2006-2007 NEWSLETTER
18/04/2007 Mark set up his cine projector and showed members two of his films which were well received. Geoff invited members to group together to judge another Guernsey Lilly film about Ethiopia. All groups had very similar comments, and all struggled with the copious subtitles and French commentary which detracted from the wonderful imagery. The meeting closed with an animation film and a final cartoon. 14/04/2007 Members, guests and particularly past members enjoyed an excellent meal and film show at the oscars evening celebrating the club's 50th anniversary. Linda Gough, Chairman of the IAC, was the guest of honour and presented the trophies. John Ward, a previous club chairman and president in the 80s and 90s, joined Linda when the Ward Trophy was handed to Laurie. Linda said a few words at the end and presented the club with a certificate commemorating the club's 50 years. A photo gallery is available. 11/04/2007 Don deputised in Geoff's absence and members watched a variety of films from those selected by the IAC from the Guernsey Lilly Festival. They also watched a wild life film brought in by Francis, and finally two of Don's hilarious animation films. 04/04/2007 There were nine very good entries for the final competition of the season. Geoff and Laurie were the Stan Olman judges and they considered one of Dave's 3 entries worthy of a nomination - 'the best wedding video ever'. There was a tie for third place but the order will not be announced till the oscars night. Summary stills are available. 28/03/2007 Members were grateful to Don Fairservice for travelling from Bristol again to give a second interesting talk about film editing. He illustrated it with clips of adevrts and the start of some classic films. Each clip was shown twice with specific comments about where the precision cutting enhances the drama.. 21/03/2007 A group of 16 members and friends met and were shown round the Vue cinema in the Oracle. The tour started with the different sizes of screens and auditoriums where the surround sound system was experienced, and then moved into the projection room. The large projectors show 35mm film from enormous spools which are made up from the supplied reels and trailers and adverts by splicing. One film spool can be threaded through up to 7 projectors if necessary.The cinema manager handled the many questions well to make it a worthwhile and very interesting visit. |
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14/03/2007 Members were grateful to Laurie for organising
the practical whereby they could experience using different equipment
to achieve different angles to enhance the impact of the footage.
Phil attended with his boom crane (see below). Footage was then viewed
and discussed. Brian demonstrated Particle Illusion software
for adding fire, smoke, water etc to footage which would be difficult
to achieve for real. 07/03/2007 Only one entry for the fiction competition so members also watched special visual effects extras associated with The Aviator film and a short film of scenery in Iceland. Brian explained the technical problems of filming in temperatures of -15C. Some 1895 film clips rounded off the evening. 28/02/2007 Tom was unable to join us through ill health. Members wish him a speedy recovery. Some more UNICA foreign films were shown and members were invited to discuss and indicate bronze, silver or gold for each one. Geoff recently spent a weekend judging BIAFF competition films. The making of King Kong New York 1933 was also shown and finally a series of humorous clips. 21/02/2007 James showed a sample of the project film and the next step was discussed. The decision was made to change the direction of the film objective, and as James was going to be away in March, the editing role would be done by Neil. The evening was closed with several UNICA films, some involving animation. 14/02/2007 Bernard entertained members with a demonstration
of the making of animation or stop motion movies. The image shows
the rostrum camera he uses. Don then showed a film made with Bernard
about the history of animation films. 06/02/2007 Four entries for the documentary competition produced some interesting commentaries about biking, walking sticks and walking up a volcano. See summary stills. One of the films was overlong so was excluded from judging. Geoff and Neil were the Stan Olman judges and agreed that none deserved a nomination. After the critique, Neil described the editing problems with the pantomime footage and showed bits of it to illustrate his points. 31/1/2007 Don illustrated his talk on editing using Casablanca with some simple footage to show how easy it can be to create a film. Brian then demonstrated the more advanced technology like multicam sync and impressive transitions/effects and colour correction using Edius working with HD clips on a laptop. 24/01/2007 Neil has just finished creating a film about a marine artist which he hopes will be aired on TV, and members were shown it so they could comment. There was much discussion about the making of it, and the use of SD generated footage combined with HD for export as HD. The evening closed after viewing a beautiful wildlife film about Mortelen near Eindhoven. 17/01/2007 Last Wednesday the team below filmed the Hurst
pantomime Aladdin. Last night there were six entries for the
Currie Cup competition. Summary stills are available. Geoff and Neil were the Stan Olman judges and they
made one nomination. The evening ended with a Phase 4 film from a
UNICA collection, and another - a love story with minimal dialogue. 10/01/2007 James gave a brief project update before Neil illustrated the value of cutaways using some wedding footage and included some audience participation to emphasise how to make films more interesting. The evening was concluded with several short films which were discussed briefly. 13/12/2006 James showed a short film about the current project to encourage other teams to participate. Members were shown an interesting film made by Laurie and Brian about mystery tunnels in Reading, and then enjoyed some drinks and nibbles and a chance to socialise, before rounding off the year with some humorous films. A very Happy Christmas to all our members. 06/12/2006 Members welcomed back Mike Wilding from the Teign
