Julian Baldwin who collected the cups at Teignmouth on our behalf passes them on officially to winners Gordon Young(L) and Dave James(R).

Pictured are Donna Buckland and her son, Neil presenting a new trophy to Gordon Young (left) for his film "Through Ticket to New York".

THE RAY BUCKLAND CUP
is awarded for the best composition in memory of Ray Buckland who passed away in July 2008.

CLICK to read about Ray.

The G.I-C.C. is a competition held annually amongst 7 clubs situated in the area in and near Gloucestershire. This year the competition was hosted by Worcester Camcorder Club and next year it will be the turn of BFVS to do the honours.

Mark Whatmore of local production company Yoho Media proudly showed off one of his Red cam '4K' camcorders. Not surprisingly, there was much technical discussion and - dare we say - talk of pixels! While presently being beyond the financial reach of our members, kit like this often indicates the course of new technology, and Red cam certainly leads the way. And there will soon be a version at a very much more attractive price...

http://www.red.com/cameras/

TEWKESBURY YMCA VIDEO CAMERA CLUB invited us to a gathering of anyone interested to see their new projector and Blu-ray player. Initially expected to be a gathering of just three people (as if!), members from many nearby clubs - including four members of BFVS - couldn't resist the offer, and nearly filled the meeting room.
Many thanks to Matt and Paul for hosting.

We are planning a filmmaking course for the first six meetings of 2010 entitled:

FILMMAKING: FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN
with Don Fairservice

CLICK for details and course content.

Gloucester Cine and Video Club asked BFVS to judge their annual competition, and three of our committee travelled north to present the results and prizes. Although the scores were close, 'New Shoes for Monty', which showed the work of a farrier, swept the board winning the cup for Best Sound (presented by Julian Baldwin, our own sound expert) and also a magnificent trophy for Best Overall (presented by David Wilkins, our Chairman).

We hope to show members a Red cam 4K Ultradef camera and discuss the advantages of this format. Even though considered a top-end piece of kit, it will demonstrate the future of High Definition recording, and may well be more accessable than you thought. Come along and drool! Watch this space for confirmation.

http://www.red.com/cameras/

Click each for a bigger view in a separate window.

Photograph by Ron Elson.

Visiting professional lighting cameraman Stewart Mackay's theme was,
"Production values - Lighting - A little time to get a great look." Members watched Stewart do just that. He set up each light and explained it's function. Spellbound, we watched the results projected on the club screen.

Stewart has a website..
www.stewartmackay.com

Photograph by Ron Elson.

We entered Gordon Young's "Edwards's Guide" in the 2008 Teign Cup Competiton.

Pictured is Ralph Hopper (L), Chairman of the Teign Film Makers Club presenting the trophy for second prize to Julian Baldwin who collected it on our behalf.

Details of the competition are on their website:
http://www.teignfilmmakersclub.co.uk/index.html

It was full house again for the screening of our Annual Trophy Competition at the clubroom. Nine videos were shown and after each one the judge, professional lighting cameraman Stewart Mackay, gave his critique.
After FREE coffee the results were announced and Stewart awarded prizes and commented on the very high standard of entries.

Ellen George
1939–2008

Photographs by Ron Elson

CLICK for details of the DVD

THIRD PRIZE went to James Gamble's version of the 'Project Vampire' exercise filmed last Autumn. Entitled,"Podvodnik" it terrified the audience into giving it the AUDIENCE AWARD!

What happened to the whisky, wine and chocs?
We decided to give them to James and his cast and crew.
Enjoy James - and Welcome to the Club.

First showing will be on May 6th.

CLICK the picure for details.

It was full house again for the screening of our Annual Trophy Competition at the clubroom. Six videos were shown and after each one the judge, producer and director Keith Sheather, gave his critique.
After light refreshment and FREE coffee the results were announced and Keith awarded prizes and commented on the very high standard of entries.

It seems that our award winning production, Clarkson, is attracting quite large audiences outside the usual amateur film world.

