OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY January 8th

 

2019 already? I’m afraid so but whilst we always like to look forward here at OVFM, we still have to finish some of the business we started in 2018, namely the TOP TEN competition!

The three individual qualifying rounds were held over the latter half of the year and from that the ten films with the highest scores from those rounds will be screened again in this final. The complete scores from all three rounds can be found HERE.

The ten films which will be screened and voted on in this session are as follows:

 

1. Beyond the Sunset – Sam Brown

2. When Orpington Was Still A Village – David Laker

3. Aristotle – Hugh Darrington

4. …104! – Ian Menage

5. Our Lizzie – Barbara Darby

6. Season’s Blessings – Jane Oliver

7. Walkers – Barbara Walker

8. Dream Visitor – John Bunce

9. Dino Invasion Of London – Lee Relph

10. Church Room – Bob Wyeth

 

It is imperative we have a high turnout to make the scoring as fair and representative as possible so each film is given a fair assessment from a a high a pool of voters.  The film with the most votes will be crowned the 2018 Top Ten Winner at the OVFM Oscars on March 19th.

Also, this meeting is your last chance to enter the Annual Competition, so please ensure you have your film, £2 entry fee and ENTRY FORM  (this is in the Members’ Only section so make sure you are logged in to access it) to hand to competition manager Ian Menage, whilst anyone who has yet to return their trophies from last year please bring them along too.

To download the Entry Form from the above link, roll your cursor over the top of the window to reveal the menu bar then click the download icon, or you can print the form off directly from the page by clicking the printer icon which is to the right of the download icon.

 

We hope to see everybody bright and fit for this important evening on Tuesday as we kickstart a new year here at OVFM!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY OCTOBER 16th

We have reached the third and final qualifying round for the TOP TEN 2018 competition. The ongoing results can be found HERE.

The Top Ten is open to everyone in OVFM to submit a film, no longer than 20 minutes on any subject, style or genre, which will be judged and graded by their peers. The ten films that have accrued the highest scores by the end of the five individual rounds will be entered into the final in January 2019 and the winner will be announced at the Oscars in March.

We had four entries submitted for round one last month so we are hoping that we can equal or perhaps top that number for this session. Also please note that the scoring system has changed and now ALL categories are scored out of 10 points.  

Here are the club members who have been selected at random to participate in this final round:

 

John Bunce

Jo Coad

John & Ann Epton

Mike Graham

David Laker

Jim Morton-Robertson

Jenny Tucker

Barbara Walker

Andy & Marian Watson

Maria Alexander

 

The following people missed their earlier rounds but have a final chance to enter a film in this session:

 

Gordon Beales

Kuldip Kaur

Annabelle Lancaster

Walter McKenna

Peter Mitchell

Brian Pfeiffer

Mike Shaw

Bob Vine

Ron Williams

John Alford

Charlie & Nellie Caseley

Colin Jones

Anna Littler

Ian Menage

Peggy Parmenter

Trevor Rogers

Roger & Brenda Wheatley

As always we ask you to PLEASE reply to this post in the comments/reply section below, if you have a film ready and letting us know the following information:

 

Run time

Format (DVD, Blu-ray, USB)

Picture ratio (4:3 or 16:9).

 

It is very important and helpful to know these things ahead of time to ensure we have the right equipment for playing your films and for planning the time allotment of the evening.  It’s a simple courtesy we are asking of you and it only takes a few seconds to comply.

And that is it. Join us on Tuesday for the final qualifying round of the 2018 Top Ten!

Thank you for reading and good luck to everyone who enters a film!

TOP TEN COMPETITION 2018 – RESULTS

THE RESULTS

 

The Top Ten competition for 2018 is now underway. All the information you need about it can be found HERE but this page is for the results, so be sure to check back after each round to see the updated standings.

