Tag: amateur film making

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY February 4th

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

As much as we pride ourselves on creating original work here at OVFM, we are not above pinching existing concepts for our own use, as evident by the theme for our next cub evening – Desert Island Films.

But, to avoid litigation by the estate of Roy Plomley, we’ve altered the format a little by having two castaways and they, of course, are choosing films to keep them amused whilst stranded on a remote atoll. Not just any films by the way, these are selected from the extensive OVFM archive, meaning one of YOUR films could be chosen by one of your peers to quell their loneliness and boredom, quite an accolade indeed.

The evening will be split into two parts beginning with Andy Watson, who will include one of his own films but his selection will mostly be from other club members. Andy has chosen the films which have impacted and influenced him the most , and will include one that encouraged him to join OVFM!

Colin Jones will host the second half, with his focus being on short film from members who are no longer with us, as well as few forgotten gems from yesteryear he would like to share with a new audience to appreciate.

We hope this sounds like an enticing evening for you and look forward to seeing a full house this coming Tuesday for Desert Island Films!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY January 7th

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

No, I can’t believe it is 2020 already but it is and the start of a new year means concluding some unfinished business from 2019, namely the TOP TEN competition!

The three individual qualifying rounds were held over the latter half of the year and from that the ten films with the highest scores from those rounds will be screened again in this final. The complete scores from all three rounds can be found HERE.

The ten – or in this case 11 –  films which will be screened and voted on in this session are as follows:

 

1. The Making of Ogre Eating by John & Ann Epton

2.  Lanzarote – A Different View by Brian Pfeiffer

3.  Distance by Mandy Carr

4.  Magic Tricks by David Roman-Halliday

5.  Braveheart by Jane Oliver

6.  Best Friends by Barbara Walker

7.  Lost Smile by Lee Relph

8.  World Garden by Barbara Darby

9.   i360 by Trevor Rogers

10. General Election, Orpington by David Laker

= Birks of Aberfeldy by James Morton-Robertson

 

As always, It is imperative we have a high turnout to make the scoring as fair and representative as possible so each film is given a fair assessment from a high a pool of voters.  The film with the most votes will be crowned the 2019 Top Ten Winner at the OVFM Oscars on March 17th.

We also ask everyone who is bringing as film via USB stick that you properly mark your device with your name and film title, making it easier for the projectionist when screening them rather than having to sift through a pile of flash drives with no clue as to which one belongs to whom.

Also, this meeting is your last chance to enter the Annual Competition. Hopefully you have already submitted your film(s) to Ian Menage for inclusion on the DVD to be compiled for the judges, so please ensure you have your £2 entry fee and ENTRY FORM  (this is in the Members’ Only section so make sure you are logged in to access it) to hand in, whilst anyone who has yet to return their trophies from last year please bring them along too.

To download the Entry Form from the above link, roll your cursor over the top of the window to reveal the menu bar then click the download icon, or you can print the form off directly from the page by clicking the printer icon which is to the right of the download icon.

 

We hope to see everybody bright and fit for this important evening on Tuesday as we kickstart a new year here at OVFM!

FILM TO A THEME PROJECT – NOTICE

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

RUBBISH

 

We kick off 2020 with our first Film to a Theme project and one we think you can have some fun with.

Rubbish might conjure up what we throw away on a daily basis that ends up stinking the house out and being a eyesore on the landscape. But this is just one interpretation of this rubric – we could ask what happens to the rubbish after we throw it out. Maybe if you have environmental concerns on the impact of how our waste is handled this is something you could discuss in your film.

Most rubbish these days can to be recycled but who does this job? How about a film saluting the unsung heroes who get up in the wee hours to wake us up when they collect our rubbish very week and their colleagues at the rubbish tips who are prepared to get down and dirty to sort everything out and make sure it goes to the right places. Perhaps you have an insight to the whole recycling process you could document.

Ever been to a scrap yard for sundry metals or cars? Share it with us. Is fly tipping ruining your neighbourhood? Share us your rant or make a comedy out of it.  You know the saying “One man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure” (not gender exclusive btw)? There’s an idea for a short film too. People talk a load of rubbish too, how about exposing them for a laugh?

