2012-2013 NEWSLETTER
18/08/2013 A few braved the brief shower and had a picnic on the grass at Kings Meadow and played several games of boule. In the past months, the Reading School summer concert was filmed by David and his team (see photo gallery) and Tony and team filmed the Trinity Concert with two items already uploaded to YouTube.
08/05/2013 In the absence of an outgoing chairman, Laurie controlled the AGM proceedings and summarised the season in a chairman's report . Roger presented the treasurer's report and the members accepted the proposed increase in subscription with a reduced student sub to accommodate the anticipated increase in the hall charges. The 2012-13 committee members stood down with Ian, Francis, Franc, Jorge and Carlos not available for re-election. The membership voted in Karen as the new chairperson - the first lady to hold that post in the club's history - and elected the rest of the committee with Mike Hammond, Dave Goddard and Lawrie Kavanagh as new members. Claudette outlined her ideas for her summer project film and Pete announced he was meeting with a funeral director to discuss ideas for the training film they had requested. Further summer project discussions happened over the tea break. It was agreed that informal pub meetings at the Grosvenor would be repeated over the summer, and Anne fixed the 9th July for a social in her garden.
01/05/2013 Four films were screened using between them the three pieces of music - The Plot Thickens; Joplin Peacherine Rag and The Long Road. Ian made some general comments about the results of the challenge. The three films shot two weeks ago were then screened and members were put into groups to analyse and make comments on each film. It was surprising what had been achieved in just one evening's shoot by each group. Members were reminded about how much more might be achieved in a summer project - a topic for discussion next week. There were some interesting lessons about the use of an autocue, and some audio problems in a large echoing hall. Finally Claudette screened her film call First Love.
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24/04/2013 Members enjoyed the amusing anecdotes of Michael Gough from his early filming years to more recent times with the emphasis on the idea or inspiration behind each of the various films he screened.
As Geoff was attending BIAFF and could not be at our premiere evening to receive his trophies, Bernard presented them to Geoff - see last in the gallery. Linda Gough FACI (President of IAC) also presented Geoff with a special Associate certificate AACI and also a 3 stars certificate to Phil for his Stalker film entered in BIAFF.
20/04/2013 Members and their guests enjoyed a meal at the Reading Golf Club and watched some winning films followed by the presentation of trophies by Bernard Bareham. Laurie hosted the event in the chairman's absence. Geoff was attending the BIAFF 2013 event at Chesterfiled and receiving various awards for club members so was not able to receive his three club trophies.
17/04/2013 Three teams spent the evening filming their respective storylines involving a particular container prop. Anne captured footage of members in action.
Marije with clapperboard while Andy and Karen study the script and Mark adjusts his camera
Peter filming Don
10/04/2013 Mike Clarke gave a very amusing summary of his career in filmmaking and illustrated his learning curve with some clips from his early films. He had some hilarious anecdotes involving capturing shots from some rather dangerous locations. Simon announced that the Weymouth Penny Cup competition result had been declared null after some complaints about professionlism. Our entry had been judged 2nd until the declaration. Anne organised members into groups with selected props and filming rooms for next week's filming challenge.
Peter and Geoff discussing cameras with Guest speaker Mike Clarke
Mike Clarke allowing Marije to try handling his camera
03/04/2013 Nine entries for the film of the year competition. Summary stills are available. Neil and Phil were the Stan Olman gurus and gave a brief comment about the award and some of the films before nominating Sonning Scarecrows for the award for its animated aspects of various footage. The YouTube competition winning film was also announced - REME at 70 with 524 views. Phil also announced that his Stalker film had been awarded 3 stars at BIAFF 2013 and read out the judges comments. A get well card was available for signing as Pete Marsh was taken into intensive care last Thursday. We all wish him a speedy recovery - he's hoping to be out today.
27/03/2013 Julian, supported by two colleagues explained what Team TV is and what they had done. They make films similar to our members but they are a lot more ambitious, making longer films taking more than a year to finish. His clips illustrated some of the mistakes they had learned from, and discussed some of the problems they had faced, like using a fire engine to film a rainy scene on a dry sunny day.
