AV News 224 December 2021

Chairman's Chatter

Edgar Gibbs FRPS, MPAGB, AV-AFIAP

Quite a lot has happened since my last Chair’s Chatter. Firstly, I would like to say how delighted I was to receive the announcement that there is a new Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, awarded by submitting Audio Visual Sequences. I am sure you will join with me in recording our congratulations to Judith Kimber FRPS. Judith has kindly written an article for this edition of AV News, which gives an insight into her approach and what inspires her.

The 24th RPS International AV Festival has taken place and we received a number of congratulatory emails which are very gratifying. I am not writing a formal “Reections of the Director” this time, but looking back, it was a lot of hard work, but the result was a slick and professional Festival.

My thanks to the excellent team, who I call Festival Makers, who produced a Gold Standard event, as well as the Judges and all the entrants without whom a Festival would not be possible. Further details about the Festival Makers. Judges and the Results can be found in the Festival’s ofcial catalogue. Scan the QR code or download from the RPS website https://rps.org/media/ os0jt3sl/iavf-2021-ofcial-catalogue.pdf

The RPS AV Group AGM was held on the Sunday morning of the Festival weekend and an excellent suggestion was made by Jenny and Malcolm Gee that in future our AV Group AGMs be held on a separate weekend to the Festival. The Committee will be taking this on board. It will continue to be a Zoom AGM which will allow more people to participate.

Pictured right: A few pages from the International Audio Festival Catalogue. You can download this at www.rps/groups/audio-visual/iavf/

As I come to the end of writing Chair's Chatter, Linda and I have just watched the second retrospective of AVs produced by Anne d'Oliveira and Franz Jesche from South Africa. Sadly, Anne passed away in July of this year due to Covid complications (see separate tribute). This is the second retrospective showing sequences produced by Anne and Franz. The recently shown AVs were too long to have been entered into our International and other International Festivals, so they would not have been seen by many people. At an AV competition held in South Africa, Inside Darkest Africa received the second highest medal awarded, a Bronze medal and Mozambique, A Tortured Paradise received a Silver Medal, the highest level.

The AVs were absolutely inspiring and provided a masterclass in all elements of the artform that is Audio Visual. Linda and I were spellbound and cannot wait for an opportunity to see them again. It is rare to nd AVs of this quality and they should be widely seen. I have e-mailed Jeff Morris, of AV Makers SA, who is in contact with Franz, to see if the RPS AV Group can have copies for the Archive. One of the AVs shown at the rst retrospective of Anne and Franz’s work included Silent Cries, which was shown at the 2018 RPS IAVF. A special thanks to Franz for allowing these works to be shown and to Jeff Morris for arranging the retrospectives.

Next on the “New Horizon” is the Great Northern Festival, being held on line 3rd to 5th December 2021. For further information see www.gnfestival.org.uk. I know that Linda and I will enjoy being members of the audience and watching the AVs.

This will be the last AV News of 2021 and all that is left is to say is to wish you the Compliments of the Season and to hope that 2022 will be a better and a more social face to face year.

Alastair Taylor ARPS DPAGB/AV

How did that happen? Where did those years go? This edition of AV News is the eighteenth under my editorial eye and I have been fullling the role for ve years. I honestly can’t believe where the time has gone. Unless someone else has a burning ambition to take over, I am happy to continue for a little while longer.

I think AV News has evolved nicely over the past ve years. The layout is denitely better thanks to the eagle eye, and excellent contribution from Andrew Gagg. We also seem to have found a format which works well with RPSAV Group news at the start, two or three key note articles with a selection of images, and technical information towards the end of the journal.

I am in great debt to those regular contributors who provide some interesting and informative copy. They are small in number but continue to add greatly to the quality and relevance of the journal. However, more than one of these has suggested that they are getting to the end of the line when it comes to producing articles and we owe it to them to let them have a rest from their writing duties.

With this in mind, on the next page, I have produced a shopping list of potential articles and copy which readers tell me they would like to read in AV News. If you feel you have something to add, do please get in touch. Over to you!

It is interesting to see what other RPS specialist interest groups get up to. Recently, I joined the Documentary Group which I nd very interesting. The group journal “The Decisive Moment” is published online only so anyone can have a look. (I am not sure about that as a business model; what is the benet if anyone can see the publication whether a member or not?). AV Group members have made it very clear that they like a printed journal.

