It’s that time of year when OVFM celebrates the days getting brighter, the weather is getting warmer and the trees and plants are in bloom once again. So what better way is there for a film club to mark this occasion by sharing with everyone the best of the many films made over the past twelve months along with a few gems from the archive. We shall also be taking a look back over the past twelve months in the Orpington/Bromley region through the annual Newsreel.
The 2012 Spring Show will take place on FRIDAY 23rd March at 7.30 pm
Club members get in free but for others the tickets are £5 – which includes refreshments – and are available from our secretary Freddy Beard on 01689 813616 or Vice Chairman Mike Turner on 01689 861155.
For an entertaining and sociable evening get your tickets a.s.a.p. and bring along your friends and family!
I’ve been a member since late last year, but that’s not a lot of time in a club that meets only bi-monthly for people to really know who I am, so here goes – about the author.
Despite first writing software in assembly language and being involved in computer graphics, both at a semi-professional level since very young I never chose to enter into these as a career. After seeing various forms of government service however, which did ultimately involve both at key levels I decided to form my own companies. Today, I still run software development, digital graphics and digital publishing companies at the same time as being lecturer up to degree level computing in Mid-Kent. From next year, I’ll also be involved in the HE Digital Media program.
I did this however, without any qualifications in these fields so in 2004 after more than thirty years in the industries (amazing what happens between eye-blinks…) I
went back to school by starting an HNC at Mid-Kent College in computing and an Access to Arts course at the University of Creative Arts. Today I teach that same computing course, hold a BSc in Computing, am a Chartered IT Professional, a PGCE (i.e. I’m qualified to teach), am in the last few months of an MA in Digital Design, and gearing up for a Doctorate in Digital Design / Digital Media in the next academic year.
So what has all of this to do with this article?
While I’ve not done much with my graphics company for years (too much work elsewhere), I covered a lot of corporate work and too many fan films to want to remember them, as well as a vast amount of CG work of a different nature that was never intended to appear on film. I decided to get back into the film world via OVFM and learning new / updating my non-CG film making knowledge by joining Raindance.
I completed my Scriptwriting Certificate with them in November last year, and started my Technical Certificate this Thursday with the aim of converting each set into their Diploma level qualifications (you can take these up-front, but I don’t have time). I’ll be taking as many of their courses as I can shoe-horn into my schedule in readiness for the Doctorate next year.
Who Are Raindance?
Some of you will be well aware of who Raindance are, some of you will know Raindance from a particular perspective, while some of you will never have heard of Raindance at all. If you want to know the nitty-gritty details, take a look at their website at www.Raindance.org, but here is a summary.
Raindance was started in 1992 by Elliot Grove, an extremely knowledgable and experienced industry professional, in order to greatly expand and improve film making in the UK (though he’s a Canadian by birth). Raindance organise the Independent Film Festival, the Independent Film Trust, as well as running the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA). It is supported by film industry professionals ranging from Chris Nolan to Mike Figgis.
What some people perhaps do not know is that Raindance, as part of their commitment to improving film production provide a wide range of film-making services as well as having a massive training commitment which has expanded from the UK to include Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Mumbai, New York, Budapest, Berlin and Brussels. These are the courses taken by and delivered by some of the most influential British film makers in the industry today.
Chris Nolan stored his equipment in a spare space in the Raindance offices while filming his first film in and around Soho as a student with them, while Guy Ritchie hammered out the details of the ‘Lock-Stock’ script with Elliot during his film-making course. So far I’ve attended courses directed by Elliot, Chris Thomas and the legendary Syd Field.
Today, Raindance even run a flexible, tailored MA program in film making consisting of their courses, validation by University, and resulting in the production of a film as the final project.
While I may go back and retrospectively tell of my experiences and pass on tips from the Scriptwriting Course if people are interested, this short set of articles is about the Technical Certificate. Over the next five weeks, I’ll be passing on experiences ranging from lighting (last night, the first session) to weeks dedicated to sound, DSLR film making, editing, and finally SFX.
The Power of Lighting
The first session covered the power of lighting – an interesting proposal in the Craven Street rehearsal rooms off Charing Cross as they consist of small, sub-basement cubes of white-washed walls, probably the last place that a tutor wants in the instruction of lighting techniques.