Film Makers Club who was visiting us to present the Teign Shield
to Geoff. See image below. Mike was also invited to be a Stan Olman
judge with Geoff for the holiday film competition as other possible
judges all had entries. No nominations were made. Four very interesting
films were shown. Summary stills are
available. Three edited versions of footage from the interview session
were shown and discussed which gave rise to several new lessons being
learned. 29/11/2006 The club were grateful to four of Laurie's friends who allowed members to practice interviewing techniques. Footage was then viewed and discussed - highlighting examples for improved framing, background, focus and questions. One interview was using an HD camera and couldn't be screened for lack of a cable, but hopefully an edited version will be shown after the holiday films next week. 22/11/2006 Three films from the summer project were shown. Various objects had been selected at random to stimulate ideas. Three very different films resulted all involving a squadron crest. Humour prevailed and as teams were involved, the result of the voting was announced, but no points will be awarded to any individual. Summary stills are available. Proposals for the 50th anniversary film were also discussed. 15/11/2006 Don showed two films about the behind the scenes activities involved in the making of the legend Gone with the Wind.and some other Hollywood special effects. 08/11/2006 Six entries for the Caversham 1-minute competition produced a variety of films which concluded with a tie for 3rd place. Some summary stills are available. All the results will be announced at the Oscars night. Geoff and Neil were the Stan Olman judges and decided that none warranted a nomination. Wormhole had been entered for the Teign Cup and it was announced it came 2nd out of 15 entries. A shield will be presented to the club when it has been engraved. The film together with 'the making of' was shown for the benefit of members who had not seen it. Tony volunteered to look after the film archive as Bruce had declined to renew his membership.The evening was concluded with the start of several DVD films which were then discussed for their grab factor. 01/11/2006 Unfortunately Laurie was ill and couldn't run the practical session so Geoff showed some selected DVDs - a Sony HD promo about the Landrover G4 Challenge, the making of a marshall arts film, and Farewell to Arborfield which he and Laurie captured using only two cameras. Dates for filming the pantomime have been fixed. 25/10/2006 Some previous club members and their partners joined the audience for a nostalgic evening watching several early films made by club members in previous venues for club meetings over the last 50 years. Remember to bring cameras and microphones for next week's practical interview session. 19/10/2006 Several members attended
the Gateway competition hosted by Bourne End in their new premises.
For the fourth year in a row, Reading won. The results were:
The picture shows Geoff receiving the trophy 18/10/2006 The first guest speaker of the season gave a fascinating insight into dramatic conflict as it appears in many TV films. Don illustrated his talk with clips starting with a simple short made in 1895, a 70second commercial, and moving onto various clips from Oscar winning films. Neil chaired the evening as Geoff was at the Guernsey Lily Festival where our Wormhole film was highly commended, Neil's Living Tree was commended and The Sleeper got a special award for Best Editing as well as being very highly commended.. 11/10/2006 Four entries for the novice competition and with the new policy of witholding the results, the top 3 are shown in the summary stills in the order that they were shown. Regrettable the DVD player declined to play one of the films. Neil and Geoff were they Stan Olman gurus and judged Individual Assignment worthy of a nomination for its atmosphere and interesting camera angles. The evening was concluded with some old films including one of BBC South visiting Don's private cinema and illustrating the equipment used for broadcasting a 3-min news report. The end of the programme has been changed. 04/10/2006 The evening began with discussions about what the club might do to celebrate their 50th anniversary year. One very good idea was suggested which will be discussed at the next committee meeting. The pending questions from the previous meeting were answered by Neil, Brian and Geoff. There are at least three films expected for the novice competition next week. 27/09/2006 A good turnout for a practical evening coordinated by Laurie using Neil, Geoff and Brian to answer members questions. Some practical testing of familiarity with ones camera followed, and then groups were formed to discuss 4 selected subjects to determine the angle for a story, the main chapters, and the key points in each chapter. Presentation were given by someone in each group and members voted overwelmingly that the storyline for Graffiti was the best. 20/09/2006 There was an encouraging turnout at the first meeting of the season with several potential new members. Three films made by members (Phil Martin and Neil Hodgson) last year achieved various degrees of Commendation at the Guernsey Lily International Festival. The audience watched a film made by a Belgian in England, and then an epic film about Clarkson and slavery from a club in Bristol which was 3 years in the making. 07/06/2006 Phil Martin has resigned from the club for his own reasons. The club are lucky to have Peter Marsh who has agreed to return to the committee to continue as treasurer. 31/05/2006 At the first committee meeting, the committee roles were confirmed with no-one volunteering as programme secretary, so the programme will be created by a process similar to that used last season and starts on Tuesday 19th September. A very provisional programme is available to allow members to identify available slots for club evenings which are their responsibility. |
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