Two of the winning works in this year's New Found Land short films competition are to be turned into two-hour ''Taggart-style'' dramas or series.
The six winners, whose works will be premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival tonight and tomorrow, will find out later this year which of the half-hour films will be extended and screened in September.
Among the six is a black comedy by This Life creator Amy Jenkins, and a film about the goings on after a power failure in a Glasgow tower block.
New Found Land, now in its second year, is sponsored by SMG, which owns The Herald and Scottish Television.
It was developed to enable emerging film-makers to make the transition from short-form drama to longer length by using digital technology suitable for both cinema and television. There were 150 entrants this year.
Produced by SMG Television and Scottish Screen, the competition is the only one of its kind in Scotland. It has been described as vital to the development of the indigenous industry and to encouraging the use of new technology.
As well as the use of digital technology, the criteria for the contest, which will retain the same format next year, states that core talent must be Scottish-based and the budget for each project must be (pounds) 50,000.
The use of digital technology allows works to be made at a fraction of the cost of using film, with projects of a similar length on the older format costing up to (pounds) 120,000.
Mark Grindle, the project's executive producer at SMG, said: ''The quality of the entries was very high, and we have had to try and present a balance. We have also tried to show some of the more life-affirming aspects to our world.
''The purists would argue that you get a much stronger image quality from 35mm film, but within five years we are going to be talking about very little difference between that and digital.''
Mr Grindle added: ''The idea is that two of the New Found Land films will be taken forward to be longer specials or network series.''
Last year, New Found Land's I Saw You was chosen ahead of Chewin' The Fat, the popular comedy show, as the best regional programme in the Royal Television Society Awards, and Kings of the Wild Frontier received a Bafta.
The six finalists this year are: Lost, a disturbing tale of a family who have begun to lose their way in life, written and directed by Eleanor Yule and produced by Carolynne Sinclair Kidd; Last Legs, a black comedy by directed by Amy Jenkins, written by Marc Pye and produced by Gill Parry; and Small Love, about a runaway and a schizophrenic, directed by Manu Kurewa, written by Linda Anderson and produced by David Strachan.
Also included on the winners list were: Saved, a story about the dilemma faced by a girl in her first adult job, produced by Sunni O'Connor and directed and written by Christeen Winford; Blackout, about the goings-on after a power failure in a Glasgow tower block, written by John Rooney and directed and produced by Stuart Grieve and Barbara Doyle; and Leonard, a tale of the upheaval caused to a man with a compulsive disorder, produced by Gill Parry, written by Richard Smith and directed by Brian Kelly.
