AV News 200 - May 2015
One of the most effective sequences was the one where the story started with
a train journey, again monochrome images being strong and well chosen, but
for me it became less effective on arrival at the actual Camp in the second part.
Another was the ‘Great Adventure’ showing the men leaving for war, good
photography and an excellent choice of voice for the story telling.
Sian - Personally, I usually prefer not to have words with my music. The AV by
Bill Bruce, ‘Ultima Thule’ had brilliant photography and very moving music, and
yet it did not have an award. ‘Was he just in time’ by John Smith was short,
good images and a funny turn at the end was brilliant to see. One that
impressed me, but I felt was a bit too long and could have had less images
towards the end, was ‘Memory of a Journey’ by 3 photographers with the AV
compiled by someone else. I have been to Auschwitz and I found this very
moving, but again it did not get an award. ‘The Great Adventure’ I thought was
brilliant. A very clever way of showing us the portraits of the villagers, the
emotion with the girlfriend, all building up to what was a very sad ending. The
drawback for me was we did not know who returned and who did not. Again this
AV had no award.
Margaret - Some very funny sequences made us laugh the timing was
excellent and the ‘punch line’ or ending brilliant eg. John Smith’s ‘Was he just
in time’, Andrew Gagg's ‘Hiawatha’, ‘A Chat’ by Lilian Webb, Eric Jukes ‘In a
Quiet Churchyard’ and several others with a ‘twist in the Tail’ or maybe it should
be Tale!
The entries which I remember clearly are those made with superb
photographs, I loved the Artic sequences especially the ones with the Polar
Bears, the Underwater pictures, the Swiss Alps, the close up/macro
photography, Tony Myres pictures of Fire in ‘Inferno’ by Colin Balls and the
pictures in ‘Rural Asia’ along with other images which captured the theme and
were good records of the places or subjects portrayed.
An important part of AV is of course the commentary and/or the sounds or
music chosen to suit the pictures, which can enhance the images, bring them
to life, or tell us the photographers intention in taking them and this aspect
particularly with the introduction of Video needs skill and imagination. Of the
sequences which incorporated Video some enhanced it and it added another
aspect but in many I found it distracting being difficult to view Video and stills at
the same time. It used to be said that adding sound was a way of covering up
poor photography and although this is rarely true today I do feel that it's the
photography which is of paramount important and if not up to the standard we
expect will spoil a sequence which has excellent Audio and is brilliantly put
together. The opposite, where the photography is brilliant but the sound and
production is not can also spoil the finished result.
For me it is however the pho tography which is the most important part of AV
and I personally would award more marks for this aspect than for Production or
Sound e.g. 40% for photography and 30% each for Sound and Production. But
it seems this is not the case in competitions such as this one and when a
sequence receives an award when the majority or even virtually all of the
photography is by someone else who only gets a ‘credit’ at the end for allowing
use of their images I feel AV is losing its way and for me its appeal.
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