Latest News

Once again, over twenty members packed into the alcove at the Owls' Nest for the penultimate Noggin-n-Natter. For those who haven't made it to one of these meetings, the early members gather round a couple of tables (which gradually grows to five or six tables before a second row starts). The noise is quite loud but the transfer of info and gossip is good for keeping us in touch. The chairman tapped his empty pint glass and thanked everyone for their support. Cheers.

See you all again at the last Noggin-n-Natter on Monday 8th Sept from 8.00pm.

The normal club meetings restart on Monday 29th Sept 2008 at 7.30pm

Google have fixed the problem and all videos ae available again.

A technical glitch at Google Video is currently causing some of the videos on this site to be inaccessible. Google are working on the problem.

Three down and two more "Noggin-n-Natters" to go. This month's gathering at the Owl's Nest was well attended, with over twenty members testing the drinks and crisps and with a large portion of chatter. During the evening, birthday wishes and congratulations were given to Geoff Ducker on his 80th birthday.

See you all again at the next Noggin-n-Natter on Monday, 11th August from 8pm.

Are you in the market for Video Camera Accessories?

I would like to buy a rain cover for my camera from Foton Video Accessories but the minimum order is 50 Euros and the rain cover is 34 Euros. If you are looking for camera accessories we could get together and combine our order to over 50 Euros. Please contact the Hon Sec.

The North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University is pleased to announce 'North Lancashire on Film', as part of its programme to make this fascinating collection available to the public of the North West region. Supported by Northwest Vision and Media, Lancashire County Council and the Friends of the Winter Garden's Trust, the NWFA will hold an evening screening at the historic Winter Gardens Morecambe in aid of its restoration.

The Screening will take place on Thursday 10th of July 2008 at 7.30pm.

The films in the screening will feature life in and around the north Lancashire and Morecambe Bay areas over the past 100 years. This specially selected compilation of fascinating films includes poignant scenes of the Morecambe Volunteers in training on the town's promenade before heading off to war in 1914, as well as other local events at the time such as a Police sports day in Lancaster. The newly opened Midland Hotel stars in a 1930's promotional film made by the LMS railway to bring customers to the town, and forms the backdrop to the Scouts boxcar races of 1951. See the famous bathing pool play host to a beauty contest in 1955, and in its fiftieth year, you can look back at the building and opening of the M6 through the area. In 'Netting the Tide' we travel with the last horse drawn shrimp fisherman as he works the sands off Sunderland Point in 1977.

The Archive's Service Manager Marion Hewitt said "This is a great opportunity for the people of Morecambe and North Lancashire, to take a look back at life in their area in the past century".

Northwest Vision and Media's Alice Morrison said "The North West Film Archive is one of our region's real gems and Northwest Vision and Media is proud to support these events, enabling local people to access a piece of their region's past".

The screening will be presented by the Archive's Collection's Assistant Geoff Senior. For further information, interview, and footage contact Geoff Senior on 0161 247 3097.

Tickets for the screening are £3.50 and can be obtained in advance by calling 01524 409009 by emailing or at the venue on the night. The venue seats 400. Book early to avoid disappointment!

Additional Information

The North West Film Archive has been based at Manchester Metropolitan University since 1977 and is the publicly recognised home for moving images about life in the North West of England.

The North West Film Archive is located at Minshull House 47-49 Chorlton St Manchester M1 3EU. Tel. 0161 247 3097 Fax. 0161 247 3098

Northwest Vision and Media is the film and TV development agency for England's Northwest. It works behind the scenes, supporting, funding and promoting film, TV and digital production in the Northwest. Find out more at visionandmedia.co.uk.

The Winter Gardens Morecambe are located at Marine Road Central, Morecambe Lancashire LA4 4BU.

Still images from several of the titles to be screened can be supplied for use on request, and moving image clips can be made available to broadcasters in advance.

Once again, Beaumont College are having their end of year arts festival, which this year returns to the college on Slyne Road, Lancaster.

