Tag: amateur film making

OVFM CLUB MEETING – Tuesday January 22nd

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

For this week’s meeting we are please to welcome Andrew Bishop back to give us another talk on his favourite subject of animation.

As you might recall, Andrew from Darkside Animations last gave a talk back in October where he showed us the latest software he and his team have been using in making the many TV shows, promos and commercials. This proved to be of such interest to club members that this time, Andrew will be holding a workshop introducing us to the basics of creating an animation.

Some of us have dabbled with animation in the past but this will be an opportunity to learn from a  professional. Don’t feel too daunted by this if you’ve ever thought animation was way out of your grasp, Andrew has promised to go easy on us and stick to the fundamentals to get any neophyte started.   

You never know, this might be the start of a new direction for you and inspire you to try something different for Film to a Theme projects, Top 10 or other competitions.

For a sample of the work Darkside Animations have done, check out THESE SHOWREEL VIDEOS on their Vimeo page.

So, bring your notebooks and a pen because animation class will be in session this coming Tuesday!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY January 8th

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

2019 already? I’m afraid so but whilst we always like to look forward here at OVFM, we still have to finish some of the business we started in 2018, 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 films which will be screened and voted on in this session are as follows:

 

1. Beyond the Sunset – Sam Brown

2. When Orpington Was Still A Village – David Laker

3. Aristotle – Hugh Darrington

4. …104! – Ian Menage

5. Our Lizzie – Barbara Darby

6. Season’s Blessings – Jane Oliver

7. Walkers – Barbara Walker

8. Dream Visitor – John Bunce

9. Dino Invasion Of London – Lee Relph

10. Church Room – Bob Wyeth

 

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 a high a pool of voters.  The film with the most votes will be crowned the 2018 Top Ten Winner at the OVFM Oscars on March 19th.

Also, this meeting is your last chance to enter the Annual Competition, so please ensure you have your film, £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 to competition manager Ian Menage, 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 – NOTICE

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

IF ONLY I COULD REMEMBER

Alright folks it’s time to set another Film To A Theme project challenge for you.

As we get older our memories begin to play tricks with us from forgetting birthdays to forgetting why entered a room. We also forget things we said or have written in the past. As we get older our memories begin to play tricks with us….wait, didn’t I write that already?

See, it’s easy to forget things and there is plenty of comic capital to mined from this but it is not always a pleasant experience either. Forgetting to pick up a birthday cake could ruin someone’s special day, or remembering to collect someone from a train station or from a night out could have saved their life.

Maybe you have a moment in your life that is precious but has become so faded in your mind that you wish you could relive it one more time and get that memory back. or is there a song of film or TV show or actor/actress you are having trouble remembering the name of and need some help?

These are just some suggestions of what you could do but the important thing is you get your thinking caps on, your cameras out and make a film on this topic.

Now, here is the important bit you NEED to remember – the date of the screening for your films is FEBRUARY 5th 2019

Happy filming and we look forward to seeing your efforts in two months time!

 

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY NOVEMBER 13TH

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

For our first meeting of November we take another wander down memory lane to visit some old friends that reside within the OVFM archive, which has recently been updated by our archivist Andy Watson. Be sure to check the listings in the Members Only section (make sure you are logged in) to discover what is new there.

Unfortunately I don’t have any information to hand as to what this evening will entail, other than the programme is being curated and hosted by Sam Brown and Ron Williams. I suppose that makes this night a bit of a mystery so if you like to be surprised then come along on Tuesday evening and see what treats from yesteryear will be resurrected for our entertainment.

*EDIT**– After this original post, I received word that the programme will be split into two parts: one comprising of Sam’s picks from the archive and one comprising of Ron’s, with his selection spanning 1986-2011. 

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY OCTOBER 30TH

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

Coming hot on the heels of our Diamond Anniversary Show where we looked back over 60 years worth of film from OVFM, we have another film show lined up for this meeting, only this time we’re seeing what other UK film clubs are getting up to.

