2011-2012 NEWSLETTER
06/05/2012 Six members supported Franc who introduced the films shown to the Surrey Border club on Friday. Films included selected ones from the recent premiere evening as well as the three 'diamonds and keys' films plus Karen's 'making of' film from the same event. The show was well received and Franc did a good job promoting what we do in our club.
02/05/2012 The AGM business was conducted in a timely fashion, with Laurie standing down as Chairman and Franc taking over. The committee members were all re-elected excepting Alan, but including Anne. Summer project details were discussed at length. Jorge and Carlos presented Laurie with the YouTube Award - see below, and then members watched two films about Don's cinema and some shorts off Youtube.
28/04/2012 Our club premiere night gave members and their guests a good meal, a slection of films and the presentation of trophies. Bernard being almost a founder member presented the awards. A photo gallery is available.
25/04/2012 The three 'Jewels and Keys' films shot at the previous meeting were screened as well as Karen's making of the three films - her first editing achievement. Ideas for summer projects were suggested, and now need to be formulated into working groups to hone the ideas into projects.
18/04/2012 A surprising turnout for a practical filming evening, with members exceeding expectations with the quantity of camera equipment and props in use. The three groups each filmed a script involving two props (keys and diamonds). Despite audio interference between the groups, all filming was achieved, and the edited versions will be screened next week. Karen filmed members doing the filming exercise.
Tony also filmed the Trinity Band concert on Saturday night with David, Peter, Adel and Francis. See some preparation images taken during the rehearsal that afternoon.
Tony travelled to Weymouth on Sunday to receive the IAC website award at the BIAFF festival, and below, he showed it to members.
11/04/2012 A good turnout for the final club competition which had 13 entries. Geoff and Neil were the Stan Olman gurus and decided one film deserved a nomination after giving a brief critique of the films. Summary stills are available. Karen outlined the challenge for next week. Each of three teams have to shoot a story which involves a set of keys and some diamonds. It could be a trailer for a bigger film for a summer project or a stand alone short film.
04/04/2012 The son of Weymouth honourary member Gordon Parker, Simon, presented Phil with the Penny Cup. Franc, Peter, and Brian presented some clips and actual gadgets and gyzmos they use for filming, with economy in mind. See some useful free software links. Neil and Laurie illustrated the advantages of the GoPro camera. Members also watched a 'making of the Hobbit in 3D' film.
27/03/2012 Ron Prosser (chairman of the IAC) gave an amusing talk about his early film-making, illustrated by several films including his first one made when he was 15. He finished with his latest epic involving excellent actors. Laurie also announced Jill's achievements at BIAFF.
21/02/2012 Andy and Geoff demonstrated Final Cut Pro X to members. Geoff outlined the history and his experience with using earlier versions, and Andy demonstrated key features. He did not expect everyone to switch to using it, but hoped that other editing systems would soon include some of the features that he found particularly useful. Anne then showed a personal thank you film about her reception into the club. Laurie also announced that Phil's A Gentle Woman had won the recent Penny cup competition at Weymouth.
14/03/2012 RFVM website was joint winner with Bristol in the IAC website competition. The award will be presented at the BIAFF event in April.
On Friday five members attended the 39th interclub competition held at Staines which had a good mix of 11 films. The RFVM entry did not feature in the top three.
Last night was the fiction competition which sadly only had 4 entries, three of which had been screened at the club before. Neil and Franc were the Stan Olman judges and decided none warranted a nomination. They gave a helpful critique on each film. Summary stills are available. Members then watched some more short foreign films which couldn't be shown last week and discussed them briefly.
07/03/2012 Jan and Dave concentrated on analysing films which were good, rather than criticising what was not so good. They showed a French film Cabosses (Battered) which had several storylines cleverly interwoven with each other. It was then screened a second time with the audience suggesting positive aspects of the film and the subtle messages in it. Members then watched some other short films, all foreign which made them very unlikely to have been seen before by the audience. Brief comments followed each screening.
29/02/2012 Ian delivered a thought provoking talk about creative films. He used various clips to illustrate his ideas, and consistent with the current popularity of 'silent' and black and white films, many of his examples his little or no dialogue. Laurie outlined the judging event of the Epsom Cine and Video Sociaty club competition entries which several members assisted with and explained how much can be learnt from watching other people's films.