There are a number of events taking place during the festival week, from 7th to 11th July 2008. The timetable for each day starts at 9.30am and goes through to 8.30pm. The college would like us to capture the mood of the event, realising each section cannot be filmed in total. If you can spare a few hours, particularly on the first three days it would be appreciated, the college will do the editing. We will be fed and watered while filming.

Please contact the Hon Sec for a programme of the events and so we can co ordinate our resources.

Chris Abram has some items of video and audio equipment available for sale. More information here.

Following the release of Chris Abram's new film, Bittern Country - Our Heritage, the film's Project Page has again been updated with more information, including the post-launch press release.

The second summer "Noggin-n-Natter" meeting went down well, with a good number of members filling our favourite corner of the Owls Nest pub in Bare. This time, there were less knobbly knees on show but the noise level was just the same. It was a pity the Cumbria lads could not be there but they were busy filming the Kendal school choirs, so that was a good excuse, lets hope we see a clip next season. During the evening, photos taken at the 1998 presentation dinner were circulated. What a difference tens years can make to hair colour...

See you all at the next meeting on Monday, 14th July at the Owls Nest from 8.00pm.

The first summer "Noggin-n-Natter" meeting got off to a good start with almost twenty members attending on a warm evening, with the odd pair of shorts exposing even odder nobbly knees. A quarter of the Owls nest was taken over by the chattering of members stopping briefly for the occasional drink.

During the gathering, a certificate was presented to Ron Wood for third place in the open competition, as he was not at the dinner. A thankyou email was read from the Chichester Film and Video Makers for the judging of their annual competition by our team of members, Dave Weatherley, Peter Parker and Chris Abram.

It was also announced that AKM, the copyright free music publishers, were issuing a new, cheaper form of licence, for the use of their music, more suited to the amateur moviemaker. More details are available on their website.

See you all at the next meeting on Monday, 9th June at the Owls Nest from 8.00pm.

To mark the release of Chris Abram's new film, Bittern Country - Our Heritage, the film's Project Page has been updated with more information.

The film will be presented by its director in Arnside on 13th June. For more details, Download The Launch Poster

During the summer break, the club will continue to meet informally on the 2nd Monday of each month at the Owls Nest Pub, Princes Crescent, Bare, Morecambe. The gathering will start at approx 8.00pm and last as long as people keep talking.

The Monday dates are :

• 12th May
• 9th June
• 14th July
• 11th August
• 8th September

We normally restart the winter meetings on the last Monday in September, which is 29th September 2008.

Competition Reminder

For those who will be getting their cameras out this summer, you may wish to consider the club competitions coming up :

Regional and National Competitions

There are also many outside competitions to enter so watch out for more details later as the info is received.

The North v South competition for all IAC clubs has the theme "Be Prepared". Do you have you a movie that we could enter or an idea for a movie? The maximum length is 20 minutes. The closing date is 31st October 2008.

Morecambe Bay Movie Makers rounded off a successful season with their annual Presentation Dinner at the Grove Restaurant in Morecambe, where 34 members and guests attended. Club chairman, Fred Dibden, presented trophies to Chris Abram for winning the Open Competition and Dave Sephton Trophy, Graham Easton for the Cumbria Trophy and Graeme Isherwood for the Warriner Trophy.

Awards were also presented to all the various competition class winners and certificates to those in second and third places.

The evening finished with a free raffle for all the members and their guests.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, the end of season Annual Open Competition was held, with eighteen entries judged by Phil Janvier, the North West Representative of the Institute of Videographers. The overall winner and first in the documentary class was Chris Abram, with a movie of his hometown, Carnforth, and the surrounding countryside. Chris' DVD was called "Bittern Country - My Home".

First place in the Open Class went to Dave Weatherley, for a drama called "Letter From The Front", where a widow reads her late husband's last letter sent from the battlefields of World War 1.

The Holiday Class winner was Graeme Isherwood, with a DVD called "Queenstown", showing part of a holiday in New Zealand, including cruising the lakes on a steamboat.

