AV News 200 - May 2015
W ilm s lo w W e e ke n d
Brian Barker
What do Apple, SS Great Britain, Titanic & the Wilmslow Guild Audio Visual
Group have in common?
The answer is my 5 year old grandson, Sebastian,
and my first audio visual sequence produced on
my iPad! His school had recently introduced him to
the story of the Titanic and this has really caught
his imagination. He knows who the captain was,
the size of the iceberg and who starred in the latest
movie! I recently spent a weekend in Bristol with
my relatives and we visited the SS Great Britain,
which, incidentally, is well worth a visit, snapping
everything I saw on my iPhone.
The ship was, of course, the first to have been built of iron and, therefore, the
forerunner of the Titanic. That evening the photos all appeared miraculously
on my iPad and I was then able to edit them in Photoshop for iPad. That is
about as far as I would normally go in terms of doing anything with my photos
but not this time. A few weeks before I had attended the Wilmslow Guild
Audio Visual Group for the first time and this had inspired me to think
differently.
Firstly, I needed some assembly software. Good news as this was already
in my iPad-iMovie. Very basic by Wilmslow Guild Audio Visual standards but
it would provide me with all the core ingredients of an audio visual sequence.
Transitions, titles, background music and the very new ingredient to me, a
voice over. An hour or so later I had a script, thanks to Google, and after a
couple of rehearsals I had recorded the voiceover. Done. I had a five minute
sequence. All I needed was an audience. A couple of days later Seb,
attracted by the notion of seeing photos of the first iron ship, sat still and
watched the sequence without me having to hold him down! He enjoyed it!
OK he only gave me five out of ten but, hey, that's a great result.
Filled with new confidence, enthusiasm and determination to improve, I
signed up for Wilmslow Guild Audio Visual Group Fiesta night and the
following day for an all day workshop entitled 'Story telling with a camera'.
Just what I was trying to do with my iPad sequence!
The Fiesta evening showcased work done by a number of the club
members. This was very inspirational, giving me an indication of the many
skills that are needed to produce a high quality sequence. The workshop,
which was led expertly by Suzanne and Howard Gregory, has given me a
wonderful foundation from which to build regarding equipment, software,
basic editing, script writing and, of course, a network of people who I can tap
into with AV issues
I have many ideas for projects and once I have acquired the right software
and audio equipment I look forward to developing my new skills. In the
meantime, I am tempted to redo my SS Great Britain sequence to see if I can
get a higher score from Seb!
Page 31