February 2012
Border Post
The journal of Surrey Border Film & Video Makers
CHAIRMAN'S CHAT
I can’t believe it was as long ago as 2009 when I took up the reins of
Chairman. I won’t say too much more about it here as this will be covered in
my AGM report.
However, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Mike Sanders as
the new Chairman, and I am sure that all members will join me in thanking
Mike for the stalwart help and support he has provided, and continues to
provide to the club.
Behind the scenes there has been a hive of activity during January with
preparations for the filming of our entry into the Albany competition. Many
members have been involved working as cast, crew and extras. An article about
it will appear in the March Border Post.
The first meeting for the proposed DVD on Farnham took place this month.
Read all about it in “Fascinating Farnham” on page 2.
On 30th January it was mentioned in a round robin email that the deadline
for entries to BIAFF was the very next day. A very determined Jeremy
Bayne-Powell took on the challenge to enter “Not His Type” for the club but
first had to remember where the DVD was. Of course he did not have it with
him at work, so couldn’t post it that day. He then tried to get the file from
his computer, which had developed a fault in the meantime, then after a
battle with it managed to extract the film from the “recovery files”.
However, part of them did not play. He eventually pulled out all the stops
and finally managed to get two entries in to BIAFF, “Not His Type” and
“Carbon Footprints”.
We’ll now wait to see how they do. Well, that’s all from me folks. I will
still be writing the occasional article for Border Post, but as from next
month Mike will be in “the Chair”.
It has been an enjoyable and rewarding three years, and thank you all for
your support.
Rita.
PLEASE NOTE
April 2012 Clubnight - Change of Date
As a result of Easter falling in the first weekend of April this year, we
shall not be having a clubnight on April 6th, being Good Friday.
Instead this will be held on the preceding Friday, 30th March, since
there are five Fridays in March.
Another date for your Diary, please
don’t forget – Sunday 22nd April is the Albany Film Festival which Surrey
Border are hosting in Chichester.
Not His Type at North vs South Competition Grand Final - Paul Holden
Gordon and Pam Sutton, President Paul and Vivien Holden represented
Surrey Border at the Grand Final of the North vs South Competition at
Farnborough, Kent on Sunday 28th January 2012. The first session of the
show, which was pretty uninspiring, comprised the entries from the North,
which (quite justifiably) had not made it into the top five films entered
into the Grand Final. Not His Type from Surrey Border had unfortunately
to be entered in an unfinished state, due to lack of sufficient time
between the final shooting date, and the entry deadline. The opening
titles, and the soundtrack particularly, were still in a rudimentary
state – but have now been corrected for possible entry into other
competitions.
We were then shown all 10 finalist films, and as usual the audience
were invited to try to match the Judges’ first five films, in order of
merit. The judges awarded first place to Free from Rochdale Movie Makers
(which also scored second place in the Audience’s combined judgement).
This was a comedy about a wedding (extremely well staged, with what
looked like half the population of Rochdale in the congregation) where
the unwilling bridegroom escapes at the very last minute!
The only two films from the South that were included in the Judges’
first five, were Who do you Love from Leicester Movie Makers, which they
placed third (and which the audience placed fifth), and On the Map from
Gosport and Fareham Camcorder Club, which the Judges placed fifth (and
the audience first). Gordon won a box of chocolates for being closest to
predicting the judges choices.
Next year’s Theme, which five of the audience (including yours truly)
guessed correctly from the specified clue of 2, 3 and 4 letter words, not
including “the”, will be NO WAY BACK. If we can mount an effort with
ideas, scriptwriting and a production team comparable to that which we
have just demonstrated in the filming of Wedding Belles, I really believe
Surrey Border could succeed in wrenching this North vs South Trophy back
from the North’s now unbroken reign of 7 years!
Fascinating Farnham - Rita Wheeler
Eleven of us met at Dick and Jean Hibberd’s house for the first
brainstorming session for the proposed Fascinating Farnham film.
I had never realised that so many famous people had associations with
Farnham; from the distant past William Cobbett, Edwin Lutyens, and
Jonathon Swift, to the more recent John Knight and Mike Hawthorne, then
to the present Jonny Wilkinson, who having recently retired from the
England squad now plays for Toulon, France.
One thing for sure, we shouldn’t have trouble finding enough
material.
If you are interested in getting involved and have not been contacted
by email, please let me know and I’ll include you on the circulation
list.
The next meeting is due to take place on Tuesday 28th February,
2:30pm at the home of Dick and Jean.
An evening with freelance Lighting Cameraman John Collins - Alan Brown
A date for your diaries - Friday 2 March 2012
Here’s your opportunity to pick the brains of an experienced
professional cameraman!