The award for best soundtrack also went to Graeme Isherwood, for his animation movie entitled "Let There Be Light", which follows the unsuccessful attempts of a character to repair an electric light fitting, only to find that, when he strikes a match, he is standing next to a store of high explosives.

Notice to Members : In order to enable us to get through all 16 entries for next week's Annual Open competition, the evening will start at the earlier time of 7pm.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, the first half was given over to discussing the summer projects and ideas for next year's programme. The second half of the evening was devoted to watching the finished movies from the editing challenge, where members split into three groups to create three different movies from the same random clips.

During the meeting, it was announced that the club's entry in the Interclub competition held in Southport had taken third place. The entry had been made by Peter Parker and was a promotional movie for the St. Michael's Sporting Club, Walmer Bridge, near Preston.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, members reformed into the three editing groups they had left just before Easter. The object of the evening was to complete the editing on laptop computers of 7 unrelated clips, with a running time of 50 minutes, into a movie of no longer than 10 minutes.

At the end of the evening, all three movies were shown. One was complete but the other two required fine-tuning ready for next week. The project proved how the same material can be reworked to give different stories and is only limited by imagination when the technology is equal.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, members enjoyed the second "Showcase Raffle" event of the season. There were numerous contributions of 5-minute movies and clips. Members made the majority but club members' associates made others. There were also a number of favourite clips from feature films. Each contributor to the evening received a free raffle ticket, which was drawn at the end to give prizes to the lucky winners.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, members watched seven unrelated sequences of movies, compiled by club member Peter Parker, lasting a total of fifty minutes. The sequences included aerial shots from a light aircraft, a garden fete, a water polo match and dog training. Members then split into three groups, each with a laptop editor. Each group began to create a story, lasting approx ten minutes, which must include clips from each sequence. To help with producing a story members are allowed to add a commentary, music and sound effects to the pictures. The exercise will continue over the Easter break and be completed at the next meeting.

Mersey 10 Movie Competition

This year, Morecambe Bay Movie Makers had 5 entries in the competition, which was open to all North West filmmakers. All the club's entries were selected to be shown at the public presentation, organised by Preston Movie Makers on 15th March 2008.

Peter Parker took 3rd place and received a Highly Commended certificate for his movie "Are You Special"

The remaining movies were well received by the audience:

• Dave Weatherley for "A Letter From The Front"
• Graham Easton for "One Degree Centigrade" & "Winter's Demise"
• Geoff Ducker for "Up The A591 And Back"

See video and information about two of Graeme Isherwood's recent films in the Members' Projects section.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, members welcomed Lunesdale Camera Club for a joint evening of movies and images. In the first half of the evening, Morecambe presented a selection of DVDs ranging from animation to documentary and travelogues. In the second half, Lunesdale members projected a number of digital photographs taken in the Claughton brick works complex, which will be on exhibition in the Lancaster museum in the near future as part of their Lune Valley project. The second part of their presentation was a slide show following a group of walkers over the Austrian Mountains and glaciers.

During the interval, tea and homemade cakes were served.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, members welcomed Dave Martland the MD of DSM batteries and Terry Evans the owner of JEM distribution.

Dave explained how the modern rechargeable batteries for movie cameras have developed over the years and where the next generation is going to take us with respect to new materials, power capacity and speed of charging. He brought along various samples of batteries, which had been dismantled to show their construction and the control circuits needed to protect the cells. Having worked in the industry for many years he was able to recount visits abroad to obtain materials to allow his company to design and build world-class power cells for the movie industry.

