2004-2005 NEWSLETTER

18/05/2005 The AGM was held without any surprises. Geoff was elected the new chairman with several of the outgoing committee members re-elected unopposed. Votes of thanks were given to Neil, Mark and Peter. The discussion about summer project ideas continued so that there was no time to see any film. Four teams were established. The new committee will meet at Geoff's house on Tuesday 31st May.

15/05/2005 The Oscars evening went off very smoothly, with members and guests enjoying an excellent meal and seeing the winning films. Congratulations to all the winners, especially to Harry and Dave for winning the only two trophies which are announced on the night. Thanks to Neil for compering the evening and for four successful years as chairman. Well done also to Brian who hopefully will enjoy filling his belated tankard. A photo gallery is available, together with one of members cycling activities to encourage you to join us over the summer. Summary stills for the Bournes cup are also available.

11/05/2005 As some of the IAC films had already been shown earlier in the season, members discussed possible commercial club film ideas for the future. They also heard about one members experience of a brush with police while filming on Bank Holiday which was relevant to Neil's film about the Clown Doctors at the childrens hospital in Manchester. The evening was concluded with a film about New Zealand which suggested a different way of presenting travelogue information.

04/05/2005 A disappointing attendance for a discussion on programme ideas for next season. Geoff led a brainstorming session of two groups with new members taking a lead. The discussion tried to focus on ways in which the club could make more films, but the outcome was rather inconclusive.

27/04/2005 Seven excellent entries for the open competion resulted in the unusual situation of having a tie for the first place after the audience judging - not surprising with such a high standard of entries. The two films involved were shown again and the audience asked to vote by a show of hands to select a winner. Summary stills are not yet available as the tapes are required for preparations for the Oscar's evening. Geoff and Don were the Stan Olman judges and they nominated SOUL MATES by Peter for his use of music to create suspense in the original story-line. A vote of thanks was given to Mark for his many years of being programme secretary.

20/04/2005 Only 2 entries for the summer project competition, and unusually some cameramen's work featured in both entries. Summary stills are available. Harry did a splendid editing job with a documentary in rhyme to a mass of very similar uncoordinated club footage from the Hawk Conservancy visit. He also showed an interesting New Zealand video about some NZ farmers responding to the cessation of government subsidies.

13/04/2005 14 members visited the Reflex office for a very interesting demonstration of projection equipment. There were many technical discussions about the merits of lcd and dlp systems and questions which Graham handled well. He demonstrated two projectors with some footage from Geoff's HD camera and a typical VHS tape so we could assess the quality of the resulting images with a view to the club's projection requirements. The evening also provided ideas for anyone wanting a home projection system.

06/04/2005 Derek entertained members with an insight into what he does with his tall combined monopod tripods with homemade camera remote control system for use in church weddings. He also showed what can be achieved with discrete cameras to capture nature in his garden. He finished with some examples of stereo shots and invited members to accept a challenge to make a stereoscopic film of about 5 minutes and provided some details of how it could be done. 30/03/2005 Five entries contested the new fiction competition. Laurie and Geoff were the Stan Olman judges and they decided that none of the entries warranted a nomination. Summary stills are available.

23/03/2005 The Tuesday meeting was a bit of pot pouri with Laurie showing a commercial video which he had bought and the quality was awful, and some Edwardian film from early 1900.

20/03/2005 On Saturday the panto film had its premiere at Hurst hall and it appeared to be well received with DVDs selling well. The audience made it a special occasion with refreshments in the interval and party poppers exploding when the wicked queen was vanquished!
On Friday 6 members attended the Staines interclub competition to enjoy the 8 films and the retention of the trophy.

Phil receiving the trophy from the judge Jack Saltman.

16/03/2005 Members were treated to an interesting marriage of music and imagery illustrated by clips from other club's usage of AKM music with their own footage. Subjects ranged from snails, Cornish treasure hunting, bridge building, waterfalls, and historical commentaries. There was an opportunity to listen to some tracks before purchase. The second half compared the usage of different types of music with footage of a total eclipse of the sun. Copies of issue 10 of the In Focus magazine are now available with the content appearing here on the website in due course.

09/03/2005 Four entries for the novice competition were shown and it was nice to see two new young members winning with their homourous film which made use of recently learned techniques at the practical evenings. Summary stills are available. Don and Brian were the Stan Olman judges and they nominated this film for the way it 'pushed the boundaries' in a novice competition. One of the other entries covered the preparations for filming the pantomime which gave rise to some questions and some interesting comments from Neil about the problems with sound, lighting and other glitches as well as the way in which he did the editing to create the 2 hour film of the actual pantomime DVD.

02/03/2005 Dave met several members in a pub before the meeting and then gave an insight into how he judges top competitions. The first hurdle for any entrant is to impress the selection panel enough so that the top judges actually see the film! He illustrated his talk with some short clips, finishing with a 5 minute humorous film from Germany after an interesting question and answer session.