Here are the scores as awarded by club members in the Top 10 2018 qualifying rounds:

 

ROUND ONE (Held on July 10th)

1. Beyond the Sunset – Sam Brown    45.37

2. Our Lizzie – Barbara Darby    41.42

3. Napier – Jim Morton-Robertson   35.37

4. Swiss Holiday Alps – Kath Goodwin   33.26

 

ROUND TWO (Held on August 21st)

1. Aristotle – Hugh Darrington    42.67

2. Season’s Blessings – Jane Oliver   40.50

3. Dino Invasion Of London – Lee Relph   36.96

4. Church Room – Bob Wyeth   36.54

5. Neil’s Garden – Colin Jones   35.63

6. Occupied In London – Graham Sinden   33.83

 

ROUND THREE (Held on October 16th)

1. When Orpington Was Still A Village – David Laker 43.52

2. …104! – Ian Menage 42.04

3. Walkers – Barbara Walker 39.05

4. Dream Visitor – John Bunce 38.95

 

Therefore the ten films going through to the final on January 8th are:

 

1. Beyond the Sunset – Sam Brown

2. When Orpington Was Still A Village – David Laker

3. Aristotle – Hugh Darrington

4. …104! – Ian Menage

5. Our Lizzie – Barbara Darby

6. Season’s Blessings – Jane Oliver

7. Walkers – Barbara Walker

8. Dream Visitor – John Bunce

9. Dino Invasion Of London – Lee Relph

10. Church Room – Bob Wyeth

 

Who will win the 2018 Top Ten? There is only one way to find out and that is cast your vote in January then join us for the Oscars in March!

Thanks to everyone who entered a film this year and good luck to all the finalists!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY AUGUST 21st

 

 

The TOP TEN 2018 competition continues as we head into round two!

The Top Ten is open to everyone in OVFM to submit a film, no longer than 20 minutes on any subject, style or genre, which will be judged and graded by their peers. The ten films that have accrued the highest scores by the end of the five individual rounds will be entered into the final in January 2019 and the winner will be announced at the Oscars in March.

We had four entries submitted for round one last month so we are hoping that we can equal or perhaps top that number for this session. Also please note that the scoring system has changed and now ALL categories are scored out of 10 points.  

Here are the club members who have been selected at random to participate in this second round:

 

Hugh Darrington

John Alford

Charlie & Nellie Caseley

Colin Jones

Anna Littler

Ian Menage

Jane Oliver

Peggy Parmenter

Lee Relph

Trevor Rogers

Graham Sinden

Roger & Brenda Wheatley

 

Remember if you have a film ready and it is not your round yet please let us know below and bring it with you to the meeting – it will help make up any shortfall in submissions.

As always we ask you to PLEASE reply to this post in the comments/reply section below, if you have a film ready and letting us know the following information:

 

Run time

Format (DVD, Blu-ray, USB)

Picture ratio (4:3 or 16:9).

 

Similarly please reply below if you can’t make this round and we’ll accommodate your film in a future round. It is very important and helpful to know these things ahead of time to ensure we have the right equipment for playing your films and for planning the time allotment of the evening.  It’s a simple courtesy we are asking of you and it only takes a few seconds to comply.

And that is it. Join us on Tuesday for the second round of the 2018 Top Ten!

Thank you for reading and good luck to everyone who enters a film!

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY JULY 10TH 2018

Yes folks the TOP TEN 2018 competition is officially ready to roll!

After just one year under the aegis of Hugh Darrington, the running of the competitions has changed hands again, this time to our new Competitions Officer Ian Menage.

The Top Ten is open to everyone in OVFM to submit a film, no longer than 20 minutes on any subject, style or genre, which will be judged and graded by their peers. The ten films that have accrued the highest scores by the end of the five individual rounds will be entered into the final in January 2019 and the winner will be announced at the Oscars in March.

Last year David Laker scored his first ever Top Ten win with Orpington In The 1840s making him our defending champion for this year’s competition. Can David do it again or will someone else take the trophy home after the Oscars next march?

