On Saturday 11 March BFVS held its first Experimental Film Day.
The aim not to produce a film but to experiment with some different
and unfamiliar filming techniques.
The group met at 8 am in the crypt of a south Bristol Church and started work on the most advanced activity of the day filming a ‘bullet time effect’. This is the effect where actors and objects appear frozen in time but the camera moves around them. An effect most famously featured in the Matrix film (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_time).
To create this effect fifteen cameras were used simultaneously.
In the afternoon the group split into four groups and experimented with filming: Weightlessness in space, filming a fight, an actor falling from a high building, bullet hits on an actor and stop motion animation.
Sixteen members participated in the day which provided the opportunity to experiment with ideas away from a formal film production. It was judged by the participants to be a successful event with calls for another one to be arranged.
Sue Cockwell writes..
‘We were experimenting with camera angles to give the effect of weightlessness. The aim was to show the problem of hundreds of millions of space trash floating through the solar system. Some of them are as large as trucks so we filmed a toy truck spinning in front of a green screen, which needed lights, plus a light for the 'sun'. This was checked by using a green screen app. We zoomed in and out to give the impression of the truck travelling in an orbit and found an image of space as a background for the green screen to be keyed in edit. We then experimented with lots of strange items for the weightless 'trash' . In retrospect, this would have worked better with a bigger green screen, but hopefully, will still be successful. We found the experiment to be enjoyable and educational.’
2017
1 January
HAPPY NEW YEAR
LOOKING FORWARD TO WHAT’S AHEAD
AFTER 83 YEARS IT WOULD BE EASY to rest on your laurels, but not at BFVS. Expansion of the clubs YouTube channel, a re vamp of its website, making a new club ProMo, documentaries and a ghost story in the pipeline. It's going to be a busy year ahead.
Bob Bennett - 01 January 2017
17 January
GREEN SCREEN PRACTICAL SESSION
Sue Cockwell writes, After lots of equipment to organise and the largest green screen ever to put up (without creases) we finally reached 'sound, lights, cameras and action' that resulted in a successful film for the poem 'Coffee Coffee Coffee' by David C Johnson.
2 February
CONVENT CLOSE
Rumour has it that certain members of the crew of Convent Close were caught creeping into the crypt again last weekend.
View the evidence HERE.
Saturday 11 March
EXPERIMENTAL FILM DAY
Toy truck spinning in front of a green screen
Trucks in space!
Stop motion animation
Falling from a high building
Bullet hits on an actor
Filming a fight
Photographs by:
Sue Cockwell, Dane Rayment, Dave Norton, Steve Andrews,
Peter Heaven, and Graham Egarr.
Saturday 18 March
THE 50th GLOUCESTER INTER-CLUB FILM COMPETITION
Congratulations to Worcester Film Makers on winning this year’s competition with “Malvern Priory Bells”
We came second with our entry - Kabul Sunset.
Read the judges comments HERE.
21 March
STAR TREATMENT FOR THE CLUB AND SOME OF ITS MEMBERS IN THE
IAC BRITISH INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR FILM COMPETITION 2017
Two club films, Mr. Wellby’s Cross and Thicker Than Water won 4 stars and 3 stars respectively while Gordon Young won 4 stars for his recently completed Bristol, from A to Z (watch it on 7th November) and Bob Bennett was awarded 4 stars for his ‘slightly tweeked’ 2015 Annual Trophy winner, Walking the Planks.
Here are the judges
comments for each film…
Star ratings
explained
27 March
ALAN CROSS
1933-2017
It is with great regret that we announce the death of one of our oldest and dearest actor friends.
We first met Alan back in the early 70’s as a leading light in a local drama group called Tapestry.
He acted in many films - Morrison (1977) Mr Davidson’s Autumn (2001) Clarkson (2006)
The last time we saw him was in 2014 as an honoured guest at our 80th Anniversary Celebrations at the Cube Cinema.
21 March
Competition Night
The Quickie Competition.
The Thalia Goblet was won by Bob Bennett for Fallen
The Ten Minute Trophy.
Bob Bennett was the clear winner this year with his film,
A Dorset Diversion
Diana Taylor was placed second and is awarded the Ivor Wiltshire Memorial Trophy with, Gas Girls
Photographs of the winners and their awards can be seen HERE
5 April
PURSUIT
I’m told there was discussion last night about the forthcoming Mini Epics and a cunning plan to remake my 40 year old film.
I await with interest to see whether new ideas, new blood and modern technology can improve it.
Bob Bennett
1 April
JOHN LANG
1921-2017
We are saddened to hear that one of our oldest and dearest members has died.
John joined us in 1987 and was an avid supporter of all of the club activities until his retirement in 2012. In that year we presented him with an Honorary Lifetime Membership.
A service of celebration was conducted at Canford Crematorium on 31 March.
He was an impressive 96 year old.
12 April
FROME FIVE MINUTE FESTIVAL
16 April
Here is a photograph of Chairman Tim Smart receiving the second prize certificate for our club entry Kabul Sunset at the 50th Gloucester Inter-Club Film
Competition held at The Roses Theatre, Tewkesbury on 18th March.
Read the judges comments about Kabul Sunset HERE
Full details of the competition can be seen on Tewkesbury YMCA Movie Maker’s website.
27 April
THE BURRIS CUP HAS BEEN FOUND!
In 1936 our very first chairman and founder member, Mr E.H.Burris gave the society a shiny new trophy. Forged in sterling silver and costing serious money it proudly displayed its role as the Bristol Amateur Cinematography Challenge Cup. Eagerly fought for by members on an annual basis it soon became known as The Burris Cup.
In 2001 we lost it!
