It’s that time of year which fills some of members with dread and nightmares while others relish the chance to show off their latest masterpiece. I’m talking of course about the annual OVFM Top Ten competition.
Over five rounds to be held periodically over the remainder of the year we shall see the fruits of the labours of our club members and the films they think stand the best chance of receiving the highest praise from their peers en route to be crowned the Top Ten winner at next year’s Oscars.
Unlike other meetings revolving around film screenings, this time the films are under scrutiny of your fellow club members who will score your films on a technical and personal grades so the stakes are high as is the pressure to deliver. But don’t fret, all critiques given are constructive and aimed to help you improve for future reference and for the eventuality your film makes it to the final in January 2014.
The first round takes place this week and the following members have been picked at random to present their films for this session:
Craig Robinson
Jane Oliver
Harold & Maisie Trill
Alan Whippy
Gwen Whippy
Mike & Jo Coad
Derek Allen
Susan Ward
Anna Littler
Ann Perrin
Mike Shaw
Please reply to this post if you will be providing a film at this week’s session, along with the running time, picture ratio (16:9 or 4:3) and media format (DVD, Mini DV, etc). This is a tremendous help in planning out the time allotment of the meeting.
If you don’t then have a film ready please let Brenda Wheatley know so that she can try to find someone else to fill the gap in the evening. If your film is ready early please feel free to bring it along to any Top Ten night and if there is time we will show it.
If you miss your given round you can bring your film along to a later one, but it will only be shown after those drawn for that round, if there is time.
Good luck to everyone who enters a film!
Last night the Top Ten for 2013 kicked off with four films – with ironically only one of the club members designated for this round actually supplying a film. Thankfully three other people stepped up with their films so kudos to them and bad form to the rest of you.
First up was “Village Mosaic” from Barbara “Cakes” Darby, a look at the making of a specially commissioned mosaic for Otford.
Next Mike Shaw revealed his hidden talents in “The Artist”. No relation to the Oscar winning French film of last year – at all! 😛
Jim Morten-Robertson presented “Ship Of The Desert”, shot on his travels to Dubai where the locals like to race camels. Spoiler: the camels won!
Finally we had a comedy short from Hugh Darrington entitled “I’m Not A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here”, a spoof on the popular TV show “Strictly Come Dancing”.
So, now that the competition is under way, will we see a bigger response from our club members in the next round? Let’s hope so!
Guilty as charged, Your Honour! Jo and I were drawn for the first round but had to tell Brenda at the last meeting that we wouldn’t have our film ready even though we have made it. Unfortunately, our computer broke down some time ago and the replacement lent to us does not have firewire facility to be able to edit. We learnt this morning that the motherboard is kaput so now have to get another computer. We will attempt to get our film in the earliest round as possible. Sorry, again.
On another point. Is it not possible for unfinished films (such as the New York one shown at the end of last nights session) to be uploaded on this website so that we may comment on them that way? It would save valuable time at a club meeting as well as allow lots of people to comment in detail if they wish to.
An interesting suggestion there Mike.
The files would be too large for this site to host but we could link to a YouTube video or whichever site is chosen for hosting.
Something to discuss for the future I think! 😉
I dont think I hit the nail on the head if you thought it was a skit on strictly come dancing Lee!