More importantly, I think some of us AV producers have much in common with documentary photographers and I do wonder if there is scope for a joint event where we could show off some of our great documentaries and perhaps encourage a few more photographers to have a go at AV making. I do urge you to go on line and explore a few of the RPS specialist interest groups, you will be favourably surprised.

This is the Editor ’ s shopping list for AV News articles and copy

1. Why I made it. We all like to read about the thinking behind AV productions. How and why the author produced it. What went well and the things they might have done differently.

2. Sound for AV. Whether you use Audacity, Audition or the editing facilities within Pictures to EXE, readers are always keen to learn about different approaches to sound editing and producing the AV soundscape.

3. Getting the best from PTE AV Studio. There are a lot of facilities available and a lot to understand such as objects and animations, transitions and effects, output in different formats, etc. AV News readers will value advice.

4. Software Reviews. We all use a range of programmes such as for editing video, reducing le sizes, Photoshop Add ins, producing visual effects and animations, etc. If you are using something useful, let us all know.

5. Image Editing for AV. There are a wide range of platforms for editing images and all are of value. Using these for AV production requires a different set of skills so why not share how you get that magic AV effect.

Articles need to include both text and images such as “screen grabs” and if needed can be split of more than one edition of AV News. Go on ……...

And Finally

Do please tell your camera clubs and AV friends about AV News. We could always do with a few more subscribers. If you need an advert, I can supply some artwork

You will note that as well as being editor of AV News, I am also the treasurer for the AV Group. Those of you who subscribe to the journal (as opposed to RPS AV Group members who receive the journal as part of their membership) will have received a renewal letter for the next year. I do hope that you renew your subscription.

Feedback and letters to: magazine@avnews.org.uk

Distinctions Success: Judith Kimber FRPS

Alastair Taylor ARPS DPAGB/AV reports

Ahuge congratulations to Judith Kimber on her Fellowship success. I caught up with Judith shortly after she heard the good news. She commented:

"I approached my FRPS application with some trepidation, aware of the signicance of this distinction and familiar with the excellent work of the Fellows of my acquaintance. I have a limited body of work from which to select, so the choice of sequences was fairly straightforward. I aimed to show some breadth of style and technique, and I avoided including two sequences which might have been perceived as too similar.

The most challenging aspect of the process for me was writing the Statement of Intent. I was awarded an ARPS in Visual Art earlier this year, and in that case it was much more straightforward, because I had conceived of and created a panel of prints specically for the distinction and was able to explain my intent clearly. For my Fellowship, I hadn't made my sequences for distinction purposes, yet I needed to present a rationale which would draw them together in a genuine and informative way. I was extremely grateful for Richard Brown's help with this. His guidance was vital in creating a statement which was succinct and appropriate for the application.

I can't emphasise strongly enough how important it is to seek advice when preparing for any distinction, and I'd like to thank very much those kind colleagues who helped me with this one. Receiving the email on the day of the results and seeing the word "delighted" in the rst line of the text was one of my proudest and most excited moments ever, and I feel very honoured that the distinctions assessment panel judged my work as having met the Fellowship standard."

Pictured right: To mark fty years of RPS Distinctions from Slide-Sound Sequences, Audio Visual, Multimedia through to Film as it is now called, the AV Group produced a special certicate to mark the occasion.

Distinction Success: Judith Kimber FRPS continued

For her submission, Judith included three AV productions, Matthew Loney's Miracle, Car Guy and Poems for Girls. Her statement of intent was as follows:

"In this work I aim to combine my visual storytelling and music composition skills to elicit an empathetic connection from my audience. I hope that they will respond emotionally to the characters and narratives I’ve created. The three sequences use different techniques to bring my stories to life.

Matthew Loney’s Miracle is driven by its images. Music and sound support Matthew’s emotional journey, while visual and musical symbols unify the work, with its themes of partnership, loss and redemption.

In Car Guy, the images are an illustrative counterpoint to the protagonist’s philosophy of life – descriptive, symbolic, sometimes humorous.

