Club Film – Your Help Is Needed!

help

A Call To Arms by  Mike Shaw

While our erstwhile Chairman Simon “Snapper” Earwicker was gnashing his noshers outside at the last meeting, shooting an epic club film with the help, of course, of a bevy of club members, inside the clubroom the remainder of the members put on their thinking caps to interpret a script idea supplied by Brenda.

It was decided to create a film using ‘intakes’ – that is, scenes from existing club movies which admirably, suitably, splendidly and, dare I say, humorously fit the script.  No, I’m not going to reveal the actual script here … it may be one of our entries for various competitions, and to tip our hand would, as they say, tip our hand,  give the game away, spill the beans.

So if all this seems a little enigmatic, now you know why.  Unless you were there at the discussion of course, in which case, you already knew why.

Enough of the banter. Many of the clips and scenes required have already been identified, and are repeated again here because, peoples, we need those clips! If you have any of those mentioned – please bring the relevant movie (or just the clips if you can) along to the next club meeting.  If you have clips which meet the requirements – bring those too – having a choice is a good thing!  Finally, there are scenes which will need to be shot – and we’re going to need props for those – and people to get involved of course.

First, we need a good narrator for the VO: it has been recorded to give us a time scale, but we will need a really good reading – male or female – for the final movie.

Some of the scenes we have identified as requiring intakes are

 

  • Someone painting (Mikes ‘Artist’ suggested) – but could also be a new shot of someone painting over a wall – and over the pictures on it.
  • Baking a cake – very messily. (Suggested – Colin’s film of granddaughter baking with Corrie).
  • Digging a deep/large hole (for planting a small single seed) (Suggested Basil’s film of boy burying a cat in a shoe box)
  • A clock speeding round and a calendar’s pages tearing off
  • People trying to cross rivers and falling in (various clips suggested here – for example Chris’s tyre over the river – you’ll know if you have something to offer!)
  • People climbing mountains (Reg’s Cheese Roll film suggested – but also a suggestion to film someone with a ladder against a green screen with clips of Mountains from David or Andy or Brian)
  • A dreadful band playing (Suggestions include the Christmas High Street Band shot by John and David)
  • Chris and Anna’s cat reading the newspaper (remember that film?!)
  • Three legged race or similar, a street party perhaps or children fighting at a wedding
  • A dog dragging someone along on a lead (Tony to film it?)
  • Someone sunbathing with a knotted handkerchief on their head, or humorous sunbathing situation
  • Someone battling against a high wind
  • Heavy snow storm and heavy monsoon rain (Sam and Jim have suitable clips. Also ‘Aloha Two’ – by Annabelle has a suitable scene).
  • Shot of naked men (!! – Reg’s film of naked men in the ‘Mud Race’ has been identified as a good candidate)

 

All of the clips used in the movie will be trimmed short – probably to 3-4 seconds maximum length.  The remaining shots will have to be original – props we’ll need are a large globe, a long feather duster, and an elegant vase (one that probably looks valuable but isn’t … we may break it!  Brenda’s 3D jigsaw vase has been suggested).

Don’t worry about the quality or colouring of your shots: all clips will be colour graded and ‘doctored’ to have a common universal appearance, so they will all blend together.

Over to you OVFM – the ball is now in your court! 🙂

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday June 23rd 2015

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FILM IN AN EVENING

One thing that can’t be denied about OVFM is that we enjoy a challenge which is why we are embarking on another Film In An Evening project for our next club meeting. As the title says we aim to make – or at least capture enough footage – inside the two hour time frame of the meeting for a film we can enter in this year’s North vs. South competition.

The theme is “Broken” so please give this some thought and bring your ideas on Tuesday where our Chairman Simon “Snapper” Earwicker will lead the charge and see if we can’t bring them all together to create some of our typical OVFM magic!

We’ve managed to create some fun little films in the past under these circumstances so there is no reason why we can’t do it again. So come along on Tuesday and join in the fun and share your genius with us all!