The environment consisted of a wide array of lighting types ranging from Red-Heads and Blondes, to Dedo, Kino lamps and LED arrays. A wide range of clips were also on show to demonstrate exactly how setups, concepts and genre lighting styles (e.g. Film Noir) had actually been utilised on film as they cropped up in discussion.
The big question to start off with however, was ‘why light?’ (as in the noun, not substance). That may sound like a no-brainer, but it’s actually a more complex topic today than it was years ago. In the past, film cameras needed vast amounts of light from incredibly powerful beams just to get anything appearing on the film at all. Bright natural light after all, is the whole reason why Hollywood even exists.
Today, modern video cameras need very little light to do the same job – the Ewan MacGregor / Christopher Plummer film ‘Beginners’ (for which he won an Oscar) for example, was filmed on a RED camera with no lighting setup at all – it was all done with whatever natural (i.e. non-contrived) light sources were available.
Five reasons raised their head:
Illumination (the obvious one),
to create mood and atmosphere,
the focusing of attention,
the creation of depth in what is essentially a 2D media form
and the enhancement of the directors vision in what is actually a highly collaborative art form (i.e the director states his vision, the DoP/L and lighting engineers arrange it, if feasible).
Other than the first, what all of the others ultimately refined as was ‘to tell the story’. If you are experienced enough and know why you are doing it, every rule in the book can be broken in order to further the story that you are trying to tell. An example of this was the final death scene in ‘The Assassination of Jesse James…’, where every camera angle switch breaks continuity so as to tell the story – the story telling is so successful, that the lighting continuity breaches are overlooked.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford (Warner Bros. 2007) – A scene which breaks lighting continuity on every camera angle, but still works to build tension.
As a side, Mike Figgis in his book on Digital Filmmaking goes into this as well – breaking down the need to even consider traditional lighting setups.
Naturally, I don’t want to simply repeat the entire session here, but here are some of things that the session raises and has you thinking about:
With your lighting, how much camera movement can you get (for storytelling purposes) with the same setup? This is not so much about avoiding re-lighting for a different camera angle, but more about the realities of the scene e.g. a hotel room with supposedly inflexible lighting sources, avoiding the placement of red-heads that magically generate light from what should be a solid-wall.
Always look not just at the lighting, but how much shadow you are generating as well. Sculpting with light is not about light intensity, but the balance between the light and shadow to create the story. A different sculpt will completely change the character of the scene and individual actors. Simply placing a lamp high, middle or low alters the apparent dominance of the character, regardless of the acting.
Colour is the ultimate confuser. Many pros switch their monitors into B&W so that they only see the light intensities. Colour causes the brain to lie about what it is seeing, and some film-makers, even in contemporary stories choose B&W over colour. e.g. ‘The man who wasn’t there’ was actually shot in colour due to a contractual requirement to provide a colour print to certain markets, but it was not the Coen Brothers first choice. A huge amount of experimentation was required to re-print the film correctly into B&W as even different hair colours reflect light differently – a factor which is hidden by the human eye registering the colour instead of the intensity.
Many genre lighting setups are deliberately unnatural and go against what may seem to be common sense and reality. Good examples include Film Noir, which deliberately aims to have most lights (and especially key lights) give hard, crisp shadows.
Lighting types (not equipment) tends to be regarded as falling in four groups: Natural daylight (because it changes); as opposed to Artificial Light (controllable and today essentially consisting of conventional fittings, tungsten, HMI, Fluorescent or LED); whether the light is Hard or Soft; and finally whether the light is Directed, Reflected or Bounced.
The main difference between all light sources (the mixing of light sources is not seen as a problem in itself) is that of colour temperature and therefore the adjustment that needs to be made to return the appearance of white as seen by the camera (i.e. the white balance) back to a human acceptable white for the conditions. In the session, as well as conventional examples, we used a combination of both Tungsten and Daylight lamps (simultaneously) to generate believable setups – setting the white balance in this case was more about deciding what was intended to be the normal time of the day according to the story. A mix of light sources is a normal and believable daily occurrence – having a day lamp giving the impression of a window on one side of the face, while tungsten light gives a different impression on the other is a situation which the human brain actually expects to see and considers normal.
There is still a huge hangup on aperture. Traditionally more of an issue with stills photographers and older cinematographs who are traditionally film camera users, lenses and cameras tend to be favoured with as low an f-stop as possible. While nice for a desired effect (such as the associated depth of field etc.), it’s heavily over used and irrelevant in the modern digital camera world which can perform the same tasks at ever higher f-stop ratings (again, see the ‘Beginners’ example, above). Side note: a film which breaks this mould is Citizen Kane, for which they deliberately designed new wide-angle lenses to have as great a depth of field as possible, but subsequently required vast amounts of light for even the dark film that it is.