Here are the club members who have been selected at random to participate in this opening round:

 
Gordon Beales

Sam Brown

Barbara Darby

Malcolm & Kath Goodwin

Kuldip Kaur

Annabelle Lancaster

Walter McKenna

Peter Mitchell

Brian Pfeiffer

Mike Shaw

Bob Vine

Ron Williams

 

Remember if you have a film ready and it is not your round yet please let us know below and bring it with you to the meeting – it will help make up any shortfall in submissions.

As always we ask you to PLEASE reply to this post in the comments/reply section below, if you have a film ready and letting us know the following information:

Run time

Format (DVD, Blu-ray, USB)

Picture ratio (4:3 or 16:9).

 

Similarly please reply below if you can’t make this round and we’ll accommodate your film in a future round. It is very important and helpful to know these things ahead of time to ensure we have the right equipment for playing your films and for planning the time allotment of the evening.  It’s a simple courtesy we are asking of you and it only takes a few seconds to comply.

And that is it. Join us on Tuesday for the opening round of the 2018 Top Ten!

Thank you for reading and good luck to everyone who enters a film!

TOP TEN COMPETITION 2018

 

Yes the annual Top Ten competition is back and for the second year in a row, it is under new management!

After just one year in the role of Competitions Officer Hugh Darrington decided to step, passing the mantle to Ian Menage to run this year’s club competitions. Like last year, there will be just three, to encourage a greater response from club members, a tact that seems to have worked as there were 15 films submitted in 2017, although this sis till way down from previous years.

Remember that each film has a 20 minute time limit but can be on any subject and in any style. If you have a film from the past which has undergone a significant revamp (perhaps a new soundtrack, remixed sound, improved titling, tighter editing, extended or redacted cut etc. you are also welcome to re-submit these as your official entry.

And you can team up with your fellow club members if you need help on the technical or casting front, it will be the author of the script/concept who gets the entry credit. Couples can enter either individually or together.

Below are the names of the dates and participants of the three qualifying rounds:

 

ROUND ONE (To be held on July 10th)

Gordon Beales

Sam Brown

Barbara Darby

Malcolm & Kath Goodwin

Kuldip Kaur

Annabelle Lancaster

Walter McKenna

Peter Mitchell

Brian Pfeiffer

Mike Shaw

Bob Vine

Ron Williams

 

ROUND TWO (To be held on August 21st)

Hugh Darrington

John Alford

Charlie & Nellie Caseley

Colin Jones

Anna Littler

Ian Menage

Jane Oliver

Peggy Parmenter

Lee Relph

Trevor Rogers

Graham Sinden

Roger & Brenda Wheatley

 

ROUND THREE (To be held on October 16th)

John Bunce

Jo Coad

John & Ann Epton

Mike Graham

John & Sylvia Greengrass

David Laker

Jim Morton-Robertson

Jenny Tucker

Barbara Walker

Andy & Marian Watson

 

Remember, if you have a film ready before your designated round you are welcome to submit it early but please let us know, preferably on this website, ahead of the particular session you will be entering it. This also applies if you are unable to provide a film in time.

The final will take place on January 8th 2018 and the results will be revealed at the Oscars on March 19th 2019.

To see the results of last year’s competition click HERE

 

Good luck to all who enter and be sure to check the ongoing results on this site as soon as they are released.

The 2018 OVFM OSCARS – THE RESULTS!

THE RESULTS

 

The Oscars took place on March 6th 2018 and here is the complete list of winners courtesy of Competition officer Hugh Darrington, who is stepping down after one year in the role, so we thank him for his efforts over the past 12 months. We are also indebted to Pip, Rita and Alan Hayes for judging the Annual Competition for us this year.

