A three premiere evening

Both current and prospective members flocked to the September meeting of Surrey Border Film & Video Makers. The reason: this was an evening where members could show their first films. This was also an evening of three premieres. First films first. Member Rick Freeman showed his Animal Beach Ball 2005. The Animal Beach Ball is the ultimate surf and extreme sports festival which this year was held in Newquay and Polzeath, Cornwall. Ric's film captured the buzz and excitement of surfing and featured Alan Stokes collecting his prize for Animal Wavemaster. Ric made this film as a taster for what people would get if they went to the festival.

Paul Grove on his first visit to Surrey Border brought along a film he helped make during a recent film making course. Dear John, a short comedy, had to incorporate several items in the story, such as a table, a fridge, some cheese. The story which featured one male actor was told as a Dear John letter with a voice over explaining why the relationship had to end.

Long time member Alex Dove brought along his film Glass Factory which had been filmed on video and edited using a good eye and super quick finger reactions in pre-camcorder days, and before the present easy editing programmes for computers were available. Vicky Jackson showed her first film, Le Marche. This film with it's bright colours, quick edits, and lively music captured the essence of a French market. It won the Bronze Award at the Film & Video Institute Movie 2002. The film Aerial Ballet by David Jackson followed the red devils' aerial display set to music.

The first of the three premieres was a film made for charity 'Keep Mobile'. Many members of Surrey Border were involved in the making of this film. Keep Mobile shows the door to door charity bus service set up in Wokingham District and Bracknell Forest Borough council areas of Berkshire to help disabled people keep hospital appointments, enable them to visit shops and also accommodate specially organised trips to the seaside or other venues.

After the interval the film makers enjoyed the premiere of the clubs' 'Film in a Day'. This event took place on Saturday 3rd July. Organised as a training event, the script, Judgement Day, written by Margaret Firmston, was broken up into four parts with four teams consisting of a Director, Camera Operator, Editor and Gofor who all filmed their allocated scenes throughout the day. This was the first time members and actor Peter Goodrham could see the results of their hard work. Ultimately the film will be re-edited and polished by overall editor Gordon Sutton and shown again at a later date. Thanks were given to Winkie and Bryan Harrison (chairman of Surrey Border) for allowing the club to use their mansion and extensive grounds for the filming. Thanks were also given to Dixie Dean who took on the mammoth task of Producer and managed to organize the thirty seven members directly involved in the acting ad making of this film, not to forget the many members involved in administration and catering for the day.

The evening ended with the final premier which was the film Gertrude made by Heron Productions. Long time member David Longley created Heron Productions in 1999 to involve the talents of leading local amateur dramatic groups and those of a video club. Their previous films Broken Dreams, Group Therapy, Isabel, and Natalie have all won awards in film festivals.