22/02/2012 Jorge and Carlos entertained the members with some films about cooking, starting with Pancake Man and some other humorous animation clips. Jorge demonstarted the tripods, cameras and lights he uses, and compared them with the equipment used in a professional kitchen studio. It was certainly a very different aspect of filming and thanks to Brian who got the technology working while the usual two projectionists were away.
15/02/2012 Simon gave a useful talk about software he uses in connection with films which may be of interest to other filmmakers, including Open Office and Movie Factory. The numerous questions reflected the interest. Bernard then screened a digitised tortoise film he made 40 years ago which still raised several laughs. Jorge then showed the sci-fi film XXIT and the making of it which used a small camera and involved green screen among its many special effects.
Laurie announced that the competition films for the Epsom Cine and Video Society judging panel were available and a screening session was arranged.
08/02/2012 Roger screened several Internet videos describing a variety of green screen techniques and opinions, and then demonstarted his 'green' screen equipment with the composite image projected onto the screen.
01/02/2012 Paul Walker gave a very interesting presentation of Lightwave for creating 3D models. He used the RFVM logo (simple model) and a walking man (organic model) to illustrate the techniques and the shading and shadow effects. After tea Paul was brave enough to explore the Open Source Blender package which does similar modelling for free. There are numerous tutorials to help learn how to use it if you can navigate the web pages. Paul was not so familiar with using Blender and some of his colouring attempts didn't work, but his enthusiam for the topic kept the audience focussed.
25/01/2012 Franc gave an interesting insight into various opening titles for films over several years, illustrating different categories with clips . He finished with a selection of opening titles he had used in his own films. There were some new faces present, interested in joining the club .
21/01/2012 Members and their guests enjoyed a meal at the Reading Golf Club on Friday. There were ten prizes in the raffle which was held as Phil donated the £50 voucher he won as part of the prize for his film winning the Teign Cup interclub competition. Various committee members donated the other prizes and the raffle raised £87 for club funds. A photo gallery is available.
18/01/2012 Ten high quality entries for the documentary competition made educational viewing. Summary stills are available. Geoff and Neil were the Stan Olman gurus and they judged Brian's film worthy of a nomination for pushing the boundaries of excellence. As a departure from previous practice, they didn't give a critique for each film. instead members split into 3 groups and after discussion, each group presented a general critique of all the films.
11/01/2012 The variety of clips off YouTube brought in by members ensured interesting viewing and discussion. Films included bike tricks, animation, humour, nature in Malaysia. It was an evening idea considered well worth repeating in future.
14/12/2011 Members enjoyed some festive fun despite two of the key organisers falling sick. Thanks to Karen for the many props for her little sketch with a song which set the party mood, enhanced with mulled wine and nibbles. See the video. Various members filmed the event. Jorge explained how to download videos from YouTube for the next meeting in January - a website can help. There were some experiments with filming against a green screen. The committee wish all the club members a very Happy Christmas
07/12/2011 Eight entries for the holiday competition gave members some interesting geographical scenes to contemplate. Summary stills are available. Geoff and Roger were the Stan Olman gurus and they deemed none of the entries were worthy of a nomination. Two groups discussed the merits of the films seen and Geoff and Roger then gave their comments. As Laurie could hardly present himself with the winner's shield, Geoff as a past chairman, did the honours.
30/11/2011 An article in the paper encouraged several visitors to attend Nick's screening of his documentary Naida. Laurie then controlled the sale/auction of various members equipment. Bidding was rather disappointing. After tea Nick screened another work-in-progress documentary on Hardwick Hall.
23/11/2011 Tony illustrated his live filming activities talk with clips from a wedding, band concerts, pantomimes and this season's Intro course, and discussed problems he had encountered and the lessons learned.
16/11/2011 The summer project competition only had two entries, so two variants of each film were shown, followed by a film made in 1977 giving a flavour of a possible summer project for next year. Summary stills are available. Phil was presented with the Teign Cup together with a miniature to keep, and a Sony token which he generously suggest should be used by the club. A raffle was also suggested, but the committee will decide the best way to use it.
