AV News 186 - November 2011
S L IC A n n u a l A V m e e tin g
Sheila Goodyear
For the last few year's SLIC has included an annual AV meeting on its
programme. This year was no exception in that respect but was different in that
we had some visitors who were also taking part. Over the last 6 months we
have introduced a regular bi-monthly (mid-month), extra AV meeting into our
programme and so members of that group (who don't have to be SLIC
members) were also invited along.
We don't have a competition, rather we invite a guest from the AV 'world' to
join us, offering comment and advice on how we might improve our sequences.
Our guest in September was John Smith (of Rochdale & District CC, Wilmslow
Guild AV, the L&CPU Executive and Joint Editor of 'AV News'). This wasn't
John's first visit to SLIC and, as in the past, he was able to offer us valuable and
constructive appraisals of our AVs which led into useful discussions involving
all those present.
The sequences ranged from those in progress to finished sequences that
were just in need of 'another eye' and some judicious 'polishing'.
The variety of subject content was as wide as you'd expect, from historical
themes relying heavily on archive material to those driven by 3D animation and
the inclusion of video clips. We saw sequences with 'humour', public art, social
conditions in Romania, or festivals as their driving force.
Two AVs with a historical theme were 'A Victorian in Egypt' by Sheila
Goodyear and 'The Grey Apple Tree' by Christine Widdall. The first was
entirely based, for both narrative and images, on a 19th century book of the
same name. The sequence opened with several slides, using the 3D animation
feature of PTE, to present the book and open the first pages. It used the same
features to close the sequence. As it's title suggests, the AV shows the pictures
from the book accompanied by narration of the appropriate text with gentle,
Egyptian-sounding background music. 'The Grey Apple Tree' was one of the
longer sequences, being almost 10 minutes in length. This AV, again, made
use of the animation features of PTE with some present-day photographs and
available archive images. The main theme of the AV was the Norman Invasion
of 1066. The sequence opened with slides introducing us to the ancestry and
validity of the claimants to the English throne in 1066. It continued with the
preparations for battle, the battle itself and the aftermath, all of which was
narrated against the backdrop of the Bayeux tapestry with a soundtrack
including sounds of battle and early monastic music.
'Showtime' by Sheila Goodyear is a short sequence driven entirely by the
3D animation of pyramids and cubes, with images of street performers on all
the object-faces. There is no narration and the soundtrack has the 'feel' of the
circus.
The sequence, 'Cats', also by Sheila Goodyear, was another bringing in the
3D features of turning pages and also the inclusion of a video clip. The
sequence was a mix of 'stills' of cats (what else!!) introducing a short video clip
of the antics of some very naughty kittens and finishing off with a final selection
of 'kitten photos'. There is some narrative and the soundtrack is light and bouncy.
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