Poems for Girls reects my professional interest in adolescent mental health, particularly girls’ self-talk and changing societal expectations of them. Two central characters narrate. The images link past and present, with the same actress playing both roles.

Every element in this submission is my own creative work, including the music and scripts."

An

interview with

Martin Fry FRPS AV -EFIAP/b

EFIAP/d2 FBPE APAGB

It was a few days after the 2021 International AV festival that Martin and I met up (on-line of course) to have a chinwag about his life in AV. We started with obligatory review of the international competition with words better left unprinted on our thoughts as to the “runners and riders”. We did agree with the results though and more than anything we agreed how much we miss viewing these events in a real room with real people.

Despite his youthful looks, Martin Fry is one of the “elders” of the Audio-Visual community having got involved over 40 years ago. “I have been a member of Cheltenham Camera Club since 1972 when I was still at school” commented Martin. “The school was afliated to the club and my father working at GCHQ knew members of CCC who all encouraged me to join.”

Martin’s rst encounter with AV was when one of the greatest pioneers of the medium, Richard Tucker FRPS visited the club with his Agfa-Gevaert sponsored ‘Creative Colour Show’. Then there was Ian Platt, James Joyce with his Scottish Highland sequences and in the later seventies, ‘Three Part Invention’ with Clive & Martin Haynes and Martin Addison. It was however, Sir George & Lady Pollock’s Peepshow using a ‘Pollock Duo-fade’, with an audience lling Cheltenham Town Hall in 1978, that ignited Martin’s spark.

Following this, Cheltenham Camera Club purchased its own ‘Duo Fade’ - one of those contraptions with bowden cables which opened and closed a petal shaped iris in front of the slide projector lenses. Members could borrow this equipment prior its use in the club’s rst AV competition.

Martin went on to tell me that his entry, his rst 2 projector AV sequence was an interpretation of Justin Hayward’s song, Forever Autumn, a song often interpreted by AV workers. Martin attempted to portray the song in a different way, not just the soft illusion of images in the autumn but also playing on the lyrics of the song which say, “she’s not there”. Martin used the images of a girl appearing in the mist and disappearing at the end – his love of the ‘Magical’ third image which is at the forefront of his work still today.

We talked about the interpretation of songs as an AV approach and the thought that there needs to be more of it. Martin was bemused that in the recent International AV Festival where he won his own award (for the best interpretation of a song) which he introduced as a means of encouraging this approach. Martin went on to describe how he listens to a song and looks for the key moments where he can hang an image or portray the storyline.

Martin Fry AV Facts

14th in FIAP World AV rankings – 3rd in UK behind Peter Coles & Ron Davies

514 AV shows to photo clubs

RPS Henry Dobson Medal for Services to AV

Ist Uk AV worker to gain AV-EFIAP Bronze

Pictured below: The Pollock Duo-Fade in all its glory

Audio Visual Lives continued

The MAD Duo

The AV Forever Autumn went on to win the camera club competition with second place awarded to another member, Dave Carpenter. This was the start of a long partnership which lasted until the late nineties when Dave moved to America. The duo decided that they would try to do some shows together. Somebody in the camera club said, “well, you've got enough for half the show Martin and you've got the other half Dave”. The pair even had T Shirts with a MAD logo depicting Martin and Dave. The veterans of AV will remember these well. “We complemented each other well” added Martin. “Dave was very technical which served us well as things turned digital. Dave loved photographing people around the world and had a very clear construction to his sequences. I was perhaps more open with my art and lm focus from my teacher training and loved landscape photography with good light”.

We went on to talk about the early days of the MAD duo (pictured below) . The interpretation of songs was always a strong feature of their work. They always started with a mixture of each other’s images and spent ages putting one in one projector and a few in the other and seeing how they would work together visually. Back then, nothing was automated, so it was always a live event “We never had headphones and a script to follow. We were just going live so we had to know our music rolling along on our Reel to Reel. We took turns to project” adds Martin. “It was hard work but great fun”

