“Go, sit upon the lofty hill, And turn your eyes around, Where waving woods and waters wild Do hymn an autumn sound. The summer sun is faint on them— The summer flowers depart— Sit still— as all transform’d to stone, Except your musing heart.”
The words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem Autumn are evocative and lyrical.
In this blog we catch up with the CEMRIAC Autumn festival.
Alan writes ...
We’ve just had the last of the online regional events for 2020 - the CEMRIAC Autumn Festival, hosted again by Simon Sumner on Zoom, with initial introductions being made by the new CEMRIAC Chair – our very own Jackie, and then it was onto the films.
Altogether there were eleven films in the Interclub Competition; Nuneaton entered two; “Relax” (the one about the man getting revenge on an unscrupulous builder) and “Galaxy 3000” (about the two guys on a bench, trying to out-brag each other). The judge was Mike Whyman, a former IAC Chairman – who gave some very constructive comments about each film. As always, there were different opinions about which films should have won, but Mike gave third place to “Relax”, second to “The Anzacs” ( A Lichfield movie about a memorial celebration) and first place to “The Making of the Engineers”. This Derby film told of how a professional crew tackled the production of a film about model railways.
Nuneaton entered two films into the Sixty Second Competition; “A Year of Wonders” (my animation about Isaac Newton’s achievements during his own year of lockdown) and “Don’t Panic”, (my dig at lockdown hoarders). With an audience vote, they came joint second, after “Time for Tea”, (Jill Lampert’s film extolling the virtues of ‘the cup that cheers’). Watch it on YouTube at here Simon tried accessing the films directly from his computer but, as with similar previous attempts, the results were rather poor, with very jerky movement and some sound problems. After just one film he reverted to providing access codes (URLs) for us to watch the films on YouTube. This is the method that we have been using at NM, and it seems to be the only way of getting consistently good quality. A final point; what is the etiquette for leaving Zoom meetings? It seems that no one wants to be the first to sign off, making it a bit like lovelorn teenagers on the phone - ‘You hang up first’ – ‘no you hang up first’ – ‘no, you!’ Departures can take several minutes
Here are the judge, Mike Whyman’s comments on two Nuneaton films in the 2020 CEMRIAC Autumn Festival,
1 . ‘GALAXY 3000’ It’s good to see a film that isn’t over ambitious and, therefore, manages to achieve what it sets out to do. The script is well-written and the actors deliver the words convincingly. The list of features of the watch might, arguably, have been a little more fluent but one soon forgets the hesitancy when the punch-line is reached. I particularly liked the freeze frame on the final shot, catching that open-mouthed incredulity of the first man. Alan and Gordon are clearly the stars of this a nice example of what I would call black humour, probably a phrase that one will have to avoid in future. (Note from Gerry...looking at this second photo, why have their legs been chopped off but there’s a load of space above their heads?)
2. ‘RELAX’... The slightly implausible story is told with such great confidence that one suspends disbelief very quickly. The acting style admirably suits the storyline and the punch line makes a nice finish. I could have done without the final shot and ending the film on “Would you like a brew?” but that is a personal view. The best joke is “Can I have it on the house?” and it would have been nice to see a reaction shot – presumably baffled - from the salesman just to underline the comedy a little. I’m usually a fan of low-key humour but, in this case, I think something was lost by playing it down just a little too much. I have another question. There are only two people in the film so why are there four names at both the beginning and at the end? Presumably they are technicians, perhaps camera operator, editor, whatever. Would it not have been better to give their functions rather than just their names?