News Archive > February, 2007

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, club member Brian Melmore gave a presentation on one way of producing a DVD from .AVI files, including printing of the disc and a sleeve cover. Using his laptop and a video projector, Brian took members step-by-step through the process, showing how to create chapters as well as the DVD menu with a moving background and chapter point buttons. The whole process used a number of software products, which helped stimulate a discussion amongst members as to the merits of the various programs available.

The evening concluded with arrangements being made for the forthcoming visit to the Bradford Media Museum on 1st March 2007 and the club open evening and public show to be held in St. Christopher's Church Hall on 19th March 2007, starting at 7.30pm.

See a selection of Rail-themed clips from Michael Ellis in the Members' Projects section.

On Thursday, 1st March, a group of members will be travelling by minibus to the National Media Museum in Bradford. In the past, the club have donated items to the museum and are looking forward to seeing them on display.

Stay tuned for a full report.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, members welcomed David Brindley, the MD of Swanrose Training, who specialise in teaching movie production skills for the professional industry.

David explained his background in the movie industry and the building up of the business. He went on to demonstrate, with the aid of his laptop and a video projector, his new on-line media training package aimed at the non-professional movie enthusiast. Using an off- line version he showed how the package was constructed, with each topic having a learning section, followed by an assignment and finally an assessment. One of the topics demonstrated was camera skills, which showed the best way to compose a scene and avoid common mistakes. The presentation concluded with a question and answer session covering many aspects of shooting and editing movies.

See stills and video from Dave Simpson's film "Madeira" in the Members' Projects section.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, a minute's silence was observed to remember Gordon Nelson, who had died since the last meeting was held. Gordon was the longest serving member of the club and had been an active member for thirty-seven years.

The evening's speaker was club member Chris Abram, who talked and demonstrated the different ways of interviewing and presenting to camera. He set up a virtual studio with lights, props and microphones. Chris talked to the audience via the camera, and video projector, explaining and demonstrating how to position people and equipment, as well as how to ask the correct questions.

During the second half of the meeting, members were able to put into practice what they had learnt by acting out an interview in front of the audience. Selections of recorded interviews were shown, including the out-takes and build up material to demonstrate how the finished product is achieved.

Due to illness, tomorrow's workshop on DVD production will now be held at the meeting on 26th February. Please see the changes in the Programme of Events.

Morecambe Bay Movie Makers joined the Lancaster Photographic Society for a combined weekly meeting on Wednesday 7th February, 2007. During the first half a member of the society gave a presentation on infrared monochrome photography explaining the technique and showing examples of the resulting photographs. There were also two digital A/V shows featuring the life of local farmer and a holiday in Switzerland. LPS concluded their part of the meeting with a slide selection experiment to choose the best two slides from a group of ten flower images.

During the interval a finger buffet was served by the society. Following the interval, the movie makers showed a selection of DVDs including the Lancaster market fire and rebuild, a train journey in Peru, a holiday in Singapore and a look at the derelict wharf on the shore at Hest Bank which hosted a classical concert.

See details and stills of Geoff Ducker's film "Up the A591 (and back again)" in the Members' Projects section.

Anyone wishing to make a donation to charity in memory of Gordon Nelson can do so from the Save the Children website.

Attention Members: Do you have a photo of yourself in an unusual location with your Club shirt or fleece?

Submit it for inclusion in the Hall of Fame...

Graeme Isherwood has written an article about Animation, which can be found along with some examples of his work in the Reviews & Articles section.

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