AV News 182 - November 2010
A New Season
Joan Horne ARPS
I've always liked autumn, to me, a time of new beginnings. On Friday 10th
September, 30+ members and visitors congregated at the Wilmslow Guild AV
Group for the first meeting of the new season.
After a welcome by Howard Gregory, who thanked Jack Heathcote for
organising a very successful summer outing and the distribution of awards that
members had gathered during the summer, the main event began. Suzanne
Walker led the discussion following the viewing of each of six members'
sequences. This works particularly well at Wilmslow as each author asks for
specific areas of help. These included:
How do I get out of this one?
I need to lose 1.5 minutes - from where?
I need help improving the sound
They were all rewarded with some constructive comments in a relaxed friendly
atmosphere. Points made included:
Close ups with detail help to break up too many general scenes.
The use of dissolves, soft wipes and change in music need to be done
subtlety so that the audience are unaware of them.
Ensure that there is sufficient separation of voice and music.
Finally, we were reminded that the theme for the Christmas competition is 'The
visitor'. Many thanks to all who contributed, Howard, Suzanne and Harry
Bosworth, the projectionist.
So, it was an inspiring start to the new season.
September 24th, we certainly started on a high tonight! With the International
just five days ago we congratulated no less than three members who gained
top awards.
Howard Bagshaw ARPS, who won the RPS Gold Medal led the first half of
the evening by analysing his winning sequence, 'Migrant Mother'. He explained
how he researched the various facets on the web and brought them together
using Photoshop and PTE techniques such as dynamic masks and 3D
transforms. By using iTunes he selected single tracks to buy. When so much
care is taken at the planning stage, it is no wonder that this is a winning
sequence.
Jill K. Bunting CPAGB led the second half of the evening by explaining how
she prepared her sequence, 'A Christmas Carol'. Jill's approach is quite
different to Howard's although she also uses the web in her research. Her
chosen carol was 'The Holly and the Ivy'. Rather than having a plan at the start,
Jill keeps all her options open by selecting useful information as she
progresses. She b ե