The Skinny Duncan Cowles on Scary Adult Things Duncan Cowles – long one of Scottish short film's most exciting talents – takes his brand of skew-whiff documentary to BBC Scotland with his first TV series, Scary Adult Things Feature by Jamie Dunn | 08 Apr 2021 Edinburgh-based documentarian Duncan Cowles likes the rough edges of filmmaking; moments that other directors would resign to the cutting room floor are his key building blocks. For Cowles, the awkward conversations with interviewees while the camera is being set up are more revealing than the interviews themselves. The mumbled digressions and the self-deprecating asides he makes while recording voiceover make the final cut. The effect is to make his documentaries feel more real, while also exposing their inner mechanics.