22/02/2005 A disappointing number of films were entered for the Gear Trophy for best documentary, but the two entries were both excellent. Summary stills are now available. Neil gave details of the Clayfield Copse event on June 4th and invited members to consider using this for the summer project. Kate had done some editing of an interview from the last meeting which was shown at the start.

Peter receiving his prize

16/02/2005 The evening began with the showing of two short films created using some of the chroma key footage captured a couple of meetings ago which demonstrated some very imaginative ideas. Laurie then gave some hints on filming interviews and members then split into groups of three so that a cameraman could film an interviewer introducing an interviewee who talked about an object he was given. Roles were then rotated. Some of the clips were projected and discussed. The exercise illustrated good and bad camera angles, framing, sound and the need for capturing 'noddies' and separate shots of the object for cut aways. An instructive and fun evening was closed with the start of the panto DVD which had some interviews in the make-up room before the performance.

12/02/2005 The staff at Reading Golf Club served an excellent meal to members and guests for the postponed christmas dinner. Members and spouses contributed with a hilarious cabaret - see photo gallery.
On Thursday evening the club gave their annual film show for the St. Andrews Fellowship fund raising event for the Building Development project. Recent competition winning films were shown, together with Phil's longer film on Red Kites which is available commercially from the Chiltern Conservancy Board.

09/02/2005 Members enjoyed an interesting interactive discussion about professional editing. Jamie illustrated his points with some 4 minute clips of TV drama and described the relationship between the editor, director, producer and script writer. Neil wondered whether the recently completed editing of panto footage would need to be revisited in light of what he had learnt! Dennis was thanked for the enhanced black box which now had an integrated DVD player.

02/02/2005 Another successful practical evening with members learning about lighting and chroma keying. The images show Brian explaining what lights he uses for stills photography, and members shooting Mike in front of a green screen. Well done to Roger and Don for some impressive editing of the body part footage from the previous meeting.

26/01/2005 Another interesting practical evening in which members learnt from experimenting with the film of body parts - eyes, mouth, hands, feet etc. to create suspense, express emotion and provided useful cut-aways. The various clips captured by the groups were then shown and discussed. The picture below shows members setting up cameras before the exercise began.

19/01/2005 Another very good crop of entries for the 4-minute competition, Summary stills are available. Laurie and Brian considered entries for Stan Olman nominations and decided only one worthy of nomination for his effective use of freeze frame, colour variations and other sutle editing effects. Well done to Dave. Tony's entry was an interesting original idea which could have been further exploited and would then have merited a nomination too, The filming of the Hurst panto went off smoothly, and first impressions of the captured footage look promising. The evening was rounded off with some Tom and Jerry cartoons.

12/01/2005 A very happy New Year to members. The year started badly with the annual dinner having to be cancelled and rearranged at short notice. Various programme changes have also been necessary. The first meeting in the new year was very fortuitous timing as a group of members are planning to film the Hurst pantomime Snow White this week. Ali of Black Swan gave an interesting talk illustrated with excerpts from various concerts, including some behind the scenes footage of preparations for filming a concert in The Royal Albert Hall. Events require between 4 and 12 cameras, and occasionally a live mix. Interest was high with an abundance of questions.

15/12/2004 The final meeting of the year showed members more winning films from the IAC about painting on silk, robins nesting in a garage, clock making, and a lecture - superbe images. The second half had Don conduct an Odd Angles quiz and an historical look at Bernard and his involvement with the club. Finally a couple of hilarious cartoons sent us away laughing. A very Happy Christmas to all our members.

08/12/2004 Another competion produced 5 entries for the best holiday film for the Ward Trophy. Two entries tried to use a different approach to the conventional holiday sequence. The results are available, also summary stills. Neil also announced that RFVM had been invited to be judges for competitions for two other regions of the IAC.

02/12/2004 The interclub triangular Gateway competition was hosted by Reading and despite being a Wednesday night, had a good turnout and with the guests from the Bourne End and Staines clubs, the large hall was used to show the films. The result was a two-way tie. The rules state that the other club not involved in the tie should select a winner and Bourne End judges declared Reading as winner due to their overall content of the films.

The picture shows Neil receiving the Gateway Trophy on behalf of Reading.

24/11/2004 The first competition of the season had 9 splendid entries which made for an interesting evening considering only one entry was evident a fortnight ago. Topics included mini documentaries, holiday shots cut to music, and a thought provoking study of memories. The critique was humourous and Neil and Dennis judged Peter Marsh's Take Five for a Stan Olman nomination for his creative editing and use of blue screen technique to achieve 5 versions of himself interacting with each other. Competition results are available, summary stills also. The evening was closed by showing the excellent IAC winner of the Daily Mail Trophy about puppetry.

17/11/2004 A few members helped Phil prepare the hall in High Wycombe Conservancy Centre for the launch of his Red Kite film on the Tuesday afternoon. An audience of about 40 saw the film and sales of the DVDs and videos were encouraging. In the evening Bill Drummond demonstrated the latest Sony HD cameras, and members had the opportunity to experiment with manual focus and zoom with the consumer spec. equipment.