Competitions and Distinctions

It was in the eighties when Martin decided to enter the MidPhot AV competition which is still run by the Midland Counties Photographic Federation. There were forty entries and back then, each entrant took their own equipment. “Do you remember all those projectors and the three screens” asked Martin. “We took our own gear. I took my own Duo Fade and looked a bit stupid, but Richard Brown had already done one on a Duo Fade. He had his headphones and was listening to a command on tape which prompted him to change the images at the right time. But I was going absolutely live so that threw me in at the deep end. I wasn’t successful with an acceptance, but that's ne! Following the competition, I was approached by Richard Brown, Keith Brown and Clive Atkins who encouraged my refreshing approach, so I went away thinking that was a good start. The next year I entered ‘What England Means to Me’ and it won. This was the rst of my seven awards at MidPhot, a record yet to be beaten”

Soon after, Martin joined a weekend seminar held on a barge in Gloucester Docks run by Sir George and Lady Pollock. They were very supportive and suggested that his work was of a standard suitable for an RPS Distinction. Martin expands “I submitted three sequences, including my Midphot winner and ‘The End of The Line’ with images I had taken of the old steam engines at the Barry graveyard, using the evocative Benjamin Britten’s ‘Dawn’ from his Sea Interludes as the music. These were submitted for my ARPS which I achieved in October 1985. I went on to gain FRPS a few years later.”

Picture Below: From And a Dog-Rose

Audio Visual Lives continued Resources (or lack thereof)

Martin describes how it was not so easy back then given the relative expense of getting into AV. Martin owned one slide projector and Dave Carpenter the other. If one wanted to practise at home, it all took a bit of organisation and on occasions there were disagreements about where the projectors should reside! “We had two Zeiss Perkeo projectors and just couldn’t afford the latest Immatronic equipment. We were learning a very complex craft with masks, lith lm, lters, glass mounts, Newton rings and the rest of it. Adding titles was a very complex process and as for sending a sequence for an international event, it was a nightmare” added Martin. “Modern day AV workers don’t know how easy it is these days. It is basically plug and play.”

Martín recalls the move to digital, “Mike Woolnough kindly sponsored us using the Imatronic SX4000, and we ran shows with 4 Kodak projectors. I even achieved my Fellowship using 4 projectors - what that did was to allow me to create multiple 3rd images, something so much easier with today’s single digital projector”.

Martin’s rst (and only) Oscar is for an AV competition in Holland where And a Dog-Rose, a total surprise at the time, went on to win the Grand Prize. Linda and Edgar Gibbs attended the event and collected the award on Martin’s behalf. This appears to have caused them some angst at customs.

Picture below: Richard Tucker, Dave Carpenter and Edgar Gibbs

The Character of the AV Worker – A Sense of Place

We talked about the things which dene different AV workers and I suggested to Martin that when his name is mentioned, I often think about something which will be interpreting some music or a song. And it will probably be some very beautiful, beautiful photography, most probably of Gloucestershire. Martin agreed. “It is very much about celebrating my local area. For 14 years as Headteacher, I was travelling from Churchdown to Horsley and I was on the road at 0700 every morning when the light is magical. On the way back it was sunset. I was able to see some wonderful things and take some great photographs. You get to know your area very well.” We agreed that a passion for your local area is a good starting point in AV. We also agreed that Irish AV workers are especially strong when it comes to representing their local area.

We go on to talk about a range of AV workers who inspire us. Different people with different approaches. Peter Coles was a wordsmith, Judith Kimber brings a refreshing visual approach, Richard Brown with his great script writing and Keith Leedham with his great combinations of pictures and music. However, we both agree that it is easy to become type cast. Martin is the rst to agree that his work often has a Gloucestershire or Cornish feel to it. “That's the challenge, isn't it?” says Martin. “We need to break that mould and start going out of our comfort zones. That's what we need to encourage people to do”.

Picture Below: From Field of Autumn

Pictures below (left to right):

The loves I have – Story

Best Doc RPS International

Winter White – Gold South Africa

And a Dog-Rose – Winner Adelaide & Holland, Runner-up RPS international And There Grow Flowers – story of Ivor

Picture Above: From The Holy Brook – based on poem ‘The Holy Brook’ by Frank Mansell. IAC Peter Coles Winner, Adelaide Grand Prix, best photography Epinal.

of sculptor Barbara Hepworth (Hepworth sculpture in Cheltenham)

Gurney

Audio Visual Lives continued …

The collaboration with Johnny Coppin

Martin has enjoyed a long collaboration with folk singer and song writer Johnny Coppin which he goes on to explain.

