Quite a number of you here today would also have been at the CEMRIAC Seminar in Worcester a couple of weeks ago, entertained by knowledgeable speakers, and seeing the brilliant films they make. In the morning session we had Clive Atkins and Richard Brown’s versions about the work of the ‘Enigma’ codebreakers at Bletchley Park during World War 2. Richard had produced an A/V film, while Clive did a standard movie, both telling the same story. After their presentation, Larry Hall of Chesterfield MM, one of the IAC’s most skillful makers of computer generated films, gave everyone an insight into the after effects he used in his film ‘Vincent’. Then we saw his film, ‘Energy Crisis’, set in the far reaches of space - a real masterpiece.
Two points from his talk - 1. Look up “Hit Film Express”, a powerful, free. editing software program he uses, and 2. The media player he was using was ‘GOM’, not Windows Media Player. Both are free to download. First speaker after lunch was Paul Vernon of Solent MM. Paul described the many trials and tribulations he’d encountered during the making of his western, ‘Vermijo’. It had been made in Arizona using American actors, and cost over £15,000 to make. A trailer of the film can be seen on YouTube.
The final speaker of the day was Nuneaton’s Brian Ratcliffe. After our visit to outer space and the deserts of Arizona, Brian brought us back to earth with an attempt to get us to make more use of the manual settings on our cameras…he believes we rely too much on the fully automatic features they possess…why pay for a camera that has all the bells and whistles when you only ever use an automatic setting? He described the techniques he uses to achieve his misty morning shots, breathtaking sunsets and highly colourful and dramatic daytime scenes. He says we could do the same if we make every effort to film during ‘the golden hours’, ie, the period of soft light shortly after sunrise or the hour before sunset during which the sky is redder; in both instances the light is diffused and even. Don’t use ‘automatic’, instead use the alternative ‘A’ word, ‘Aperture’. You choose how wide the lens aperture is set at, and you can even go the whole hog and go fully manual by choosing the speed as well - you won’t harm anything by trying, and you’ll never know what can be achieved if you don’t experiment. Brian has made many films which we always marvel at…but he says, they’re easy to emulate - IF YOU TRY. Wonderful films, clearly illustrated, and well put over.
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