Today, light metres are irrelevant and a hang over from film. The change from film to digital is not the important factor here however, but more that it is now possible to see exactly what the camera is seeing without the need to guess using a mathematical model (i.e. a camera version of WYSIWYG), then hope for the best when the film is printed.
The final part of the evening involved experimenting with a traditional 3-point lighting setup but taking it far further than the conventional use – especially with what has already been said here regarding the capabilities of digital camera.
While the important factors of the traditional 3 point setup were discussed (not repeated here, as we’ve already gone though a coaching evening on this very thing in any case), we also went into repeating the same principles to create 4, 5, 6 and more point lighting systems establishing the approaches to increase the storytelling of the background and alternative key features of the scene, as well as improve results and storytelling through the various lens apertures (e.g. lighting for the long lens etc.)
The Social Network (Columbia, 2010) – Extremely rare simultaneous two camera shoot: the key light of one subject acts as the fill and kick light of the other. An very complex lighting setup to design and implement.
Conclusions from the evening
Being principally concerned with the teaching of various software development disciplines, database design and IT management as well as still being firmly established within industry, I sometimes despair at the gulfs between what an industry actually does on an everyday basis and what academia tells a student is important. It came as no surprise last night therefore, that many an arty member of the audience, clearly just out of or still in film school was (unintentionally) shot down by Chris (or Chris, a confusing night as both experts had the same name) by simply replying, ‘nah, not important’.
Books and traditional film classes are fine, but it is very beneficial to see what is really being used, done, or indeed ignored as irrelevant in the current film-industry by a working DoP and Director.
This in itself is important as in amongst the technical awareness of the evening there were a couple of important points which carried throughout everything:
Plan your lighting, and ensure that you have time to plan it, but not in order to follow some technical ‘how its done’ in either setup or the equipment being used. There is no such thing as the ‘best equipment’. Plan it so that it tells the story in the film that you want to make, regardless of how you actually do it.
If you can’t get the lighting right for the film that you want to make, you may not need to change the story but you will need to make a different film. Don’t try to force fit something that simply isn’t going to work for the budget that you have.
The Next Session
The next session will be far more interesting for me as while I greatly enjoyed this session, a lot of the technical aspects are things that I have dealt with before and have even been covered within the OVFM evenings. After all, exactly the same principles in lighting exist in preparing a digital scene as a real one.
The next session however, is a full session dedicated wholly to film quality sound and more importantly, how to use it – something which I have never experienced in a true taught environment.
Anna Littler, one of our taller club members, has a made a film set in the 1940’s. Originally titled “Bombs & Blueberries” Anna eventually settled on the snappier title “Blitz & Bananas”. No idea what it’s about as Anna has kept this whole project a closely guarded secret from all of us (but my guess it has something to do with fish).
Anyway, Anna has decided to regale us with a dissertation on the making of this covert project of hers, explaining in lurid and explicit detail what she has learned from the process, how it has helped improve her understanding of filmmaking from beginning to end, how problems were overcome and resolved and which method of stress relief was the most effective (see also: “Coulson, Chris” and “punching bag”).
Anna’s lecture will take place this Tuesday at 8:00pm o’clock at the usual club meeting place (not to be confused with our unusual club meeting place). Please bring your own ears. Sleeping bags are optional.
Be there or be somewhere else.
**EDIT** – Anna has requested that everyone bring a pencil with a rubber although she wouldn’t divulge the reason for this. You will also need an eraser if you have one too. Yes, I’m scared now….
I didn’t sleep well on that Monday night as I found myself the sufferer of a very painful twinge in my neck, presumably from having to strain to look upwards for hours on end at the viewfinder on Barbara Darby Mk 1‘s camera, which was cranked to full height and Barbara herself was standing on a chair in order to operate it, putting her in the rare position of being taller than me for once! Suffice to say this lack of sleep coupled with my own inherent pessimism made me a rather fraught character heading into the second day of filming of our Coaching Evening film “The Amazing Healing Machine”.
Will day two be as productive as day one?