So, to the winners:

ANNUAL COMPETITION

Ian Dunbar Cup (Best film) – Devon From A Different Perspective by Jane Oliver

Orpington Trophy (Best Film Runner Up) – Remember by Andy Watson

Arthur Woolhead Trophy (Animation or Visual Effects) – Orpington In The 1840s by David Laker

Priory Trophy (Editing) – Statue Park by James Morton-Robertson

Vincent Pons Shield (Fiction) – Turkey for Christmas by Colin Jones

Rene Morris Penguin Plate (Photography) – Devon From A Different Perspective by Jane Oliver

Heyfield Trophy (Sound) – It’s A Pug’s Life by Lee Relph

Reg Lancaster Trophy (Funniest Film) – It’s A Pug’s Life by Lee Relph

Alice Howe Trophy (Documentary) – But Is It Art? by Hugh Darrington

Raasay Trophy (No special category) – Moving Moments by Barbara Darby

Jubilee Shield (Film under five minutes) – Remember by Andy Watson

 

OVFM COMPETITIONS

The 2017 Top Ten Competition –

WINNER: Orpington In The 1840s by David Laker

RUNNER-UP: 1940’s Showreel by Barbara Darby

 

Kath Jones Cup (Best joke Film) – Oh Dear by John Bunce

Vic Treen Trophy (Best Film Cut To Music) – Colour My World by Lee Relph

Mike Turner Plate (Best Film Under 1 Minute) – Same The Whole World Over by Brian Ffeiffer

 

Highly Commended Certificates

A 1940’s Experience  by Barbara Darby

Turkey For Christmas by Colin Jones (for Chris Crump’s illustrations)

Orpington Picture Palaces by Pat Palmer

 

Commended Certificates

Oh Dear by John Bunce

The Project by Charlie Caseley

The Juggler by Reg Lancaster

 

Final Scores:

Kath Jones Cup

Oh Dear by John Bunce   71

How To Open A Skoda by Graham Sinden  37

 

Vic Treen Trophy

Colour My World by Lee Relph    51

Remember by Andy Watson    33

1940’s Experience by Barbara Darby    32

Blah Blah Blur by Jane Oliver    17

Last Stand by John & Ann Epton   14

Born In Africa by Pat Palmer    10

Katharine’s Palace by Brian Ffeiffer   6

Wheels by Graham Sinden    5

Statue Park by James Morton-Robertson   5

 

Mike Turner Plate

The Same The Whole World Over by Brian Ffeiffer    40

Light Up The Sky by Trevor  Rogers   39

The Juggler by Reg Lancaster    36

Rumble In The Jungle by John Greengrass   23

Gannet Colony by James Morton-Robertson   14

 

Top 10 Results are HERE

 

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to everyone who entered a film and don’t forget you can see all of the entries in the Annual Competition HERE (make sure you are logged in).

That’s it for the 2018 Oscars, we look forward to doing it all over again in 2019!

 

OVFM CLUB MEETING TUESDAY MARCH 6th 2018

 

 

Ladles and Jellyspoons

 

It’s award season for OVFM which means the 2018 Oscars!

 

Every year we celebrate and reward the efforts of our club members with a small trinket or two, with club awards voted for by their peers and the Annual competition categories judged by an external panel.

 

This year we are indebted to Pip and Rita Hayes and their son Allen of Shooters Hill for giving up their time on our behalf to review and rate our films.

 

As you should all be aware by now, this is a black tie affair, or as smart as you can be (i.e. no trainers, jeans, t-shirts etc) so the more glam you look the better –  if I’m making an effort (this is the only time a year I wear a shirt) then you can too! If you are feeling adventurous you can come in fancy dress to add a little levity to the proceedings but this isn’t mandatory. And your partners are very welcome to join us too if you have one. If you don’t, perhaps you can borrow someone else’s for the evening?

 

We have many awards being contested.