John Collins has been a lighting cameraman since 1990. Although now
freelance, he has worked mainly for the BBC on programmes such as The
One Show, That’s Life, Challenge Anneka and Watchdog and has also done
much corporate work for companies like Virgin Atlantic, Renault, Tesco
and Ford.
He will be talking about his career and also imparting a lot of
useful information on the art of good camerawork as well as location
editing. John has been editing on Final Cut Pro since 2005 and has
plenty of experience editing news packages in tricky locations.
John will also be bringing along some of his kit, for example a mini
jib arm which he has recently acquired, and his cameraman friend Tom
Blount will bring along his GlideCam.
Don’t forget to put this date in your diary – it should prove to be
a great evening!
Innovation at Albany Shoot - Paul Holden
Sound
Men Peter Frost and Jeremy Gooding were literally at full stretch for
hours, holding up the professional Microphone Boom on the first day’s
filming of Wedding Belles at St Mary’s Church Hartley Wintney, recently.
Peter Frost writes: “Having been thinking, during night time waking
hours, how to help us two Sound Guys’ aching arms and backs,
I
was in my garage at 7.00am making a new boom support. The unit was
constructed from an old pole that was the centre of a roller blind. The
hook support is a garden hose guide that can be moved up and down on a
slider made from spare wood - Heath Robinson rides again! It worked well
on a level floor but outside, it wasn't any good as the boom was at too
steep an angle over the hook and slipped during filming which picked up
on the sound - so we had to ditch it and go to hand held for that. I wish
we'd had it on Thursday, though, as inside it was excellent. I'll think
about how to reduce the possibility of slipping and/or deaden the chance
of sound transfer.” The photos show the new boom support in action (photo
Alan Butcher) and the detail of the sliding hook support (photo Peter
Frost). SBFVM is well served by its newer members, innovation and all!
Edit Exercise - Rita Wheeler
The Edit Exercise this year is to make a maximum 1 minute film about the club and its activities which may be shown on the web.This is an open competition to all club members. To help you with material, a DVD will be provided to those who need some previous footage of club activities. Please email me and request a DVD so we know how many to make. You can put your entry (or entries) on to mini DV or DVD and bring it along to the “April” club night which will be taking place on Friday 30th March.
Press Release January 2012 - Jeremy Bayne-Powell
Members
of Surrey Border Film & Video Makers held their first meeting of the
year beginning with two films from last year's film in an evening
competition "Office of Special Interest" in HD from the 'Odd Bods' group
and "Input / Output" from the 'Klondikes' group; both films were on the
theme 'easier said than done'.After this the Premier of the club entry for the North v South competition was shown "Not His Type". This was the rewrite of "Input / Output". Jacqueline did an amazing job on the script adding depth to the story. Actors from the Loddon Players once again did an excellent job of improving the quality of the production. Club members discussed the good points of the film along with areas for improvement.
Before the break two films, put to music, by Jim Attew were shown and then Paul Holden asked members to give their thoughts on the audio of a film. In the following discussions members generally agreed that the music had been overpowering the dialog.
After a selection of short clips showed members what the HD projector the Club was trying out was capable of, Neil Cryer then showed a selection of winning films from BIAFF 2011. A discussion took place after each film on the merits of each film.
The next club meeting will be on Friday 3rd February. This will start with the club's AGM followed by the latest technical update. Peter Matthews will show his latest modifications to cameras, his trolley for equipment, sound blending and more.
MEINETGS are held at St Joan’s Centre, 19 Tilford Road, Farnham GU9
8DJ on the 1st Friday of each month at 7.30pm for 7.45pm. Meetings close
around 10.15pm New members are very welcome, please email chairman@
surreyborder.org.uk or turn up at the door! St Joan’s Centre is 200 yards
south of Farnham station and is in the grounds of St Joan’s Church. The
entrance to the church is by a narrow road opposite the junction with Alfred
Road, and St Joan’s Centre is to the right of the church. There is ample
parking.
What is happening in February 2012
On Saturday 4th February, John Bevan will be running a workshop on how to make a
TV commercial.
Technical Tips
Technical Tips will be taking a break this month, and
will return in the March Border Post
CLUB DATES
3rd Feb AGM followed by Tips on
New Technology
by Peter Matthews
2nd Mar An evening with John Collins, Freelance
Cameraman
30th Mar “April” Clubnight - Edit Exercise, Max. one minute
promo for the Club’s website.
22nd Apr We are hosting the Albany
Competition at the
Newell Centre, Chichester.
4th May A selection of films
from Reading Film & Video
Makers.
What are these?
For an explanation, read all about
them in next months Border Post
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