Spring Park Evening – November 7th

Posted on October 30, 2019January 4, 2022 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.

Spring Park Film Screening – SPITFIRE June 13th

Posted on May 31, 2019January 4, 2022 by Lee Relph

SPRING PARK FILM MAKERS

present

SPITFIRE

OVFM members are invited to join Spring Park Film Makers for a screening of their film Spitfire on June 13th. Here are the details of this event from Spring Park secretary Brenda Troughton:

Spring Park are showing the film ‘Spitfire’ on 13th June which was made for the 100th anniversary of the war. It is the story of an aeroplane that was the most famous fighter plane ever made.

With breath-taking aerial footage from the world’s top aviation photographer John Dibbs and rare digitally re-mastered, archive footage from the tumultuous days of the 1940’s, when her power in the skies was unrivalled; all combined with an incredible soundscape of the famous Merlin engine, pierced with gunfire, makes this a striking and poignant film.

Shown at the cinema last year for the 100th anniversary, we are now showing this at the club on 13th June for all those who were unable to see last year.

So we are writing to invite OVFM members to join us. Perhaps you would be kind enough to let your members know – it would be good to get together for the evening.

If anyone is interested in attending this event, please make this known by either replying to this post below or via e-mail to our Chair Jane Oliver.

Thanks for reading.

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY OCTOBER 30TH

Posted on October 26, 2018May 24, 2020 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 NOVEMBER 14th

Posted on November 9, 2017June 6, 2022 by Lee Relph

Our first meeting for November sees us once again putting our own activities on hold as we let an outsider host the evening instead. Taking the floor on this occasion are the husband and wife team of Rita (FACI) and Pip Hayes (not-FACI).

Rita should be well known to many of you as the current chair of SERIAC, and hubby Pip is a small nest of tables. Rita is also the guvnor at rival club Sh**ters H*ll where Pip is coincidentally Competition’s Officer. They have a son, also involved in filmmaking, who lives in St Albans which is of little use to us since the meeting will be in Petts Wood, but I digress.

The evening will comprise of films from Pip and Rita’s (Pita’s?) extensive catalogue of comedies and dramas made in conjunction with the SERIAC Council (think Freemasons with snazzier aprons). Some of the films being screened have been requested by OVFM members Reg “Bomber” Lancaster and Colin “Colin” Jones, so we know who to blame for that.

Since Rita is a member of IAC aristocracy we will need to roll out the red carpet, break out the best paper cups and buy two packets of biscuits to mark the occasion. Genuflecting is optional, especially since most of you probably won’t be able to get back up again, and direct eye contact is only permitted via written permission given ahead of time.

That is all to come this Tuesday so make sure to be there for what I am told will be an enjoyable evening for everyone or else!

OVFM CLUB MEETING – TUESDAY OCTOBER 17th

Posted on October 11, 2017October 11, 2017 by Lee Relph

Moving Part II

No, you’re not experiencing deja vu, we are seeing more films from our project MOVING but unlike last time, the films being shown in this session will be from other clubs.

If you recall the topic of MOVING was originally to be applied to the North vs South competition which, for the first time in its long history is not taking place this year. However this hasn’t stopped OVFM or other clubs from making films in case someone stepped in and took up the mantle of running the competition at the last minute, and being the nice people that we are we have invited our fellow filmmaking organisations to share their films with us.

There is a possibility that some of the filmmakers and representatives from these clubs will be present on Tuesday, so if you do happen to spot an unfamiliar face, do extend a typical OVFM welcome to them (or just do what I do and scowl at them so they leave you alone – never fails)!

Previous N vs S competitions have shown that any topic can yield a wealth of creative and unique interpretations so we look forward to what should be an interesting evening of films this coming Tuesday.

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday December 8th 2015

Posted on December 3, 2015January 8, 2022 by Lee Relph

This week’s club meeting affords us the opportunity to watch a selection of films without the pressure of being judged by our peers as we present a look at the output from outside of OVFM.

At the time of writing the list of clubs contributing showreels has yet to be finalised but no doubt the quality will be of the usual high standard we’ve come to expect from our amateur filmmaking brethren. And who knows, maybe we’ll see something to inspire us in trying something new or give us an idea for a film of our own?

And with time permitting, a further discussion about the upcoming display stall for the OVFM Tesco stall has been proposed to take place at this session, so please get your thinking caps on about how we can best represent and promote the club via this prime opportunity to reach a wide range of prospective new members.

Finally entries for the Annual Competition are now being accepted so please download and print off a form from HERE and submit your films and £2 entry fee to Brenda on Tuesday, with the closing date being the first meeting of 2016 on January 5th.

See you then!

Kent Film Festival 2015

Posted on August 12, 2015November 16, 2019 by Lee Relph

KENT FILM FESTIVAL 2015

The annual Kent Film Festival will soon be upon us, taking place on Saturday 26th September 2015 at Canterbury Christ Church University, with doors opening at 10:30am.

OVFM has had a far amount of success at the KFF over the years, our last big win occurring in 2013 while we had a good showing last year, so as ever, this is a great opportunity to not only support OVFM on the day but to maybe also if you’ve entered a film, you could be contributing directly to whatever success we may achieve.

Tickets are on sale from Ian Menage (you know where to find his contact details) – £5.00 for advance bookings/ £7.50 on the door (£3 for students) – while all additional info you need, such as directions to the venue etc. can be found on the KFF website HERE.

