THE THRILL OF IT ALL!
By Pete Marsh
Do you like to enter competitions? In my house we regularly collect
coupons from the newspapers that promise untold riches, a luxury holiday,
or a new car. Maybe you bulk buy hundreds of tins of dog food in order
to collect the labels for some competition or other. Play the lottery?
Whatever - in my case never a sniff of the big win. Is it worth the
effort, I wonder?
Yet to enter a club competition for the first time, as I've recently
done, is something else. What possible theme could I pick, how could
I hope to compete against the club 'pros', would my effort be appreciated
(or ridiculed!)? All these thoughts were running around my head as
I entered my second season with the club, and decided that I'd like
to have a try for the Burke Trophy, an ideal starting point for the
novice.
So, what material did I have? Not a lot that was any good. I had some
old VHS-C stuff that I'd copied on to standard VHS a few years ago,
and the quality was pretty poor. I've just gone digital and still
getting to grips with the plethora of bells and whistles on the camera.
(Thinks: why do they include so many gizmos that will probably never
be used?).
However, a few weeks back I happened to visit the miniature railway
in Prospect Park with my little granddaughter, and fired off loads
of random shots in typical fashion with no obvious objective in mind.
Perhaps I could make something of this lot and at the same time explore
the delights of NLE.
Many hours of experiment, identifying suitable music and effects,
and wrestling with Premiere resulted in a mere four minutes of which
I felt reasonably satisfied. Fade in to the big night. The competition!
Is this how the Oscar nominees feel? Stomach churning, sweating palms,
dry lips, covert glances at my fellow entrants. The tension mounts
palpably as the winners are announced in reverse order…..
Then the climax of the evening as Neil announces that "Park and
Ride" is the winner, and I manage to stand on trembling legs
to rapturous applause. Oh, the thrill of it all! Is this how Ridley
Scott or James Cameron started? I can't wait to get home with the
news. When's the next competition? Don't stop me now - I'm on a roll!
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