These are just some suggestions but no doubt you can come up with many more of your own and come up with something to share with us on the screening evening set for the club meeting on Tuesday February 18th 2020, giving you plenty of time to work your magic.

Good luck and thanks for reading.

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY DECEMBER 3rd

Posted on by Lee Relph

comp_16

 

And so we enter the final stretch of 2019 with our last regular meeting of the year, the final round of our annual club competition films!

Offering club members a chance to test their creativity in three separate categories that pay tribute to past club members, this is one of the more unique and interesting challenges in our programme. As ever, the three prizes up for grabs are:

 

Kath Jones Cup – A joke film with a punchline no longer than 5 minutes in length.

Mike Turner Plate – A film on any subject or style no longer than 60 seconds in length.

Vic Treen Trophy – A film set to music

 

The rules for each of these can be found HERE which we ask you to adhere to, otherwise the subject matter of your film is entirely in your hands, and you can enter a film for one, two or all three categories.

Last year 15 entries submitted, just two below 2017’s record breaking total, but as we have seen the remits of three different categories usually ensures a healthy response from the collective creative hive of OVFM members.

Now the bit everyone seems to ignore – if you are bringing a film this week it would be very much appreciated if you could PLEASE REPLY TO THIS POST in the comments/reply section below, letting us know the following information:

 

Run time

Format (DVD, Blu-ray, USB Stick)

File Format and Resolution (MP4 -1080p etc)

Picture ratio (4:3 or 16:9)

Film Category

 

This is a great help for us when planning the evening out and helping things run smoothly so affording us this courtesy will help get you into Santa’s good books just in time Christmas.

Also, members are reminded to consider their entries to the Annual Competition. We hope the newly updated entry forms will have been approved by the Committee and ready to be handed out at this meeting, whilst the final date for entries is the first meeting of 2020, which is the Top Ten Final on January 7th.

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

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY NOVEMBER 19th

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

No this isn’t a case of deja vu, we have a second week where the theme of the meeting is another practical evening.

No this isn’t a case of deja vu, we have a… hold on didn’t I type that already?

Anyway, the idea behind this week’s session is to follow up what was learned at the last meeting about lighting. Much information was imparted about how to light a scene, what type of light to use and where to position it and now it is time to put it all to good use.

David Laker will be running the evening along with a little help from Andy Watson and Trevor Rogers. They will be bringing the club camera and lights but ask club member attending to bring their own cameras and any lighting gear they may have that will help add to the production.

In lieu of any other ideas, David has come up with a scenario he would like to use which will allow a chance to try out the various ways to alight a scene. If anyone has an idea of their own they are welcome to bring it to the meeting and time permitting we may get to try them as well, and hopefully even get to check the footage on the club PC before we wrap up for the evening.

So, it might be dark outside but it will be anything but when you join us this coming Tuesday for an illuminating evening of filmmaking!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY NOVEMBER 5th

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

It’s time to get out hands dirty again by putting what we’ve learned to good use for another OVFM practical evening. This time however, the session will be more of an educational one as we delve into the subject of lighting, one which has proven a perennial thorn in the side for filmmakers the world over, even in professional circles.

With new members recently joining the club looking to improve their skills and learn new techniques, this was a requested topic and a challenge gladly accepted by our chair Jane Oliver on behalf of our resident brains trust (who just happened to be absent last time, so this is their first time hearing about this).

As you are aware, the club has their own set of lights for us to work with, plus many members have either their own lights or helpful accessories like reflectors or filters which we encourage them to bring with them on Tuesday.

So, if lighting is a bug bear for you when making films and you want to learn how to fix or improve it, the the place to be is at the Barnyard Rooms at St Augustine’s in Petts Wood next Tuesday evening!

Spring Park Evening – November 7th

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

 

OVFM members are invited to join Spring Park Film Makers for an evening with one of their prominent filmmakers Peter Macpherson on Thursday November 7th at the Griffiths-Jones Hall, Emmanuel Church, West Wickham, BR4 9JL.

