Tag: 2021

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY OCTOBER 19th 2021

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

Now we are up and running again (sort of) it is time to get down to the serious business of our club competitions and that of course means the TOP TEN, and the first round is this Tuesday!

Obviously this was suspended in 2020 due to something or other but it is back and we hope you are all raring to go with the films you have made with all that time on your hands over the post 18 months! Everything you need to know about this year’s competition can be found HERE.

Last year’s big winner was Mandy Carr who not only won the Top Ten but just about every other award at the Oscars too. Wil she make it two in a row or will Barbara Darby reclaim her crown as Miss Top Ten? Only one way to find out!

However, with many club members still a little hesitant or unable to venture out from their homes and with winter practically here, we understand that attendance in the Barnyard Rooms will be affected but we do encourage as many of you as possible to attend in person.

Because a small audience will also effect the voting of the Top Ten and other competitions leaving us with a score that won’t be truly representative of a film’s quality or merits, we have a contingency plan. To wit:

On the day after the meeting, the films from each round will be uploaded to Vimeo and put into a Showcase, the link for which absent club members will receive via email, along with a link to the online voting form, which will be hosted via Google Docs. These films can then be viewed in the comfort of your own homes but there will be a SEVEN DAY time limit to watch them and submit your forms, after which the links and access to the films will expire.

We made a number of contacts at the Public Zoom Meeting on October 15th and some of these may attend the Top Ten meeting, so it would be good if as many club members as possible are present in the Barnard Room to greet them on Tuesday! If we create a good enough, lasting impression this may result in new members for the club. So let’s all be there with our best welcoming smiles at the ready!

If you are due to show a film on November 16th or have one that should have been shown during this round but wasn’t ready, please let David Roman-Holliday know about your entry as soon as possible.

NB: Due to issues with the kitchen at the Barnard Rooms, there will unfortunately be NO REFRESHMENTS available. If attending members require (non-alcoholic) drinks, they are advised to bring their own to the meeting.

Thanks for reading and we look forward to seeing a many of you as possible at the meeting in person on Tuesday evening!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 21st 2021

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

The next time OVFM gets to together we shall be handing over the floor to a guest speaker, who some of you might already know.

 

 

Michael Gough FACI (M) is NOT the celebrated British actor with over 150 film and Tv credits to his name, including Doctor Who, The Avengers, countless Hammer horror films, and Alfred Pennyworth in the 1980s-1990s Batman film series. It would be a miracle if he was since the actor died in 2011!

This Michael Gough is a prolific filmmaker, public speaker, member of the IAC Council, and fellow Premiere Pro user. He will be  delivering a presentation entitled The Way I Tell ’em for OVFM this coming Tuesday, September 21st exclusively on Zoom. Michael will (presumably) be showing some of his films and regaling us with stories about their making or the history behind them, as well as detailing how having the same name as famous actor has been a life long bane of his existence. But mostly, it will be about his films.

Our club secretary Barbara J. Darby will send out the link details for the meeting to club members 24 hours prior to the event.

Look out for those emails next week and we hope you will join Michael and everyone else this coming Tuesday for an entertaining evening from the comfort of your own homes!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 7th 2021

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

It’s been a while but OVFM are taking the first steps in resuming the club meeting schedule in person in the Barnyard Rooms at St Augustine’s church in Petts Wood!

After a year of holding meetings – including the 2020 Oscars – via Zoom we are cautiously inviting club members to come face to face with each other as we used to do in the old days of early 2020 BC (Before COVID). As much as we’d like to see a healthy turn out for this first return to normal meeting we do understand that some of you may not be able to attend in person due to elf-isolating or don’t quite feel ready to leave your bubbles just yet.

Hopefully you have all read the health and safety protocols that were emailed to you a few weeks back and have accepted them in lieu of returning the club room. Feel free to wear a mask if you so desire, just remember to speak up for us hard of hearing folk!

Regarding the programme for the evening, this is a bit trickier.  Unfortunately, most of the committee have either swanned off on holiday or are staying at home, leaving our chair Jane Oliver to run everything herself. – and that includes things like the projector and laptop, which she is a bit nervous about. In the vent it does al work, we’ll either take a trawl through the archives or – if the arrives in time – have a look at the programme from the recent TRIANGLE COMPETITION which OVFM WON!

If not, I suppose we can discuss the weather or something.

We hope to see you then.

Triangle Competition 2021 – The Results

Posted on by Lee Relph

On 2nd Sept 2021, Spring Park hosted the annual Triangle Competition (after a break in 2020) with OVFM, Shooter’s Hill, and Epsom submitting their programmes for entry and judgement by Spring Park.

There were 21 attendees in all, mostly home base members with 3 members each representing  their competing clubs which is better than nothing in this current climate. Shooters Hill did a good job bearing in mind their dwindling numbers during recent years which meant they had few films they could pick from the relevant period.  Sadly Shooters Hill have closed, albeit they have been invited to join OVFM should they choose.

Epsom put on rather a strange mix, some of which made little sense to me and lacked the spark of the other two clubs.

Run by Graham Evans chairman, the three Spring Park judges unanimously, and without reference to one another, chose OVFM’s presentation as the winner.  They concluded that every film OVFM had shown was made to a very high standard in their own right.  They were impressed!

Click on image to see it full size

 

Congratulations to all who had a film included in the OVFM programme to help steal back our silverware after 9 years!

