24/07/2011 A fair turnout for the bbq/picnic for member's families and friends enjoyed the sunshine social near the banks of the River Thames. The gathering included a big crowd of Venezuelan people, friends of Carlos and Jorge.

16/07/2011 Tony and Francis and Janet attended the premiere showing of the Brass For Africa BWCB 26 March concert DVD at the Open Learning Centre in Bracknell where the BWCB rehearse. Each cameraman was presented with a bottle of wine and the showing was very well received. Sales of the DVD have covered the duplication costs, so any further sales will benefit RFVM and the Uganda charity - contact Tony to buy the DVD. Dave was on holiday so unfortunately missing the event.

27/06/2011 Tony took John, David and Karen to Newbury and met up with Jill to film the Kennet Valley Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers attempt to beat the world record for the Making of the Newbury Coat on 25-26 June 2011. Sadly the record was not broken, but the weather was good and it was an enjoyable if rather arduous event and one which was a very worthwhile learning experience.

04/05/2011 The AGM followed the usual format. No new nominations for Chairman, so Laurie is prepared to do another year. Franc Genna, Jorge, Carlos and Alan Bunce were elected onto the committee with all but Geoff of the previous committee being re-elected. After the AGM business, Jorge's 60-sec advert was shown again, along with one by Ian and then members watched Caversham Remembered (made in 90's). There seems to be a strong interest in three summer projects - theme: Berkshire Life.

27/04/2011 Some excellent entries for the advert challenge competition. Being only 1 minute long, the top three entries were screened again and discussed. Two are now on YouTube. Jorge was presented with a mini trophy by Laurie. Franc then showed several short films extracted from YouTube. Brian was presented with the Currie Cup as he was absent from the Premiere evening.
  

20/04/2011 A disappointing turnout for the practical advert challenge, and some members expected a Don Fairservice evening. As he was absent at the Premiere evening, Brian Sargent was presented with the Abbey Cup by Bernard and he was both surprised and honoured to be awarded it. Soon those present were capturing footage for their adverts, while others were shooting them doing it. Those present at the premiere evening on Friday enjoyed an excellent meal and film show with the annual trophies being presented by Bernard to the winners who were attending. As Laurie was working in Australia, Neil hosted the event. A photo gallery is available.

12/04/2011 Due to confusion of dates, our guest speaker was absent. Instead Roger screened the Italian Wedding and an earlier summer project Take Note which caused much hilarity. After the break Francis screened an old The End of the News to illustrate how he used random clips to make a story - a regular competition event at Surrey Borders. Finally Spring Park Film Makers (the winning film in the N v S competition, Southern heat) film Unfounded Rumours was screened followed by a 'making of' it.

05/04/2011 Roger gave a detailed technical talk about using Adobe Encore for authoring DVDs and described some of the pitfalls he had encountered. He also demonstrated DISCUS from magicmouse.com for labelling CDs and DVDs and the case covers.
The first piece from the BWCB Brass for Africa concert COPLAND TRIBUTE is now available on YouTube. The first piece WADE IN THE WATER from the 2nd half is also available. It is surprising what can be achieved with consummer camera equipment.

30/03/2011 Members welcomed Dave and Jan Watterson who had judged the Bournes cup entries, and after screening each, they gave much valued critique. They nominated Ian's Afterlife for the Stan Olman award for it's creativity. Summary stills are available. Jill also presented Phil with a certicate for the best film from RFVM at the Sutton Coldfiield competition. Jan presented Tony with a framed certificate for the website being shortlisted and finally presented Phil with the shield for winning the open competition.
Laurie announced the success of Tony, Francis and a past member Dave Robson who filmed the Brass for Africa concert in Wokingham on Saturday and which might get the club some income from sales of the planned DVD.

23/03/2011 Graham and Jeremy from the Staines club showed us some films to illustrate comedy. The ripples of laughter from the audience suggested that they succeeded. Jeremy also explained about a 10-to-4 competition they hold in their club and illustrated it with two examples.
RFVM suffered the loss of some equipment from a burglary in the church hall at the weekend, but with some improvisation, all the films were able to be screened.
The results of the IAC website competition are available. RFVM were shortlisted out of 36 entries.
Congratulations to Phil for his BIAFF success with A Gentle Woman - 4 stars and sponsors award.

16/03/2011 Members enjoyed experiencing using various camera movement aids and most found them not easy to control. Some of the resulting footage was screened though some of the media used could not be handled by the projector system. It was a fun practical evening.


Neil and Tony gave a premiere screening of the Hurst pantomime on Sunday at the village hall and it was well received. The sale of DVDs gives a welcome boost to club funds.
Tony and Brian attended the Staines interclub competition on Friday and sadly our entry did not feature in the top three from a total of 10 films. Surrey Borders asked if they could borrow it to show some of their members!

09/03/2011 Jorge gave an excellent presentation of various aspects of YouTube with 'The most Watched', and 'Most Impressive' and also the Insight statistics. He covered how to upload and had an online link so the audience could suggest what to see.
On Friday Laurie and Phil gave an evening presentation about amateur vs professional film making at Staines with a demonstration of what Aftereffects can achieve. They were each given a bottle of wine for their efforts.

02/03/2011 Only two entries for the fiction competition so the judging was done with the audience in 4 groups to decide on a winner and to present a brief critique, The Stan Olman judgement will be decided in committee. Summary stlls are available. Below Phil receives the shield from Laurie. After tea the groups did a similar analysis of an international winning amateur film.

23/02/2011 Ian gave members an interesting treatment of music in films involving old clips with music removed and also music without visuals and suggestions invited for type of missing music/pictures. Earlier several members visited the Broadcast Video Expo 2011 which was considered very worthwhile.

02/02/2011 Seven entries for the documentary competition. Summary stills are available. Simon and Roger were the Stan Olman gurus and decided that all were very good, but none were worthy of a nomination. They gave the audience a very helpful critique on each film. Below, James receives the winners plaque from Laurie.
Tony and Francis attended the North Vs South competition final near Orpington on Sunday - Our entry came 5th. They also filmed a concert on Saturday night. It was an interesting learning experience.