Orpington Video and Film Makers
Amateur Film Makers since 1958 Based in Orpington, Kent, UK
Those of you who were present at the recent club meeting in which films for the Vic Treen Cup (a film set to music) were screened, will recall John Epton’s music video for The Gang Split Up.
John has taken our comments and feedback onboard and we no proudly present to you the finished version! So grab your leathers, jeans, biker helmets, throw up those Devil Horns and prepare to rock out! 
This week’s meeting will be made up of a screening of films from filmmakers outside of OVFM, all of which were entries in a recent UNICA competition. To tell us more about it is our club president and film guru Reg “Bomber” Lancaster:
“We have a light hearted programme of short films that illustrate the UK’s participation in the UNICA festival the World Cup of non professional movie making.
We also have a fascinating gem of a film from Luxembourg about a young lady’s journey through Luxembourg City to attend a film show. Beautifully shot, it has little touches to jolt your cinema memories of theme music, stars and genres.
There’ll be something to make us laugh, cry and wonder. It sounds so good we can’t wait for the next meeting! See you there.”
You heard the man – see you on Tuesday!
The nights are getting darker and colder which means another annual OVFM tradition must be around the corner and surprise surprise it is!
This week’s club meeting will see three of our long standing annual competitions – The Mike Turner Plate, The Kath Jones Cup and The Vic Treen Trophy – being contested and with the criteria for the film being largely being short side we are hoping for the usual healthy response from our club members.
A quick reminder of what is expected for each contest:
The Mike Turner Plate is open to films with a maximum running time of one minute (or 60 seconds for those of you still on dial-up) on any subject, style or genre.
The Vic Treen Trophy is a film set to music. Please consult THIS PAGE for the specifications required for this particular contest.
The Kath Jones Cup requires a comedy film of no longer than five minutes that has a definitive punchline to it; in other words a short comic sketch if you will.
Each film shown will then be scored by the club members with their top three personal favourites ranked in order of preference in their respective categories on the night with the winners to be announced at the Oscars next year.
PLEASE reply to this post below if you will be providing a film for any or all of the competitions (you are not limited to just one, you can enter all of them if you so desire), along with the running time, picture ratio (16:9 or 4:3) and media format (DVD, Mini DV, etc) as well as which competition it applies to. This is a tremendous help in planning out the time allotment of the meeting.
Good luck to all who enter their film(s)!!
This week’s club meeting will feature a tutorial on the basics of Stop Motion Animation courtesy of our chairman Simon “Snapper” Earwicker!
Here’s Simon with a brief overview of what we can expect:
“I will regale the club with my knowledge and experience of the ever popular cinematic technique of stop motion animation.
So that’s the first five minutes taken care of, what shall we do for the rest of the evening?!
Seriously though I hope to demonstrate that stop motion animation is simple, requires only basic equipment and easy to find props and yet can be fun to do and even more fun to watch.
I’ll have some stop motion animations to show and I’ll be attempting to make a very short example during the space of the evening…fingers crossed!
So come armed with a small prop and you might find it starring in the film. “
So if you’ve any ambitions of being the next Ray Harryhausen or Nick Park then be sure to pop along to the meeting next Tuesday evening for what promises to be an interesting and educational session!
OVFM will be running FREE Coaching Sessions in the New Year to show you how to get the most of your film material. This offer is not limited to those using a camcorder but also includes anyone filming on an SLR camera or smart phone. It also includes anyone who takes only still pictures but would like to know how they can put these together into a short ‘film’ by adding pan & zoom effects and adding music. These sessions are completely free and without any obligation.
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED:
Why are we offering these free sessions?
Most families probably only have a couple of faded photographs of grandparents or perhaps great grandparents and these will be passed to the next generation as family heirlooms. Our hope is that in years to come what is being filmed today will be regarded as similar family heirlooms by future generations.
You can’t fail to notice the boom in people using their smart phones or SLR cameras to film moving images nowadays, in addition to those using camcorders. Sometimes they are filming an important family event such as a wedding, sometimes it’s children or grandchildren, sometimes it’s a holiday scene or maybe it’s just something that has caught their eye. Some of those moving images should also become family heirlooms but too often they are deleted after a couple of viewings, in part because when watched the quality is disappointing.
Our members enjoy film making but do get frustrated when they see films that could have been so much better if a little more care had been taken with how the material was filmed and how it was edited. In the club we give feedback on members’ films to help them improve, and with these free sessions we are keen to pass on what we have learnt to the wider public.
We also want to show people who only take still pictures how they can put the images together using effects such as pan and zoom and adding music to create short ‘films’.
For the club we hope that when people meet us through these sessions, and see what the club has to offer, some will decide to join OVFM. However there is absolutely no obligation to join.
How can the sessions help you?
We can help you if you are not completely happy with the material you have filmed or what you do with it after filming. For example:
What will the sessions cover?
We will finalise the content when we have heard what people want to have covered. We will cover topics such as:
how to plan what you will film,
how to build a story with your film,
how to film without excessive camera movement, which spoils many films,
how to edit your film to cut out the unwanted parts and move clips around,
how to make a film from still pictures
how to store your film for longer-term viewing.
