2001-2002 NEWSLETTER

18/05/2002 The website layout has been revised by the new webmaster, and a photo gallery of the premiere evening has been added, as well as the final points tally details. These are the first of several changes that are planned which hopefully you like.

Watch this space for details of our autumn 2002 programme

The Summer Project

The final event of a successful season

The majority of members were present on Tuesday 14th May for our Annual General Meeting, the final event of the current season, before we break for a well earned rest and hopefully get down to some serious filming! Our chairman Neil Hodgson did a superb job in getting us through the business very quickly and in record time which left us with time to enjoy two short films and plenty of time to chat. Peter Blake showed us his promotional video for a pop group which had been made with the help of club members Laurie Joyce and Neil Hodgson as extra cameramen. In addition Laurie Joyce showed us his edited footage of the Premiere night which will provide an excellent opening for our 2002 showreel which Bruce Dawes will be working on in the summer break.

We will not be completely idle however during the summer break since most members have signed up to participate in our Summer Project which will involve six teams working independently of one another to produce a composite film. Details of the teams and the project can be accessed on a new page created by our new committee member Tony Colvile who has volunteered to take over this site shortly and we welcome his experience and new ideas.

Tape and Technology Talk

Members attending our meeting on Tuesday 30th April were fortunate in benefitting from a late programme change and were both entertained and educated by Russell Forrest from Wargrave who gave an excellent presentation on tape and cameras. Russell's business is the repair and maintenance of cameras and video recorders and he ably demonstrated that he was indeed an expert and "knew his stuff"

John Snow entertains!

One of our most entertaining evenings recently was when John Snow brought along his electronic organ and amazed many members by demonstrating both his skill and the versatility of his keyboard which apparently was able to play almost anything even including sound effects!

A great Success!

Our Annual "Night at the Oscars" was a roaring success, and anyone who didnt attend missed a super evening.
Everyone entered into the fun of the Oscar theme and Neil Hodgson is clearly angling for job as a compere on Film 2002! See the photo gallery

THE BOURNES CUP

Our final open competition of the current year was held on Tuesday 9th April.The worthy winners were :
First Place : Beans a video by Chris Booth Second Place : 911 a video by Neil Hodgson Joint Third Place : The Barbarians a video by Bernard Bareham

THE GEAR TROPHY

Tuesday 5th March saw our annual competition for the best documentary contested for by six excellent entries (including two on film!). A universally high standard made judging difficult but the final winners were :

First Place : The Eden Project a video by Laurie Joyce Second Place : The Mikado a video by Peter Marsh Joint Third Place : Power from the Pyrenees a video by Bernard Bareham The Guardians of Santa Eulalia a video by Neil Hodgson

BARGAINS GALORE!!!!

Our chairman Neil Hodgson has been working hard on the club's behalf over the Christmas break and through work contacts has obtained the offer of a valuable batch of video equipment free of charge from his company.

This was auctioned on Tuesday 22nd January and raised £190 for The Log Cabin charity

And here is letter we received from the Manager of The Log Cabin

To : Neil Hodgson, Chairman Reading Film and Video Makers

4 March 2002
Dear Neil,
Thank you for your letter dated 26th February and for the cheques for £190. I am delighted that the members of the Reading Film and Video Makers decided to donate this money to the Log Cabin; your video goes from strength to strength!

As you know, we rely upon the support of the local community to help provide our services for children with special needs. Your donation will go towards the cost of running the After School Club, which provides play opportunities for around 60 children per week who have special needs or disabilities.

Thank you once again for considering the Log Cabin.

Yours sincerely,

Emma Insley, Manager

THE WARD TROPHY

Our annual competition for the best holiday video was contested for by six keen entries. Not as many as usual - perhaps our club members have not been going on holiday recently! Anyway those that did enter demonstrated an excellent standard with the three top places going to :

First Place : Snowflake a video by Laurie Joyce Second Place : Fiera di Primiero a video by Bernard Bareham Third Place : Kentish Holiday a video by Michael Wilding

Sounds like a good idea!

Following the success of last years random footage competition, your committee have come up with another challenging idea to keep you all out of mischief in the dark winter months. Many members will remember the wide variety of original ideas that were developed last year from the same basic footage and all agreed that it had been a worthwhile exercise. This time instead of supplying standard visual material we have gathered together a wide selection of sound effects for you to fit pictures to. The only limitations are that you must use no less than 20 of the effects in a film that must not be longer than ten minutes in length. If you want to try your luck then simply give Phil Bryant a blank tape of your preferred format and he will copy the sound effects onto it for you. After that it is up to your creativity to use them to the best effect! Our chairman Neil Hodgson has added the additional incentive of a bottle of something alcoholic for the best entry, so it is up to you all to get busy!

