Orpington Video and Film Makers
Amateur Film Makers since 1958 Based in Orpington, Kent, UK
We may not have been at our usual venue and we may have been down on numbers due to health reasons but were we downhearted? Take a look at the photos and you can decide as in a departure from the norm club members were asked to take their own presentation photos – or ‘Selfies’ as I believe the youngsters say!
Ian presents Hugh with the Reg Lancaster Trophy
2015 is starting to pick up steam which means the annual Top Ten competition aka the “Barbara Darby Hands Off That’s Mine” award is about to begin!
As ever the names of all OVFM club members have been put into the hat belonging to our competitions organiser Brenda Wheatley and drawn in random to make up the participants for each of the five rounds that will take place between now and the end of the year, leading to the final in January 2015.
Remember that each film has a 20 minute time limit but can be on any subject and in any style. If you have a film from the past which has undergone a significant revamp (perhaps a new soundtrack, remixed sound, improved titling, tighter editing, extended or redacted cut etc. you are also welcome to re-submit these as your official entry.
And you can team up with your fellow club members if you need help on the technical or casting front, it will be the author of the script/concept who gets the entry credit.
The breakdown of the rounds and the selected members for each date is thus:
ROUND 1 – June 9th
Basil Doody
Sam Brown
Ian Menage
Colin Jones
Jim Morton Robertson
Ann & John Epton
Harold & Maisie Trill
Reg Lancaster
Simon Earwicker
ROUND 2 – July 21st
Mike Graham
Freddy Beard
Lee Relph
Brenda & Roger Wheatley
Pamela Webb
Peter Mitchell
John Bunce
Cherie Hamlet Smith
ROUND 3 – August 18th
Andy & Marian Watson
John Alford
Malcolm Goodwin
Charlie & Nellie Caseley
Richard & Jess Pugh
Mike & Jo Coad
Pat Palmer
ROUND 4 – September 29th
Barbara Darby
Mike Bishop
David Laker
Leo Staggs
Anna Littler
Walter McKenna
Tony Keable
Chris Coulson
Barbara Walker
ROUND 5 – October 27th
Bob Wyeth
Alan Smith
John & Sylvia Greengrass
Annabelle Lancaster
Mike Shaw
Bob Vine
Brian Pfeiffer
Hugh Darrington
Peggy Parmenter
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. Couples can each enter a film.
So, get filming and we look forward to seeing what gems you have in store for us in 2015!
Those American impostors may have got there first but our annual film awards show is still the best.
Tuesday March 17th sees the biggest event in the OVFM calendar in which the hard work and creativity of OVFM club members are rewarded with polished up bits of shrapnel with the names of previous winners carved into them. As ever club members who entered their film into the Annual Competition will be on tenterhooks as the results are read out while the rest of us will sit on chairs like civilised human beings.
The many awards being contested include:
Ian Dunbar Cup
Orpington Trophy
Jubilee Shield
Vincent Pons Trophy
Mike Turner Plate
Kath Jones Cup
Freddy Beard And Moustache
We’ll also give a hearty slap on the back to whoever was voted the runner up to Barbara “Cakes” Darby in the 2014 Top Ten competition.
This year we are thankful to Tim Stannard of Staines Video Makers for kindly judging the films on our behalf and we believe he might be joining us on the night, so if you don’t know who Tim is, he’ll be the one who is either surrounded by grateful club members or being beaten up by those who didn’t win an award!
And as ever, with this being a special night we expect attendees to dig out their best clobber or be a bit creative with some fancy dress if that floats your boat, either way it would be nice if you do make an effort and not just turn up like the scruffy tyke you usually are.
Last year’s big winner was our extinguishable chairman Simon “Snapper” Earwicker who bagged an impressive six awards! Can he do it again this year or will 2015 be someone else’s year of triumph?
Much like the February 17th meeting this event will take place at All Saints Church in Bark Hart Road, Orpington. If you need a reminder of how to get there please consult this map:
We hope to see you all on Tuesday March 17th for the 2015 OVFM Oscars!! Unless you get a better offer of course…
We kick off the month of March (already? Can you believe it?) by handing over the reigns of the club meeting to one of our long standing members, Jim Morton-Robertson!
Jim, one quarter of the Kemsing Mafia, has been making films for over fifty years – or half a century in old money – thus has accumulated quite a body of work. For our delectation he will be dipping into this extensive catalogue of his to bring us a selection of films he best feels represents the scope of his work.
Beginning with his first ever 8mm shot film from 1962 , Jim will share with us examples of the wide variety of styles he has tackled over the years including animation, comedies and features, while regaling us with tales about their making or the history that surrounds each film.
It’s always fascinating for both the club and the filmmaker themselves to look back over their work so be sure to be present as we delve into Jim’s personal archive on Tuesday!
This week’s meeting will see another screening of films that come from outside our club but the standard will just as high, as the IAC logo above might have already indicated to you.
The governing body of all amateur film clubs across the UK is involved in many film competitions across the country and even overseas, one of which is the prestigious BIAFF (British International Amateur Film Festival). Each year films from all over the country are submitted for judging and rated from 1 to 5 stars with eight exceptional entries awarded a Diamond Award, making this a high contested competition indeed.
For our delectation a selection of films of recent BIAFF entries will be shown on Tuesday night, all of which were rewarded at least 3 or 4 stars in competition, so none of your rubbish here! There will be room for brief critical discussion after each film in what promises to be an entertaining and busy evening.
Due to circumstances beyond our control the meeting will take place at All Saints Church in Bark Hart Road, Orpington (where we have held previous meetings including last year’s AGM). If you need a reminder of how to get there please consult this map:
Hope to see you there.
