AV News 183 - February 2011
Flanders Image Festival
Howard Bagshaw ARPS DPAGB
We have often taken our caravan across the channel on holiday, but we had
never been to a 'foreign' AV festival, this was to be our first. Maurice Dorikens
had seen my sequence 'Migrant Mother' at the Geoffrey Round competition in
Capel Curig and asked if I would enter it for the Flanders Image Festival. What
an honour for a newcomer!
This was also the excuse we needed to be brave and see what an AV
competition was like 'over there' and of course to see many AV sequences which
we would not see in the UK. So Friday saw us crossing to Dunkirk and travelling
the short distance inland to Diksmuide (apparently pronounced Dix murder),
where we were staying. Wandering round the charming square, looking for a
meal we bumped into other Brits, well into their second or third local beer and
were invited to join them. At breakfast the next morning in our hotel, the Canon
polo-shirts revealed other visitors to the event including one of the speakers and
the Canon projection team.
The venue for the Festival in
Kortemark, just down the road, was
stunning. The auditorium was a 200
seater theatre with a 12 metre wide
back projection screen and
speakers that went so low that they
attracted hump backed whales from
across the Atlantic. In fact, for some
sequences the bass was a bit too
dominant. However, what a
difference the environment made,
none of the 'village hall' atmosphere
which we see so commonly, this
was professional theatre, impeccably organised and hosted by Prof Maurice
Dorikens and his team.
Saturday morning, the 9th October and around 150 people gathered for the
Festival opening and to see a lecture by Steffen Richter on 'New developments
in m.objects and HR panorama projection techniques'. Steffen is German, but in
recognition of the international audience, presented in English and what a
presentation! He used the
massive screen to good
effect and demonstrated the
product with aplomb.
I'm sure that many would
have gone away wanting to
buy the product, I did until I
found out the price. But the
capabilities are so exciting,
don't tell Carole, but perhaps
I will have to raid the piggy
bank.
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