According to the trophy, now safely in the hands of the chairman, Orpington has won 16 times.  It appears that the Triangle Competition started in 1975.  (46 years)

Orpington’s Success
1978
1979 joint
1981 joint
1984
1987
1989
1991
1992
1995
1997
1999
2000
2003
2011
2012
2021

 

You can look forward to seeing OVFM’s selection at a meeting very soon.

 

Words and photo courtesy of Jane Oliver.

TOP TEN COMPETITION 2021

Posted on by Lee Relph

Just when you thought it was safe it’s back!!! The COVID pandemic might have brought the physical meetings and activities within OVFM to a halt but technology has afforded us the ability to circumvent this as those of you who have participated in the Zoom club meetings will know.

Having successfully held the delayed 2020 OSCARS via this method, we will press on in the same vein with one of our longest running and prominent annual competitions the Top Ten!

Split into just two rounds this year, the running of this event is now in the hands of our new Competitions Officer David Roman-Halliday. Because we are looking to resume club meetings at the Barnard Rooms, we are aware that not everyone will be able to attend just yet so not only do we hope to run the session via Zoom so those people can join in, but we shall also be making the films available online via the club’s Vimeo channel in a bespoke Showcase and shared via email 24 hours after the meetings take place.

Those members who aren’t able to attend in person will have SEVEN DAYS to watch and vote on the films and submit their forms via email. The films will then be taken down if any alterations need to be made should they proceed to the final in January 2022.

Because of this, there is naturally a change to how you should submit your films. Due to the time and logistics of uploading the films, we ask that you submit your film to David Laker or David R-H TWO WEEKS before the round is due to take place, with one week before being the latest they will be accepted. You can do this via FILEZILLA or by using the FREE online service WeTransfer which is very easy to use and can send files up to 2Gb in size. We ask your films be in MP4 format (do please consult THIS ARTICLE on bitrates if your file is too large) and in the highest resolution possible (720p, 1080p, or 2160p) for best picture quality.

You should by now have an email from David R-H informing you which round you have been randomly drawn to participate in.  If you need to change your round please contact David R-H to make this arrangement.

 

Here is the list of club members and the rounds they are requested to submit their films:

 

ROUND 1 – To be held on 19th October 2021 (Last Submission date – October 12th)

Brenda & Roger Wheatley
Hugh Darrington
Kath Goodwin
Chris Towers
Mandy Carr
Graham Sinden
Ian Menage
Brian Pfeiffer
David Laker
Eileen Murray Giles
Anna Littler
Barbara Walker
Bob Vine
Annabelle Lancaster
John & Ann Epton
Jane Oliver
Nellie Caseley
Ron Williams

 

ROUND 2 – To be held on 16th November 2021 (Last Submission date – November 9th)

Charlie Caseley
Sam Brown
David Roman-Halliday
Horace Chan
Lee Relph
John Alford
Malcolm Goodwin
Roger Digby
Andy & Marian Watson
Reg Glennon
Colin Jones
Barbara Darby
Barbara J Darby
Trevor Rogers
Wally McKenna
Simon Ames
John Bunce
Maria Alexander

 

Obviously, we appreciate that not everybody has been able to get out and about with their cameras but being in Lockdown has been a chance for many of you to try something new that is worth sharing, or maybe you took this chance to refine your filming or editing skills whilst indoors. Surviving Lockdown itself is a topic that easy to document, either creatively or factually – in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a dominant theme for the films entered this year.

We do hope that there will be enough responses to make this year’s competition worthwhile and we look forward to seeing what you have been up to over the past 18 months.

Thanks for reading and good luck to all who enter a film.

In Memoriam – Peggy Parmenter

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

Sadly, Peggy Parmenter passed away on 11th February 2021.  Peggy had slowed down a lot over recent years, not surprising when you consider her age.  During the last year or so she had increasing health problems that left her pretty much immobile.  Her husband Ron, whom she dearly loved, cared for at home but as her health deteriorated, she had more hospital visits than she would have cared for.  Just a few days before she passed away she was once more hospitalised, where she later died.  Peggy and Ron had been married for over 63 years and he will miss her terribly. Our thoughts go out to him and the family at this sad time.

Peggy was one of those ‘get up and go’ girls.  She had no time to sit around and had to be on the go, constantly doing something.  She would insist that she could manage, even when things were becoming impossible for her to continue with.  She was ‘in charge’.  In charge of serving others, a wonderful gift to have; whether teas or coffees, savouries, cakes or puddings whenever there was a social event or a day of filming she would organise the food, delighting others with her homemade fare.

For shows, where OVFM catered for visitors, she went the extra mile to make special treats, filling her freezer up to the gunnels.  One such occasion that she catered for was the North v South competition that OVFM used to host. She would have likeminded volunteers lined up to help out both with the home made cooking and the service on the day.

Peggy enjoyed talking to people, socialising and having fun and you’d know that she was about, due to her distinctive voice and little chuckle.  She possessed a natural talent for acting.  She learned her lines so that her words would flow naturally and seamlessly as though in conversation, entering fully into the spirit of the character she was playing………  And if there was a reason to ‘dress up’ Peggy would oblige.

OVFM were very fortunate to have such a versatile member amongst their ranks.  It is good that we are left with so many good memories of Peggy as we see her starring in many of the older films within our archives.

Peggy, we will miss you, may you rest in peace.

 

Jane Oliver