GO TO HOME PAGE


Home > Archives > Newsletter Archives > 2008-2009 Newsletter

 

 

2008-2009 NEWSLETTER


29/04/2009 Phil was congratulated for the special 'gong' he was awarded at the recent BIAFF event by the IAC. The AGM was well attended. Several new members agreed to replace others who were stepping down from the committee, including Laurie who took on the chairman's role again for just one season. It was decided that there should be no set subject for the summer project. Three teams were identified. The evening was closed after watching a BIAFF film and 'Making of' film.
The Oscars event on Friday night had members and guests enjoy a very good meal and the winning films with Dave and Jan Watterson presenting the trophies. Dave gave an interesting talk at the end. Photos are available.

22/04/2009 Geoff mentioned a mobility charity in Bracknell who wanted help in re-making their promotional film. Tony discussed the problems of creating a documentary using footage captured in 1965 on an overland trip to Kenya and showed what he had done. The subject seemed to be of interest to the members who suggested several improvements.

15/04/2009 An embarassingly large number of 18 entries (too many to be screened in an evening) meant that they had to be retricted to only one from each film-maker which left 9 entries. Brian and Geoff were the Stan Olman gurus and nominated Roger's Winter for a very challenging edit. Summary stills are available.

08/04/2009 Matt gave an enthusiastic technical presentation about the advantages of SD cards and other tapeless media over DV tape. His arrival was delayed by traffic so Geoff showed a film he had made about the rooms in Basildon Park.

01/04/2009 Nick said a few words about his documentary about Wallingford before the film was screened. Discussion continued afterwards especially about the narration. Francis showed a P&O promotion video about their new ship under construction.
Neil showed the pantomime DVD in Hurst on Sunday with Tony, Phil and Pete helping setup the equipment. The sunshine through the red curtains made for far from ideal viewing conditions. There were several compliments despite some technical glitches with a suspected faulty DVD and the player. A good revenue earner for the club.

 

 

15/03/2009 Traffic caused Roger's guest Daniel to arrive late so members watched a tidied up edit of earlier practical filming; a film of the BBC making a 3 minute film about Don's cinema; a documentary about the Denham film studios, and another about St. Helena while waiting. Several people then gained experience of filming Daniel playing his guitar - see below.
Daniel playing guitar Filming a 'live' event Filming a 'live' event

18/03/2009 Steve led an ambitious practical which began with a tutorial, then time to plan a simple shoot, shoot the exercise, edit it and screen it all in one evening. Phil gave assistance to the three groups and the screened results were impressive.
On Monday Francis, Don, Tony and Roger presented some of our club films to the Oxford Video Society at Kidlington which were well received.
Tony attended the Staines interclub competition on Friday. Results of the Penny Cup competition on 5th March were received - our Fusion Power came 4th.

11/03/2009 Four good entries for the fiction competition. Summary stills are available. Roger and Laurie were the Stan Olman gurus and they judged three deserved nominations for creativity and originality. Phil showed a short film which illustrated how it could have been improved if some different camera techniques had been used. Members then watched an interesting film about sound design aspects for the Wall-E animation

04/03/2009 Don Fairservice illustrated his discussion on editing with a variety of short clips - with particular emphasis on rhythm and timing of audio and visual. It was made all the more interesting by his enthusiasm for his subject - artistry in editing.

25/02/2009 Phil and Steve talked about some camera techniques and showed two of nine intense tutorials about framing, camera angles and moving cameras. By popular demand it was agreed to arrange for members to practice such skills in a practical evening. Phil then showed some film entries for the NECA 2009 competition and discussed the various merits of each one.

18/02/2009 Francis read out a letter of gratitude from the Church Fellowship following the film show on Thursday. Phil, Laurie, Francis, Don and Tony attended. It was thought to have been an interesting selection of films which was well received. There were eleven entries for the holiday competition. Roger and Laurie were the Stan Olman gurus. James's film was nominated for its photographic quality and editing. Summary stills are available. Don showed a film about the minis in the Italian Job films to close the meeting.

11/02/2009 It was good to see younger members (Danny, Ryszard and Roger) directing and filming a simple script with a good attendance supporting their efforts. Young Jamie also showed his first film in the tea interval.

03/02/2009 Due to the treacherous travelling conditions, tonight's meeting is cancelled.

28/01/2009 Phil gave a presentation with clips about good and poor camera techniques where the camera is moved to create interest. Laurie helped while members experimented with using dollys, steadycams etc. with two lady guests Mandy and Zoe helping as subjects. An interesting learning experience with some good results which were projected.

21/01/2009 Due to David's recent resignation, the programme needed revision. Neil and Roger gave a Powerpoint presentation of their respective workflow methodologies from capturing footage to burning DVDs. Neil uses Edius to capture, edit and burn DVDs while Roger uses Premiere Pro to edit and a variety of other software to manipulate graphics & audio, and design & burn DVDs. See Useful links

19/01/2009 Neil, Tony, Roger, Pete and Geoff filmed the Hurst pantomime on Thursday and members and guests enjoyed an excellent meal on Friday. John led some singing after eating - see photos. Phil, Francis, Tony, Nick, Ian, Roger and Steve attended the Surrey film festival in Guildford on Sunday and returned with 50% of the awards - see below.
Steve - commended cert. Roger - several awards Nick - Other Cup Phil - several awards

14/01/2009 Don and Roger controlled the proceedings. Four films were entered for the documentary competition. Summary stills are available. Laurie and Brian were the Stan Olman judges and decided that none of them merited a nomination. Laurie and Brian then showed a documentary they had made about morphine poppies and the meeting closed with a cartoon.