Terry Evans of JEM briefly explained that his company was the major distributor for DSM products and was trading through his Internet company www.technokit.co.uk

A reminder to members for festivals where we are competing :

• Mersey 10
• Preston Movie Makers
• Saturday 15th March 2008 7.30pm
• Tickets £5 incl. refreshments
• Tickets available from Hon Sec (Before 3rd March if possible to help Preston with catering arrangements)

• Burnley Film Festival
• Burnley Camcorder Group
• Saturday 5th April 2008
• Tickets available from Hon Sec. £8.50 before 22nd March, £9.50 after this date
• Starts 2.30pm until approx 9.00pm . Speaker, competition and refreshments

• Inter Club
• Southport cine and video society
• Thursday 10th April 2008. 7.45pm
• Free admission

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, the Cumbria Trophy competition was held. The rules confine members to use only a video camera and VCR to make a movie no longer than 3 minutes 20 seconds, this being the duration of an old Super 8mm cine film cassette.

Taking first place was Graham Easton, with a movie entitled "No Film Show Tonight," using the actual written text of the programme followed by an explanation of what equipment was needed, before running out of time.

Runner-up was Dave Weatherley, with a movie drama called "A Letter From The Front," where a young woman reads a letter from her husband killed in action in the First World War, and recounts her memories of their time together.

In third position was Brian Melmore, with a documentary movie called "Catch A Swarm," which tells the story of how a wild swarm of bees were captured and transferred to a hive for the harvesting of honey.

The three club judges were Stan Sharpe, Frank Wilson and Graeme Isherwood who gave a critique of all the entries before announcing their awards.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, members welcomed Alan Clark from Formatt Filters. Alan gave a résumé of his work in the film and video industry, mainly in the world of lighting effects and camera filters. He explained how his company in Wales made the glass filters and lighting gels for export across the world where ever movies and television programmes are made. His presentation included a DVD, which illustrated the various effects that the filters create on a scene within a movie. He distributed copies of the DVD ,samples of the gels and a catalogue for each member to keep.

Morecambe Bay Movie Makers welcomed members of Lancaster Photographic Society to their weekly meeting for a 50/50 show. The hosts showed the club movie "Victory Weekend" which recorded the 60th anniversary events in Morecambe, during 2005, to commemorate the end of the Second World War.

In the second half, the guests gave three presentations. In the first, a series of slides showed how to produce a fire with a flint and dry straw, accompanied with a real live demonstration. The second was an A/V production of the wild life that can be found in local gardens. The final section was an A/V programme showing four different aspect of life in Vancouver. During the interval tea with jam and cream scones were served.

Morecambe Bay Movie Makers were this week entertained by club member Geoff Ducker, with details of how he shoots and edits High Definition video, using his own equipment along with a 50" plasma screen and Blu-Ray player loaned by Rob Smith of C.K.E. Shipley.

The second half of the evening featured videos by club member Derek Fox. These included subjects of farming in Britain and China, ballooning over the Forest of Bowland, jet boating in New Zealand and an evening with Daniel O'Donnell.

Morecambe Bay Movie Makers held their Warriner Trophy competition on 28th January. The theme this year was "Light" and was judged by club members. The winner was Graeme Isherwood, with an animation entitled "Let There Be Light." Second place was Dave Weatherley, with a potholing video, emphasising the word "light" wherever possible, and third place went to Brian Melmore with a part video, part animation concerning a faulty fluorescent tube light.

See video and information about two of Chris Abram's recent films in the Members' Projects section.

Morecambe Bay Movie Makers held their Annual General Meeting on Monday, where the chairman, Fred Dibden, reported another successful year. He reminded members of the meetings that had been held with guest speakers, the practical nights, competitions and thanked every one for their support. He congratulated members for contributing to the club's new web site and the web master, Mark Easton, for its creation and maintenance. The treasurer, Mike Ellis, reported that the club funds were healthy and that it was in a position to upgrade some of its equipment. This would benefit the existing members and help train new members plus improve the movie shows given to the public. The existing committee were willing to serve for another term and were re-elected

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting members welcomed Phil Janvier, the Northwest Region's Institute of Videographers representative.