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday June 9th 2015

TT_15_R1

 

It’s back!

The annual Top Ten competition makes its return and the 2015 instalment kicks off this coming Tuesday night!

The procedure as ever is that we ask you to bring in your best film to be judged by your peers in OVFM and the ten films that receives the highest votes over the course of the five rounds taking place between now and October (see this post for the full list of dates) will be judged again in the final next January.

The members who have been drafted to provide a film for this opening round are as follows:

 

Basil Doody

Sam Brown

Ian Menage

Colin Jones

Jim Morton Robertson

Ann & John Epton

Harold & Maisie Trill

Reg Lancaster

Simon Earwicker

 

As ever if you can’t make your designated round be sure to let Brenda know ahead of time or you have a film ready early, please bring it along as chances are it will be welcomed for screening time permitting.

And if you are bringing a film this week then PLEASE reply to this post in the comments/reply section below, letting us know the film’s run time, format (DVD, Mini DV) and picture ratio (4:3 or 16:9). This is a great help for us when planning the evening out and helping things run smoothly so if you could do us this courtesy it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and good luck to everyone who enters a film!

OVFM Newsreel 2015

newsreel

 

Attention club members!

We are once again asking for your contributions to the annual OVFM showreel!

Quite simply, if there is a major event happening in your area – including Orpington, Petts Wood, Bromley, Sidcup, etc. – and you are available to attend, we hope you will grab your cameras and head on down to said event to capture the moment of film, which we will then share with the rest of the community as part of our Spring film show in 2016!

As before, we ask that the raw footage be passed on to the newsreel editor (yet to be assigned) who will take charge of the material from then on UNLESS you have a specific idea for the narration or construction, in which case you will need to discuss this with the editor.

Thank you in advance for your co-operation in this matter and happy filming!

New OVFM Project – Park

ovfm_proj

PARK

It’s project time once again at OVFM and the topic chosen by the Legion of Doom (aka the Committee) is “park”.

 

While the obvious interpretation will spring to mind, this subject is in fact potentially more nebulous than you may think. Before you go rushing off to your local public gardens with your camera, consider that park could also refer to a “Theme” park like Alton Towers or Lego land, or maybe it could suggests a water park. or how about a car park? Extending that further maybe a comedy about trying to “park” a car?

 

I would even go so far as to proffer a tribute to the great Korean director PARK Chan-Wook but I’m the only one in the club cool enough to have heard of him so… 😛

 

Anyway, get your thinking caps on and see what you can come up with, and don’t forget it can be a solo or group project so don’t be afraid to ask your fellow club members for help or advice and if you need it, club equipment is available on request from our secretary. The closing date for entries is the club meeting on TUESDAY JULY 7 th which should give you about a month to put something together or have a trawl through your personal archives for a film to share with us.

 

Thanks for reading, good luck to all who participate and we look forward to seeing the fruits of your labours on the 7th of July!

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday May 26th 2015

speaker

 

For our next club meeting we shall be inviting another member of the film making community to come to our humble meeting place to share their wisdom and advice with us.

The guest speaker this time is no stranger to OVFM having paid us a visit in the past. know for his technical expertise and for keeping his eye on the latest developments on the equipment side of the film making world, his columns can be read in the bi-monthly Film & Video News magazine.

I am referring of course to Tom Hardwick!

Tom Hardwick

 

Tom has a presentation ready for us which he says has “something for everyone” and with his years of experience and wealth of amassed knowledge you can be sure Tom will be true to his word on that front!

Filmmaking is an endeavour where one is always learning  and one of the best ways to learn is from others so make sure if you yearn to improve your knowledge, to be there for Tom’s presentation on Tuesday night and make  sure to give our guest a warm OVFM welcome!

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday May 12th 2015

50_50

with Spring Park

A recent annual tradition between OVFM and our friends at Spring Park Film Makers is to share an evening between our two clubs with each taking it in turn to screen a short programme of our films.