20/03/2013 Andy gave a very rapid presentation about the technical advantages of solid state recording media over miniDV tape, and demonstrated what he could do with immediate editing using Final Cut Pro concurrent with importing footage. Simon then demonstrated and discussed various devices for media servers to screen media on home TVs.
13/03/2013 A nostalgic viewing of some old project films for some members. Various short films were screened to illustrate points made by Francis as he discussed the challenges of making a fiction film. The films screened included the summer project £1 coin sequence film made by 5 groups in 1994. One film was regarded as not being fiction (The Stag Night), but was nevertherless entertaining.
09/03/2013 Laurie, Francis, Brian, Anne and Tony attended the Staines 40th interclub competition. The RFVM entry Lunch in Juneau was among the ten entries, but the two judges did not place it in the top three. South Essex Film Makers won with their entry of Weather Vain. The judge's comments were very complimentary about each film.
06/03/2013 Regrettably only three entries for the fiction competition. Some summary stills are available. Laurie and Brian were the Stan Olman gurus and they considered none merited a nomination. Below, in Franc's absence, Anne presented the mini shield to Geoff. Anne screened her record of the annual dinner and presentation to Bernard and after tea Pete showed his member's intro film. Members then watched an early fiction film made by the club in VHS days and discussed good aspects and what could be done to improve it. Next week's speaker is unavailable so there will be some more discussion of how to make a fiction film with clips. The latest showreel is now available.
03/03/2013 Laurie introduced the selection of films screened for the St. Andrews Fellowship fund raising film show. Roger operated the projector, Tony and Francis attended. The audience seemed to appreciate the films shown.
27/02/2013 It was nice to see three new young faces in the audience. Ian illustrated his talk about the value of music in films by screening various clips with and without music. He also changed the music on some well known clips to emphasise some of his points. He also screened his members intro film which was very relevant to the evening's topic. Members were given copies of three pieces of music and invited to choose one to fit to some visuals as a fun challenge for screening in April. Anne announced that the sale of the REME DVD had made a profit and she handed a cheque to the treasurer.
20/02/2013 Difficult to know how the home masterclasses went. Geoff was expecting to host 3 members in his audio studio in his garage, and some members are believed to have gone to the cinema. Laurie explained Edius and photoshop editing to a couple of members and Brain did something similar with another two.
13/02/2013 Franc thanked people involved with the dinner, and mentioned Geoff's Stan Olman nomination and welcomed a new lady viisitor. Francis explained confusion over Karen's incorrect phone number. Neil suggested a Wokingham Theatre play group event on 2nd May. Anne then demonstrated how she uses her monopod and screened several films in which she had used the techniques.
Franc demonstrated his mini camera on his helicopter and flew it in the big hall. Richard gave a powerpoit presentation as his member's intro. Six films using 60s slides were screened, all radically different treatments and Ian then screened an archive 60s standard 8 cine film he had converted to DVD
10/02/2013 Members and guests enjoyed a pleasant annual dinner at Reading Golf Club which had to be rearranged when the scheduled one got cancelled by the snow. Ian provided some music before the meal started. Bernard was presented with a plaque commemorating his 90th birthday and 53 years with the club. See below.
Bernard also received a belated birthday card with lots of members' signatures and a cartoon picture of himself by Karen. More pictures in the gallery
06/02/2013 Eight high quality entries for the documentary competition. Summary stills are available. Brian and Franc were the Stan Olman gurus and they decided none merited a nomination. However at the committee meeting, their judgment was overruled and Goeff's film was given a nomination for it's technical execellence. Brian had reworked the new animated club logo previewed on the 22 Jan incorporating all the suggested variants. Geoff was the final winner, seen below receiving the mini shield from Franc.
30/01/2013 Vikki Lawson gave members an insight into the role of a make-up artist on a film set and projected a series of photos from her portfolio. She then demonstrated her make-up skills by giving Anne a black eye and a gash on her cheek among other effects. Audience questions abounded among some good natured banter during the session.
23/01/2013 Franc was sick with suspected Norovirus, and the snow kept many members at home, but for the dozen brave souls who did make it to the club, some BIAFF films were screened and discussed. A new animated club logo was also screened and comments invited. Mark also brought along a Zombie film for kids. David described his progress/problems with the Twyford panto edit and his use of some IAC suggested software which he used for the sound effects at the panto. There was a lot of discussion about GoPro cameras. Saturday 9th February is a suggested date for the postponed annual dinner.
