I bump into... film-maker EVA

age: 22
nationality: Scottish
type of visitor: regular
drinking: tea
eating: chocolate & raisin cake

If you have several thousand pounds to spare, and maybe a talented grandmother too, then film-maker Eva Riley might like to hear from you. She's shooting her next project on film rather than digital - mm, expensive - and she's auditioning for a woman of mature years to play the Italian grandmother of a boxer...

Winner of Napier University Short Film Competition, Eva's previous films include Close, about a middle-aged man with ambiguous motives for inviting a younger man into his home (note to self - stop inviting younger male friends to my house) and a documentary about the 50-year connection between artist Violet Williamson and the Edinburgh College of Art.

I don't know Eva well, but whenever I bump into her I feel energised by her friendliness and enthusiasm. Today she's refining her script; I love people's notebooks and scripts so I take a sneaky photograph of the work-in-progress...

Eva talks about the compromises she'd have to make if she went into the mainstream film industry, her hopes to study film further in San Francisco, and her dark secret - she used to work here. The staff at the Elephant House are full of artistic surprises...