When and where will they be held?
Fortnightly from 8 to 10 on alternative Tuesday evenings in the New Year at our club meeting room in St. Augustine’s Church Hall in Southborough Lane, Bromley Common. Precise dates and further details will be provided when we know how many are likely to attend.
If you are interested in taking part or have any further queries please email us at info@ovfm.org.uk
It’s that time were we once again hand over the reins of the club meeting to a guest speaker.
This week we will hear from Graham Kirkman who is an award winning dubbing mixer with 15 years experience currently employed by Halo Post, with a range of TV and film projects under his belt including Top Gear, The Apprentice, Made In Chelsea and Gladiators!
One of the common hurdles that has blighted the films of OVFM members is sound, and I am guilty as anyone in that, so perhaps Graham can provide us with some tips of the trade to help us improve our sound recording. Of course we don’t have the same hi-tech equipment as Graham does but the principle is still the same so this should prove to be an enlightening evening for us. For the record however Graham is sworn to secrecy as to the identity of The Stig!
For more info on Graham Kirkman visit his website HERE.
See you all on Tuesday!
Time flies when you’re having fun but the annual Top Ten competition waits for no man (or woman – and it’s position on children and animals has yet to be made clear) judging by the fact we’ve hit the fourth round already.
In the last round we had a healthy six entries (the results of which are HERE). Will this number be topped in round four? Only one way to find out!
Selected to enter films for this round are:
Nick Kasper
Andy & Marian Watson
Mo & Peter Lodge
Sam Brown
Jim Morton Robertson
Hugh Darrington
Harold & Maisie Trill
Simon Earwicker
Lee Relph
Barbara Walker
As ever if you can’t make your designated round be sure to either reply to this post below saying so or let Brenda know ahead of time – conversely if you DO have a film ready early, please bring it along as chances are it will be welcomed for screening time permitting. This is also applicable to new members and recent joinees who wish to share their work with us or throw their hat in the ring.
And if you are bringing a film this week then PLEASE reply to this post in the comments/reply section below, letting us know the film’s run time, format (DVD, Mini DV) and picture ratio (4:3 or 16:9). This is a great help for us when planning the evening out and if you could accommodate us on this it is greatly appreciated.
Good luck to everyone who enters a film.
One of the most important dates in the OVFM calendar is our annual Autumn Show where we share the fruits of our labours from a year of busy filmmaking, along with some gems from our archive with the public. As the nights are getting darker and colder you’ll need something to brighten them up so why not join us for another evening of films from the very best local amatuer filmmaking talent.
We are pleased to announce that the film Cakes and Onions about the Homesdale Road Allotments charity event for St Christopher’s Bromley (formerly Harris HospisCare) will be screened as a part of this show, after we regretfully were unable to screen it back in March.
There will also be a very special announcement made at this show regarding a new initiative from OVFM for anyone who wishes to improve their filmmaking skills.
This year’s event will take place on FRIDAY 24th OCTOBER at 7:00 for 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 guests and non-members the tickets are £5 – which includes refreshments – and are available from our secretary Freddy Beard on 01689 813616 or by e-mail at beardfreddy@gmail.com Don’t leave it too late as they tend to get snapped up very quickly!
If any OVFM club members or our external friends wish to help publicise this event please download a printable version of the poster HERE
And if you want sample of what to expect at our shows then please take a look at our showreel on our YouTube page HERE
For an entertaining and sociable evening do join us on October 24th and bring along your friends and family!
See you then!
You may recall that the original plan for this week’s club meeting was to have a guest speaker in Graham Kirkman but unfortunately, due to work commitments Graham had to pull out. So we’ve had to resort to “Plan B” but don’t worry as we have something rather fun line up for you.
Because we have yet to make an official film for this year’s North vs South competition (and I apologise personally for not being able to progress with my film submission) we will be endeavouring to rectify this with something similar to our “Meet the Members” evening a few weeks back.
The idea is simple: we will be exploring the “What if..?” theme and will be asking club members to think of a humorous idea to both ask and answer that question – eg: “What if dogs could fly?” “What if I had two heads?” “What if my hoover could work by itself?”… I’m sure you can come up with better ideas than that which is the main thrust of this evening.
We will set up a camera and green screen and if you could provide some props or costumes apropos to your idea, we will do our best to make these light hearted scenarios into a visual reality.
So please get your thinking caps on and remember the emphasis is on humour so be afraid to abstract or esoteric in your choices – creativity and fun are the key elements in this project (that and winning the N vs S of course! 😉 ). We want to get as many people in front of the camera as possible so don’t be shy in stepping up and joining in.
Hope to see you on Tuesday brimming with ideas! 🙂
Our club members have been busy in between club meetings as ever covering local events for posterity and the club annual newsreel. Thanks to our press officer, Professor Mike Shaw these filming sessions have been publicised by local media.
Two recent events have been covered by a good friend of OVFM, Margot Rohan, webmaster of the Orpington Community website:
Orpington Hospital Memorial Re-dedication
Thanks to Mike for spreading the word, to our intrepid filmmakers for their time and work in keeping the OFM name out there and to Margot at Orpington Community website for the articles.