Phil is well known as an expert in the audio aspect of movie making and has written numerous articles in the movie making press, in addition to testing and reviewing audio equipment. In the first part of his presentation he explained the most common types of microphones, and demonstrated their effect using both budget and top of the range equipment. The second part of the evening was a demonstration of the Sony computer program "Cinescore" which enables the producer to create a unique musical sound track from a set of pre-recorded instruments and themes to fit the mood of the visuals and the exact length of time required.

Morecambe Bay Movie Makers started the second half of the season with the "Showcase Raffle". Members brought in a five-minute movie or clip from a longer movie to show, in exchange for a free raffle ticket. At the end of the meeting, four lucky members went home with wine or chocolates. The movies shown included travelogues from across the world, documentaries, promotional programmes, personal diaries, animation experiments and stage shows, making it an excellent way to see the variety of subjects covered by the members when making movies.

Following on from the meeting on 3rd December, Graeme Isherwood's notes and information sheets are now available to download in .DOC format from the following links:

Cleaning up speech in Adobe Audition
Useful tools available on the Internet
Useful web addresses

December 10th's Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' meeting was the final event in the first half of the current season and moved to the Grove Restaurant Morecambe for the Christmas meal. Twenty-seven members and guests enjoyed a festive dinner and drinks with a free raffle to round off the evening. The Vice-Chairman, Graeme Isherwood, thanked every one for attending and wished all a Merry Christmas and announced that the club would be acting as judges for the Chichester Film and Video Makers annual competition in the New Year.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, the club's vice chairman, Graeme Isherwood, gave a talk and demonstration on useful software for the movie maker. His presentation described how free programs could be downloaded from the Internet for producing sound tracks, as well as commercial software. He was able to use his own movies to show how various software can be used to compile multi channel recordings and to improve the sound quality, with various filters and by adding special effects. The evening was interactive with members asking questions and getting the answers, as well a demonstration from Graeme.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, the first competition of the season was held, this being the Dave Sephton Trophy. The subject was local interest, with a maximum running time of twelve minutes. Taking first and second place was Chris Abram, the winning entry was a movie tour around his home town and district of Carnforth. The second paced movie was a detailed look at the history and workings of the Heron Corn Mill at Beetham. Third place went to Dave Simpson with a movie describing a journey on the Settle to Carlisle railway and looking in detail at the history of Carlisle City.

During the meeting, a new annual trophy was presented to Fred Dibden, the club chairman, for services to the club during 2007. The trophy donator Chris Abram made the presentation.

Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting moved out again to Regent Park Studio to continue filming the promotional movie on behalf the proprietor, Martin Shenton.

The evening included the filming of a fencing duel, pistol shooting, archery, tumbling acrobatics and trampoline exercises. The shots will now be added to other material to show to the public what is available at the Regent Park Studio for individuals, groups and companies interested in martial arts, plus the skills and thrills associated with the movies.

Note to Members : Please bring in the rushes of the Regent Park Studio filming with a written log of the shots, plus the rushes or first edits of the "Grumpy Old Men" sequence to show and discuss at the next meeting or before the Christmas break.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, members welcomed Dave Clark, the area account manager for Mitcorp, suppliers of broadcast and professional video equipment. Dave explained in detail the development of high definition television and highlighted the differences between broadcast and consumer equipment. He was able to explain the problems of upgrading editing equipment to deal with the change in technology and was able to answer many questions from the members regarding HD television.

During the evening, the vice-chairman, Graeme Isherwood, announced that the first winner of the "Member of the Year Award" was the current chairman Fred Dibden. This award was donated by club member Chris Abram and was for the person going that extra mile for the club during the year. Members decided the result through a secret ballot.

Two new projects from Chris Abram have been added to the Members' Projects area.

Morecambe Bay Movie Makers moved their weekly meeting to the Regent Park Studios in Morecambe. The studio offers numerous training courses including film & theatre work, martial arts, fencing, climbing, archery and more action experiences.

The club set about videoing the arranged activities as a start to the proposed promotional movie for the studio's proprietor Martin Shenton. Monday's activities included a Tae Kwan Do class, indoor rock climbing and a stunt fall, with Martin crashing through a set of gates and falling safely onto the floor 10 meters below. The club will be returning again to continue filming over the winter months.