This week’s meeting will incorporate one of our rare special project evening as we attempt to make a film in one night!
That’s quite a tall order for a two hour session but we’ve done it before – you may recall the last time where Sam provided us with a number of objects and one line of dialogue to be included for continuity – and I am sure we can do it again.
As for the specifics, I cannot share them with you as they remain firmly locked in the head of our Vice Chairman Sam “Choo Choo” Brown and we all know what a scary place that can be!
Joking aside Sam has conceived some very interesting one night projects for us before and I am sure he will do so again. So, if you are prepared to head into the unknown under the guidance of our Vice Captain then be sure to present this Tuesday evening!
The year has gone so quickly, it is hard to believe that OVFM is once again holding its annual Spring film Show!
Now the days are getting brighter, the weather (hopefully) is getting warmer and the colour is returning to the leaves on the trees, we will be to marking this occasion by sharing with everyone the best of the many films made by our club members over the past twelve months along with a few delights unearthed from our extensive archive. And the local events of 2014 will be revisited in the annual Newsreel!
As ever refreshments will be on hand as well as our raffle where great prizes can be won!
The 2015 Spring Show will take place on FRIDAY 27th 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 .
A poster for the event can be downloaded (for best printing results) from HERE (right click on the image then select “Save Image As”) so please print a copy off and spread the word around your neighbourhood!
For an entertaining and sociable evening of drama, comedy, documentary, music, travelogue and more get your tickets a.s.a.p. and bring along your friends and family!
See you then!
Another annual tradition here at OVFM is the screening of holiday films where member share with us the highlights of their recent trips either abroad or here on our fair shores. Through their eyes we get to experience the sunny highlights and rainy lowlights from various locations around the world, allowing us to soak up the sights, sounds and splendour of these far off places (or just off the M4 if that is the case).
Just to remind everyone that there is a FIVE MINUTE time limit on your film so if you have one that runs longer you may want to do some last minute pruning.
We also ask that if you are bringing a film that you please reply to this post in the comment section below, telling us the run time, format and picture ratio of your film. This is of tremendous help to our projectionist in timing the evening should we have a healthy supply of films to show.
Thank you for your co-operation and we look forward to seeing your films on Tuesday!
As we welcome the New Year here at OVFM we kick off as always by taking care of some unfinished business vis-a-vis our annual Top Ten competition!
The qualifying rounds have taken place and the results can be found HERE with the ten highest scoring films from those individual rounds having now earned their spot in the final.
By now the ten finalists will have been notified and ironed out any tweaks based on the comments and feedback given ready to wow us once again on this night, en route to having their name declared the winner at the Oscars on March 17th!
Also club members are reminded that this meetings marks the deadline for the Annual Competition so please have your films and entry forms on hand to give to Brenda Wheatley. If you need an entry form you can download one HERE!
Finally another deadline is looming this week as the footage for the Newsreel is required so John Epton can begin compiling it in time for the Spring Show. So it would be appreciated if you have your footage and a short 20 second clip of you filming or performing “film related” activities ready to hand over to John on Tuesday. if you unsure of what is required then drop John a line and he’ll enlighten you.
Happy New Year to all and hope to see Tuesday!
An audience of 62 people represented by 12 different clubs turned up at Farnborough Village Hall for the 2014 North v South Grand Final.
We were especially pleased to welcome members from Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers and Lowestoft Movie Makers who made the several hours journey to be with us. Also present was Romy Van Kreiken from Holland, a familiar face at IAC events.
An entertaining programme of 25 films were shown with a good mix of genres including Drama, Documentary, Comedy, Animation and One-Minute entries.
Our judges for the Final were Peter and Mary Rouillard from Guernsey who kindly stepped in at the last minute. The standard of entries was high this year and they had a difficult task in choosing a winner.
As usual, we ran our popular Audience Vote competition where they were asked to match the judge’s decision. Although the judges were asked to put the top 10 films in order of merit we asked the audience to only match the top 3, to give them a fighting chance. Nobody managed to do that but the person who got closest to the judge’s decision was Derek Hopcroft of Tonbridge Film Makers.
There was no ‘Guess the Theme’ competition this year. Instead, there was an audience poll to find out whether entrants would prefer the North v South to remain a ‘Set Theme’ competition or to be an ‘Open Subject’ competition. This followed suggestions by some clubs that they would prefer it to change to the latter. The results will be published in due course.
Here then are the results:-
Audience Result
1st Imbuvable Feu – Altrincham Moviemakers (North)
2nd The Decision – Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers (South)
3rd Moving Oleta – Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers (South)
Official Result
1st Imbuvable Feu – Altrincham Moviemakers (North)
2nd Moving Oleta – Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers (South)
3rd If Only – Staines Video Makers (South)
4th All A Bit Iffy – Tynemouth Video Group (North)
5th The Decision – Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers (South)
6th Meals Would Be Provided – Nuneaton Moviemakers (South)
7th 1066 – Spring Park Film Makers (South)
8th If Dreams Are Nothing More Than Wishes – Chesterfield Film Makers (North)
9th Decision Time – Coast Video Club (North)
10th Klaatu Borada Nikto – Chesterfield Film Makers (North)
Congratulations to Altrincham Moviemakers for winning the John Wright Trophy and to Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers for winning the Harry Adams Trophy as runners-up. This being the 40th Anniversary of the competition, brings the total number of wins to 21 for the North and 19 for the South.
May I thank all the clubs who entered and attended for their support. We hope to see you again next year when the competition will be held on Sunday 6th December.
Mike Coad, Competition Officer, OVFM.