 

In the Annual Competition they are:

 

Ian Dunbar Cup (Best film)

Orpington Trophy (Best Film Runner Up)

Arthur Woolhead Trophy (Animation or Visual Effects)

Priory Trophy (Editing)

Vincent Pons Shield (Fiction)

Rene Morris Penguin Plate (Photography)

Heyfield Trophy (Sound)

Reg Lancaster Trophy (Funniest Film)

Alice Howe Trophy (Documentary)

Raasay Trophy (No special category)

Jubilee Shield (Film under five minutes)

 

The club awards are:

The 2017 Top Ten Competition

Kath Jones Cup

Vic Treen Cup

Mike Turner Plate

Andy Watson Water Basin

 

 

Last year’s big winner was (blushes) your’s truly as “MEET DEXTER” earned five awards, closely followed by Jane Oliver with four wins. Who will be the triumphant winner(s) this year?

 

Join us this Tuesday March 6th at the Barnard Room, St Augustine’s Church for the 2018 OVFM Oscars to find out!

OVFM CLUB MEETING – TUESDAY JANUARY 9th

 

 

Happy New Year everyone!

As is the tradition here at OVFM we kick off the year by bring some business from the previous year to close – vis-a-vis the Top Ten competition! You can read the results of the individual rounds HERE whilst the final ten (or in this case eleven) films that garnered the most votes thus are up for a second evaluation, with the winner being announced at the Oscars in march, are as follows:

 

1. Hampden P1344 – Jim Morten-Robertson    54.62
2. Orpington In The 1840s  – David Laker   54.38
3. It’s A Pug’s Life – Lee Relph  53.23
4. Please – John Greengrass    52.84
5. No Thanks Not Me – Colin Jones    52.76
6. The Juggler – Reg Lancaster    52.42
7. But Is It Art? – Hugh Darrington   49.15
8. 1940’s Showreel – Barbara Darby   48.32
9. Come Fly With Me – Trevor Rogers    47.38
10. Glorious Devon  – Jane Oliver   47.23
=   New Year 2017 In London – Wally McKenna   47.23

 

Everyone on this list should have received an e-mail from competitions officer Hugh Darrington threatening violent repercussions for anyone who fails to bring their film with them to this meeting or arrange to have it brought via proxy if you can’t make it yourself, which will also result in immediate disqualification from the competition.

Also, members are reminded that this meeting is the FINAL DEADLINE for submitting their entries to the Annual Competition to Hugh. The entry forms can be downloaded HERE (this is a Members’ Only page so be sure you are logged in).

If you are entering a film, be advised that the judges have requested DVD only,  but we are requesting that those of you who are happy to have your films uploaded for display in the new special section on this site via the club’s Vimeo account to please bring your film on a USB stick or alternatively,  you can upload them to the designated folder on our FILEZILLA server. (Again, these are Members’ Only pages).

And in keeping with this, anyone who took a USB stick from Andy a few months back to supply a brief sample of your work in your preferred file format, please be sure to bring it with you to this meeting, so Andy and John can get to work on determining the most popular and accessible formats.

Good luck to everyone who has a film in the final!

OVFM and VIMEO

 

WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?

As you should all by now be aware, the club has a Vimeo Plus account which will be used to store many of our available films online in one handy place. A selection of these films will be shared on the club website – permissions pending – by way of giving visitors a small sample of our output as a club, in the hope it inspires them to join us.

In addition to this and the video tutorials, it has been proposed that we upload our competition films to the Vimeo account to make them accessible for club members to view, since many miss out seeing them at the regular meetings through absence for a variety of reasons. The first beneficiary of this is the Annual Competition, which traditionally has featured films some club members have chosen not to screen for the rest of us, yet have submitted them for judging by an external panel.

Again this will be at the approval of the film maker themselves but it would be nice to have as complete a representation of the entries as possible. Perhaps later on we can extend this to the Top Ten or the Triple Competition Evening (Kath Jones, Mike Turner, Vic Treen) but let’s see how this goes first.

 

THE BASICS

Being a new endeavour for the club it would appear that some of you have concerns about how this works and there is even some confusion over the privacy options available in safeguarding our work. It is really quite straightforward and the best thing for all of you is that you don’t have to do anything except keep making films and allowing us to share them – David Laker and myself will take care of the rest.