“When I was at college, I used to listen to his music. Then he came to play at the Students Union as a member of the well-known 70’s group Decameron. His rst project going solo was an album called Forest, Vale and High Blue Hill which covered the work of a number of Gloucestershire poets. I thought that it would be good to interpret some of these songs, in my AV shows to clubs. By chance, one of my wife’s close friends at College was Gill who was introduced to Johnny at a concert in Gloucester. Johnny and Gillian went on to marry and so through our wives’ friendship, Johnny and mine developed. They came to the International AV Festival in Bath when I showed my sequence, A Cotswold Lad based around his music. Sadly, Gill herself a talented artist, is no longer with us.

Following this, Johnny asked if I could project slide images for a play about the poet ‘Ivor Gurney’ in Cheltenham’s Everyman Theatre, and then images for his local Christmas shows. It seemed a bit crazy at the time I thought. However, I had really long lenses on my Kodak Carousels, and thought I might be able to project from the back of Cheltenham Town Hall onto a smallish screen on the stage behind his band. That is how it started.

We even did a show on the Saturday night at the RPS AV International held in Cheltenham in 1996 at the same venue, with over 300 in the audience. I've been doing Johnny’s Christmas shows ever since, 52 to date. When digital came in, life was made so much easier with a single projector in the building meaning that I don't have to take my own gear and project onto xed lmsize screens. The shows consist of projecting still images as a background for some songs and my AV interpretations of the majority of songs”.

Martin’s relationship with Johnny Coppin has endured for many years and is a friendship which clearly gives him great pleasure. More than anything though, it highlights the approach of using a local songwriter with local lyrics with local imagery and identity.

You can watch a special AV that Martin shows at Johnny’s Christmas Concerts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHHqxuPAWVQ

Audio Visual Lives continued …

Martin goes on to talk about an occasion when Johnny sang songs about Gloucestershire with his visual interpretations at a Gala Performance at Tewkesbury’s Roses Theatre in the presence of The Princess Royal who he met on stage afterwards. “These are the highlights of my AV Life” he adds, “I just love sharing my work with an audience.”

Projecting images to a live show is not without its challenges. Martin will receive a recording of the music and uses this to put together the sequence. However, given that live performances will include a change of pitch or a different beat, the slide transition has to be managed manually. Martin will pre-programme the length of each dissolve and press the mouse to move on to the next at the appropriate word or chord. He has his nger hovering on the mouse continuously. We joke that those days of playing the Pollock Duo Fade in the early days of AV has served him well. The key aim is to make it all seamless for the audience. “So long as I start with the right image and end at the right point, things will generally be ne” adds Martin. Apparently, a number of the AV community have been to see these Christmas shows and Martin is working on this year’s as we speak.

Picture Below: At the RPS International 1996 Saturday evening show Martin Fry & Johnny Coppin

Inset Picture: Martin Fry and Johnny Coppin

Audio Visual Lives continued …

The current class of AV Workers

We go on to talk about some of the AV workers who are inspiring us at the moment. It goes without saying that we are delighted when we have some “new kids on the block” like Judith Kimber, Cathy Fordham and Liam Haines who bring ideas which move the movement forward. Both of us were delighted to see Judith do so well in the International AV Festival. We talk about Judith Kimber’s use of monochrome and wonder whether it makes it stronger? We can’t decide. Would they have the same impact in colour?

Martin adds that every sequence that Jean Paul Petit from France produces will make him stop and think. He thinks that “his diaporamas always try to break barriers down in different ways”. Martin wonders if the audience fully appreciated and understood his entry in the RPS International about the painting of Guernica. We also talk about his previous entry The Wall which was about migrants. He is technically very creative using the software and the effects and although he doesn't produce many, “they are very, very strong, so visually I think I aspire to him” We talk about Jean Paul’s AV The Great Prairie which we both feel was one of the best AVs of its generation. Each one has a different concept and is always well worth waiting for.

We then touch on the work of Richard Brown which we both view to be very strong. Richard has followed an approach which has taken the story telling element in his work, combined with his personal voice and personal script to a new level. “I view it as something that we can all look up to and learn from” adds Martin.

