Audio-Visual News By Trish McAuslan APSNZ EFIAP/b FAPS AV-AAPS AV Co-ordinator for PSNZ
Tauranga AV Salon This year’s salon was even more successful than last year’s. There were 124 entries from 55 entrants in 10 countries, with 15 more entries than last year. It was good to see a higher number of New Zealand entrants, some of whom were new to international competition. With the increase in numbers, judging took two full days. This year, the judging team comprised Alistair McAuslan APSNZ AV-AAPS (Coordinator), Paul Byrne FPSNZ ARPS AFIAP, Elizabeth Carruthers FPSNZ AFIAP, Trish McAuslan APSNZ EFIAP/b FAPS AV-AAPS, Matt Leamy LPSNZ, Dave Riddleston and Bruce Burgess FPSNZ.
Congratulations to the successful New Zealand entrants: Lynette Vallely APSNZ from Whanganui who won the World of Nature category Yan (Anne) Yuan LPSNZ from Christchurch who won the Novice Award
MERIT
Bob McCree FPSNZ Gail Stent FPSNZ Helen McLeod FPSNZ GPSA ARPS Sue Riach APSNZ ARPS AFIAP
ACCEPTANCE
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Sheryl Williams APSNZ (2) Bob McCree FPSNZ Kevin Chong Yan (Anne) Yuan LPSNZ Jo Curtis APSNZ Lynette Vallely APSNZ Sue Riach APSNZ ARPS AFIAP Jennifer Dowling LPSNZ John Smart APSNZ (2) Leo Kwon
From a Judge’s Viewpoint During the salon, I made notes about what to avoid when creating an AV, with some suggestions about how to solve some problems. In some instances, this only applied to one or two AVs, but in other cases, the problem appeared in several audiovisuals. Some authors had a problem with image size. It was most noticeable when the image size kept changing, from landscape orientation, to portrait orientation, to a square image. When taking your photos for an audio-visual, make a real effort to take everything in landscape orientation, as that is what we use on a data projector or TV screen. If you have a number of images in portrait format that you want to use, consider the possibility of placing a low opacity slide in the background; this way, the viewers are not suddenly shown a large black area on the screen. You could experiment by showing one image on one side of the screen and then moving to the next image on the other side. The aim is to move seamlessly from one image to the next, without pulling attention to the black background or different image sizes. It is important to post-process all the images you use in the AV. There were several instances of dust spots, especially in the sky, which needed to be removed. While we know they are only small imperfections, once noticed, they have an impact
