Attention – Spring Show Promotion!!

Posted on January 22, 2013February 23, 2020 by Lee Relph

Hello loyal OVMFers!!

As you know the 2013 Spring Show is soon upon us and we would like to spread the word around the Orpington community. To ensure we make a bigger splash this year, Simon “Snapper” Earwicker has created a poster to display across various willing public places to help generate interest.

If you are able to help by putting a poster up on a supermarket or social club notice board or somewhere visible where you may think interest in our show might be generated please download and print off a copy of the poster from HERE!

Many thanks for your co-operation.

OVFM Coaching Evenings 2013

Posted on January 20, 2013January 5, 2022 by Lee Relph

Coaching Evenings 2013

by

Ian Menage

Following the success of last year’s coaching evening sessions, which resulted in the making of The Amazing Healing Machine, we will be running a second group of sessions in 2013.

As already trailed at previous meetings, this time the emphasis will be on a debriefing of the last shoot and of Disastermind, with the intention of putting useful improvements into practice and to make a short film later.

We need members who were directly involved in these shoots to volunteer and to describe any problems they faced and to give their views freely. Also any suggestions for us to take to the next one.

Experienced members can help the Club in the supervising and setting up aspects. This is also what a real (reel?) club is all about, isn’t it?

For your diary, the four Tuesdays will be in the usual Barnard Room at 7.30 for 8pm:

Feb 26^th – show the Healing machine, comments and then Disastermind and comments

March 12^th – follow on with the introduction of the shoot and making arrangements – who does what. Also run through the script and it’s requirements.

April 9^th – start the shoot

April 23^rd – finish it!

Please do step forward and offer to take on the various roles. Who’s first to be Director, Clapperboard etc….? It will be a bit if fun as well as hard work! So come along. I’ll be looking for the first volunteers at the next meeting.

Then as before copies of the footage will be circulated to those who wish to have a go at editing and creating a film for the Club.

Please ring me on 01732 462900 or email ian.menage@gmail.com with any suggestions and offers to help make this a useful and successful event.

Ian

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday January 22th 2013

Posted on January 15, 2013February 2, 2022 by Lee Relph

So it’s freezing cold here in old Blighty at the moment and some of us have had some of the old white stuff get up our noses (no not THAT!) but that isn’t the case for other countries around this big old world of ours as some tend to enjoy periods of prolonged sunshine. And some of our OVFM members tend to take their cameras with them whenever they pay a visit to these sun soaked locales to record the sights and sounds of their time spent in these wondrous places.

Others of you prefer to traipse around the soggy grounds of our fair countryside or subject yourselves to similarly cold and icy climates for your overseas holiday excursions and film these too – that’s fine too (I guess, it’s not for to judge you bunch of weirdoes!).

And the “M” in OVFM wouldn’t stand for “masochists” if we didn’t set aside at least one of our club meetings to view the results of your holiday filming, which is exactly what this week’s meeting is for. So, if you’ve been out and about in the name of leisure and relaxation recently and captured some of your exploits on film/tape/miniDV/whatever then bring them along to the meeting and we’ll do our best to feign interest as always.

Please note that films must not exceed 10 minutes in length.

If you are bringing a film could you please reply to this post below and could we also ask that when films are submitted you include your name, the title, picture ratio (16:9 or 4:3) and running time somewhere on the discs/cover? It’s a huge help for the club’s film and archive records. And if you have any specific instructions re: sound please let the projectionist know ahead of time. Many thanks.

Finally, can any trophy winners in last year’s Annual Competition please bring their trophies with them to this meeting or on February 6th BY THE LATEST as Brenda Wheatley needs them to have the names of this year’s winners engraved on them.

See you on Tuesday and we all look forward to sleeping throu….er…seeing your films!*

* DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the post do not reflect or represent those of OVFM as an organisation and shouldn’t be taken literally as it is not in the club’s interest to appear demeaning or derogatory toward its members or their tastes in recreational habits.

Then again I am the Webmaster here and thus I can say what I like! MWHAHAHAHAHA!

New OVFM Project – “Surprise Surprise”

Posted on January 11, 2013October 8, 2021 by Lee Relph

SURPRISE SURPRISE

Our first project for 2013 was suggested by John Ransley.

The theme should be pretty self explanatory but is is really that simple? Surprises come in many forms – a surprise birthday party, a present one didn’t expect, an underdog victory in a sports event, friends or family members being reunited after a number of years – or maybe a film with an ending no-one was expecting….

While I am sure John has his own ideas when he suggested this theme as you can see, the possibilities are wide and fertile.

The closing date – i.e the night we will be screening the completed films – is Tuesday February 19^th which gives you just over a month to get something together.

Could we also ask that when films are submitted you include your name, the title, picture ratio (16:9 or 4:3) and running time somewhere on the discs/cover? It’s a huge help for the club’s film and archive records. And if you have any specific instructions re: sound please let the projectionist know ahead of time. Many thanks.

Good luck and we all look forward to seeing your films!

New OVFM Project – “Two Words”

Posted on January 9, 2013August 27, 2020 by Lee Relph

TWO WORDS

It’s time for another project and this one was suggested by…erm…Me!

The genesis of this was an idea I had for short film many moons ago, when this was all fields and we used to walk twenty miles to school in bare feet through the snow carrying our milk in our hands, about the power and effectiveness of just two simple little words. I then decided that everyone else in the film should have dialogue of just two words as well to get the point across – or drive it home with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, take your pick!

Anyhoo, come the AGM last year and when suggestions were requested I dug this old idea out of the archives and proffered it to the Legion of Doom and the rest of the club. Fast forward to now and this little old idea of mine is now an official OVFM Project theme!