“Over the last 10 years, it's been fascinating watching the progress of Howard Bagshaw”, comments Martin “He's very much one at the forefront of using the technology and I feel that he has taught us how we should use it in a more sympathetic way and that is good”. I have also watched the ‘Maestro’ so I call him, Ian Bateman, who joined the Cotswold AV Group that Dave and I started in the 1990’s with his slide sequences before pioneering digital AV.

We conclude that we shouldn’t really be calling out any particular names because anyone who enters a big event and has their work exhibited is a winner although we do mention Alan Tyrer who was the winner of the Sound Hunters’ Medal in the IAVF for his sequence A Fishing Trip which is very well put together and shows an excellent documentary style. Other authors who Martin feels have grown in the medium are Jenny and Malcolm Gee who put together sequences with good images, an interesting story and in Jenny, a very well delivered script. We could go on.

Looking to the Future

I try to nd out what Martin is up to in his current AV work. He won’t be drawn too much but hints at some images of a eld of Fritillaries somewhere in Gloucestershire. That sounds interesting. He is also working on a very long running project concerned with Gloucester Cathedral where he has collected images of several events over a number of years. Quite when the project will be nished remains a mystery but like many AV Workers, Martin has several projects on the go. We look forward to seeing them.

Our nal thoughts are around the next generation of AV Workers. “There are many brilliant YouTubers who upload some amazing work” comments Martin. “They probably wouldn’t view themselves as AV Workers but our challenge, perhaps through the RPS, is to engage with these workers and bring them into our family”.

Overall Winners (Grand Prix)

Adelaide (x 2)

South Africa

IAC Peter Coles

Pomeranian, Poland (x 2 )

Great Northern

Blue Badge – 5 occasions (Romania, Poland, Australia, Italy, South Africa)

Runner up

National Championships (x 2)

RPS International (x 2)

IAVF 2021

Mid Phot

Overall Winner (x 7)

Photo Harmony (x 2)

The Martin Fry Medal (Best interpretation of a song)

Celebrating the 24th International AV Festival

The AV News Editor reects on the 2021 Festival.

On the following pages you will see images from the main winners from the recent IAVF including a report from Melanie Chalk on “What does £3 buy you?” and a personal view from Raymond Hughes. This time, the Letters Page of AV News has been taken over by emails of thanks.

Here's to the Silver Anniversary International Audio Visual Festival

Picture below: IAVF Winner, Judith Kimber, holds the Silver Salver

RPS Grand Prix Trophy, RPS Gold Medal, Silver Salver, the FIAP Blue Badge & PTE AV Studio 10 Licence Key

Safe by Judith Kimber, Northern Ireland

FIAP Gold Medal & PTE AV Studio 10 Licence Key

Olivier by Gérard Diebold, France

RPS Bronze Medal –‘ Contemporary Concept ’

Inside Outside by Richard Brown, England

FIAP Bronze Medal –‘ Documentary ’

City of Darkness by Ian Bateman, England

What does £3 buy you?

Melanie Chalk ARPS

Two litres of diesel, if you queue, or a Hot Chocolate with cream and marshmallows in Costa, and you would need an extra pound to buy the average glass of mediocre wine at a bar, and gone in a trice! But what did I get for the ridiculously low price of £3? I got a ticket to watch the RPS International Audio Visual Festival, and all from the comfort of my settee, with G & T’s, wine, nibbles and coffee readily accessible. What value for money, 8 hours plus, watching the extraordinary efforts of ‘Avers’ from around the world, the imagination, the mastery, the skill and to admire the courage to enter their work into an International competition and show it to a wider audience . I found it a hugely enjoyable experience, thought provoking, inspirational and it has made me eager to get on and nish my own mothballed sequence.

Zoom, who had really heard of it before March 2020? But it has become so important to many and now an essential tool for the Photography world in general. I, like many, have enjoyed so many presentations, talks and workshops all aimed to inspire and teach new skills and an appreciation of good photography, and of how good it is for our well being. Lots of us have had more time to devote to it and gained great pleasure in making images through these challenging times. But up to date technology and a good internet connection is essential for optimum viewing via Zoom, and with indifferent internet for geographical reasons, there’s always a slight dread for me, when the speaker says, “I will just show you a short video”! as I often suffer from lag and patchy music and sound.

