|
Two main topics were on the agenda at the June meeting of Surrey Border Film & Video Makers. One was best ways of getting a good voice-over for film narrations and the other was preparation for the annual film-in-an-evening competition. The matter of good narrations was addressed in the first part of the evening through demonstrations and discussion. Five professional actors showed us what they could do. To say that some of what we heard was stunning seems an understatement. One actress in particular took a piece she had never seen before and read it as if she were telling the story from the heart. There was no sign at all in her voice that she was reading and no indication at all that she had never previously set eyes on the piece. If only we all had such talent for our film narrations! We learnt that the characters of people’s voices varies enormously and for film narration it is crucial to have a voice which is ‘right’ for the subject. In particular the voice should sound natural. It is an art and a skill to read text to make it sound like natural speech. The second half of the evening concentrated on planning for the club’s standing event at the beginning of July when the club breaks into five groups which each try to produce a complete film in just one evening. Only two hours is allowed. Clearly much planning and practice has to go on beforehand so that on the night each team can set up its cameras and start filming as the clock chimes 7.00 pm. By 9.00 pm the complete film has to be ready for projection. As a new venture for this year our own resident scriptwriter, Rita Wheeler, wrote five scripts which when put together make up just one complete story. Each group was handed their individual script in great secrecy. The idea is that the groups will work hard in isolation to complete their particular remit without having any idea what the remit for the other teams is. Only on the next club night in July when the films are each projected one after the other will the full plot be revealed. No judging takes place for this event. When the first annual ‘Film in an Evening’ competitions began some years ago, all filming took place in and around the club house. Understandably there was a problem of each production team getting in the way of the others. In recent years this has been solved by some of the groups going to locations further afield. Three years back one group ambitiously filmed both at Farnham Rail Station and a member’s home and still managed to arrive back at the club house by 9.30. Some might wonder how it is possible to act, film and edit in such a remarkably short time. If one adds that any film is made of numerous scenes and each scene may have to be re-shot four or five times then the completion of the task in two hours seems even more impossible but readers can be assured it will all happen and, if its at all like previous years, with a good standard considering the circumstances. Some groups go on to upgrade what they have done for competition purposes. |