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| News items are held here for one year and then 'fall off the bottom' of the page where a link is provided to access them. For even older items go to our history pages. |
January 17th.
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We welcomed three presenters to our meeting; Michelle Pascal and Simon Lewis of Points West, and their actor partner Steve Graham. They had decided to pool their talents as 'Panther Films' and make a drama. 'Jackals' was shown as work in progress, and comments invited. The technical aspects were, of course, excellent, and members were able to make suggestions regarding tweaks to the script and production. We hope to see them again soon, perhaps with a final cut!
| December 6th Christmas Social 
An exceptional evening! The first time in living memory that members have burst into song! The Magic Lantern show was an evening of glass slides accompanied by narrative, keyboard and song, and many members were pressed into service providing sound effects when required! As this was the last meeting before Christmas, some special refreshments were provided in the interval (or should that be 'intermission'?) and these were much appreciated.
Many, many, thanks to The Travelling Light Magic Lantern Company.
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A hugely enjoyable evening, and one we'll remember for a very long time. | November 2011 Ken Lee |
 We are saddened to hear that Ken Lee passed away on 5th November.
A short, affectionate paragraph or two has been written by some of our members. Read about Ken here as a WORD document or a PDF file.
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November 1st.
Many thanks to Don for what must have been a very time-consuming project!
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Don Fairservice reviewed 13 Mini Epic entries and gave a detailed comment for each one. Entries were from BFVS, Cheltenham, and Gloucester clubs.  Diana Taylor took the first prize with her 52 minute dramatised documentary, "Severn and Somme"Runner Up was Gordon Young with his film "Tom Coryate" |
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  The Ray Buckland Trophy for Composition is awarded each year for the best visual composition. This year Bob Bennett won it for, "When Hollywood comes to Call"
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October 18th.
It was full house again for the screening of our Annual Trophy Competition.| October 4th Aardman Animations 
Nathan and Joe gave a great insight into the amount of planning and work that went into two unusual projects undertaken by Aardman. They had been approached by Nokia to film the smallest stop-motion video using a Nokia mobile phone, and then the largest. Both films ended up in the Guinness Book of Records! We were also shown the latest in LED lighting technology, developed by Arri with help from Aardman, who are keen on minimising their use of energy and keeping not just their plasticine, but their animators, cool!
After the break for refreshment, Richard Sale - Nathan's father - gave an explanation of how he set up a video camera on a bird of prey, and showed us the tiny HD camera and the extraordinary footage resulting from it.
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Many thanks to our visitors, who included BFVS in a tour of presentations including London, Amsterdam and San Francisco! We were truly honoured.
| Wednesday 21st September Premiere of Uncertain Proof
Set in the 14th century and with a running time of seventy nine minutes, it took real drive and determination by director Graham Egarr and producer Steve Andrews to keep the daunting project on track.
Several members of BFVS played key roles behind the scenes of Uncertain Proof and long time club member Bob Bennett has written a review after seeing it in its entirety for the first time at the premiere. CLICK HERE to read Bob's Review. |
Making the drama ‘Uncertain Proof’ was a labour of love for two members of Bristol Film and Video Society. Both had so much faith in the project that they set up their own Community Interest Limited Company, 
On the 21st of September 2011, the anniversary of the murder of King Edward II, in front of an invited audience of cast members, crew and guests it was premiered in the fitting surroundings of the Great Hall at Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire.
| September 2nd Tony Ford  |
 Sadly we have to report that a friend of the Society, Tony Ford has died. He had been very ill for several weeks. Those of us involved in 'Uncertain Proof' will of course know him as both the writer and for playing the part of Bishop Vecchi. |
| July 19th The Golden Unicorn Film Unit : a tribute.
Honoured guests at this event were Roy Marshall who joined the unit in 1968; Don Smith, Joe's life long friend and travelling companion and Ron Elson who was also a founder member of the group. |
 After a hurried break for coffee we invited members and guests to say some nice things about Ron. This included a special video made by John Gorst and a slide show of pictures of Ron, cut to music by Malcolm Stephens. Ron has been a member of BFVS for 57 years and we thought it high time to present him with the Mike Wertheim Trophy. The picture shows Bob Bennett, who has held the trophy since 2006, presenting it to Ron.
The Mike Wertheim Trophy was given to BFVS by his widow, to be awarded to someone who had done something special for the Society. Mike was a very popular member, who was taken from us prematurely. |
WE screened a selection of the films made by July 5th Alex Hansen
The questions and answers that followed illustrated his wide breadth of knowledge and experience, some of which will no doubt be exploited in our future filming. A terrific evening.
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| June 22nd Promotional Video |
We think it's high time we promoted ourselves with a 60 second commercial extolling the virtues of becoming a member of this society. It's a series of clips from our 75 year archive, cut to music. |
Alex Hansen, a Freelance Cameraman and friend of one of our members, brought along an array of tripods and two pro video camcorders along with some very entertaining tales of his exploits! It was clear that we get great value from our kit, as his pro gear not only costs a fortune but soon goes out of date as technology advances and his clients want the best. | March 2011 W.B.J. (Joe) Higgins |
 We are all saddened to hear that Joe passed away on 26th February.
A short, affectionate paragraph or two has been written by some of our members. |
| March 15th Roland Systems Group.
While offering a choice of much larger equipment for professional installations, Roland also cater for amateurs and pro-users with affordable devices to capture sound. The pic shows Phil (on the right) demonstrating their hand-held recorder to two of our members. See: http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.php?ProductId=1077 and play the video!
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A true professional, Phil Palmer from Roland Systems Group gave a presentation on his company and its products despite having his car, laptop, presentation notes and illustrative audio files stolen! To quote Phil: 'I have had a slight mishap as my car was stolen last night (the pitfalls of living in central London...)'.
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Saturday March 12th Gloucester Inter-Club Film Competition. CLICK to read Peter Heaven's report.
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| Saturday March 5th 2011
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| March 2011 “My place” Competition. This new competition attracted only 3 entries and was won by Bob Bennett making a welcome return to our competition arena with a film entitled “A place in Dorset”. Bob was awarded the Ivor Wiltshire Memorial Trophy.
Cash prizes are also awarded to all the winning film makers. |
 
Holiday Video Competition. Again there were 4 entries and for what I think must be the first time in recent years two films tied as winners. These were Frank Bond’s film “The downward-bent bill of the flamingo” about a trip to the Galapagos Islands and Declan Smith’s film of “A journey along the Llangollen canal”. Frank and Declan will share the first prize and thus hold the Jack Baker trophy for 6 months each.The Runner-Up and winner of the Tripper’s Trophy, with just 1 mark fewer than Frank and Declan was Christine Byrne with her travelogue “A voyage to the Norwegian fjords”. |
Quickie Competition. There were four entries to the competition including three from one member. The winner was John Howden with his animation based entry “A load of old cobblers”. |
February 2011 It's BIG! It cost serious money and was hotly sought after by over 30 local filmmaking clubs and societies from South Wales and the West of England back in the days when we hosted and organised "The Best in the West" film competition - 1966-79. We think it's time to give it a polish and re-instate it (plus £20.00) for the winning entry in our new competiton 'my place' which will take place on March 1st.
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| Older news items are archived HERE. |
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