Press release July 2002

This month’s meeting at Surrey Border Film & Video Makers was the club’s great challenge of the year and attracted a number of visitors. Members who wished to take part were to film and edit a complete video in just two hours! Planning and practice were of course allowed beforehand but no more. This year five groups within the club responded and had clearly put in a great deal of effort in the planning. Most groups used computers for editing whereas in previous years contestants had relied on ‘editing in camera’. The technophobes amongst us may be pleased to learn that computers were not the panacea that members had expected and indeed clearly caused some groups significant problems.

The first of the five films shown was a beautifully acted piece about a ‘mad’ professor working on a thesis. He was in a department of relaxology – a newly coined word sprouting from the theme for the evening - relaxation.

The second film, by a group called Zanadu, was a skit about three fishermen with the usual problem of not being able to catch anything. Two go off to the pub and the third doggedly carries on fishing but catches more than he bargained for - being dragged out and gobbled up by a monster shark. There was a well thought out twist at the end.

The WriteAngle group then showed a film apparently shot in the cockpit of a light aircraft. Scenes included the take off and the flight. Of course, as would be expected, things didn’t go quite as planned. The end was quite a surprise.

Fresh actors were brought in for the fourth film, emphasising the newly developing collaboration between the club and local amateur dramatic groups. This worked well for the film’s theme about a wife complaining about sexism at work. The theme twisted and turned in a situation which revealed some cunning script writing and brilliant acting.

The last group had some trouble getting their film out of their editing computer and into the projector, but this did not affect the excitement and enjoyment of the evening.