The pattern is to alternate the hosting of this event and last year saw Spring Park do the honours, so this year it befalls to OVFM to welcome members of Spring Park to our humble meeting venue, which means being on your best behaviour (yes, Cherie I am looking at you! 😉 ).

For the benefit of anyone not familiar with our 50/50 evenings, the format is that we show a 45 minute programme of our films then we see 45 minutes of films from Spring Park  – or vice versa pending the outcome of the chairman vs. chairman arm wrestling contest – with a break in between for tea, coffee, biscuits and conversation.

Remember this is not a competition, just a friendly sharing of films between two groups of passionate amateur film makers, so sit back and enjoy what should be a varied but entertaining evening.

In Memoriam – Frank Hyde

Frank

 

REMEMBERING FRANK HYDE

It is with sadness that we have to report the passing of our oldest member, 92 year old Frank Hyde. Newer members may not have been able to put a name to the elderly gentleman sitting quietly on “our”  side of the aisle on club nights but Frank was an important member for many years.

Born in Birmingham, he served in Burma during the War and was an accountant back in civvy street. A keen member of South Birmingham Cinè club, when his job moved him to Bexley in the early Seventies he joined his nearest club, Shooters Hill where I first met him as their Chairman.

He, Madge and their two sons eventually moved to Petts Wood and he joined OCS and  he soon took on the job of Treasurer which he fulfilled for many years. He was a keen film maker, using Eumigs in celluloid days, moving on to Panasonics for video.

He was delighted when Madge made a nice little winner about Wordsworth’s home Brantwood. Frank was no stranger to success himself. In our Annual Competition one year, he won the Ian Dunbar Cup, our top award, for a film Nimrod, made with Colin Jones, and was also runner  up with his own production, Facets of France. He served as our Chairman in 1988-9. He set a good example in being the first to note every film shown in the club.

Frank was a family man, a dog lover, keen gardener and walker. Though he seemed a shy man, once you got to know him he was a great and loyal friend to have.

If a smart elegant couple were needed in club films, Frank and Madge could fill the bill, as in the NvS winner Final Call.  When a character young Tim Jones plays in The Job turns up casually dressed for an interview, the long look of disapproval that immaculate Frank draws, with those steely blue eyes, needed no words.

Some years ago Frank founded an investment club which son Steven  and other four OVFM members joined. At the inaugural meeting his eyes twinkled as he proposed naming it after his address. He liked the idea of living in a road called Great Thrift. We shall miss him enormously.

REG LANCASTER

Thanks to Reg for his obituary.

If you have any memories or stories about Frank them please feel free to share them in the reply section below. Thank you.

 

R.I.P Frank

Film In An Evening – Editing Opportunity

The Lad with the Lamp!
Where is everybody else?

 

Film In An Evening – Editing Opportunity

Those members who turned up at our film making in one evening recently will have had the opportunity to turn the footage into their own version for a short film. We have already seen an examples from each “team”.

It is expected that there will be an opportunity to show all of them together at our meeting on 9th June after the first Top Ten films are seen. Don’t forget, any member can have a copy of the footage from Andy or myself if they only ask for it.

Why not have a go and join in? After all, it WAS a club event and deserves an effort to be made. Otherwise, there may not be another one. The future programme is in your hands!

Ian Menage

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday April 28th 2015

ovfm_proj

It’s club meeting time again and this week we will be looking at the fruits of your labours under the banner of our latest project “A Close Shave”!

In case you missed the announcement you can find it along with all the details HERE.

If you have a film ready or maybe you have one in your archives that might be applicable to the topic then we ask that you please let us know by replying either to this post or to the announcement post confirming this as well as stating the length of your film, as it is of huge help to our projectionist, to know how many films we have and whether we can allot time for possible discussion after each film.

And don’t forget that we can now screen films on Blu-ray format so if you want your work to be appreciated in HD now you can! 🙂

Project evenings often bring out the best in of club members and this one should hopefully prove to be no exception.

See you on Tuesday!

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