Yes folks the Top Ten 2017 competition is officially on!

Marking the first year under the aegis of our new Competitions Officer Hugh Darrington, 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 2018 and the winner will be announced at the Oscars in March.

Last year Barbara Darby made history by becoming a SIX time winner of the competition! Can she make it to seven wins or will someone else take the trophy this year?

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

John Alford
Charlie and Nellie Caseley
Barbara Darby
Ron Darby
Malcolm Goodwin
David Laker
Reg Lancaster
Ian Menage
Peter Mitchell
Peggy Parmenter
Mike Shaw
Alan Smith and Cherie Hamlet-Smith

Unfortunately Hugh is a bit miffed, as despite emailing everyone whose name has been drawn, so far only one person has replied to say they are putting in a four minute film.  Ouch. Could spend the whole evening staring at the floor then. Alan, Cherie and Reg have let Hugh know they can’t manage it and  David Laker is away. But come on guys,  don’t let him down on his first time on the job…

Maybe someone else has an early film ready drawn for later rounds.  If so let Hugh know via e-mail or reply to this post in the comments/reply section below, letting us know the film’s run time, format (DVD, Blu-ray) and picture ratio (4:3 or 16:9). Similarly please reply below if you can’t make this round and we’ll accommodate your film in a future round.

Also, just to remind you, the scoring sheet marking advice has been revised as follows to help you with your scoring:

Titles: Are the titles easy to read?  Do they reflect the content of the film? Do they show additional creativity?  Has the same attention been paid to them as the rest of the film?

Visuals: Look for focus, exposure, steadiness and lighting in photography.  Also note degree of difficulty and originality.

Editing: Does the film flow smoothly?  Should some of the shots be removed, shortened or rearranged?  Should there be more cutaways?  Are zooms and pans smooth and necessary? Look out for special effects.

Sound: Was the sound crisp and clear?  Was there any distortion?  Was the music appropriate? Was the narration well written and delivered? Was it mixed well with the music?  Were the background sounds appropriate and was the whole well balanced together?

Structure: Has the film got structure? Did the author seem to know what he or she wanted?  Has it got a beginning, middle and end? Has the author made the best use of material?

General Appeal: Regardless of technical merit, how much do you think the film will appeal to a wider audience apart from yourself?   Did it hold the audience throughout? Was it the right length? Would you like your name on the credits?

So there you have it. Will we see more than one film this Tuesday? You’ll have to be there to find out!

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

PS: Hugh informs me he has a secret surprise fill in for the evening. You won’t want to miss this.

It’s round three of the Top Ten already and last time we had two entries so hopefully we don’t have a commensurate number of films for this session. Perhaps with the summer holidays now over club members will have something to share that documents what they got up to while the sun was out a few months back!

Maybe we’ll find out if anyone from the following list will oblige us:

Jim Morton Robertson

John Bunce

Kuldip Kaur

Barbara Darby

Brian Pfeiffer

Richard & Jess Pugh

Ann & John Epton

Peter Mitchell

Barbara Walker

Annabelle Lancaster

Roger & Brenda Wheatley

As ever if you can’t make your designated round be sure to let either Brenda know ahead of time or reply to this post below, 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, Blu-ray) 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.

The previous results in this year’s contest can be found HERE.

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

And as quickly as that we move into the second round of the 2016 OVFM Top Ten competition!

We had four entries for the first round (the results of which are HERE) and as ever we are looking to top that number in this round.

The club members who have been drawn for this round are:

Madeline & Annie Ffitch

Mike Shaw

Sam Brown

Simon Earwicker

Jane Oliver

Ian Menage

Bob Vine

Anna Littler

Tony Keable

Pat Palmer

Cherie Hamlet-Smith

As ever if you can’t make your designated round be sure to let either Brenda know ahead of time or reply to this post below, 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, Blu-ray) 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.

Also please don’t forget to bring any footage you have for the mini-Newsreel we hope to put together for the upcoming Autumn Film Show.

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