Surrey Border Film and Video Makers press report for November 2009
A tribute to John Woolmer via his films
This is one of a series of reports which appeared regularly in the Farnham Herald. They report the filmmaking activities of camcorder bearing enthusiasts as they meet to see films and hear talks about film, video and tv film making.
Surrey Border Film & Video Makers were treated to a Retrospective of some of the films made by John and Joan Woolmer in the 60’s and 70’s in their days of being involved with the Centre Film Unit. Joan explained that the films were made on 16mm. The club wanted to show the original films but unfortunately could not find a working 16mm projector, so the films were digitalized and shown on DVD.
"Escape" was a beautifully filmed evocative story of a young boy who, abused by his father, found refuge in a church then was killed by a car on his way home, his last thoughts were of the family life he wished he had had. One of the special effects used in the film showed a scene revolving rapidly. When asked how it had been achieved, Joan answered that they had mounted a camera onto a turn table.
Joan explained she had an idea for a film but was told she needed to get
the funds herself. They then had an opportunity to make a commercial film and used that money to make "Pauline" a short film about a young man who fancied Pauline but didn’t have the courage to talk to her. A chance rain storm brought them together.
The final film of the evening was the award winning "The Golden Medallion". As part of this was filmed in Scotland one of the challenges was to send the undeveloped film on the fast train to London each evening and wait to receive the rushes the next day to see if anything needed to be re-shot.
"Escape", "Pauline" and "The Golden Medallion" were all shown at the National Film Theatre as part of The Ten Best from the Movie Maker International film competition.
Rita Wheeler
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