The club has received the following message from Gordon Ecclestone of 421 Productions:

421 Productions is an independent TV production company based in Lancaster.We are currently making a film for "Winning back Morecambe's West End", a part of Lancaster City Council. We are wondering if any of your members have archive material of Morecambe in its heyday, particularly of the area round the Midland.

With best wishes
Gordon Egglestone
421 Productions
4, The Grove
Lancaster
LA1 3AL

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, the audience remembered the late Alan Lunn who had been a member of the club for twenty years before his death earlier this year.

Alan directed and wrote the scripts for the majority of the club's movies, eight of which were presented during the evening. His Movies included documentaries of the Morecambe Brass Band and St Christopher's Church, dramas and comedy movies, many of the fictional characters played by club members.

During the interval, a meat and potato pie supper was served. Included in the show was a sequence of Alan playing the piano when he entertained members with a "name that tune" quiz plus shots of him directing his last programme. All his fellow club members will miss him, but fondly remember him.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, club members split into three working groups for a practical movie making evening. Each group was set a task to produce a series of interviews with grumpy old men using lights, mics and cameras. The subjects under discussion were politics, shopping, eating habits, holidays, transport and mobile phones.

Each group will now go away and edit the sections with suitable inserts from their library footage or shoot new material as required. This will be collated into a lighthearted programme of members' views of the world today.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, club member Peter Parker gave a presentation on promotional movies. He illustrated his talk with examples of programmes he had made for a variety of companies, organisations and voluntary groups. He explained how the use of the right music, speed of editing, colour or monochrome images could change the impact of the finished product, suitable for the target audience.

The meeting then discussed ideas for the club's future promotional movie featuring Regent Park Studio. The second part of the evening involved watching examples and planning for next week's practical night, when club members will split into groups to produce grumpy old men and ladies movies.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, members welcomed guest speaker Richard Curry, the Treasurer and Vice Chairman of the North West Region, Film and Video Institute. Richard began his presentation by describing the work of the institute in promoting the amateur movie makers and the services they provide including insurance cover, copyright arrangements, competitions at all levels, technical advice and a network for movie makers to communicate. His presentation was illustrated with a DVD produced to commemorate the Institute's 75th anniversary this year. The second part of the evening was spent watching a selection of movies from the Institute's collection of award winning films, videos and DVDs.

During the meeting, it was announced that club member Chris Abram had donated a new award. The award is to be presented each year for services to the club during the proceeding twelve months. The trophy is to be known as the "The Fred Dibden Club Member of the Year Trophy". Fred Dibden is the current Chairman of Morecambe Bay Movie Makers and has served in this position and on the committee for many years.

New projects from Peter Parker, Ken Russell, Dave Weatherley and Dave Simpson have been added to the Members' Projects area.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, members welcomed guest speaker Martin Boardman, the MD of "In The Frame" Productions from Chorley. Martin is a freelance cameraman, working for the major television companies as well as making commissioned programmes.

Martin talked about how he became interested in video production and explained how his previous work as a teacher enabled him to make videos for children and involve them in media education. His great passion is football, in particular the Morecambe side that he has filmed for many years, producing memorabilia DVDs and material for broadcast.

Martin also showed examples of his work and brought in his cameras for members to inspect and try out.

Ron Wood's light-hearted documentary about the making of replica Crown Jewels for a club film has now been added to the Members' Projects page.

For the new season, we have a new entry in the Hall of Fame. As you will remember, the club is running an unofficial contest for the best shot of a club member wearing their club shirt or fleece. If you think you can beat Dave or Graeme's efforts, Contact Us.

At Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' weekly meeting, members were taken on a tour of the club's web site by Mark Easton, its designer. Mark explained, using his laptop and a projector, how the site had been built up from the original ideas to its present form. The site has members' movies available for viewing, articles by members describing their projects, the year's programme plus links to manufacturers and other groups.

