AV News 184 - May 2011
In other words, my early AV activity was a little short lived. Now that I am
semi-retired with a little more time available, chapter two started about 2 years
ago. Before I go on to explain chapter two, I will briefly outline my career. The
first part of it was spent as an employed VT editor and television cameraman.
Then in 1990 I left fulltime employment to do similar work on the outside. It was
great getting paid for what I enjoyed doing, let alone that some of my stories
were seen by an audience of 260 million people. I moved into programme
making in 2002 which lasted until about 2005. Almost all my work was 'factual'
so for fun I took up making amateur drama movies about 10 years ago. The first
few were learning curves but then about 8 years ago I discovered how things
worked and what did well in film festivals and picked up a fair number of
awards. It was also in around 2005 that I returned to still photography.
It took about another 5 years for me to try out Audio Visual. I originally bought
a copy of Proshow Gold version 3. No real reason, but they had a stand at the
'Focus on Imaging' exhibition and at that time, I knew little about rival software
and I cannot comment on how it compares to other packages but it does seem
to work. Shortly afterwards I upgraded to Proshow Producer version 4.
Although I feel some of its processes are a bit awkward, I generally like the way
it works. I guess that I have just about mastered it but still lose the odd control.
My first AV was more of a learning exercise - finding out how things work.
Luckily, I remembered how most of the things worked when making my second
AV which was on the annual Tough Guy Race in Wolverhampton. I first visited
the event when I was almost the only TV camera and the entry was about 500.
In 2010 the entry was over 6,000 and there was a collection of go and no go
areas. At the time I visited the event, I had no real intention of making it into an
AV. Would some pre-planning have improved the AV production? I feel it would
have done. If I were making a TV story, I would need a start, middle and end. I
feel that unless you are making an 'impression' type production, the same goes
for AV. I spent too much time in 'good' places but the shots were repetitious.
They were great for my print lecture and entering in Camera Club, Regional and
National print and PI competitions. So I think my first learning point was the
need for some research and ideally working out a basic structure before you
turn up to the event.
As a regular attendee of the IAC British Amateur Film Festival, last year I
went to the Geoffrey Round AV presentation on the Friday evening. To say the
least, I was very impressed. So when the competition came up this year, we
ticked it as possible for a visit. Being based in Greater London the only con was
the distance. Eventually we decided to make our way to Capel Curig. We made
good time and found the venue without any problems. I must admit that I was
expecting an audience of maybe 100 plus. Everyone was very friendly so we
sat down to enjoy the 81 presentations. I had attended local AV meetings but
this was the first International. So my first impressions – I don’t know really. I
feel that a successful AV presentation is a lot more than a sound track to a
series of images. I have yet to discover the 'extra' ingredient needed to elevate
a standard production to a winning one. Many of the disciplines are similar to
those needed to make video productions. However I feel a lot more imagination
and technical expertise goes into the preparation of the sound track.
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