Despite this there was a small flicker of optimism dancing around inside of me after we had managed to get quite a bit of filming down on that first night and I had hopes of us being able to pick up where we left off and hopefully not have this session drag on as late as the first did. However, I never could have imagined that a good 90 plus minutes of our afternoon would be lost due to a simple red light bulb.
Sylvia subtly points out a problem with the red light bulb
For the uninitiated, part of the titular healing machine was a flashing red light bulb on the top which made for a great effect. But some members of the cast complained that the brightness and heat from the bulb was uncomfortable and distracting and therefore we needed to suppress the glare. A fairly straightforward problem to resolve, right? Wrong! Over the course of that 90 plus minutes we tried everything from plastic cups, to glasses to sit over the bulb, to wrapping it with toilet paper (!) to hiding behind other bits of equipment but elevated slightly so it could still be seen and none of these ideas worked. Some of the cast and crew were beginning to get impatient, so to say I was feeling the pressure much earlier into the session than I had envisioned is an understatement – though I guess that comes with the territory of being director and this was supposed to be a learning experience for all of us, including myself. But at least I didn’t hit anybody! Eventually thanks to Barbara Walker and my long suffering chauffeur and longer suffering father, a resolution was found and a glass tankard covered in black gaffer tape in the design of an old lantern (i.e a grid pattern) covered the bulb and dulled glare to the satisfaction of everyone. Phew!
All those years of wathcing "Blue Peter" finally paid off..
So we finally started shooting a bit later than I had hoped and things were going well enough until we ran into another problem – the curtain we were using wasn’t high enough and would expose our fraudulent stage set up. Only then did we learn that the frame supporting the curtain (which is the club’s green screen support frame) could go higher so we had to stop filming in order to adjust the height. Like the day before, people jumped right into the tick of the action to handle this task which also meant some making some alterations from the previous set up which meant the job took longer than we had hoped. But with everyone co-operating the curtain was finally set to the new height and filming recommenced – until the kids club next door started making noises! If ever there was an argument for birth control….
Sue puts on a brave face while Roarke's patience with the noisy kids next door is running out...
Now, I don’t want to embarrass the poor fellow but after a fairly smooth run of shooting we hit another roadblock when Val Pinkerton, who was playing the man with a stutter, kept forgetting his line. It was important he delivered the line as written because it was the feed for Mike Shaw’s next line but Val couldn’t get the line right. To paraphrase Eric Morecombe, he was saying pretty much the right words but not necessarily in the right order! We tried everything: making Val repeat the line over and over, leading man Roarke Alexander made a musical mantra out of the line, and we even tried the threat of physical violence but Val would trip up at the last moment. Eventually Roger Wheatley wrote the line on a piece of paper and held up for Val to read from and eventually he did it! Yay Val! I only bring this up, not to humiliate or belittle Val as I know acting is not for everyone, and Val is to be commended for volunteering, but because it was another instance where we all rallied round to put Val at ease and to coach him into delivering the line correctly which he did and earned a deserved round of applause afterwards. Before you ask, no I didn’t get angry with Val. How could I? He was not a pro actor and despite what should have been a huge problem, this was one of the more amusing moments of the shoot!
Just because I want to strangle you doesn't necessarily mean I am angry with you....
And lo it was but a while afterwards that we took the final shot and I was able to utter those immortal words “And that’s a wrap!” to weary applause before most of the cast and crew got their coats and bolted for the door! I jest of course but now came the tidying up and again, the set became a hive of activity as bodies were everywhere stacking chairs, coiling cables, dismantling camera tripods, the lights, the curtains and the frame, gaffer tape was removed from the floors and walls (and glass tankard) and everything was returned to normal. When it was all said and down and we had said our collective goodbyes to the people we had been locked away with for hours on end for two days, I took a moment to reflect on how this now empty Garden Rooms in which I stood in had just moments earlier been a film set bristling with energy and activity, where a group of people had come together for a common cause and in the process not only gained an education in filmmaking but integrated with fellow club members they had hitherto never conversed with.
Getting to know each other...
Until I see the captured footage I will remain apprehensive as to whether I successfully conveyed my requirements from the cast or not but from what little I can recall, they all seemed to understand and interpreted my ideas to the best of their abilities and I can honestly say that no-one let anybody down over the two days we spent together working on this film. I must confess to having some regrets in that I didn’t get the time or chance to learn more on the production side of things, i.e: setting up the cameras (white balancing, zebras, etc) and the lighting and sound, but others did benefit from this and I learned so much about directing a larger cast and crew, so we can safely say that the project has achieved its objective and I hope that this experience hasn’t put anyone off from wanting to make their own fictional film in the future.