10/11/2004 The scheduled speaker gave very short notice of his inability to attend so Mark acquired a DVD of recent IAC competition winning films. Unfortunately the DVD player refused to play it so members watched a Kodak film stock promotion about a lightning project which was discussed in detail. Phil had brought along his film The Red Kite Returns which he made in the summer so this was also shown and discussed. Four members are involved in the launch of this film next week in High Wycombe. Geoff also gave an update on his visit to the Chippenham club where his talk on sound was well received and his audience appreciated the films he showed them.

03/11/2004 Mavis and Roger Spence gave members a sample of their films all in 9,5 format. They included animals in a rainforest, SA Kruger National Park. a Yorkshire sheep fair, a vintage stage coach holiday in Gerrmany, a short drama, and a rock animation. The quality and content were excellent considering the age of the equipment being used to capture the events and display the results. It is amazing what can be done with scissors as an editing tool!

27/10/2004 Geoff gave a very technical explanation of the characteristics of various microphones with demonstrations using his impressive equipment, and how they can be best used to capture important sound to improve a film. He finally illustrated the use of sound with a short film.

20/10/2004 The meeting began with the showing of a recent Meridian ITV report in which Geoff and his family were interviewed about his award winning film Elegia. After a brief discussion about the Chippenham films shown at the previous meeting Phil presented an exercise for members to watch a film and analyse it to help better understand what makes a good film. Waterway to Wales was used as an example. It was considered the sort of film a member could make and had won a Best Use of Sound award at an IAC competition. After watching the film, members split into groups to discuss their thoughts against a checklist, and then group ideas were shared. There was a diversity of opinions, but an agreement that anyone would have been proud had they made the film.

13/10/2004 Peter Stedman showed us several videos which he had made, some with help from his club members. He is a versatile cameraman, editor, script writer, actor, magician, interviewer and producer, and manages to sell some of his videos. Geoff will be making a reciprocal visit to his Chippenham Video Makers club in November to show them some of our club's productions. Phil announced that We Fought The Law... had been sent to the Amateur Movie Makers Association and got an award for Best Story. He also read out some interesting comments from judges at the Guernsey Lily Festival where it got a Very Highly Commended award.
Please note the recent programme changes.

06/10/2004 Neil Marflett.gave an interesting demonstration of what the DVX100, DVC30 and DVC60 Panasonic cameras can do, explaining the difference between progressive scan and interlaced, and Video Gamma and Cine Gamma, which was well received judging from the number of technical questions from members. The quality was illustrated by some short films. It was also useful for members to be able to handle the cameras.

Laurie, Brian and Geoff then described their recent experience of making a corporate video of the Exel Challenge in appalling weather, and showed the resulting film.
Neil and Tony attended the Surrey Border Film & Video Makers interclub competition on Friday. The clubs competing with their films were:

Reading	Stage Fright
Haywards Heath	A Knight to Remember
Woking	Choosing for Eternity
South Downs	The Final Twist

The judge David Longley was pleased to have to decide between 4 excellent films which were all dramas, and made some interesting comments about each concerning The Idea, Pace and Enjoyment Factor, before finally awarding the trophy to Haywards Heath for their romantic 8-minute film.

29/09/2004 The practical evening was a good opportunity for new members to mix with others and to learn about their cameras. The diversity of cameras revealed the considerable differences in facilities that are available and it was felt that most people learnt something new. Future meetings will help members to hone their skills with Pull Focus, Dutch Tilts, Good Composition etc.
The points tally is now running again, with some points earned in the last few meetings of last season. A picture of the new trophy is also available.

22/09/2004 The opening night was well attended, with several potential new members and one previous member rejoining. Neil provided drinks and nibbles which helped socialising among fellow members. The club had been approached to film the Hurst Pantomime 2005 showing on 13th Jan, 14th Jan and 15th Jan 2005 at Hurst Village Hall. Needs a team of cameramen, sound men and editors to make a package. Good opportunity to work on a team project.
The next issue of the In Focus magazine is ready and copies will be available shortly. The Caversham Remembered video was being converted to DVD to see if it will continue to sell in this modern format. Geoff had been informed that his film Elegia.had won a UNESCO award. Members may also be interested in the stereoscopic society journal of 3D imaging summer 2004. Phil invited other members to join a cycle ride with a group of regular cycling members. The new Bernard Bareham trophy was on show.
The evening was closed with a film of last years Christmas party, filmed and edited by Phil Bryant.

14/09/2004 Welcome to the start of the new season next week. The programme is now available, please note that certain eveings are scheduled to start early for the benefit of the visiting speaker. Such entries are highlighted in red. Congratulations to Geoff and Phil on their bronze success at the UNICA International competition, which helped Britain to come third. Various members were active over the summer - see the photo gallery - and Peter and Bruce hosted their annual steam event. The committee and partners also enjoyed a splendid BBQ hosted by Francis and Janet.

10/06/2004 At the first committee meeting, the committee roles were established. Next season starts on Tuesday 21st September.

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