Here is an article that appeared recently in the BRISTOL EVENING POST.

CLICK

We are delighted with our success at various competitions both local and national.

CLICK for details

Chromafest was an all day exercise to investigate all aspects of chromakey technique in a controlled and scientific manner. We looked for the answer to one very basic question:

Is there a procedure whereby we amateur filmmakers can achieve a good chromakey result without having to use equipment and software we cannot afford.

The results will be presented at our next meeting and subsequently published here.

Bob Bennett has been a member for very many years, and not only given much of his free time but also shared his expertise as a photographer to help those who are taking their first steps in our hobby. We are delighted to present him with this award, with our thanks for all that he has achieved.

It was standing room only for the screening of the 2006 Annual Trophy Competition at the clubroom. Nine videos were shown and after each one the judge, producer and director Keith Sheather, gave his critique. Results were announced and Keith awarded prizes and commented on the very high standard of entries.

WINNER was David Knowles with his entry, "Svalbard Explorer"
SECOND PRIZE went to Roy Hopkins for,
"TV production in the Making"

Our latest production CLARKSON was awarded a special prize at the 4th International Festival of Non-professional Film Makers held in Tallinn.

CLICK HERE to review the film.

Bob Bennett writes..
'In the summer of 2005 club members had the opportunity to work alongside director Stewart Mackay and a professional crew on his production 'Pigeon Post'. Premiered on September 16th it stars Peter Benson and Derek Fowlds from TV's 'Heartbeat' and Diana Hoddinott from 'Yes Minister' and will be entered in festivals and competitions throughout the world.'

130 people attended our Premiere on 12 May. It was our way to say THANK YOU to all the cast, crew and helpers for their hard work during the 2 years of production.

A special edition of our Spring Newsletter has been prepared. It explains how the film was made and there's a page about the chroma key special effects that were used.

CLICK HERE to read it.

Frank Bond (right) receives his award certificate from Trevor Biggs, Chairman of Frome Film and Video Makers, for his video, "Brothers in Arms".
Frank came second in the Festival's Open Class.

Details of the Festival and a list of winners can be found on Frome's website.. www.philmar.demon.co.uk/

We were pleased to see Geoff Stock win our skittles match. Geoff is one of our actor friends and has taken part in many club productions.

Vice Chairman, Tim Belsten (right) presents the trophy.

It was standing room only for the recent screening of the 2005 Annual Trophy Competition at the clubroom. Nine videos were shown and after each one the judge, producer and director Keith Sheather, gave his critique. Before the results were announced the packed audience wined and dined into the night, well 9.30pm, when Keith awarded prizes and commented on the very high standard of entries.

WINNER was John Howden with his 3D animated entry, "Get Animated"
SECOND PRIZE went to Frank Bond for,
"In a Corner of a Foreign Field"
JOINT THIRD PRIZE awarded to
Bob Bennett for, "Memories"
Roger Pyne for, "The Taste of Murder".

October 4th will see the premiere of 'The University of Bristol Botanic Garden at Bracken Hill'. The garden first started in 1882 on a small site at the junction of University Road and Woodland Road. Adolph Leipner, in whose honour a blue plaque has recently been installed, was given a grant of £15.00 to lay out the new garden and raised a further £89.15s. 4½d. for planting!! Over the years the site for the garden moved three times until it arrived at Bracken Hill in 1959 where it became well established. The site has recently been sold and the garden moved to its latest home at 'The Holmes' Stoke Park Road, Bristol.

Nick Wray, the Curator, has appeared many times on 'Gardeners World' with the late Geoff Hamilton and had the experience to present an interesting video.

The premiere will only include excerpts from the video as the total running time is 100 minutes, but will be enjoyable and informative.

In the last few days and with quite a bit of behind the scenes effort the club has now transferred a total of forty nine films from its library to make them available on loan to members on DVD.
Access to our old material has always been a problem, but now all club members can take the opportunity to wallow in nostalgia and view an assortment of titles which go back as far as 1935.