Mike actually looks bigger in real life...
So, I once again offer my sincerest gratitude to everyone who gave up their time for the sake of this project and for their hard work and support over those two frosty days of January 23rd and 24th. And here is the roll call of all who participated or contributed to the project:
OVFM
Mike Shaw (Mr. Wiggins)
Basil Doody (Caretaker)
Val Pinkerton (“Man with Stutter”)
Richard Pugh (“Man with Twitch”)
Barbara Walker (“Woman with Limp”)
Roger Wheatley (“Dozing Man”)
Brenda Wheatley (“Dozing Man’s Wife”/Light bulb operator)
Ian Menage (Producer/”Coughing Man”/Behind The Scenes” Filming)
Barbara Darby (Cameras/Set Design/Props)
John Bunce (Cameras/Healing Machine)
Bob Wyeth (Cameras/Healing Machine)
John Ransley (Lights/Sound)
Sue Ward (Poster/Clapperboard/Notes and Continuity/Set Design)
Tony Relph (Chauffeur/Notes and Continuity/General duties)
Liz Carter (St. Augustine’s Rooms Booking Officer)
In closing I would just like to make one final but what I feel is a crucial point about this project. All too often this has been referred to as “Lee’s film” or “Lee and Ian’s film”. This is incorrect. It is an OVFM film and thus is the film of everyone who contributed. Ian and myself may have been the major driving forces behind it but ultimately this is a group project and I don’t anyone to forget this fact, so everyone feel free to say “This is a film I made” with confidence and conviction.
Working together
Once again a huge thanks to everyone involved and I’m now off a very long lie down….
This week’s meeting falls on February 14th which is also known as Valentine’s Day, a cynical exploitation by the huge corporate entities to make money from the easily influenced by brainwashing them into believing this day is a celebration of the fabled and fictitious sentiment called “love” whilst taking huge enjoyment by rubbing it in to us lonely single types sitting in the shadows of our companion free solitude. Bitter? Moi?
Anyway, to mark this occasion the Legion Of Doom have decided to make the theme of the films for this meeting “Past love”. Now, this doesn’t necessarily have to be about a person from one’s history but could also be a hobby or pet or piece of music or anything that once had a profound or positive effect on your life which, for one reason or another, has slipped by the wayside, walked out the door or was accidentally flushed it down the toilet, as the years have passed.
So, those of you willing (or bold enough) to share with us the romantic secrets of your past are invited to bring your films on Tuesday and see if you can elicit and “Ahh” (or at worst a “What The….?”) from your friends and peers at OVFM.
If you are likely to be submitting a film this week then please reply to this post below to give us an idea of how many films to prepare for, while the rest of you, don’t forget to bring your hankies just in case (or a bucket as is your wont….)
And a bonus point to anyone who can name the actress in the banner pic!!
The annual OVFM Top 10 Competition for 2012 is due to start soon and once again it will be contested over five rounds across the year. In the 2011 competition we had 24 entries – can we top that number this year?
Competition organiser Brenda Wheatley has released the line-ups for each round so please check to see in which group your name is included:
Round 1 (22nd May)
Bob Wyeth
Lee Relph
Mike Turner
Frank Hyde
Jane Oliver
Gwen Whippy
Bob Vine
Mike Graham
Ian Menage
Ed Jarnot
Sam Brown
Cherie Hamlet-Smith
Round 2 ( July 17th)
Peter Mitchell
Val Pinkerton
John Bunce
Hugh Darrington
Colin Jones
David Laker
Mo & Peter Lodge
Annabelle Lancaster
Charlie & Nellie Caseley
Barbara Darby
Chris Coulson
Lizzie Mathews
Round 3 (August 28th)
Barbara Walker
Alan Whippy
Reg Lancaster
Freddy Beard
Brenda & Roger Wheatley
Peter Llewllyn Smith
Jess & Richard Pugh
Barbara J. Darby
Simon Earwicker
Harold & Maisie Trill
Jennie Jarnot
Mike & Jo Coad
Round 4 (September 25th)
Christine Collins
Brian Pfeiffer
Mike Shaw
Craig Robinson
Peter Reilly
Ann & John Epton
John Ransley
John Alford
Tony Faller
Pat Palmer
Anna Littler
Ann Perrin & Alan Gage
Round 5 (October 23rd)
Andy & Marian Watson
Jim Morton Robertson
Barbara Walker
Mike Bishop
Andy Webb
Basil Doody
Sylvia Snipp
Ray Hewitt
Derek Allen
Alan Smith
Malcolm Goodwin
Susan Ward
Len Lawrence
If you don’t have your film ready by the given date please let Brenda know so that she can try to find someone else to fill the gap in the evening. If your film is ready early please bring it along on a top ten night and if there is time we will show it.
