AV News 179 - February 2010
RPS Northern AV Group - Snods Edge
P e te r A p p leto n
'Twas the weekend before Halloween - and the gremlins were holding a dress
rehearsal! Or so it seemed to those who attended the autumn meeting of the
RPS Northern AV Group on the 24th October.
None of the regulars could
remember a meeting so plagued by
technical hiccups. Despite the
problems, all those present enjoyed
an excellent day.
The morning session was, as usual,
given over to the showing of attendees'
sequences. And here I encounter my
own problem. Ian Jolly, the area
organiser, asked me to provide this
write up of the day: but he also asked me to comment on the sequences.
Bad move, Ian! That meant that I didn't have time to make adequate notes
about each sequence for this report and, at the same time, concentrate on
remembering what I wanted to say about each sequence.
Looking back, I seem to have decided that feedback to the attendees was
more important than the post-event report for AV News and so concentrated
on my comments, to the detriment of this report. (Apologies to Jill and John!)
The bulk of the day was given over to Keith Suddaby FRPS etc." (that's his
own description of his entitlement to alphabet soup!). Keith presented on the
theme of "All the hats we have to wear". He described, in a most entertaining
and thought provoking manner, how the AV worker has to be a combination of:
Producer; Director; Script-writer; Cameraman; Soundman and Editor:
For each role, he drew upon his own
experiences and provided examples
of the various aspects that needed
consideration. The best I can do is
to pick out just one or two points that
seemed salient to me.
The Producer needs to work at
making it personal - it must be our
idea, embody our uniqueness. The
Scriptwriter needs to work in
spoken English and not written
Three Wise Men Hunt Gremlins!
Keith Suddaby, Ken Biggs & Jim McCormick English and must rewrite many
times to arrive at the best end
product. The Director controls the flow of ideas and images, ensuring that the
sequence is well planned and makes use of added overtones. The Cameraman
was advised to "shoot plenty but use few" and was given six specific tips:- Don't
include unnecessary sky; Avoid harsh sunlight; Get in close; Watch the
backgrounds; Move people for a better composition; Use even lighting (early
morning, late in the day, mist, fog, overcast):
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