AV News 191 - February 2013
After a short break Chris Bate showed us ‘Bremex’. This is a review of 50
years of a mountaineering and expedition training group, Bremex, of which I
had known nothing and now know a lot more. It had been put together from
scanned archive transparencies and newer digital material. We saw only a
short part of what will eventually be a much longer pictorial history of the
organisation. It will become a valuable record of a half century of
achievement. Another example of the value of AV.
We then saw Marjorie Furmston's ‘Derwentwater’. Marjorie is an
accomplished AV worker and from the vantage point of a motorhome on the
shores of the lake in February we watched an atmospheric sequence of a
winter's day from dawn to dusk. Without words, just music and on-screen
text, it conveyed Marjorie's emotions of that particular day. It communicated
well with the audience and I learnt a lot from just watching it.
‘The Commandos’ entertained us next, from Tony, the other half of that
formidable photographic team, the Furmstons. The Commandos monument
in Spean Bridge must be one of the most photographed locations in
Scotland. Everyone knows it, but Tony's sequence is different, constructed
from a flowing montage of close-up shots of the faces of the three
commandos. ‘Straight’ shots merged into ones to which various artistic
effects had been applied, and back again, without commentary, just music.
We experienced, through watching the AV, Tony's emotions evoked by the
monument and the sacrifices made by the commandos.
The final attendee sequence was from Adrian White. ‘Mood Indigo’ told
us something of the life and music of Duke Ellington. It is a work of love from
a jazz enthusiast who so effectively engaged his audience in a subject dear
to his heart. A fitting end to a varied, entertaining and thought provoking
morning.
The afternoon session was led by Eddie Spence FRPS DPAGB AV-AFIAP, a
regular of the group. I looked forward to the opportunity of getting to know his
work. Eddie not only showed some of his sequences but also opened them
up in PTE to explain how they had been made. Most of Eddie's sequences
are in 4:3 ratio but Eddie had specially re-worked one in 16:9 ratio and
showed us both versions (zooming each to fill the screen). Comments were
that landscape content did seem to benefit from the wider aspect ratio. We
also learned how PNGs could be used to produce on-screen text and titles
and how to make them fade and extend over more than one slide.
The sequence on the Scottish coastal village of Plockton afforded a good
example of Eddie's use of video clips in PTE. A still shot of the beach, with
sand, pebbles, sea and seaweed magically and seamlessly transformed
itself into the same shot but now with flowing ripples from the incoming tide.
Jelly fish, previously stranded motionless on the beach, rocked and swayed
gently with the waves. Yet these were not part of the video clip but were
separate PNG images of jellyfish from elsewhere on the beach, cleverly
animated using PTE, then added to highlight the illusion of motion. A
wonderful example of Eddie's skill and imagination.
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