Sterling efforts by our current chairman and others to find it were in vain. Now,16 years later this sad little tale has a happy ending. Read the full story HERE.
2 May
USING A PRESENTER IN DOCUMENTARIES
The ‘Party Room’ – used while our usual room is being refurbed – was a squash court, and at first looked ideal as a cinema, with a sloping ceiling and a large flat wall to use as a screen. Retractable seating would have completed the setup, as it also has a balcony at the back where a projector could be situated, and direct access to the bar! BUT... the acoustics are appalling! Echo echo echo... At times it was difficult to hear what people were saying, and our next meeting is about Sound…
Peter Heaven
On Tuesday 20 June a few members went on location at a skateboard park to film scenes for the Mini Epic 'Pursuit'.
It was very hot but the skateboarders put on a brilliant show for us. Thanks to Peter Carron who was a star! We found lots of interesting angles and graffiti. Good team work by all.
Susan Cockwell
15 August
HANDS-ON FILMMAKING
A complete short drama written by Merlin Goldman was shot in one evening.
Twenty one people attended. All had a role in the making of the film.
See photographs and more details HERE
18 July
EXPERIMENTING WITH GREEN SCREEN
A follow on session from the January meeting working on more advanced techniques.
Patrick de Landre-Grogan
and Declan Smith tell us what happened…
Read Patrick’s report
Read Declan’s report
18 August
POTOBELLO SCREENING
We are delighted to learn that Kabul Sunset, Gordon’s Bristol Revisited, and Mike and Declan’s versions of Into the Light are to be screened at this festival on Tuesday September 5th.
Also, on the same night, Diana Taylor’s New City, Once in Whitley Bay and Night Laundrette in North Street will be shown.
More details HERE.
3 September
SOCO 2017 TOP OF THE CLUBS COMPETITION.
We entered Gordon Young’s An Italian Dream into this competition and it was placed second by the judges.
Thank you Gordon.
Read the judge’s comments HERE
17 October
VIRTUAL OWLS AND A LIVE SKYPE LINK-UP TO STEWART MACKAY IN TASMANIA.
Peter Heaven writes,
At a very special meeting, Richard Cambridge of OWL VR not only brought along a bucket load of GoPro’s, but also shot, edited, stitched and rendered a very short demonstration of 360 degree filming.
The result (taken with just 3 cameras, each with a 220 degree lens) will hopefully be available on our website if we can download it! You will of course need the right kit to view it, but please don’t expect any award-winning action..!
Our thanks to Richard and his team
for a great and very informative evening.
Tim Smart writes,
At the end of the evening we prepared to do something totally different that we have never done before. We performed an end to end test in preparation for our forthcoming annual film competition.
The competition will be adjudicated live from one of our ex members in - wait for it - Tasmania!
Last night we proved that using the club room’s WiFi we could Skype Stewart Mackay at his breakfast time. Traversing half the globe, there was still barely a time lag. It was great to see him again, and he was able to say hi to a lot of familiar old faces…
David James’s photograph shows Stewart commenting on all nine entries.
19 December
TABLE-TOP ITALIAN JOB
Peter Heaven writes,
What started as an idea of a simple floor-level shoot of a couple of R/C Minis emulating a scene from The Italian Job soon turned into a table-top shoot on a green ground. And a couple of Daleks got in on the action, along with a freight train... we’ll see if anyone can edit this into a story! It turned out to be a hugely successful evening, and having tried it I’m sure we will repeat this type of filming in the future. Hopefully with a script!
More pictures and detail HERE
18 December
HONORARY LIFE MEMBERSHIP
We decided to award Stewart Mackay with Honorary Life Membership as a sincere thank you for judging our recent Annual Trophy Competition.
Thank you Stewart.
We have received a positive feedback for the film we entered in the documentary category of The Frome Five Minute Festival.
A Short History of Bristol
'An amusing short film about how the Bristol name was arrived at through the local dialect. Very well presented by a very engaging actor. Short and simple and entertaining. Ideal in fact.’
There were 5 films entered by members:
Terence Sheppard received 2nd place in the Drama category with 'Incredible Verdict'.
Malcolm Stephens also received 2nd place in the Holiday/Travelogue category with 'Canaltimes Memories'.
24 October
SUCCESS AT THE TEIGN CUP COMPETITION
Diana Taylor's film "Man Engine" was the overall winner and was awarded the Teign Cup.. The runner up was "Bristol's Aerospace
Heritage" which was the reworking, largely by Tim Smart, of the longer "Bristol Revisited" production by Gordon Young, Bob Bennett, Peter Heaven and Tim Smart. The judges spoke of both films in glowing terms.
Terry Sheppard's film about the revival of a band from the 1960s and Patrick’s film about "Crossing the Line" and 'directions of motion' were both well received by the audience.
Read the judges comments HERE.
21 November
52nd ANNUAL TROPHY COMPETITION
In a LIVE SKYPE LINK-UP FROM HIS HOME IN TASMANIA, we welcome competition judge and special guest this evening, Lighting Cameraman and Director of Photography, Stewart Mackay.
Who won what and with what can be seen HERE.
Well-travelled members Jane and Steve couldn’t wait to show us something from their holiday, and introduced us to ‘Osmo’.
The accompanying videos showed an earnest young man with a piano-key smile, but this was no advert for toothpaste or whitener; it was a stabiliser for a mobile phone.
Their own footage demonstrated that it did what it says in the adverts, providing a very smooth image when hand-held. It comes from DJI, the drone people: https://www.dji.com/osmo-mobile.
It works! We were impressed.
10 February
DEMONSTRATION OF THE OSMO MOBILE
Photographs by Peter Heaven