.

Richard said: "Everything I make, I make to show different parts of Scotland in different ways. That's why I'm coming to Inverness and the outlying areas.

"It's one of the most naturally beautiful parts of Scotland.

"I came up with my wife a few months back to look around for locations.

"My wife is Italian and she couldn't believe how breathtakingly stunning it is around there.

"I'm excited to be coming to do the film there."

* Richard Jobson's masterclass on digital film-making starts at 9am next Thursday at Eden Court. His drama documentary The Journey will get its UK premiere at 5.45pm that night. For more details about the film festival, go to www.invernessfilmfestival.com

entertainment@highland-news.co.uk

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