If you miss your given round you can bring your film along to a later one, but it will only be shown after those drawn for that round, if there is time.
Be sure to check back as the competition progresses.
This is an adaptation of an article in the North Thames Region newsletter written by Arthur Gatcum, a former policeman.
Under the ‘Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (Freedom of Panorama)’ the taking of photographs or video footage of buildings, sculptures and other art in public places is generally permitted without infringing any copyrights. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_panorama
The Police – Members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph in public places, and police have no power to stop them filming or photographing incidents or police personnel.
The use of a tripod can attract the attention of police for two reasons:
You could be obstructing the footway and
They consider you a professional and in certain areas a license is required to film.
For those in the Bromley area you definitely need prior permission to film in The Glades (0208 313 9292) or Orpington Walnuts (01689 832923).
Airports – Amateurs must gain consent from the press office at the airport by written application and signing the airport’s Terms and Conditions. You will need Public Limited Liability Insurance worth £5 million. www.baa.com
Royal parks – Obtain permission to film, shoot stills or use a tripod on 0200 061 2110 or email film@royalparks.gsi.gov.uk
National Trust – There are restrictions at some properties, especially for tripods, so always check in advance with the property concerned www.nationaltrust.org.uk
London Underground – They do have a permit for non professionals. Crew size: five or less with handheld equipment only. Cost £50 incl.VAT. Films must not be placed on the Internet. You also need insurance. www.tfl.gov.uk/filming
Cathedrals – Permits are required for tripod users. Contact cathedral wardens in writing or go to www.cathedralsplus.org.uk
I can’t vouch for all the phone numbers, and you might need to search around the web sites, but on the whole I hope you find the information useful.
Picture courtesy of Lee Relph. Yes. Thanks a bunch, Lee.
I’ve finally taken leave of my senses! Well, more so that you’re aware of. Work has forced me to buy a Mac. Now before you think that because I work in video, I clearly must need a Mac, because you’ve heard that anyone who makes films for a living can only use a Mac if they’re serious, that’s simply not true.
The reason is that my other business is fixing PCs, and business is booming currently, hence the sporadic nature of my Views from the Chairs (or whatever the grammatically correct way to put it is). I’ve been having to turn down 2-3 jobs a month from Mac users wanting help, because I know nothing about them. I decided to take the plunge, and buy the cheapest Mac laptop money can buy to learn how it works and be able to fix the increasing number of customers I’m getting with Macs. By the way, it’s not because they’re becoming more unreliable, it’s because there are more of them!
I’m expert in PCs so I’m well aware that the cheapest PC laptop is around the £250-£300 mark, and knowing that historically, Macs have the reputation of being a bit more expensive than PCs so I braced myself for £500ish. Do you know how much the cheapest Mac Laptop is? EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS!!!! And that’s the MacBook air, which is a tiny thin laptop with no battery power. The cheapest proper Mac laptop is £1 less than a £1000!
There was no way I was prepared to pay that, let alone be able to afford it, so being determined, I went on EBay to look for a second hand one. Fortunately, I found a one year old 13” MacBook Pro for £560, that no-one else bid on, presumably because it had two tiny scuff marks on the lid (No idea why that’s so bad?)
The day arrived, and I won the auction, and after an excited drive to Streatham, I was the proud owner of my very own Mac. And it’s true – standing there, holding my MacBook, all of a sudden, I really do genuinely feel superior to YOU! How they do that, I’ll never know! It’s magic!
