AV News 184 - May 2011
Could it have something to do with the fact that an AV sound track has to be
produced from nothing whereas the video producer normally has the 'natural
sound' as a starting point?
If I have to have any reservations, it would concern the effectiveness of
producing a conventional drama using an AV technique. I guess that I would say
that, bearing in mind my background. However, in my opinion, you lose one of
the main elements i.e. the acting. I fully admit that careful script writing may
mean that just hearing the voice is enough. After all, that is what radio drama is.
The only difference is that with radio we are given the information via the actor’s
lines and left to invent our own images. In AV we are giving the audience the
images. Having said all of the above, during the weekend I saw some superb
drama but a couple of times, I was left thinking why AV. Video would not only
have been a lot easier but the end result would have been more convincing. Why
use loads of key frames when a video camera does it all for you?
My future – will I continue with AV? Definitely, yes. I think that there is more
variation between competition AVs and those made to show to clubs etc. The
Geoffrey Round AV competition was a superb weekend, the only down point was
the long drive back home.
BIAFF 2011
Ron Davies FRPS FIPF EFIAP FACI(M)
In AV News Issue 180, page 22, I wrote an article on the judging, over a
weekend in February, of the British International Amateur Film Festival of 2010.
I had been one of the fifteen judges who were appointed to judge the 250 films
to be viewed in the preliminary rounds. These 15 were split into 3-man panels
and, after each judging session of approximately 6 films, the judges were rotated
so that no 3-man jury was ever the same. The task of these 15 was to flag the
films which, in their opinion, were 5 Star rated or merited any other of the
numerous prizes on offer. (The Star ratings and prizes are outlined in my
previous article.)
The invitation to be one of these 15 judges had come as a complete surprise,
to my knowledge no other AV'er had ever been asked. So you can imagine my
surprise when David Newman, the Competition Manager, asked me to be one of
the three judges who would form the Final Adjudication Panel for the 2011
BIAFF. I accepted the invitation with a mixture of relief, in that I must have done
something right last year and with some sense of pride in that AV'ers were
considered to be suitable judges for this International Film F