While I had a definite idea of my own as to what I wanted my two word lines for, everyone else is of course free to interpret this as they see fit – as long as the dialogue doesn’t exceed two words naturally. Whether the whole cast is bound by this or you leave it up to just one character is up to you! Drama, comedy, animation, one minute or five minutes long – your decision! Just keep it clean and don’t nick my script idea!!

The closing date – i.e the night we will be screening the completed films – is Tuesday April 30^th which gives you just over three months to get something together.

Could we also ask that when films are submitted you include your name, the title, picture ratio (16:9 or 4:3) and running time somewhere on the discs/cover? It’s a huge help for the club’s film and archive records. And if you have any specific instructions re: sound please let the projectionist know ahead of time. Many thanks.

Good luck and we all look forward to seeing your films!

OVFM Spring Show 2013

Posted on January 9, 2013December 28, 2019 by Lee Relph

OVFM Spring Show 2013

It’s that time of year when OVFM celebrates the days getting brighter, the weather is getting warmer and the trees and plants are in bloom once again. So what better way is there for a film club to mark this occasion by sharing with everyone the best of the many films made over the past twelve months along with a few gems from the archive. We shall also be taking a look back over the past twelve months in the Orpington/Bromley region through the annual Newsreel.

The 2013 Spring Show will take place on FRIDAY 22nd March at 7.30 pm

VENUE – Methodist Church, 19 Sevenoaks Road, Orpington BR6 9JH

DIRECTIONS – GOOGLE MAP

WEBSITE – http://www.orpingtonmethodist.org.uk/welcome.htm

Club members get in free but for others the tickets are £5 – which includes refreshments – and are available from our secretary Freddy Beard on 01689 813616 .

For an entertaining and sociable evening get your tickets a.s.a.p. and bring along your friends and family!

See you then!

720p or 1080i?

Posted on January 3, 2013December 5, 2021 by Lee Relph

720p or 1080i?

by

Brian Pfeiffer

Is anyone thinking of buying a new Camcorder? As my mini-dv camcorder is showing its age I’ve been thinking about replacing it with an HD device. So I’ve been searching the ‘net and magazines for useful information and likely models. Obviously there are many things to consider: I’d want a view finder; an external mike socket; good optical zoom; image stabilizer etc but perhaps the most important for me is to be able to get the best quality images possible. So I began to think about what I call the filming format. Based on information gleaned from conversations, I had thought I should go for 1080i.

BUT then I watched an article (http://www.petapixel.com/2012/05/09/hd-video-explained-why-720p-is-better-than-1080i/) which expounded the virtues of ‘Progressive’ as opposed to ‘Interlaced’. This stated that 720p will give a better resolution on screen that 1080i and that 1080p is the very best and gave good explanations as to why this is so; it’s worth viewing.

So I’m leaning towards 720p or even 1080p if the cost is reasonable. But I need to know what overheads there might be for filming in ‘Progressive’ e.g. storage requirements both in the camcorder and when the data is captured for editing. And what impact on the editing process too? And other things such as: Do I need HD specific SD cards for filming? or HD quality DVDs for the output? If I record in HD can I view the edited output on a non-HD TV?

As you can see I am a more than a bit confused, so I wondered if this might be a worthwhile topic to open up for discussion one Club evening when there are 10 minutes or so to spare as perhaps others might be in a similar position.

Brian Pfeiffer

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday January 8th 2013

Posted on January 2, 2013December 28, 2019 by Lee Relph

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you’ve all got over the indulgences of the Christmas period and are feeling fit for another fun packed, educational and productive film making year in 2013.

But first we have some unfinished business to take care of in the form of our Top Ten competition and our first club meeting of the year is the Top Ten final. By now, those of you whose films have scored the highest marks in the individual rounds would have received an e-mail from our competition organiser Brenda Wheatley and have made any necessary adjustments and improvements to your films based on the feedback and comments from the previous rounds.

Now it is judgement time and the ten highest scoring films get a second airing for the final ranking, and the results of this round and the winning film will be revealed at this year’s Oscars on March 5th!

Also this meeting is the closing date for entries for the Annual Competition so please make sure you don’t miss out and get your films, entry forms and entry fee to Brenda.

So good luck to all the finalists and we look forward to seeing all of, you on Tuesday for this important date in our annual calendar!

OVFM Annual Competiton 2012

Posted on December 8, 2012September 4, 2021 by Lee Relph

OVFM Annual Competition 2012

Yes folks it is that time again where you brave filmmakers let your masterworks leave the bubble that is OVFM and have a panel of outsiders view and judge them.

Last year’s competition – the complete list of winners can be found HERE – was won by Cap’n Chris Coulson and his disturbing expose “My Other Hobby” but the main prize winner was Simon “Snapper” Earwicker who took home four awards. Can they do it again this year or will someone else step up to be bathed in glory?

Below you will find links to the entry forms which you can download and print off and bring to the next club meeting which is the Christmas Social on December 18th while the closing date is January 8th 2013.

As always the entrance fee is £2.00 per person but you can enter as many films as you like. All monies are non-refundable as we have to bribe the judges somehow.

To download the Entry form as an MS Word document click HERE

To download the Entry form as a PDF document click HERE

Good luck to everyone who enters and remember closing date for your entry forms is TUESDAY JANUARY 8th 2013!

The Great OVFM Sound Debate

Posted on December 6, 2012January 5, 2022 by Lee Relph

Hi Everyone,

At the club meeting on 4th December, Jim raised the issue of sound levels being adjusted whilst a film is being shown.

What do you think?

There appears to be widely varying views on this matter amongst the membership of the club. Prior to further discussions on this subject at the next committee meeting in January, it would be useful if as many members as possible were to express their thoughts and/or solutions.

All of your opinions are important so please take the time to reply via the website.

Many thanks.

Mike Coad