Peter is a prolific filmmaker with a record number of 4 star awards for his films at BIAFF as well as wins in the regional and club competitions. With so much knowledge and experience to draw on, Peter has a busy evening planned featuring filmmaking news, techniques and tutorials interspersed with educational and amusing films which will cover the following topics:

 

1. The pros and cons of today’s camera technology from mobile phones to camcorders.

2. A bit about gimbal stabilizers

3. Tutorials about filmmaking, including composition and staging.

4. An introduction to the principles of screenwriting.

5. Music in filmmaking.

 

If anyone is interested in attending this event, please make this known by either replying to this post below or via e-mail to Jane Oliver or in person at the next club meeting on Tuesday November 5th.

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY OCTOBER 22nd

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

It’s a double header evening for the next meeting, as we’ll be dividing the session into two halves.

In the second half we hope to have a Q & A discussion to people a chance to ask that burning question and get a helpful answer from our knowledgeable experts. Before that we have some unfinished business to attend to.

As you recall, this year’s TOP TEN 2019 competition was originally scheduled for two rounds but with only 13 entries and a combination of technical issues, illnesses, new members joining and laziness, the Committee sanctioned this additional “Last Chance” round for people to submit their films.

Names of club members whose entries are outstanding are:

 

Ron Williams

Andy and Marian Watson

Jim and Fran Morton-Robertson 

Brenda and Roger Wheatley 

Ian Menage

John Alford

Peter Mitchell

Charley Caseley

Sam Brown

Colin Jones

Reg and Annabelle Lancaster

 

Along with new members David Halliday and Mandy Carr.

 

As always we ask you to PLEASE reply to this post in the comments below, if you have a film ready. This is vital if we are going to also hold the Q&A session afterwards, so do please respond below by letting us know the following important information :

 

Run time

Media Format (DVD, Blu-ray, USB stick)

Picture ratio (4:3 or 16:9).

 

It’s a simple courtesy we are asking of you and it only takes a few seconds to comply.

Just a reminder if you are bringing a file on a USB stick, the club’s Blu-ray player does NOT play .avi files or anything encoded at 4K or above. MP4 (h.264 codec) is the best format to brings your films in.

Thank you for reading and good luck to everyone who enters a film and don’t forget to have those questions ready!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY OCTOBER 8TH

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

NON-VERBAL

 

We appreciate the fact that we announced this project just last month (don’t look at me, I don’t make the programme) which hasn’t given you much time for everyone to get your creative juices going or your films made but hopefully some of you have been inspired to put something together for this theme of “Non-Verbal”, or have something lurking in your archives that would fit the bill

In the announcement post, I linked to a silent film I made a few years back. I actually filmed and edited the whole thing inside 6 hours, with half the usual filming problems eradicated as there was no dialogue to record! So if I can do it, you can too.

As usual we ask a little cooperation from everyone bringing a film to the meeting to PLEASE REPLY TO THIS POST in the comments/reply section below, letting us know the film’s run time, media format (DVD, Blu-ray, USB/Memory stick), file format if using the latter (MP4 is preferred, 1080p maximum) and picture ratio (4:3 or 16:9). This is a great help for us when planning the evening out and helping things run smoothly so if you could do us this courtesy it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading and we look forward to seeing your films on Tuesday!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 24TH

Posted on by Lee Relph

TABLE TOP FILMING

For this session, it is time to get the cameras out again and do some more filming, this time scaling things down a bit to try our hand at table top filming!

What’s that you ask? Well, rather than me explain it to you, I’ll let John Bunce have that honour. Take it away John:

 

 

Yes, we are giving simple stop motion animation a go, or something approximating that.  If you recall, former club member and erstwhile chairman Simon Earwicker also made some stop motion films using a whole array of everyday items, like elastic bands, glasses, coins and a desk lamp. Obviously this is a painstaking and time consuming process and two hours isn’t going to be an enough to ke a whole film (especially as it takes everyone so long to settle back down after tea break) so anything we do attempt will need to be very short and straightforward.

Hopefully though, this will prove educational and inspiring enough for you to try this for yourself or give you an idea for your entry into next year’s Top Ten competition!

So, if you have an idea for something you’d like to try, please reply to this post below so we can accommodate as many projects as possible, otherwise if you simply want to learn something new – after all that is why we are members of OVFM to learn new skills – make sure to join us this coming Tuesday and be a part of the fun!