Good luck to all who have entered a film on behalf of OVFM.

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday May 12th 2015

Posted on May 7, 2015April 28, 2022 by Lee Relph

with Spring Park

A recent annual tradition between OVFM and our friends at Spring Park Film Makers is to share an evening between our two clubs with each taking it in turn to screen a short programme of our films.

The pattern is to alternate the hosting of this event and last year saw Spring Park do the honours, so this year it befalls to OVFM to welcome members of Spring Park to our humble meeting venue, which means being on your best behaviour (yes, Cherie I am looking at you! 😉 ).

For the benefit of anyone not familiar with our 50/50 evenings, the format is that we show a 45 minute programme of our films then we see 45 minutes of films from Spring Park – or vice versa pending the outcome of the chairman vs. chairman arm wrestling contest – with a break in between for tea, coffee, biscuits and conversation.

Remember this is not a competition, just a friendly sharing of films between two groups of passionate amateur film makers, so sit back and enjoy what should be a varied but entertaining evening.

North vs South 2014 Report

Posted on December 10, 2014July 27, 2016 by Lee Relph

2014 NORTH v SOUTH GRAND FINAL REPORT

An audience of 62 people represented by 12 different clubs turned up at Farnborough Village Hall for the 2014 North v South Grand Final.

We were especially pleased to welcome members from Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers and Lowestoft Movie Makers who made the several hours journey to be with us. Also present was Romy Van Kreiken from Holland, a familiar face at IAC events.

An entertaining programme of 25 films were shown with a good mix of genres including Drama, Documentary, Comedy, Animation and One-Minute entries.

Our judges for the Final were Peter and Mary Rouillard from Guernsey who kindly stepped in at the last minute. The standard of entries was high this year and they had a difficult task in choosing a winner.

As usual, we ran our popular Audience Vote competition where they were asked to match the judge’s decision. Although the judges were asked to put the top 10 films in order of merit we asked the audience to only match the top 3, to give them a fighting chance. Nobody managed to do that but the person who got closest to the judge’s decision was Derek Hopcroft of Tonbridge Film Makers.

There was no ‘Guess the Theme’ competition this year. Instead, there was an audience poll to find out whether entrants would prefer the North v South to remain a ‘Set Theme’ competition or to be an ‘Open Subject’ competition. This followed suggestions by some clubs that they would prefer it to change to the latter. The results will be published in due course.

Here then are the results:-

Audience Result

1^st Imbuvable Feu – Altrincham Moviemakers (North)

2^nd The Decision – Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers (South)

3^rd Moving Oleta – Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers (South)

Official Result

1^st Imbuvable Feu – Altrincham Moviemakers (North)

2^nd Moving Oleta – Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers (South)

3^rd If Only – Staines Video Makers (South)

4^th All A Bit Iffy – Tynemouth Video Group (North)

5^thThe Decision – Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers (South)

6^thMeals Would Be Provided – Nuneaton Moviemakers (South)

7^th1066 – Spring Park Film Makers (South)

8^thIf Dreams Are Nothing More Than Wishes – Chesterfield Film Makers (North)

9^thDecision Time – Coast Video Club (North)

10^thKlaatu Borada Nikto – Chesterfield Film Makers (North)

Congratulations to Altrincham Moviemakers for winning the John Wright Trophy and to Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers for winning the Harry Adams Trophy as runners-up. This being the 40^th Anniversary of the competition, brings the total number of wins to 21 for the North and 19 for the South.

May I thank all the clubs who entered and attended for their support. We hope to see you again next year when the competition will be held on Sunday 6^th December.

Mike Coad, Competition Officer, OVFM.

OVFM Club Meeting Tuesday April 15th 2014 – Triangle Competition

Posted on April 9, 2014December 24, 2020 by Lee Relph

This week’s meeting is a little different for OVFM as it has nothing to do with us!

Okay that is a little glib but on this occasion we are playing host to the 2014 Triangle competition, while three other clubs will put their films up for judging while drinking our tea and eating our biscuits!

The Triangle competition, for those who don’t know, is contested between four clubs (yes I know that would make it a square but bear with me) – OVFM, Epsom Movie Makers, Shooters Hill Camcorder Club and Spring Park – and each year one club takes it in turn to host the actual competition screening of the films from the other three. Again, it’s still technically a square but only three clubs submit a 30 minute programme of their films for judging on an annual basis while one sits back and put their feet up. This year it is OVFM’s turn to sit back and put our feet up. Sort of.

At stake is the Triangle Trophy which is awards to the club who provides the best programme of the evening while a second trophy is awards to Best Film which doesn’t have to be a part of the club’s main programme of films. Last year Spring Park won both awards – can they win again this year (since we’re not competing)?

As hosts we are obliged to provide judges so Reg “Bomber” Lancaster, Sam “Choo Choo” Brown and Brenda “Spot The Ball” Wheatley have stepped up to take on this role on our behalf. Also there will be a raffle on the night too.

Because the expected size of the turnout is larger than normal this meeting will be held once again at All Saints Church in Orpington (home to the AGM on the 1^st April).

We hope you will all be there to welcome our visitors and don’t forget to bring some rotten fruit and veg to throw at anyone who makes a bad film – not that they will of course… 😉