16/01/2013 The meeting started with another member's intro film. Regrettably there was only one entry for the Novice competition, but a humorous winner nonetheless. Stills summary is available.Twelve entries for the 1-minute competition. Laurie and Geoff were the Stan Olman gurus and they nominated two animation films for their originality and creativity. Summary stills are available. Franc invited any member interested in learning to operate the projector system to contact him, and also anyone interested in joining the committee.
Last Friday Neil, Peter and Tony filmed the Twyford & Ruscombe pantomime The Wind in the Willows. David had his camera running unattended as he was controlling all the sound effects and audio aspects. David is doing the edit.
09/01/2013 A rather different evening with nothing projected for a change. Julia amused the members with various anecdotes about her experience with different directors and producers and the lessons to be learned. There was lots of discussion with the audience.
19/12/2012 An enjoyable social evening with 5 tables of members answering quiz questions set by Simon. He had a complicated joker system where tables could play their joker and answer additional questions to provide a multiplier for the next round of questions. Mulled wine and other drinks together witht ample food to nibble on at the break provided opportunities to socialise. Anne provided some of the additional audio questions and David some on screen questions. The RFVM 1950s slides are available online - the images are large and the page will take time to load..
12/12/2012 Eight interesting entries for the holiday competition had boat trips in common. Locations covered Scotland, Devon, Cambodia, Alaska, USA west coast, France, Portugal and Holland. Laurie and Franc were the Stan Olman gurus and they decided Anne's was worthy of a nomination. Summary stills are available.
05/12/2012 Two members intro films were shown - Franc and Brian. Various films were screened from the Harrow showreel, and comments were invited from the audience, some of which will be sent to the Harrow club. It was thought to be a useful insight to the quality and style of films from another club. Various members got copies of early RFVM slides from Franc which were also screened. Bernard thought there were several missing, but Franc was unaware of any others. The idea is to use them to create a story with audio for showing in the New Year.
28/11/2012 The screening of summer project films involved three entries. Neil and Brian were the Stan Olman judges and they decide none were worthy of a nomination. Summary stills are available. See also the GetReading report. In the past there have been some good fiction films, but this year only films of events were shown. Summary stills are available. A possibility for next summer project is an event at the Chiltern open air museum on June 9th. Tony also screened his members intro film and then the two night shoot films from 2 weeks ago were shown twice and discussed as well as the Z-Day promo film for Battle library.
21/11/2012 Paul gave members an interesting overview of Blender 2.64 which has a new fast cycles rendering machine. He illustrated a few facilities by creating a simple text model, applied some colour and lighting and then animated the camera to sweep across in an arc. Paul prefers Blender to Lightwave when dealing with fluids. He finally screened a film made with actors using green screen, and all the scenes and robots were done using Blender - simply amazing. Laurie read out an email from Francis and Geoff on their cruise in verse, together with his reply which was also in verse.
14/11/2012 With a blood donor session making access to the hall awkward, two groups tried theri hands at filming at night. Ron directed one group, and Phil the other, down by the river. An interesting exercise coping with extreme low light conditions. See more images on Facebook.
07/10/2012 A warm welcome to our chairman Franc fresh from his adventures in a Fiat 500 between Sicily, Italy and the UK. There were eight entries for the first club competition of the season. Animals, birds and fish were much in evidence. Summary stills are available. Neil and Franc were the Stan Olman judges and they decided none of the films merited a nomination. Phil outlined ideas for a summer project next year with the Conservation Trust on the Chilterns. Neil and Mike Hammond screened their members intro films. Neil announced dates for the Hurst pantomime and recruited a team of cameramen. Karen recorded some audio for her Zombie event promo. Plans were discussed for next week's night shoot with two teams aiming to film footage for two scripts. Below Franc presents Brian with the new style mini shield for the Currie Cup.