UNICA is an international film festival for amatuer filmmakers where each country submits a programme of films representing the work from clubs and individual filmmakers in friendly competition for judges awards. This year’s event took place in Blankso in the Czech Republic and the UK did well in a number of categories, including Best Young UNICA Film, although Sweden took home the prize for Most Interesting Programme.  You can read the full results HERE.

On this night, Reg & Annabelle Lancaster will be sharing with us some of the films that made it onto the UK programme from the 2017 UNICA festival (presumably because the 2018 disc is still in the post) which is an hour long collection of the cream of British amatuer  filmmaking. And to top off the evening they will be screening a few films from Croatia’s programme, to give us  flavour of what filmmakers are up to from other parts of the globe.

Presumably this will entail having to read subtitles. Cool people, like me, who watch tons of foreign language films (or hard of hearing people, like me, who have to have subtitles on everything they watch) will be okay – the rest of you’ll will just have to get used to it! 😛

There will be room for discussion about the films seen, which I hope will be as inspiring as  they are entertaining for you.

See you on Tuesday!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY OCTOBER 16th

Posted on by Lee Relph

We have reached the third and final qualifying round for the TOP TEN 2018 competition. The ongoing results can be found HERE.

The Top Ten is open to everyone in OVFM to submit a film, no longer than 20 minutes on any subject, style or genre, which will be judged and graded by their peers. The ten films that have accrued the highest scores by the end of the five individual rounds will be entered into the final in January 2019 and the winner will be announced at the Oscars in March.

We had four entries submitted for round one last month so we are hoping that we can equal or perhaps top that number for this session. Also please note that the scoring system has changed and now ALL categories are scored out of 10 points.  

Here are the club members who have been selected at random to participate in this final round:

 

John Bunce

Jo Coad

John & Ann Epton

Mike Graham

David Laker

Jim Morton-Robertson

Jenny Tucker

Barbara Walker

Andy & Marian Watson

Maria Alexander

 

The following people missed their earlier rounds but have a final chance to enter a film in this session:

 

Gordon Beales

Kuldip Kaur

Annabelle Lancaster

Walter McKenna

Peter Mitchell

Brian Pfeiffer

Mike Shaw

Bob Vine

Ron Williams

John Alford

Charlie & Nellie Caseley

Colin Jones

Anna Littler

Ian Menage

Peggy Parmenter

Trevor Rogers

Roger & Brenda Wheatley

As always we ask you to PLEASE reply to this post in the comments/reply section below, if you have a film ready and letting us know the following information:

 

Run time

Format (DVD, Blu-ray, USB)

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

 

It is very important and helpful to know these things ahead of time to ensure we have the right equipment for playing your films and for planning the time allotment of the evening.  It’s a simple courtesy we are asking of you and it only takes a few seconds to comply.

And that is it. Join us on Tuesday for the final qualifying round of the 2018 Top Ten!

Thank you for reading and good luck to everyone who enters a film!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY OCTOBER 2nd

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

For this week’s meeting we are taking a break from our own activities to let someone else share with us the fruits of their labours and the secrets behind how they achieved them., as we invite another guest speaker to the hallowed halls of the Barnyard Rooms!

 

We are expecting to have Andrew Bishop from Darkside Animations gracing us with his presence, a face and name that might be familiar to our older and longer serving club members from his previous visit to our club back in 2011! In case the name of his company wasn’t enough of a clue, Andrew is an SFX wizard with many TV show, films and promotional clips credited to Darkside Animations, a sample of which can be found in THESE SHOWREEL VIDEOS on their Vimeo page.

 

Visual effects are becoming the norm in film making these days even for what seems to be the most normal of circumstances – from unique colour correction techniques and the use of LUTs to speed ramping and masking to subtly enhance the images whilst keeping them look natural.

 

As we know from our own experiences green screen is also more common in what look like normal, everyday situations and no doubt Andrew will be able to share with us some handy tricks of the trade to helps us improve our understanding and film editing techniques, as well as dazzle us with the mastery of his own work.

 

If this is something that interest you, and it should, be sure to join us and Andrew this coming Tuesday for what should be a fascinating and educational evening.

