Meeting report 27 July 2015

At last the weather was comparatively milder and no hold ups or postponements, there was a good attendance in comparison to recent July meetings, despite several apologies. Once again we welcomed Frede Jorgensen..this time as a new member to our club. We did not have a guest speaker this month...The first real opportunity to screen our May meeting competition entries and catch up on some of the content of that meeting cancelled due to Weather problems. The meeting started with a little frivolity as we viewed a not so well known light hearted  Highlanders song about a Barracuda.

Then we saw two great entries from our May competitions. (Own Choice up to 5 mins.):

1. Iguassa Falls: Dragon Films, by Mike Davies. An excellent little Documentary with some dramatic videography and views around these massive falls In South America. Some very good commentary, and choice of music all balanced well with wild sound around the falls made this captivating viewing.

2. Kuranda Scenic Railway, by Nevill Smith. Another excellent production from Nevill...also contained some informative commentary, and excellent videography capturing all the wild and mountainous scenery including Barron Falls, as the train travelled from near Cairns up onto the Plateau to the historic Kuranda.

It was difficult to separate these two films as both were very high quality entries. Then it was on to our July entries (own choice up to 3 mins.) This shorter time span was introduced to attract those who preferred to enter a shorter film. (It is worth noting that the times are only an outer limit, not a specified film length).)We received 5 in all, a great result, though a disappointment for Frede Jorgensen as his DVD ‘Maple Glen’ was incorrectly set up for our system... this entry will be seen in next months competition.

1. First Church Organ Recital: Wynot Films, by  Andrew Wylie. An excellent production capturing sounds of the First Church Organ with great close up views around the church including very good shots of the detail contained in the stained glass windows of the church.

2. The Great Wall: Dragon Films, by Mike Davies. A film showing views on and around the Great Wall of China, with some great commentary. As stated in the film...this is such a huge structure that it is hard to capture the enormity of it in one camera...this was an excellent attempt at doing Just that.

3.Kuranda Rainforest Sky Rail: by Nevill Smith. Anyone who has been on this cableway will know this well, those who haven’t would also have found this very interesting. We  enjoyed captive videography with views from the cable car as it left Kuranda on the Plateau and travelled down to Cairns, showing rainforest views above the canopy blended with the panorama of coastal Plains below...almost as if Flying.Once again a good commentary on this film.

4. Beautiful Autumn Colours: by Warren Knox. Some beautiful views  of flora in its brightest Autumn costume...highlighting the surrounding countryside in the best way.The opportunity to take such film is often in a very brief time frame...Warren has chosen exactly the right day in the right week of the right month to get these images.

Judging by the Membership Panel was very close...but all entries score in the competition results. Entry numbers to 2015 competitions have been very good.

Session 2 of our Monthly workshop was presented by Andrew Wylie...’The Classic Errors of Film Making’...his talk emphasised the rules of good camera work that have never changed despite technology giving us some tools to more easily edit. Through a number of examples seen in a very old black and white educational film. Examples of these were panning to much, too quickly, to often....(known in video circles as hose piping) also over use of the zoom...modern cameras have massive zoom capability, but little and slow only if necessary is the way to go! Over use of the Zoom (Trombone-ing) will spoil the effect you are trying to create. He went through various other do’s and don’ts when taking video, and to sum up...it is all in the top 2%...the skill of the camerawork will have a direct effect on the time you have to spend in editing your production.

A brief report was given by President Peter Begg on a request for use of O.A.M.M. archive material by a company producing a three part documentary...and an outline given on steps the club is taking to protect and preserve existing, and future archive material.

President Peter Begg thanked the membership for a good attendance and also Andrew Wylie and Warren Knox who had a very busy night writing up the detail  and presenting the films in sequence.

The meeting closed with supper, assistance from Miriam and Lesley appreciated in preparation of this.

Regards

Peter