AV News 201 - August 2015
The commentaries , when used , were generally good . They were well written with enough but not too much information . I did note one commentary did vary from the 1st person to the 3rd person occasionally . Personally , unless done extremely well , I feel a purely objective commentary normally works better . However , the standard of delivery varied considerably . Although it is a lot quicker just to record one ' s own voice , would it not be better to ask a professional actor . Often actors will be only too pleased to have their voice on a presentation . Run a quick advert on www . Mandy . com and you may be surprised at the response .
To make a documentary AV without commentary can be more difficult as you need to tell a story just with visuals . Many used captions . Generally , I felt these were overused . If you have to do too much reading , you can miss the actual image .
I come from a Television / Film background . I feel that certain of the AV productions would be more successful made as films . I guess it is something to do with movement . With almost all still cameras able to record video , it might be worth choosing this option occasionally . One presentation which I feel was crying out to be a video was ' The Watercress Line ' about the steam railway line of the same name . Overall there seemed to very little video included in entries . As this was an award for photographic merit , the judging panel often commented on the quality of the photography . On some occasions , they were not entirely complimentary . For instance , I loved ' Jigsaw Mountain ' but the panel were not so happy with the photography . Yes I guess it was a little weak but did the overall production work ?
10 CPAGB and 4 DPAGB audio visuals were entered . The overall pass rate in both CPAGB and DPAGB was 50 %. From my viewpoint , this was about right . All in all , I think the PAGB have got it right when assessing AVs . With some seamless projection from Ian Bateman , it was a great day out , finishing at 5pm . A similar event has already been announced for next year . I hear that there are already a number of entries .
Alan Colegrave FACI Harrow Camera Club / Amersham Photographic Society
Well we might as well blow our own trumpet !!
Leo Rich in his ‘ Awards for Photographic Merit ’ report to the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain AGM included the following :
‘ The Awards team , building on the work by Standards Officer Tony Riley , have worked hard to be able to offer another AV Adjudication more truly reflecting that our Awards are for Photographic Merit . When we finally launched , the response was extremely poor and it was only when our friends Jill K . Bunting and John Smith , Joint Editors of the RPS AV News Magazine , kindly included an article , that spaces filled in three days with a comforting waiting list from those who were not quite quick enough . ’
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