AV News 184 - May 2011
EMAVG Competition
Joan Horne ARPS DPAGB
Sunday 16th January, yes a Sunday. It is a long time since we met for the annual
competition on this day. Travelling from South Yorkshire was a breeze compared
to our usual Tuesday evening trips on the M1 - and car parking was free! Peter
Brown introduced the day and Ian Bateman, the judge. Most of us know Ian and
were looking forward to hearing his comments. As Peter said, he is one of the top
judges which are reflected in his constructive comments and encouraging
remarks.
There were 21entries, divided into Avante Garde and Documentary. These
were further divided into beginners and restricted categories. There was plenty
of variety from travelogues to church interiors and humorous. A rather rare
comment from Ian was that a few could have been longer! No chance to get
bored today.
See http://www.emavg.org.uk for full results and details about the Group.
MidPhot AV Competition 2011
Richard Brown FRPS APAGB
An excellent crowd of entrants and
observers gathered at Braunstone Civic
Centre on the outskirts of Leicester on
Saturday 29th January for the MidPhot AV
Competition.
Husband and wife team Keith and Kate
Brown had a good entry of twenty five
sequences to review, several gathered in,
thanks to the usual last-minute arm
twisting by organiser Peter Brown.
It was great to see a fair number of new
names on the list, vying along with a few
older hands for the Intermediate Award. This eventually went to Gordon Nicklin
for 'Brothers in Arms', an interpretation of the Dire Straits song, which had some
excellent montage shots of re-enactment soliders.
Three sequences were commended: 'Cornish Love' by Martin Fry, an
illustration of a John Betjemen poem with some stunning seascapes. Howard
Bagshaw's 'Staethford', an historical portrait of a town, which had a mixture of
present day shots and specially created drawings. And lastly, 'Sad, Sad Day' by
Dave Cooke from my own club Fentham PS. Dave firmly subscribes to the notion
of keeping the audience guessing, as neither the title nor the introduction of the
sequence gave any clue as to what it was about!
The judges gave one HC award each. Keith's went to 'Special' by Jeff Mansell
and Howard Bagshaw. This was a promotional sequence for a local special
school, with an impressive soundtrack made up entirely of location recordings of
interviews and musical performances by the students. Kate awarded her HC to
'Gnossienne No. 1' by Malcolm Imhoff. A great example of less being more, this
low-key illustration of the Satie piano piece created a brilliant mood with the
minimum of resources.
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