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This has been a successful year for Surrey Border Film & Video Makers with progressively increasing numbers attending meetings and around 15 new members. Our custom is for all new members to be invited to meet the committee over a cup of coffee in someone’s home where their interests and expectations are discussed. This year’s new members - like those before them - invariably said that they had lots of videos shot on holiday which they now wanted to make more interesting. The December club meeting was an end of year competition which clearly demonstrated that they were rapidly discovering what to do. There were 17 competition entries, many from new members, with 12 based on holiday videos. This was the highest number of holiday videos ever entered into the competition and all were of a remarkably high standard. It would seem that the club has successfully inspired its members, both new and old, to progress the art of holiday movie making. The films treated us to various trips – for example the Rocky Mountains by train, the Grand Canyon by car and a safari expedition with remarkable close ups of a lion stalking a leopard that had just made a kill - watch out David Attenborough! There was a brilliantly executed juxtaposition between the inflation of a hot air balloon shaped like Liquorish Allsorts and one of someone stuffing themselves silly with Liquorish Allsorts. We had a tour of St Andrews, Maidstone and more locally of Rowledge and Yately followed by a trip to Bali with musical accompaniment from the area. There were also trips to Darwin, Bergen, Ascension Island, Costa Rica and the Rother Valley. Phew! Fortunately each film was no more than 6 minutes long and there was a short gap after each one while the judges made notes and the person who made the film said a few words. The audience was treated to such a delightful and wide-ranging programme that it's pretty certain there will be an impact on people's holiday plans for next year. Three judges invited from outside the club had a difficult task deciding on the winners of the 6 cups and shields to be awarded. The best overall film was judged to be the one about Ascension Island by David Longley. He presented the film with the title ‘A Deserted Island’ and challenged the audience to guess where it was, gradually dropping hints as the film progressed. |