AV News 184 - May 2011
Peter has won this trophy six times and we know how pleased he was to receive
this award once again. He was present on the Saturday night show after driving
himself from Todmordon to Leeds when he was not feeling too well. He accepted
the trophy graciously and said a few words to the audience.
He went in to hospital a few days later and continued to work on his latest
sequence until his very sad passing.
The words of Your Star were read by Peter's daughter Belinda at the funeral
service.
We will all miss Peter at the Leeds AV Group where he had been a member
for many years and recently became an honorary member. We all mourn his
passing but we will continue to celebrate his life with affection.
Eddie Spence, Leeds AV Group
... and there are undoubtably a great many, many more tributes that we have not,
as yet, received!
......... and now Peter's final article for AV News which he had sent to us and
was scheduled to go into this edition........
The Art of Receiving
Peter Coles FRPS
TS Elliot writes in his poem 'The Four Quartets', 'Human kind cannot bear too
much reality' !
I recall once being sat next to Geoff Holmes, of Leeds AV Group, during an
exceptionally long, long, weary Documentary AV, at a Great Yorkshire AV Day. I
think it was probably about seven or eight Documentaries rolled into one. About
half way through, I made the TS Elliot comment to Geoff and he nearly fell of his
seat in laughter. I'm afraid that we got the giggles and eventually, quite
understandably, were in receipt of a mild reprimand from the Organiser. All the
photographs within the presentation were sharp and well exposed, the
commentary was clearly spoken and the music at the right volume, rarely if ever,
intrusive; so why did the audience lose attention?
Why? Because 'Human kind cannot bear too much reality'!
This year, I have worked on a number of Sequences with other folk. That's one
of the ways I learn. Hopefully, this is reciprocated. One of these co-produced
Sequences used images, mostly taken by two friends in Bedfordshire, one of
whom I used to work with professionally. 'Colour Wash', by Valerie and Chris
Elliott and me, was an entry in the Cirencester International and, more recently,
The Great Northern. My experimental role, in the making of this Sequence, was
to try to ensure that the audience looked at the parts of the screen that we
intended them to do. The main way of attempting to do this was by only
highlighting and/or showing sharply, the parts of the 4 x 3 frame that we wanted
to remain noticed by the brain of each of the audience. You see, it is my
contention that we see what we want to see, rather than absorb all of the contents
of i