So I approached the rst session on Friday evening with some trepidation, would my equipment and ‘Talk Talk ‘play ball’ and give me a good experience? I needn’t have been concerned for the whole viewing experience was superb, no lagging, stutter or breaks in the picture, and the transitions were so smooth. The whole presentation, over each day, was seamless, professional and impressive, with the lovely Welsh lilt of the Anchor woman, Linda Gibbs, calmly conducting the proceedings . This didn’t just happen! The planning, organisation and practising that must have taken place was undoubtedly considerable over many weeks, to bring us such a seamless production, and a huge thanks must go to the whole team involved, I am sure the accolades and thanks must have been landing and lling your Inboxes!

International Federation of Soundhunters (FICS) Medal for ‘ Sound ’ A Fishing Trip by Alan Tyrer, England

The George and Doreen Pollock Medal (Best rst time entrant) Richard, Rick, Ricky. by David Thompson, England

What does £3 buy you? continued ...

I would like to now single out some of my favourite AV’s that I especially enjoyed, they might also be in the Award winners too and the Audience vote choices. But we are all different and as you know don’t always agree with the judges and things appeal to me for different reasons to others. For me a successful image or AV is one that stays in my memory, something I will bring to mind in the future weeks, and perhaps unintentionally will inspire and mould my own work in AV. They might give me the germ of an idea, a type of transition to try, a way to use video, a type of music to source, or a style to emulate. Some of the technical prowess is beyond my capabilities but could make me stretch myself to learn some new skills and it is that which has inspired me.

I especially enjoyed Friday night’s sessions and was freely scoring with stars, lots of 3 and 4’s how would I choose between them for my audience vote? The opening sequence was wonderful, A Fishing Trip by Alan Tyrer, which did go on to win the award for Sound, which I loved for the informality of the commentary, the naturalness of the delivery, seeming to be script less, just a telling of a story, something to emulate.

I just loved the photography and the colour palette of Hebridean Dream by Jane and Stephen Lee. Olivier by Gerard Diebold was a wonderful production, with the processing of the hospital images just showing the atmosphere and sense of the place so sensitively. Very thought provoking and immeasurably sad but with a positive outcome.

I really admired the European offerings, the subject matter in many challenging, but the production superb, and with their use of video and the complex editing handled so well, particular mentions for Beyond by Gabriele Pinardi, Blue AV by Letzia Ronconi, APT 22 by Francesca Gernetti and Carla Fiorina, with that fan and its sound! And the memorable one for me The Abyss Boat by Domenico Drago, for the underwater shots, the sh, the video and the wonderful voice of the commentator.

One that stood out for me in the Saturday session was Soapsuds and Solace by Cathy Fordham, and although it won an award for humour, that isn’t the aspect that holds merit for me. As a creative ower photographer myself I appreciated the photography, the layering of images and the transitions and the creativity and sensitivity of the layouts. Very much ‘up my street’ and a personal favourite, current and encapsulating a time in our lives with the highs and the lows and a reason to utilise the art and joy of capturing those images and showing them a perceptive way.

What does £3 buy you? continued ...

Other highlights and I am sure others will write about different AV’s but these were the other 4 stars on my marking sheet: The Waiting Game by Keith Leedham; Safe by Judith Kimber; Reconciliation by Derrick Holiday; Stradivari by Cynthia Henley- Smith; Outback by John Hodgson.

Unfortunately I can only comment on Friday and Saturdays entries, as, although I could attend the AGM, I could not excuse myself from a unexpected Family lunchtime get together, the last Summer Hurrah!

So for me the Zoom experience was excellent, as the production was so good, I feel the Tech Team did something to optimise the video content. Events by Zoom will continue long into the future, I think it’s wonderful. If because of Climate change, we are to be encouraged, in the future, to curb our unnecessary journeys, one will have prioritise the events, people, one visits in a year. And as I live on the South East coast, a long drive to many Northern events, and we are infrequent car users, and actually hate driving, the chance to enjoy such a Festival from home is, for me, a very attractive prospect. For others who really enjoy the social aspect they can’t wait to get back to face to face, but perhaps the Committee will consider offering Hybrid events too in the future?