I have to say first impressions are excellent. The whole thing is made of a solid piece of aluminium, with holes milled out for the components, and apart from some moderately sharp edges, which is probably a personal opinion issue, it feels fantastic. The biggest impact for me was the rigidity of the screen. If you try and gently flex/twist any PC Laptop screen from any manufacturer it will flex. Not enough to cause any damage, but if you try and do the same to my MacBook screen it’s much more rigid. Again, a by-product of this famous “made from one lump of aluminium” by-line. The only negative thing related to its construction that I can think of is also due to its material. When you wake up first thing in the morning, and place it on your lap, IT’S FLIPPING COLD!!!!! Of course, I’m not stupid enough to place it on my bare legs (more than once, anyway) but still, for the first 5 minutes, it feels icy resting your hands on it. Fortunately, it warms up after a few minutes.
Regarding the legendary Apple Operating System and how it never crashes and is lightning fast, I have to say I’m disappointed. It’s about the same performance as any dual-core windows 7 Laptop costing about £300-£400. I’ve managed to crash it twice in the last month, although I’m not going to hold that against my lovely little MacBook, as I’m a little more demanding than your average Starbucks drinking, web surfing MacBook user.
Being “tuned in” to the Apple world, I couldn’t help but smirk when I noticed an advert in PC world last week. “Apple computers can’t catch PC viruses”. It’s funny, but I’m sure I’ve always been told (incorrectly, of course) that Macs can’t catch ANY sort of virus, full stop. But now it seems that’s not the case. I’m fairly sure they can’t catch human viruses either, but I don’t see them advertising that?! Clever marketing, eh?
As far as the Mac vs PC debate, I have to say it’s over. They’re both much the same. I don’t really see any significant advantages either way, other than choice and price. The Mac’s construction is undeniably better, but is it worth 3 times the price? In 9 years’ time, I’d rather have bought 3 PC Laptops, than one Mac for the same money. I use my MacBook as my only laptop, and it’s a pleasure to use, and I can really recommend the 13” size format laptop, which unusually is fairly rare in PC circles, as it’s really light and portable. Would I have paid £1000 for it? Not on your Nellie!
A personal account of the OVFM Coaching Evenings film project
By
Lee Relph
Part One – A Hard Day’s Night
On January 23rd 2012, members of OVFM descended upon the Garden Rooms at St Augustine’s Church, Petts Wood to make a short film entitled “The Amazing Healing Machine” as a part of the Coaching Evenings Project. This is a look at what happened during the two days of the film’s production from the perspective of the only person gullible enough and insane enough to put himself forward for the role of director:
It looks so much easier in the movies….
(click on thumbails for larger picture)
As many of you should already be aware the Coaching Evenings Project was the brainchild of Ian Menage in conjunction with the OVFM Committee (aka The Legion Of Doom), with the aim to teach us noobs and ignorami a thing or two about film making then we go on and make a short film ourselves with this new found knowledge. The script came from an outline submitted by Colin Jones and transformed by yours truly. Because I write in such a way that I envisage everything as a finished product in my head then transcribe that into words on paper/computer screen, I was therefore found myself to be somewhat parochial and nominated myself as director for this film which remarkably went uncontested by the rest of the group who had already taken the cushier production jobs for themselves.
Working hard as usual….
I won’t lie to you: I was nervous heading into that first day and hadn’t slept much the night before. This was beyond the usual reservations of whether people would turn up or forget to bring their equipment or if something drastic went wrong. It had been almost two years since I made my multi-award winning opus “Writers Block” and I was having serious doubts as to whether I could pull off the directing job a second time (the two other films I have made since, “The Miracle” and “Looking For Dave”, were much smaller affairs I can’t consider them to be in the same league). It didn’t occur to me at the time but a few days later it hit me that the number of cast members alone for this film was greater than the entire cast and crew combined for “Writers Block”. I’m not entirely sure why I was so oblivious to this fact but it was probably just as well because I may have crumbled under the pressure had I thought about the fact that so many people were looking to me for guidance and order but the reality probably was I simply just didn’t have time to think about it.
Shall I tell him he’s about to be clobbered by the boom mic?
We began the day with an empty room needing to be turned into a workable film set and in a true community spirit, people you wouldn’t normally see fraternising together during club tea breaks bandied together to help set the workspace up, be it setting up the cameras, lights, curtains, blocking out windows or putting out chairs. Eventually everything was set up and it was time for rehearsals after we stopped for a quick tea break. Our leading man Roarke Alexander led the charge for the cast for a quick read through of the script. Not only was it interesting to see the script come to life but it also revealed just who hadn’t learned their lines!
Did they have iPads in the1940’s?
