Tag: amateur film making

OVFM Club Meeting August 19th 2014

Posted on by Lee Relph

topten14_R3

 

And so we come to round three of the annual Top Ten competition aka the “Barbara Darby Hands Off That’s Mine” award!

In both Round One and Round Two we received just THREE entries each so we are still looking for an improvement on that front although the standard of the films has been high thus far! You can find the results of those rounds HERE!

As ever you asked to bring in your best film to be judged by your peers in OVFM and the ten films that receives the highest votes over the course of the five rounds that will take place between now and November (see this post for the full list of dates).

The members who have been drafted to provide a film for this opening round are as follows:

 

Tony Faller

Bob Vine

Jenny Tucker

Roger & Brenda Wheatley

Tony Keable

Nellie Caseley

Freddy Beard

Reg Lancaster

Cherie Hamlet-Smith

Chris Coulson

 

As ever if you can’t make your designated round be sure to either reply to this post below saying so or let Brenda or reply to this post 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.

And if you are bringing a film this week then can you 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.

OVFM Club Meeting August 5th 2014

Posted on by Lee Relph

project_special

 

MEET THE MEMBERS!

 

You’re probably thinking  “but we’ve already met!” So what is this all about? Well it’s a long story so I hope you are sitting comfortably.

At a recent committee meeting when we were brainstorming ideas for our club meetings to get everyone interested and involved I suggested a practical evening based on the Radio 4 show “Chain Reaction” . For those of you who have not heard it before, the concept is simple: one week a celeb will interview another celeb then the following week the one being interviewed will now interview a new celeb who will then go on be the interviewer the next week and so on.

The idea I had was similar in that we set up the club equipment (camera, lights, boom, etc.) and have a two person interview set-up then we swap the roles around so everyone gets a go at at least one role on the production side or in front of the camera.

Then – inspired by the recent archive film from 1963 in which the OCS (Orpington Cine Society) club members were being interviewed – our chairman Simon” Snapper” Earwicker thought it would be a great idea if we used this project to make an updated version of this film – hence this week’s special one night club project “Meet the Members”! Simon also thought that we could possibly incorporate this into our official North vs South entry with questions concerning the topic “If”.

Got all that? Good. So please do all show up on Tuesday and be preserved on camera in the OVFM archives for generations to come when they look back to see who was keeping the OVFM name alive in 2014!

OVFM Top 10 Competition 2014 Results

Posted on by Lee Relph

topten14

 

OVFM Top 10 Competition 2014 Results

 

Here are the ongoing results of the 2014 Top Ten Competition!

 

Round One – Held May 27th 2014

1. “The Bells Of St. Barthomolew’s” by Barbara Darby       53.63

2. “Anti-Gravity” by Hugh Darrington      49.26

3. “High Street Fun” by Ann & John Epton      45.83

 

Round Two – Held July 8th 2014

1. “Illusions” by Mike Shaw     59.21

2.  “Hamilton Landscapes” by Mike & Jo Coad     51.03

3. “Arctic Adventure” by Tony Keable    41.43

 

Round Three – To be held August 19th 2014

1. “Census ” by Bob Vine     53.19

2. “Round The Horn” by David Laker    50.25

3. “A Day Out At Beamish” by Richard Pugh     49.85

4. “Carmen’s Pylon”  by John Bunce    49.32

= “Olympic Winner” by Ian Menage    49.32

6. “Croxy” by Bob Wyeth    36.81

 

Round Four – Held September 16th 2014

1. “RAIN” by Simon Earwicker    56.00

2. “One Small Job” by Colin Jones   55.44

3.  “OCD” by Lee Relph    48.22

 

Round Five – Held on October 14th 2014

1. “Streaming Back To Metroland” by Sam Brown    57.16

2. “Lakeside Weekend” by Reg & Annabelle Lancaster   53.74

3.  “Ship Ahoy” by Pat Palmer    48.22

4. “Ski Fun Day” by Andy Watson   46.10

5. “Sue’s Sheep” by Jim Morton-Robertson   40.68

 

So, lest my calculations have failed me, the final top ten are thus:

 

1. “Illusions” by Mike Shaw     59.21

2. “Streaming Back To Metroland” by Sam Brown    57.16

3. “RAIN” by Simon Earwicker    56.00

4. “One Small Job” by Colin Jones   55.44

5. “Lakeside Weekend” by Reg & Annabelle Lancaster   53.74

6.  “The Bells Of St. Barthomolew’s” by Barbara Darby       53.63

7. “Census ” by Bob Vine     53.19

8.  “Hamilton Landscapes” by Mike & Jo Coad     51.03

9.  “Round The Horn” by David Laker    50.25

10.  “A Day Out At Beamish” by Richard Pugh     49.85

 

Congratulations to those ten. The final takes place on January 6th 2015 and the winner will be announced at the Oscars on March 17th.

