Press Release April 2003 An evening of remarkable films

Surrey Border Film & Video Makers have excelled again! The April meeting was packed with a superb programme, which provided by far the best evening of new movies for a number of years. These came from the Festival of the South East Region Institute of Amateur Cinematographers (SERIAC), which last year attracted 70 entries for categories including drama, documentaries, animation etc. David Longley, who has organised the festival for many a year, gave the talk and showed a sample of the winning films. The evening was designed to allow club members to hear tips, see splendid films and discuss features highlighting why each had won an award. The quality of the films started high and then went to the ultimate heights of professionalism as the evening progressed.

An early film was ‘Underground Cathedrals’, a tribute to the engineering of the Jubilee Underground Line. It included inspiringly photographed shots using dramatic camera angles which emphasized the mind-blowing sizes of the caverns excavated for some of the underground stations. The film was accompanied by a well-researched commentary which captured interest, while the whole was given a wondrous atmosphere through the use of cathedral-like music.

There were two short comedies: ‘Motor Mik’ and ‘The Mystic’. Each lasted for around two minutes and was an excellent example of just the sort of films that many club members like to make. Both had a nice twist at the end, which came out of the blue and hit the audience right were it made them laugh. During the discussion which followed, the club was invited to

 take a closer look at the end clip of the second comedy. When shown again it was clear that the deadpan expression required for delivering the punch line had in practice revealed a hint of a smirk at the humour of the situation. The judges had noticed this and, although the film had won an award, they had pointed out that the end shot should really have been taken over and over again until the expression had been captured perfectly - something which is simple to do at the time of shooting but impossible to correct in later editing.

he speaker went on to make a plea for the club to make more good drama films. He himself has formed an association with a local amateur dramatics group and produced a number of films as a result. There was sympathy for his plea within the club, which is currently hoping to attract more members with an acting interest. The speaker warned that a good script is vital, as is strong directing, and that, for film-making, theatrical actors need to learn new skills such as not speaking so as to project their voices to the back of an audience. Skill at learning the lines is not so important for filming as each scene is normally broken into short shots, thus allowing actors time to check and practise the words. Also, with a film, each shot can be retaken as many times as necessary until the director is satisfied.

In all 11 films were shown, each of higher standard than the one before. Much useful discussion and advice were generated, indicating that the club members were intent on learning from the evening.