The second part of the meeting was a demonstration by Graham Easton on how to create your own site for uploading movies to the Internet for a worldwide audience.

Also this week, Geoff Ducker's Up the A591... project page has now been updated with video.

Further projects from Dave Simpson and Graham Easton have been added to the Members' Projects page.

Morecambe Bay Movie Makers began their 2007/08 season of weekly meetings at St Christopher's Church Hall, Bare, Morecambe on Monday with a members' film night. The meeting gave members the opportunity to catch up on each other's summer projects.

There was a drama movie shot in Lancaster and a record of a parachute jump for charity. The club movies included out-takes from the filming of the Liverpool City 800th charter day, which members made for the North West Film Archives. Also shown were out-takes from the making of "Bittern Country, Our Heritage" the story of the AONB around Silverdale and Arnside, including a tour of Leighton Hall. There was a showing of the first half of a concert performed by students from Beaumont College, which had been filmed by members for the college at the Nuffield Theatre in July.

With the 2007/08 season about to get underway, we have added no fewer than nine projects (including movie clips) to the site, from John Selby, Brian Melmore, Ron Wood and Graham Easton. Previous projects from John Selby and Ron Wood have now been updated with movie clips. To see the projects, visit the Members' Projects page.

Projects which were competition entries are now linked directly from the relevant Competition Results page.

The 2007/08 Event Programme is now online.

Liverpool 800 Day - A report and accompanying stills from club members' recent trip to film the Liverpool 800 celebrations has been added to the Members' Projects section.

"HMAS Ovens" - Brian Melmore's short film about the decommissioned submarine has been added to the Members' Projects section.

The club has received the following request for help from True North Productions:

Hello. Can you help me? I'm producing a series of programmes for ITV Granada and Yorkshire which is looking at film footage of holidays from days gone by. Do any of your members have any holiday footage which may be of interest? I'm looking for interesting trips to the coast, lake district, north Wales, or even abroad for a forthcoming series called 'The Way We Were - on Holiday'. The programmes take film collections of interest and talk to anyone who was involved in making the film, or who appeared in it, just to tell us what was going on. The holiday films need to be reasonably substantial, covering a subject which could sustain interest over five or six minutes, either from one trip or a series of holiday stories.Works trips, club outings and one off holiday events would be fine, as well as family collections.

Producer, The Way We Were.

Stills and report from the club's recent shoot focusing on the beauty and heritage of the area covered by the Arnside/Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Read the full report and see some stills in the Event Reports section.

Graham Isherwood's competition-winning film, Poulton's Murals, has been added to the Members' Projects page.

John Selby has several items of kit for sale. Click for more details.

See a selection of stills from John Selby's film taken in Kruger National Park, South Africa, in the Members' Projects section.

Now anyone can have the chance to see their film shown on the cinema along side the greats and win up to £10,000.

All you have to do is make a 3 minute short film, which you think embodies the concept of ‘Kinetic’. Then let the judges decide if you’re the next Kubrick or Coppola.

£5000 will go to the winner of the public vote, £2000 for 2nd place and £1000 for 3rd place. £5000 will also be awarded to the critic’s choice winner and their film will be screened in cinemas across London.

Entries need to be in by the October 26 and public voting will be over a 2 week period.

Click on the image above for more details.

With the new season approaching, it's time to be making those competition movies...

IAC 75th Anniversary Competition

Theme : "The way forward" - 7.5 minutes max

Details on the IAC website

North v South Competition

Theme : "Faith, Hope & Charity" - 20 minutes max

Bring your movies to the first winter meeting.

Club Competitions

Dave Sephton Trophy - "Local interest" - 12 minutes max
Warriner Trophy - "Light" - 5 minutes max
Cumbria Trophy - "Open" but no computer to be used - 3 minutes, 20 seconds max
Annual Open - "Open" / "Documentary" / "Holiday" - all 12 minutes max

For earlier news articles, please see The Archive.