This service is free and is yet another benefit of joining the club.

In 1984 we filmed a video diary of some of the happenings in Bristol during that year. It was felt, twenty years later and in order to mark the seventieth year of the Society, that it was time to create an up to date version. So, during 2004 some eleven members went out and filmed twenty-six items to include in our new Diary.

John Gorst (Producer) says, "It will be shortly ready for viewing and will be premiered on November 1st. I do hope you will enjoy it. It will be a valuable addition to the Club Archive for the years to come".

BAFTA award winning editor Don Fairservice kept members enthralled with his expert knowledge on the art of editing. His talk on why and where to cut left his audience demanding another visit as soon as possible.

Chairman Bob Bennet won the Jack Baker trophy with his film, 'Scotland'. Bob says, 'I waited about 15 years to edit this and it had improved with the keeping!'

Runner-up was Frank Bond's video, "15 miles from Poland" - a walking holiday in Slovakia.

Also tonight Ron Elson was given an 80th birthday present. A couple of Laurel and Hardy DVDs now that Ron has joined the DVD revolution.

BBC Points West presenter David Garmston had a hectic day on March 15th when, after presenting the programme live until 7 o'clock, he left the studio to come and talk to members about a DVD that he presented and produced called ' Bristol We Loves 'ee'.
It takes the form of an hour long sunny look at the City and covers subjects as diverse as Clifton and Concorde. After an entertaining chat and screening of various pieces from the production he had to return to the BBC to read the local news at 10.30!

Sources reveal that two members of this august society were seen lurking in the vicinity of the Catholic Hall in Frome at the weekend.
Rumour has it that one of those members was, 'Father of the House', Mr Ron Elson!
Your reporter also understands that Mr Elson was there as 'Minder' for Mr Malcolm Stephens who won an award at this prestigious annual shindig ( aka Frome Five Minute Festival ).

Go to http://www.philmar.demon.co.uk/page7.html for the evidence.

or, buy Malcolm a pint to congratulate him on his success in the Holiday/Travelogue section of the competition with his production of,
'Garda Memories' (Edited highlights of a visit to Lake Garda, Italy)

The chroma key technique has been used extensively in our current production, "Clarkson". As a result, Declan Smith has become an expert so, we asked him to write an article about it!

Click here to read Declan's article.

Frank Bond presented a comprehensive talk and encouraged members to exploit the various camera functions for creative use.
He wrote up his talk.

Click here to read Frank's article.

Member, Frank Bond has produced a comprehensive study of how the professionals work as a team on any film set.
If you have ever wondered who does what, this will explain.

We offer it as a guide.

It works for us.

CLICK here

Prefabs are being removed in certain areas. Our crew captured one being taken apart in order to clear a way for other forms of housing. Following this, we interviewed the Chairman of The Prefab Preservation Group.

Whilst this took place, another member was out capturing news closer to the City Centre. Although this may not be headline news when the production is edited at the end of the year, it may be worth looking back on in 50 years time.

In our 70th year as a film-making society, Ron has been a member for 50 of them.

JOHN STEVENS (right) receives his award for 'BEST ACTING' in our production of 'Vernons Permutation' from PETER ROWELL of HTV at the Cotswold International Film Festival 2003.

In addition, excerpts of the play - on video - were put together and shown to the audience. The video of the complete play - over two hours long - had been recorded by seven cameras. This resulted in the editor Martin Brown having 17 tapes to edit from.

We showed them the film; wined and dined them; amazed them with a 'full supporting programme' of out-takes (Vernon only lasts 13 minutes) and specially recorded stuff, and generally gave them a good time.
We had a good time too.

We presented John Stevens (who played the title role in our film) with a framed poster used in the production.

We would like to thank them for their hospitality, and commend them for their excellent venue and projection facilities. We would also like to thank the library (next door); having arrived in good time before their club room was open, the librarians were very welcoming and were able to provide a friendly cup of coffee!