Patrick writes ...
I have volunteered to take over from Charlie Caseley, who compiled the Southern region IAC club news page in the IAC Film and Videomaker magazine. He has now retired at eighty-eight.
You may ask: who is Charlie Caseley? What is the Southern IAC? Well, it can be found in the back pages of the IAC Magazine. It contains reports of club news in the South of England. By only by having had the odd correspondence with Charlie, I discovered that we in the Midlands are in the South. Then he happily put my occasional report into his column. I got in touch with the editor Mike Wyman and on the basis that no-one else had rushed forward, I thought I could give it go.
Mike suggested that the reports could be more Midlands based, as I had mentioned, I have little or no contacts in the South.
OK lets give it a go! My first bit of action was to circulate all the clubs and societies listed in the CEMRIAC region. Then sit back and wait. I got an immediate response from Gerald Mee of Stoke with his news and by return a report and a photo from Pat Adcock from WAVE. A bounce back reporting that an email address of one club was no longer valid. A reply from the former secretary of Chesterfield Moviemakers told that they had disbanded six months ago! Then no further responses. Mike Wyman then told me that the Northern correspondent, Jameela Bordmann had also given up, over some contention with the IAC.
I could have two pages to play with if I wish. That’s 1000 words per page, minus photos as padding. Some hopes! Sadly with no response from the CEMRIAC region. ‘Don’t panic, Mr Mainwaring’ came to mind. So I sent a couple of emails to southern secretaries. I was surprised when I received replies by return. One from Pip Critten and some information about a club in the Torbay area. This, included an invitation to introduce myself as the new correspondent in the SoCo on-line news letter. Encouraging! Again, I received some positive replies. I only wish that the CEMRIAC had been more responsive!
To include some lines about Nuneaton, I have to hark back to the Millennium Competition in February. At least with Sutton, they have online weekly ZOOM meetings and lock down films which have been made to report on. I wanted to maintain some balance and not have Sutton hogging the scene. I understand now that Pat Adcock has now resigned! Another contact lost. I am beginning to wonder what I have taken on.
While I am prepared to compile the page, information is needed to work with. Where does SoCo get its enthusiasm from? Looking at the front cover of the June F&VM mag, it shows a forlorn picture of a deserted town and a banner ‘BIAFF IN LOCKDOWN’. Would this sell on a news stand? I wonder if this is the future? returning to another Dad’s Army catch phrase ‘We are doomed doomed?’ Unless there is a more positive attitude being taken, I feel we are in the early stages of a dying swan.
Perhaps too much is being dwelt upon as to what has happened, rather than a more positive signal for the future. We have an idea that everything, society, the clubs and groups will return to normal, but what is normal? The lockdown has made some become more creative, question many things and become more inventive. We have had new ways of working in communication and social media. Yet I fear that our little corner of wider film world, will settle back into its former malaise. I have agreed to do the column, but I need to be optimistic about its future. However, the future is now, and normal is now. With online meetings now creating a storm. There is the beginning of a consensus that this is the future.