Once again we devote an evening to the wonders that lay tucked away in the club archive.
Hopefully you’ve all had a look through the current archive lists (in the members’ only section) and sent your request to Andy “Elementary My Dear” Watson and picked the films made by OVFM members past and present that you wish to see again.
I personally have nominated our North vs South entry from last year “Power Corrupts” since it has never been shown to the club before. Since most of us all sweated away a few stone during its making last summer I think we should see the fruits of our labours, don’t you (even if it didn’t win)? 😉
Andy won’t be with us on Tuesday as he’l be watching the World Cup instead but he has agreed to compile a programme for us based on our requests so if you haven’t done so already please, have a quick trawl through the archive lists and send Andy your choice to him ASAP! *
OVFM archive evenings are always a rich source of interest from both a technical and historical point of view, so I hope you will forgo watching a bunch of overpaid, illiterate, thuggish prima donnas kicking a bit of leather about to join us for what promises to be an entertaining evening!
**EDIT**
As you can see from Andy’s reply below the deadline has now expired for making requests so if you missed out, please don’t contact Andy but do keep it in mind for our next archive session! Thanks!
Thanks for encouraging members to send in requests, but unfortunately there is not now time to take action on any requests that might be received. Your request for Power Corrupts might very well be in the program, though you’ll just have to wait and see! :-/
Okay, thanks for heads up Andy. 🙂
Isn’t film a wonderful medium? Because of it we were not only able to meet faces from the past but stay in touch with one from the present.
Our archivist and regular projectionist Andy “Elementary My Dear” Watson put together a program of films from the archive which he introduced himself despite skiving off in the sunny climes of the Australian half of the Norfolk Broads.
So what gems did he dig up for us?
First was the long awaited debut screening of “Power Corrupts”, the OVFM entry for the 2013 North vs South from David Laker. It was nice to finally see the fruits of our labours.
Next, a rare non-comic outing from Barbara Walker in the form of “Victorian Engineering Excellence”, a film she made in 2002.
A past member named John Sharp has his film “A Most Precious Gift” screened next, about a local RAF war hero, while we were back on terra firma with a Colin “Colin” Jones classic from the vaults about home brewing.
Bob Wyeth took us on a pub crawl through London then showed us a film about it, while the plight of a homeless child was shown in Anna Littler’s “Street Child”.
The next film was “A Hoppers Lament” courtesy Mr & Mrs Coad which to my dismay was not about a one legged man. Just when we thought we had escaped the current football shenanigans, the embargo was ruined by a Reg “Bomber” Lancaster short called “A Pint In Front Of The Telly”about that very subject.
The next couple of films took us back to the early days of OVFM when it was known as Orpington Cine Society (OCS). “Meet The Members” was a fascinating look at how posh we all were in 1963, with everyone dressed in their Sunday best and being so awfully nice about everything. Even then the average age of the club members seemed to be 65!
A short promo clip about what “OCS” meant aired which caused Basil Doody to faint as he had forgotten he once had long hair!
The Eptons provided some musical distraction with “It’s All Dutch To Me” then it was back to Reg for another promo film “Tripod” starring Hugh Darrington sporting a dodgy moustache while loitering around Priory Gardens and behaving oddly. He would be arrested for that today!
Finally a spoof ad for “Dehydrated Water” from Capn’ Chris Coulson closed the evening before we all went home.
It was somewhat disappointing that Andy only received TWO requests for films despite much canvassing. Hopefully what we saw on this night will have encouraged more of you to have a look through the archive and find something you want to see the next time we take a trip down memory lane.
Thanks to all of you who said you enjoyed the evening. At least I feel confident about showing my face at the club again!
Seriously it was great fun producing something that, to my knowledge, had not been attempted in the club before – Not the green screening – I’ve seen better efforts in that respect, but the production of an ‘Outside Broadcast!!’ A theme for a future club production?