First and foremost, we won’t upload any film to Vimeo without the full consent from the film maker. Secondly, the films will initially only be available to view on the OVFM website in the Members Only section. By selecting this option in the top Menu bar you will see two new additions to the sub-menu to reflect this:

 

So far we have just two Tutorial videos but we hope to expand on this in due course. In fact, watching THE FIRST ONE about Filezilla is encouraged as this file sharing system will play an integral part in transporting the videos we upload to the Vimeo account (which is another issue for another time).

On the Annual Competition Films 2017 page we hope to host as many of the films entered into this year’s competition as possible, as they make up the bulk of the winners at our annual Oscars night in March. Since we don’t get the chance to see all or many of the films on this particular evening, having them available to view online and at one’s own leisure is a positive boon.

 

HOW TO VIEW A VIDEO

There is really no magic trick involved, you simply scroll down the page until you find a film that takes your interest then click the PLAY icon in the video player window!

And to expand the picture to make it full screen, click the FULL SCREEN icon!

You can also select the video quality depending on your bandwith and broadband speeds by clicking the QUALITY icon or just leave it on “Auto” if you’re not sure or your speeds aren’t up to much.

 

PRIVACY

As already explained all videos will be embedded onto the club website on pages that are in the Members Only section thus require club members to be logged into the website via the unique passwords they have been given, either by Chris Coulson when he started the site in 2011 or by me in recent years.

In other words, you DO NOT need to do anything new or different to view these videos, just ensure you are logged into the site as normal, just as if you were accessing the address directory or the Viewfinder archive. It’s that simple.

 

VIMEO PASSWORD PROTECTION

However, there might be an occasion when somebody outside of the club (due to copyright permissions on certain amterial, etc) wants to limit the viewing of the video to just us in OVFM, or maybe a club member wants to enter their video for an external competition like BIAFF, SERIAC, etc. or wants to share it with family and trusted friends but doesn’t want every Tom, Dick and Harry seeing their work, only these select few people. We can help with this.

On Vimeo, David and I have the ability to assign an additional password exclusively to a specific video in order to keep it hidden from unwanted eyes. Once the link to the video has been shared or embedded on another site (see below), only people with the password can view the film.

A film that is password protected will have the following display in the video player window:

 

To view the film, one will have to enter the password supplied by David or myself on request in the white space provided on the player screen. No password, no video – it’s that simple – but it is very unlikely that you’ll encounter this on our site unless requested by the film maker.

 

EMBEDDING RESTRICTIONS

If you don’t want your film to be embedded (i.e – linked directly to or publicly featured on) another site we can restrict the permissions for this by nominating only the OVFM website for this function to be enabled for. A film which we have applied this limitation to will display the following message to anyone trying to view it:

You’ll notice that the message in the player window directs the viewer to watch the clip on Vimeo. Because of the privacy restrictions we have on our videos this part of the message won’t appear on video on this site and potential viewers will NOT have the option seek the video out on Vimeo.

But, if you are happy to share you video on another site (like the IAC/BIAFF site), please let David or myself know and we can alter this permission to accommodate that, whilst keeping the other privacy settings like password protection intact. In addition to these measure, sharing and download permissions have also been restricted on Vimeo so your videos are completely safe from being shared without our say so.

Just to reiterate, this will likely be a rare occurrence where club members will require the second password to view a film, but hopefully by this time in the calendar year, most of the films will already be familiar to you so you won’t need to see them again.

Once competition season is over, we can go back to limiting the access to the films exclusively to the OVFM website, unless expressly requested by the film maker to keep the passwords in place or if they wish to share them externally again.

Remember, this WILL NOT affect regular access to films shared on the OVFM site.

 

I hope that has cleared up any confusion about this new venture of ours and that you will all now feel more confident and willing in supporting us in this and making it work to the club’s benefit.

Thanks for reading!