JULY
Daphne Brown writes:
On Thursday, June 24th, Ian Luetchford gave us a delightful evening
sharing various events throughout his life through power point photos
and films. The atmosphere was relaxed with much interest and good
humour. I particularly enjoyed it because we came to know Ian as a
person rather than having a batch of technical information. Two weeks
later, July 8th, we held our Annual Open Competition evening and Ian
showed an edited edition of one of his films again . It depicted
a re-enactment of the Second World War and as I was an evacuee child it
touched me greatly. It also had an impact on me because I felt I knew
the film maker from the previous meeting, and this added a living
dimension to what I was watching. It is so valuable to get to know the
film makers as individual people, and touch on their lives outside the
video club instead of watching films produced by a name which often
means nothing. Thank you Ian and thank you to all the members at
Potters Bar who are not just film makers but also real people and, what
is even better, friends
JUNE
PBCVS was sad to hear of the death of Club Member Jacques Wajnrych's
wife, Betty, after a long illness. The Club was well represented at the
funeral, and sends its best wishes to Jacques and his family at this
difficult time.
JUNE
PBCVS welcomed visitors from Enfield and Wanstead & Woodford to a
most instructive and entertaining Club Evening on Thursday June 10th,
when the guest speaker was former BIAFF Winner, Philip Beasley. PBCVS
Chairman Edward Catton-Orr writes about the films shown:
"Personally I rate the construction of the films. The development of
the characters and the action within the films is clever, make up and
props being utilised to their full potential.
The early works show a trait that continues throughout Philip's film
making. Psychologically profound and mystifying I wondered just what
the messages tell us about the Philip Beasley character? Certainly a
candidate for analysis, though many of the great film directors are
equally worthy of close scrutiny!
The filming techniques were all encompassed, very well executed and the
later films had all the attributes of professionally made movies.
There is no doubt about the skills that Philip has learnt over his
years in movie making; he is an accomplished director of photography
and cameraman, showing off his ability to create a mood through scene
setting and lighting. All in all a very interesting and extremely
thought provoking evening."
MAY
PBCVS celebrated its 60th year
with its now traditional Dinner at Wyllyotts Manor, followed by the
Film of the Year Awards Presentations across the road in the
usual venue.
Penny Love had done a wonderful job organising the meal, and it was
much enjoyed by the 30 members, partners and guests who attended,
including Councillor John Donne and his wife, and NTIAC Chairman Brenda
Granshaw and husband Eric.
Specifically for the 60th Anniversary, Penny had made a lovely cake, Christine Collins
(who sadly had had a fall and did not attend) had produced a short
commemorative video, and former stalwart Bernard Ashby had sent photos
and an audio tape full of reminiscences from Australia, where he now
lives. Bob Chester brought along scrapbooks of photos of PBCVS events
from the past. Finally, those present drank a toast to the Society, and
wished it another successful 60 years!
(For the Film of the Year results, go to Competition Results > 2009/2010)
MAY
This Year the NTIAC Triangle
Final was hosted by Staines Cine & Video Society at Laleham Village
Hall. The participating Clubs were St. Albans (Grp “A”), The Select
Video Group of Amersham, and Potters Bar Cine & Video Society.
It was a long way for most people to travel, but worth every mile. Staines' presentation of the event was faultless.
However as Referee and
Organiser of the event Ron Jones in the beginning was having serious
doubts as to the outcome of the event. At 2-00pm the start time of the
show, only two of the videos in the P.B.C.V.S. programme had arrived.
But that was not all! We only had at that time two judges waiting for
the show to start. Staines were very co-operative and agreed to delay
the start to allow time for the missing judge and the missing movie to
turn up.
Ron began to look around to
see if he could arrange for a member of the audience to stand in for
the Judge and fortunately, NTIAC Chairman Brenda Granshaw, agreed to
step into the breach. Then at about 2-15pm, both the third judge and
the missing video arrived. Both had been delayed by heavy traffic. So
all was well again, and the Competition got under way being opened by
the Staines Chairman Jeremy Holder. He introduced the Judges to the
audience by revealing their impressive CV’s to the audience. The judges
enjoyed the programme and their comments were kind and constructive, as
they discussed the merits of all that movies that had just been
screened.
It proved to be a very good
and close contest with only six points difference between the first and
the third club at the end of the Contest.
In the Documentary section,
Amersham won this round dropping only one point, with their movie
“Workaid”. Two of the judges said that it was carried by the very
powerful subject that was well filmed and edited. The St. Albans
documentary took second place, with their entry “The Door”. This was
carried along by the beautifully delivered commentary in a broad
colloquial accent that added a lot of charm and enjoyment to what to so
easily have been a boring subject.
In the Open Section again Amersham came out on top, with their entry “SVGA Promo”.
This punchy movie dropped only
two points, just beating the P.B.C.V.S entry “Red Flag Day” by one
point. St. Albans took third place in this round. The Accumulative
score was now P.B.C.V.S. 10 pts. Amersham 15 pts. and St. Albans 11
pts. With this score line any Club scoring maximum points in the final
round could win the competition.
However as it turned out there
was very little to choose between the three Clubs in this section. St.
Albans dropped 2 pts, Amersham dropped 3 pts and P.B.C.V.S. dropped 4
pts.
So Amersham came out as the
winners of the competition, the Final Score being Amersham 21 pts. St.
Albans 18 pts, and P.B.C.V.S. 15 pts.
Amersham ,who had entered the
Competition for the first time this year, won the beautifully
refurbished Triangle Trophy, which was presented to the Amersham
Chairman, Ron Haddock by Brenda Granshaw. Quite an achievement!
APRIL
PBCVS
welcomed members from Staines C&V Society and Ealing F&V
Makers, as well as Judges David Pigott, Jim McDonnell and Peter
Grainger plus Referee Arthur Gatcum to Wyllyotts on Thursday April 15th
for our NTIAC Triangle Semi-Final. The good number of PBCVS members
present enjoyed a very close competition - only one film out of the
nine shown got maximum points from all three judges. Two films, in
fact, were placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd by the three judges!! But the PBCVS
entries (see under February) held up very well, and we were four points
ahead going into the final round. Ealing swept the board here with the
outstanding film of the evening - "Fallen Leaves" - but PBCVS picked up
enough points to maintain the lead by just one point, and now move on
to the Final hosted by Staines in May.
FEBRUARY
February turned out to be another successful month for PBCVS in the regional competitions.
On Sunday February 21st John Parkes led the projection team for the
North Thames Leslie Gillham Trophy and Sidney Manasseh Trophy
Competitions at Northaw Village Hall. We had no entry in the Leslie
Gillham (only for clubs whose "Fiction" video had won the first round
of the Triangle Competition), but President John Astin's "Smoke Without
Fire" (which had won the Open Section in the Triangle first round) duly
took its place in the Sidney Mannasseh Trophy, was decared the winner
by expert judge Tom Hardwick. John has now won this trophy for PBCVS
three years in a row!
A week later, PBCVS were entertained by Walthamstow A.C.C. in their
atmospheric clubroom for the first round of the new 2010 Triangle
Competition. John Astin's "The Town at the End of America" and
Christine Collins' "Red Flag Day" scored very highly from Judges Brenda
& Eric Granshaw and Peter Ketts, and though Stephen Healing's "The
Long Black Veil" did less well, PBCVS managed to scrape through by one
point into the Semi-Final, at Wyllyotts on April 15th.
.
|