I am ashamed to admit that I began to fear that this might not come together as I envisioned it and if I had sufficient directorial clout to guide our mostly non-professional cast through the forest of hardship to the promised land of a watchable film. Naturally I hid my concerns but the turning point came when we had a few minutes to get the first shots which were of the poster on the wall outside. Somehow, just saying the magic words “Action”, even with just four of us outside in the freezing cold dusky forecourt, I felt a lot of the anxieties ebb away, as though putting the proverbial director’s hat on for the first time in a long while acted as a sedative for the nerves and doubts swilling around inside of me. After a few takes I felt a very small surge of confidence but I knew at the same time I couldn’t get cocky as I have found in the past that whenever I get supremely confident or excited something it all goes horribly wrong, which probably explains my permanently dour demeanour. After all, a pessimist is never disappointed.
Roarke Alexander looks on helplessly while John Ransley has to turn away…
It was starting to get late but around 6:00pm we finally got down to the main bulk of filming for this first day following the arrival of our second guest performer, Sue Ward’s daughter Fiona, who brought her own baby bump with her! I learned the next day that Fiona was actually a little under the weather as well as heavily pregnant which made me feel guilty as we overran when trying to set up the final shot with her character, something which was proving to be a source of frustration for me but I knew I couldn’t let it defeat me since I was the man in charge. But we got there in the end al though it is kind of ironic that with all the filmmakers in the room it was Roarke who came up with the eventual solution! I have to say that Fiona did very well in her role; I don’t know the extent of her acting experience prior to this but she delivered everything I asked from her and did so with good spirits despite her discomfort.
Better get a mop in case my waters break!!
Having run so long we had to rush a little to get the final scene of the night shot which involved Mike Shaw and Basil Doody. The sense of relief from the remainder of the cast was palpable as they were excused and couldn’t wait to get their coats and head for home, which was a little disparaging as we still trying to film! I couldn’t really blame them though as I was running on auto pilot by this point myself but the onus was on my shoulders so I had to soldier on and with everyone’s cooperation we got the shot done fairly quickly and the first day of filming was brought to a close.
Hurry up and take that down so we can get out of here!
It was almost 9:00pm before we shut up shop that night but it felt much later. Six hours may not seem like a long working day by being inside a room with artificial and manipulated lighting, with little fresh air (remember it was freezing outside) and you’re working non-stop barely getting to sit down, time becomes distorted, almost a redundant concept, something I am sure most of us have experienced at one time or another on a film shoot of this nature. I can’t really lament this since it comes with the territory and is a by product of the director’s responsibility of the director to keep everything moving. No wonder nobody else volunteered for the role!
We’re all right! We’ve got the cushy jobs!!
So that was the first day over with. Although I didn’t feel it myself, I did receive some kind words from a few people remarking on how much we got done that day. Unfortunately I couldn’t see past the length of time spent on the setting up of the shots and the general dwindling of energy towards the end so I had to take their word for it. There was a small part of me that was relieved it was over for the day but this was quickly replaced with the dread of the realisation that it was not over and we had to come back to do it all again the next day….
You’re coming back tomorrow whether you like it or not!!
Remember last year when Reg “Bomber” Lancaster presented us with a selection of films from BIAFF which we then judged and compared our scores with those of the official judges? You don’t? Ah, I can’t really blame you for wiping it from your memories.
Well, for this week’s club meeting young Reginald and his long suffering assistant Lady Annabelle have decided to subject us to a second round of already judged films to be judged again. This time the selection comes from the UK submissions for the annual UNICA (Union internationale du cinéma) film competition. As the name suggests (although someone should explain to the French how acronyms work), the UNICA festival is a film competition held in a different country each year with an international line-up of entries. The 2012 competition – the 74th – will be held in Ruse which, unless it has been misplaced or has left home, is in Bulgaria and will run from August 25th to September 1st. If you are interested then more info can be found HERE.
The films Reg will subject to OVFM scrutiny have been awarded Diploma, Bronze, Silver or Gold prizes and our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to decide which film won which award. Sounds easy right? Well, as I understand it, Reg has promised to set fire to anyone who gets them wrong so I guess we’ll have to take this seriously after all.
Now, I usually post a link to a website for further information but if I do that someone of you *might* be tempted to take a sneak peek at the results of the previous years ahead of this week’s meeting. I’m not saying any of you *would* but some of you *might*.
So, that’s what is in store for us on Tuesday. See you there?