17/12/2008 Roger controlled the quiz prepared by David who was busy with his forthcoming wedding arrangements. Geoff provided mulled wine and nibbles and there was plenty of time for social chat. The edited results of the interview practical were shown. It was announced that a new heater is to be installed in the small hall. All members are wished a very Happy Christmas.

10/12/2008 An unusual novice competition in that only one member entered but with five short films. Summary Stills are available. Danny also showed The Eye of Silence which was discussed. Geoff showed his PC Clinic film made at an earlier practical with the puppet film seen before. The meeting closed with two films from a European competition, one in Spanish with sub-titles.

03/12/2008 A good turnout of members enjoyed an excellent presentation about filming tornadoes and hurricanes. Alister captivated the audience with his enthusiasm for the subject as shown by the interesting questions which followed the tea break. Don announced the death of Norman Davis who was a past member.

26/11/2008 Two teams filmed interviews for promoting the club. There was plenty of time to socialise over an extended tea break.

19/11/2008 David discussed interview techniques and showed some examples. Two teams formed to plan next week's filming. The meeting closed after a feature on Terence Young of the Bond movies involving lots of interviews with relevant people.

12/11/2008 A disappointing turnout to watch the two summer project entries. Some summary stills and a photo gallery are available. Geoff managed technical problems well in the absence of a knowledgable projectionist. Phil related his trophy experience at Guernsey and then showed a film about the making of his Best Script trophy called Guernsey Coppersmith. Some of the 1-min films were reshown with improved sound - I want to go Home being particularly relevant on remembrance day. Tony showed his edited puppet film from the filming practical. The DVD player would not play a +R disc, so the film from the other practical group will be shown at another meeting.

05/11/2008 Our guest speaker couldn't attend so David stepped in with the corporate video presentation he had planned for an earlier meeting. He showed examples of how computer software could be made interesting with films made by Oracle Corporation and also a film about webplay - a schools interactive theatre program in USA and London. Roger then showed some American made low budget films in which the makers obviously had fun making them.

29/10/2008 Neil was sad to announce the death of Brian Hodgson. Geoff gave news of Guernsey - Phil awarded a Guernsey Lily, and one of his actors was awarded Best Actor. His film also awarded a Gold by UNICA and the IAC awarded/made him a Fellow. Congratulations Phil. There were 10 very good entries for the 1-minute competition. Laurie and Geoff were Stan Olman judges and nominated two films. Summary stills are available. Mark showed his Matera film again and members discussed aspects in detail.

22/10/2008 Several members attended Alan Lott's funeral on Monday. Members were grateful to Mark for stepping in at short notice when David was in Paris. Mark showed his latest documentary Matera using his cine projector. He wanted feedback but members felt they needed to see the film again after seeing his questionaire which may happen next meeting. Neil showed Tony's Family Outing film and invited criticisms, and then showed a much reduced version he had edited with Tony redoing the audio. The merits of the two versions were discussed.




 

19/10/2008 Six members enjoyed seeing the films as Reading successfully regained the Gateway trophy at the triangular competition hosted by Staines. The results were:

CATEGORY CLUB MOVIE TITLE BOURNE END READING STAINES TOTAL
STORYLINE BOURNE END Murder at the Manor (10mins)   2 2 4
READING A Bad Day at the Office (11mins) 2   3 5
STAINES Passing the Time(4mins) 3 3   6
DOCUMENTARY READING Serengeti (15Mins) 3   3 6
STAINES Keeping the Flame Alive (4mins) 2 2   4
BOURNE END Engine of Life (9mins)   3 2 5
OPEN STAINES Weir Here (7mins) 2 3   5
BOURNE END Black Country Museum (7mins)   2 2 4
READING In the National Interest (15mins) 3   3 6
  BOURNE END READING STAINES
STORYLINE 4 5 6
DOCUMENTARY 5 6 4
OPEN 4 6 5
TOTALS 13 17 15
JUDGES   Francis Crossley
Brian Hibbitt
 

The picture below shows Don with the trophy.

15/10/2008 Practical filming appeared to go well, with some useful lessons being learned. The results will be edited and shown at a future meeting. David filmed members making the films - watch this space for his results!

08/10/2008 David handled the first practical evening by showing examples of ' 'How To' films with a Blue Peter presenter making a Thunderbirds Island clip, a cooking clip and some relevant U-tube clips including an origami swan. Two groups were formed to plan a subject to be filmed next week and David plans to film the groups making their films! Before the meeting started, Don proposed a vote of thanks to Brian for all his behind the scenes work (like printing the programme booklet) even though he is not on the committee this year.

01/10/2008 It was announced with sadness that our founder member Alan Lott died recently.It was also announced that we had been invited to film the local pantomime 'Jack and the Beanstalk' in Jan09. Several members volunteered. Neil led the first competition proceedings which disappointingly only involved two entries, but encouraging that it was won by a young new member. Summary stills are available. Laurie and Geoff were the Stan Olman gurus, but decided neither entry merited a nomination. The evening was filled with a nostalgic showing of selected films from the 2005 showreel.

17/09/2008 There were some new young faces among the regular members at the opening night. Socialising over drink and nibbles was followed by a film buff quiz controlled by Pete and Roger. Don provided some prizes for the winning group. The meeting closed with a showing of the final version of the O2O 10K run. Thanks to Brian for manning the projector in the absence of Phil.

06/09/2008 Four RFVM members braved the heavy rain to visit the new Surrey Border club premises in Farnum on Friday to show an interesting collection of 14 films from our latest showreel and some films made in less recent years. The showing was well received even though some of the films had been seen before by some of their members.

20/08/2008 At the recent committee meeting, the programme was finalised as much as possible. As Surrey Borders showed us some of their films last season, we will be showing them our showreel at one of their meetings which is before our season starts. Any member is welcome to attend at Farnham.

Back to top