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 18TH

Posted on by Lee Relph

DIAMOND

It’s been a few months since first announced this Film To A Theme topic giving you all plenty of time to get your thinking caps and produce something to fit the theme of “Diamond”, partially created to tie in with the club’s 60th anniversary,but not limited to this as a subject for your films.

This week’s meeting is when you finally get to share you hard work and creativity with the rest of the club. Remember, this is not a competition evening so these films won’t be judged but if you want feedback or constructive criticism, we will happily oblige, time permitting of course.

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, MKV, AVI, etc.) 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 heading and we look forward to seeing your latest gems on Tuesday!

OVFM Diamond Anniversary Show

Posted on by Lee Relph

OVFM DIAMOND ANNIVERSARY SHOW

2018 marks the 60th anniversary since the formation of OVFM, making us one of the oldest amateur film clubs in the UK.

Founded in 1958 by Ian Dunbar, a keen filmmaker who wanted to meet like minded people in the area, the Orpington Cine Society was born, undergoing a couple of name changes and a vast number of enthusiastic, talented and productive members over the years, but one thing that has remained consistent is the quality of the films the club has produced.

To celebrate this milestone for the club in place of our annual Autumn show, we are presenting this special anniversary event where will look back over the past 60 years of films from the OVFM archive made by members old and new, covering all eras and methods of filming,  from cine cameras to Super 8 to HD camcorders to DSL cameras and even iphones!

As this is a special one time event, we are taking a break from the norm and going big! We are pleased to announce that the venue for this show is the Odeon Cinema in the Walnuts Centre, Orpington High Street and Councillor Kim Botting, Mayor of Orpington, will be in attendance.

It takes place on SUNDAY 28th of OCTOBER, starting at 5:00pm for complimentary refreshments and greetings in the foyer, as well as your chance to buy tickets for our traditional raffle, then moving into Screen 2 at 6:00pm for the two-hour plus programme of classic and award winning OVFM films and excerpts from the entries in our ongoing History Of Orpington project.

Tickets cost £6, which includes refreshments, and can only be purchased ahead of time by contacting Trevor Rogers on 01689 811971 or by email at  info@ovfm.org.uk . As we are limited to just 180 seats it is best to book early to avoid disappointment – no ticket, no entry! Screen 2 has wheelchair access if required, so do please be sure to mention this when making your ticket request if this applies to you.

N.B – ONLY A FEW TICKETS REMAIN SO HURRY IF YOU WANT YOUR TICKET!

Nearest parking is the Walnuts multi-storey car park accessed off the High Street via Homefield Rise and left at the roundabout into Lytchgate Road and then into Dryden Way.  There is a lift in the car park which brings you out to the Walnuts, but if you take the lift from one of the “B” floors you will come out closer to the cinema entrance. All day parking on a Sunday costs £1 and is open until 1.00am.

We do hope you can join us for the special celebration of our club’s history on SUNDAY 28th of OCTOBER and we thank you for your continued support of OVFM!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 4TH

Posted on by Lee Relph

 

It’s that time again when we gather together the most esteemed of our filmmaking experts and put them in the spotlight to answer your questions about our noble pursuit.

Filmmaking isn’t an exact science since the advancements in technology and ways we can capture and share or footage and the methods in which they are edited and presented are changing constantly, so it is natural that these changes will be a mystery to those of us out of the loop. Conversely, there are those tried and tested traditional practices that will never go away so learning about them from the past masters is always a boon too.

Whether you have a query about filming, sound recording, editing, or post production techniques out panel of brainiacs should have an answer for you and maybe open up a debate on the subject if there is a difference of opinion or procedure, which should be of benefit to all of us. We do ask however that your questions are contained to the subject of filmmaking and not about computers as seems to be the way these discussions head which ends up in heated arguments over what is a subjective topic.

These sessions are designed to help and not humiliate so remember there is so such thing as a silly question – we all had to start learning from the beginning. If you don’t ask, you don’t learn.

So get your thinking caps on, or make a list if you have to, and be at the meeting on Tuesday with your questions with you where our panel will do their best to answer them for you.