My Top Ten entry ‘Census’

Posted on by Bob Vine

The Making of “Census”

By

Bob Vine

For my upcoming top ten entry entitled ‘Census’, I thought it may be useful to share my experiences in making what is only my third short film!

 

To come up with an idea for a script is hard, especially something original, but my wife Joan and I usually sit down and discuss topics in the news which people will have views on or emotions about and then try to pull those into a story. By using material such as this we have found it gets people talking about the film and thankfully not looking too closely at it’s quality !! Saying that, I do try to always improve on the last film; making sure I learn from my mistakes (there have been many!) and try something new.

 

Computer Generated external shot
Computer Generated external shot

My latest effort called ‘Census’ was written around the time both my father and father-in-law passed away almost simultaneously; both big influences on our lives and both very much into genealogy. What with the TV series showing famous people learning all about their family trees etc it has quite a following. In the news at the time was ‘Curiosity’ the latest space craft to land on Mars – a bit controversial with the amount of money it cost but a land mark in space exploration none-the-less. So Joan came up with the idea of putting the two together and I got writing. ‘Census – history is not what it seems’ was born!

 

When it was finished I remembered comments from my last film and reduced it down considerably – in an effort to make it roughly 5 minutes at the most. My last film was over 15 minutes long which just doesn’t get accepted at many film festivals. I also wanted to try to create a complete CGI (computer generated image) of a set; which also meant green screen work which was another area I wanted to improve on. The locations in this film allowed me to have ago at two CGI locations – an aircraft hanger (Biggin Hill refused me access to any of theirs) and of course Mars (!)

 

First draft of computer generated hanger interior
First draft of computer generated hanger interior

 

After some really harsh lessons learnt about lighting and focus I decided to not only buy a new camera and join the HD revolution (which has already passed and now is 4K!) but also some really special film lenses which, according to the sales person, I don’t actually own; I am just holding onto them for the next person! I spent a few hours at one of the ‘normal’ locations testing out lighting and using my new camera so hopefully all would be okay on the day. This also allowed me to plan the shoot better; and make detailed comments on my storyboards so I knew what lens, what lights etc to use for each shot.

 

I gathered my crew (friends that have been long suffering of my hobby!) and asked some actors from my last film to join me to make this thing.

 

Cast and crew from first shoot
Cast and crew from first shoot

 

To make the green screen shoot a bit special for me, the crew and more importantly my two actors, I splashed out and hired a small green screen studio for the day in Camberwell. It was an important scene and I didn’t want to take any chances with it. However, I learned another very harsh lesson when I came to keying out the green! In my excitement about the day; being conscious of focus etc I didn’t make sure (using my camera’s waveform monitor) that the background green colour was lit 2 stops brighter than my actors. The result of which was perfectly exposed shots (for once !!) that no matter what keying software I used (Keylight, Primatte etc) I could not get those all important clean edges – just a lot of horrible noisy/jaggerdy edges instead ! I am my own worst enemy !

 

Checking storyboards in the green screen studio - shame I didn't check the waveform monitor!
Checking storyboards in the green screen studio – shame I didn’t check the waveform monitor!

 

My extremely talented 'green screen' actors!
My extremely talented ‘green screen’ actors!

 

It actually looked like the end for the film as I could not afford to re shoot it. But after a lot of internet trawling for solutions and finding some hidden pieces of software within Apple’s Shake program (don’t ask!) I managed to key the green screen footage using a combination of Keylight mattes, Primatte mattes, rotoscoped tracked mattes using Mocha Pro and a lot of manual frame by frame animated mattes. What should have taken weeks actually took months ! Still, I have learned another lesson and I actually want to try it again for my next film to see if I can get it right.

 

My Apple Shake 'node tree' workflow which keyed out just one clip
My Apple Shake ‘node tree’ workflow which keyed out just one clip

 

So the film is now ready to be shown. It’s been filmed in HD, at 16:9 but I have then added a film aspect ratio crop of 2.235:1 just to give it a bit more of a cinematic feel. This may be a bad move as on our 4:3 projection screen it’s going to appear very small !! Looks good online though….

 

Hope this has been helpful and I look forward to hearing and learning from your comments

 

Bob

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday June 24th 2014

Posted on by Lee Relph

ovfmarchives

Once again we devote an evening to the wonders that lay tucked away in the club archive.

Hopefully you’ve all had a look through the current archive lists (in the members’ only section) and sent your request to Andy “Elementary My Dear” Watson and picked the films made by OVFM members past and present that you wish to see again.