31/10/2012 Don Fairservice described his personal experience of making documentaries over several years. He illustrated his anecdotes with clips from a Ugandan Charity film about creating hope; a film about schitzophrenia for people in Assam in Indial a Band called Darts film; a personal opinion of the James Cameron about the space race in 1969 which Don directed. Don concluded with a 1979 documentary about Freedom of Expression which he talked about at a conference in the US.
24/10/2012 This was the last session of the course and most of the students are seen below with their certificates. Members watched a BIAFF film called The Hole which was discussed. A Cotton Adventure was also viewed and discussed before the students joined in to watch two members introductions before screening the wine advert films. If an advert is intended to promote sales of a product, some of the films certainly didn't unless reverse psychology is being used, but they definitely entertained. All were regarded as well done considering the timescale and location. A 'Making of film' of one of them was also screened. Technical problems prevented Karen screening her captured footage of the practical in-club filming. See also the GetReading report
17/10/2012 Jonathan presented some audio visuals produced from stills which was a new medium to most members. Brian Sargent then described his photographic life through his lifetime from stills to HD video with some amusing stills and comments. After tea when the course students joined the audience Bernard showed his short members introduction film covering his long time as a club member. Jonathan then showed another AV film created from stills of the course which is now on YouTube. Brian finished the evening with some underwater clips along with various travel and wildlife clips in remote parts of the world. Israel also announced a musical show he is involved in on 27th October and hoped that members would attend.
12/10/2012 On Thursday, Laurie, two Brians, Tony and Francis went to Bourne End for the Gateway competition. The results are shown below.
| CATEGORY | CLUB | MOVIE TITLE | STAINES | READING | BOURNE END | TOTAL |
| STORYLINE | STAINES | Murder in Store (10mins) |
2 | 3 | 5 | |
| READING | A Garden for Sharing (11mins) |
2 | 2 | 4 | ||
| BOURNE END | The Yearning (9mins) |
3 | 3 | 6 | ||
| DOCUMENTARY | READING | Journey into Space (6mins) |
2 | 3 | 5 | |
| BOURNE END | Green Velvet (6mins) |
3 | 2 | 5 | ||
| STAINES | Fasnacht (8mins) |
3 | 2 | 5 | ||
| OPEN | BOURNE END | The Loro Parque (9mins) |
3 | 2 | 5 | |
| STAINES | Battersea Dalmations (7mins) |
3 | 3 | 6 | ||
| READING | Nice by Day and Night (7mins) |
2 | 2 | 4 |
The trophy was presented to Staines after Reading had to resolve the tie.
| STAINES | READING | BOURNE END | |
| STORYLINE | 5 | 4 | 6 |
| DOCUMENTARY | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| OPEN | 6 | 4 | 5 |
| TOTALS | 16 | 13 | 16 |
| JUDGES | Tony Colvile Francis Crossley |
10/10/2012 Controlled chaos might describe the melee of people involved in the four groups as they tackled the practical filming exercise to capture footage for a wine advert. Karen also found time to use her camera to capture 'The Making of' footage. Edited results will be screened and discussed on 23rd October. Peter managed to screen some short clips of a classic car rally in the hope that other members will volunteer to help him progress the event into a project film.
03/10/2012 Anne screened her Intro to members file and Lauries film followed. The course members then moved for their session while Karen screen some examples of adverst for wine which was to be the filming challenge. Four groups were established and planning began. Course members joinrd the various groups and contributed to the discussions/ideas. Filming will take place next week.
26/09/2012 Dan gave an interesting introduction to his work before screening the 1st episode of The Collector's Room series - The Last Seranade. Luke the script writer could not attend. Dan is a one man company and like several of our members, does all the different functions involved in film making, though his films are longer than what we tend to make. After tea when the course members joined the audience the 2nd episode called Sam was screened. Typically, each episode costs about £300. Dan gets his actors through the Internet and does all his promotion via online forums. His films can be viewed on YouTube. The evening concluded with some interesting questions and amusing answers.
19/09/2012 A good turnout for the first meeting of the season and great to see so many young ladies among the new faces. Laurie took the course members into the big hall while Karen explained the variety of guest speakers, competitions and practical meetings anticipated through the season and then screened some BIAFF films for analysis by groups. Comments from the groups produced a lot of hilarity and the general consensus was that none of the three films warranted a second viewing but that each one had lessons to learn.