SAD NEWS

It is with regret that I have to advise members of the sad death of JOE CASHLEY one of our long standing members. Joe was an enthusiastic member of our club who was in fact one of the camera team on our club production Caversham Remembered. Ill health had prevented him from participating recently but I am sure all members will join me in offering our condolences to Joe's family. A group of club members attended his funeral mass and the burial service at Reading Crematorium on Friday 16th November.

Help for St Andrews Church

Members and friends of St Andrews Church all enjoyed the film show on Thursday 22nd November which the club put on in aid of the Church's redevelopment appeal. An audience of about 50 people enjoyed a selection of new and old films made by club members.

THE CAVERSHAM CUP

On Tuesday 13th November we held the club competition for the Caversham Cup for the best one minute film or video. There was a bumper bundle of excellent entries and that final winners were only separated by 4 points.

The winners were :

First Place : Bob's Big Bang a video by Brian Hibbitt Second Place : In a Flap a video by Laurie Joyce Third Place : The Circuit a video by Peter Dawes

An inside view of the BBC

Those members who were not able to be with us on Tuesday 6th November missed a most interesting evening. Our guest speaker was George Auckland who has worked as a producer for the BBC for many years and brought with him a large number of examples of the work he had been involved in. George was no newcomer to some club members since he had already been involved with Don Currie in making a short film about his cinema and also Peter Dawes with a film about model boats.These together with details of his personal expereiences involved in making these programmes made a fascinating evening and an excellent insight into the workings of the BBC and the making of its programmes.

GATEWAY TROPHY

We had a packed house at St Andrews Hall for our friendly annual competition against neighbouring clubs from Staines and Bourne End for the Gateway Trophy. It was a keenly fought competition with an excellent standard of entries from all the clubs, proving a difficult job for the judges. The final result however was a well deserved win for the Bourne End Club who have now maintained an unbroken record for three years - there's a challenge for next year!

Detailed results were as follows :

Documentary	Bourne End	Breaking Even	6 points	First
	Reading	The girl who wasnt there	5 points	Second
	Staines	The Big T Break	4 points	Third
Documentary	Bourne End	One man and his bees	6 points	First
	Staines	Forties fun in Haworth	5 points	Second
	Reading	Baked Bean Technology	4 points	Third
Open	Reading	London 2001	6 points	First
	Staines	Red Arrow at Goodwood	5 points	Second
	Bourne End	Coldridge Gem of mid-Devon	4 points	Third

Total Scores :

Bourne End 16 points

Reading 15 points

Staines 14 points

COMPETITION WINNERS

Our first competition of the year was held on Tuesday 23rd October. The contest was for the Burke Trophy, for novice entrants who had not won a club competition before. Despite the title of the competition the entries were certainly not in the novice category, everyone demonstrating good photographic techniques and some showing excellent mastery of editing techniques.

The winners were :

First Place : Park and Ride a video by Peter Marsh Second Place : History of a Lady a video by Mike Wilding Third Place : Travelling Apples a video by Stan Olman

FUND RAISING FOR ST ANDREWS CHURCH

Many members will be aware that St Andrews Church are embarking on a major fund raising exercise which will ultimately lead to a major re-development of the Church Hall site and an improvement in the facilities offered. For several years we have given a film show to members of the St Andrews Fellowship, and this year we have suggested that this should be altered to create a fund raising event in aid of their appeal for funds. Consequently we will be staging a public film show on Thursday 22nd November at St Andrews Hall. The Church will be handling all the arrangements for publicity, tickets, refreshments etc - all we have to do is to provide the show!

COMPETITION SUCCESSES !

Two club members have clocked up successes at the 2001 Guernsey Lily Amateur Film and Video Festival and maintained our record in gaining awards at this respected competition.

Neil Hodgson was awarded a Commended award for his film The Log Cabin - A Year of Progress and Jane Smart was awarded a Highly Commended for her film Alive and Kicking, her documentary on the Reading Cattle Market.

Well done!!!!

OUR NEW PROGRAMME GETS OFF TO A GOOD START

After three meetings it is clear that our new chairman Neil Hodgson has got an excellent programme lined up for the coming season.

On Tuesday 18th September we had an excellent presentation by Charles Leigh Bennett a freelance director who shared with us his experiences of filming in the corporate world. His wideranging showreel prompted plenty of discussion and subsequent clips from his other productions gave everyone a fascinating insight into his work and methodology.

Our meeting on Tuesday 25th September was the first in our series of meetings - Getting to know your camcorder.

After an initial wrestle with the technology we were able to demonstrate some of the common technical problems experienced with modern camcorders and how to get the best results. This was followed by a split screen shoot out with members connecting their camcorders to the projector and comparing results.

The subject matter for our next meeting on Tuesday 2nd October deals with two other important technical aspects :

Supporting your camera to get steady images, with members demonstrating alternative solutions,

and

The use of Sound Effects.

We look forward to welcoming you to what we are sure will be another interesting evening.