I personally have nominated our North vs South entry from last year “Power Corrupts” since it has never been shown to the club before. Since most of us all sweated away a few stone during its making last summer I think we should see the fruits of our labours, don’t you (even if it didn’t win)? 😉

Andy won’t be with us on Tuesday as he’l be watching the World Cup instead but he has agreed to compile a programme for us based on our requests so if you haven’t done so already please, have a quick trawl through the archive lists and send Andy your choice to him ASAP! *

OVFM archive evenings are always a rich source of interest from both a technical and historical point of view, so I hope you will forgo watching a bunch of overpaid, illiterate, thuggish prima donnas kicking a bit of leather about to join us for what promises to be an entertaining evening!

**EDIT**

As you can see from Andy’s reply below the deadline has now expired for making requests so if you missed out, please don’t contact Andy but do keep it in mind for our next archive session! Thanks!

British Film Council Comp – Then & Now

Posted on by Lee Relph

then_now

Hello all

This BBC news story about how archived footage of Britain from the 30’s and 40’s has been updated for online use caught my eye along with the link to a competition being held by the British Film Council which you can read about HERE.

The idea is to make a film (no more than 3 minuets) using their archive footage to create a “then and now” look at Britain.

I figured this might be a fun opportunity for OVFM members who are able, to participate in. If not how about adopting the theme for your own film for the Top 10 or as a general film project?

Over to you! 🙂

Cheers

Coaching Evenings – Your Opinions Please!!

Posted on by Lee Relph

ovfm coaching

 

Your Opinions Please!!

 

Coaching Evenings 2014

The five evenings have now completed and the numbers attending each ranged from 3 to 17. Most of those who came seemed to get something from the variety which was provided. Mike Shaw’s film music and sources presentation was particularly welcome.

The club owes a vote of thanks to all the stalwarts who contributed as speakers and demonstrators, without which the evenings wouldn’t be possible. Thanks also to all members for having supported the cost of the sessions through their subscriptions.

Your ideas for possible future coaching evenings will ensure that there are some!

Ian

 

Please use the comments facility below to leave your feedback on the evenings held so far – positive and negative – and what YOU want to see in future coaching evenings or let Ian or a member of the committee know directly.

Thank you!

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday May 27th 2014

Posted on by Lee Relph

topten14_R1

 

This week’s meeting sees the first round of the annual Top Ten competition aka the “Barbara Darby Hands Off That’s Mine” award!

As ever you asked to bring in your best film to be judged by your peers in OVFM and the ten films that receives the highest votes over the course of the five rounds that will take place between now and November (see this post for the full list of dates).

The members who have been drafted to provide a film for this opening round are as follows:

 

Colin Jones

Bob Wyeth

John Bunce

Ann & John Epton

Peggy Parmenter

Peter Mitchell

Frank Hyde

Mike & Jo Coad

Barbara Darby

Alan Smith

 

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.

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!

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday May 13th 2014

Posted on by Lee Relph

judge2

 

You Be The Judge:

Trivention Competition 2014

 

For this week’s meeting we get to play judge for films from other clubs this time under the guise of the 2014 Trivention competition.

 

Similar to the Triangle Competition – except this one understands the concept of “tri” being a derivation of three and not four – two clubs will submit a programme of films to be judged by the third, which this year is us!

 

The other two participating clubs are Preston Movie Makers and Newscastle ACA Film& Video.

 

The judging procedure will be similar to our own Top Ten competition, in which we we all have a sheet to fill in, awarding each film with points before the totals are collected at the end to discern a winner. In the past OVFM has come second twice although with just two clubs competing that means we’ve lost TWICE! But don’t take this as an opportunity to extract revenge against the other clubs, we are better than that. Besides, Freddy already took care of that last year when she firebombed the Preston club room!

 

So we hope that you will all show up on Tuesday night and share your opinions on this films to present our fellow clubs with a rounded and balanced score card rather than the usual preferences of a few, which I’m sure will be appreciated in turn by our Northern friends.

 

As it is always of interest to see the work of other clubs and their own unique take on filmmaking, it should be an entertaining and eye opening evening.

 

See you then!

Coaching Evening May 6th 2014

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

ovfm coaching

 

Following the last successful editing evening, as announced the next one will be outdoors. I confirm that we will meet on Tuesday 6th May at 7.30pm at the gates of Priory Gardens, Orpington on the corner of Ramsden Road just before it meets Church Road/Bark Hart Road. Park on the Road.

 

There you’ll receive, probably in small groups, a short assignment to film in the gardens whilst the light lasts.

 

I will be there at 7pm, so if anyone can come earlier they can start off immediately.

 

Bring your cameras and, if you wish, any portable lights for the darker places!

 

If you do some research on the features of the gardens, it may help you decide where to go.

 

See you there.

 

Ian

 

P.S.  In the event of forecast bad weather, I’ll email you on Tuesday morning to move the evening to the Barnard Room at 8pm instead, where we’ll have the opportunity to have another editing session. Given the filthy weather today, watch this space!