09/11/2011 Brian discussed a variety of animation techniques which were used in various filmed recently screened at the Little Angel Theatre in London. Laurie also announced that Phil's A Gentle Woman had won the Teign Cup competition on Saturday 5th Nov. Francis mentioned a possible filming opportunity next June at Goring
02/11/2011 Guy and Alan from the Hemel Hempstead Movie Makers gave members a demonstration of the Magix Edit Pro 17 software. The recent MX versions are the latest but not much different from 17 except for performance improvement claims. He also showed a sample 3D film with the audience wearing the coloured glasses, but the 3D facility was not rated very highly. A simple raffle for a basic version of the Magix package was held which was won by Bernard. Some members experienced with using the packages learnt a few tips.
26/10/2011 Another well supported club competition with 7 high quality entries. Neil and Roger were the Stan Olman gurus and they decide none were worthy of a nomination. Summary stills are available. As each film was only a maximum of 4 minutes, there was time for the audience to be split into 4 groups who were asked to answer 3 questions: What most impressed in the films? What could make them better? and any questions to ask the filmmaker? There was a lot of overlap between the comments from each group as well as from Neil and Roger.
19/10/2011 Dennis Lowe gave a fascinating illustrated talk about the behind the scenes activity and modelling involved in the making of the film Alien.
17/10/2011 On Friday, Laurie, Pete, Tony and John went to Staines for the Gateway competition. The results are shown below. As the previous winner, Laurie presented the trophy to the President of Staines.
| CATEGORY | CLUB | MOVIE TITLE | BOURNE END | READING | STAINES | TOTAL |
| STORYLINE | BOURNE END | Down Under (11mins 16:9) |
2 | 2 | 4 | |
| READING | A Gentle Woman (14mins BluRay) |
2 | 3 | 5 | ||
| STAINES | Up, Up and Away (10mins) |
3 | 3 | 6 | ||
| DOCUMENTARY | READING | Tyneham...the Lost Village (7mins 16:9) |
2 | 2 | 4 | |
| STAINES | Pump, Pump and Away (8mins 16:9) |
3 | 3 | 6 | ||
| BOURNE END | SS Great Britain (11mins 16:9) |
2 | 3 | 5 | ||
| OPEN | STAINES | The Great Director (6mins) |
3 | 3 | 6 | |
| BOURNE END | My Best Friend (3mins 16:9) |
2 | 2 | 4 | ||
| READING | Days of Whine and Poses (14mins 16:9) |
2 | 3 | 5 |
| BOURNE END | READING | STAINES | |
| STORYLINE | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| DOCUMENTARY | 5 | 4 | 6 |
| OPEN | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| TOTALS | 13 | 14 | 18 |
| JUDGES | Laurie Joyce Pete Marsh |
12/10/2011 A very good set of entries (11 and 8) for the 1-min and novice competitions. Time ran out for a thorough review and Q&A of the course. Neil and Brian were the Stan Olman judges. Two were considered worthy of a nomination. The filmmakers appreciated their critique. Some summary stills are available.
05/10/2011 Brian presented useful conventions for titles in films, credits, straplines etc. Roger covered software which allows the creation of artistic printing on DVDs and the inlays for their cases. Laurie mentioned the Historypin at Reading museum as Amanda couldn't come to give members her pitch.
03/10/2011 Various members helped man a stall in the Hexagon on Saturday at the Vintage Fair event to promote the club and sell some DVDs. 11 were sold which helped to offset the cost of printing leaflets and a poster.
28/09/2011 Geoff assisted Laurie with a demonstration of editing using Edius - see below. Details for manning the Stall at the Vintage Fair on 1st Oct were discussed with the volunteers.
21/09/2011 The third module of the course covered lighting with practical demonstrations of adjusting white balance, and lights for a subject for an interview, using back lighting, reflectors and sofboxes. The camera images were projected on the screen.After tea the audience viewed and discussed an International film with particular regard to lighting.
14/09/2011 The second module of the course covered audio. After tea three short International films were shown and the audience discussed aspects of the films, with particular attention to the audio. It was a bit difficult with the first one which had only 6 bits of dialogue, and the last one had none at all.
07/09/2011 The opening night was well with attended with several new faces and a good spread of food and drink. Laurie presented the first module of the Introduction to Filming Course which was recorded on camera. Charity Gordon from the Hexagon explained about the Vintage Fair event on 1st Oct involving the BBC Reel History of Britain and offered the club a stand. Karen handled interest in a visit to Don's private cinema, and Jorge explained about a YouTube competition.
30/08/2011 A team of cameramen covered the Road Club Carriage Ride at Yattendon on 14th August.