So was it good value for £3? It was great value and I would have paid much more,

Note to the Treasurer! 2021 IAVF -

Raymond Hughes ARPS AIPF DPAGB

Every cloud as they say, and the disaster that is Covid, has given us the silver lining of unprecedented contact across the Audio Visual community courtesy of Zoom. While we miss the social aspect of faceto-face meeting, Zoom, enables us to take part in events that otherwise would have been impossible.

That being so I was able to enjoy the RPS 24th International Audio-Visual Festival. The prohibitive travel costs across the Irish Sea have prevented me attending the RPS festivals for a number of years so this was bonus for me

RPS Special Interest Group Bronze Medal –‘ Humour ’

Soapsuds and Solace by Cathy Fordham, England

RPS Special Interest Group Bronze Medal –‘ Natural History ’

Crested Terns by Sally Hinton, Australia

2021 IAVF - A Personal View continued ...

What a week-end, 65 Sequences across seven sessions and the RPS AGM. Saturday morning, back to the sequences for the afternoon, Sunday morning RPS AV Group AGM. Session 7 in the afternoon, and just enough time to squeeze in the Russian F1 qualifying session on Saturday, Phew!

In his opening remarks Edgar assured us that having viewed all entries we were in for a treat as all were good. He was not wrong. None of the entries from twelve countries disappointed. We saw sequences of numerous genres from sequences of stunning photography set to music, through the more familiar travel and storytelling to the more enigmatic that we had to think about. Well, I had to anyway, particularly from our Italian friends. Another aspect of Italian entries is the apparent number involved in production. I noted The Abyss Boat had something like eleven contributors along with other production credits. A beautiful sequence but it seems a long way from sorting slides on a lightbox.

We will all have our favourites and for me there were several that stuck in my mind. Soapsuds and Solace by Cathy Fordham and Farewell to the Goodlife by Brendan Gillan, both of these portrayed the effects of the Pandemic, both in unique imaginative ways. Perhaps I was biased having produced my own Lockdown sequence last year.

Others that I favoured were A Fishing Trip by Alan Tyrer and Osian Gwent by Clive Haynes. I was struck by the simplicity of the 1st person narration delivery in both sequences although they depicted very different life experiences. The sequence by Martin Addison Finding Narnia was a delight with beautiful photography and third image dissolves, something we don’t see enough of these days.

We did of course see numerous other sequences equally meriting mention but it always amazes me how despite the always deserving award winners it may not always be those that leave a lasting memory.

I hesitate to mention overall winner Safe by Judith Kimber lest it sounds like boasting. Judith is of course from Northern Ireland. A brilliant sequence that has already been recognised in other international events. Congratulations Judith.

So, thank you and congratulations to Edgar and Linda and the rest of the team for a brilliant weekend of Audio Visual.

Not “ Letters ” so much as emails of thanks following the IAVF

Hi Edgar

thank you for all your work for our AV passion; please extend my congrats to Linda too, for her outstanding contribution.

All the best, Lorenzo

Dear Edgar,

I know you had a great team of people who you could rely on to make it all work, and they all without exception did a fantastic job, but in the end it all comes down to your vision and leadership, and the result was a festival that ran faultlessly. I was impressed, and I think maybe the President was impressed, even though he didn’t actually see many of the AVs.

So thank you for all your hard work and for a great Festival.

Good wishes, Malcolm (Imhoff)

Thanks a heap Edgar, and well done on organising such an enormous and successful event,

Kind regards, Liam

Hello Edgar,

Many congratulations on an excellent weekend of great AVs. Everything went very smoothly from start to nish, and Moya and I enjoyed seeing the sequences on our big screen. It was good to see the title slide and photo of the author before each one. Linda did her job very well, as did all those involved. A very successful and enjoyable event,

Regards, James (Hamill)

Good morning Edgar,

Just to say congratulations on a great weekend. Well done to you and Linda and the rest of the team.

Regards, Raymond (Hughes)

Dear Edgar and Linda,

Well done on your (and all the team) efforts at the weekend.

I have a good idea how much work is involved and it really is appreciated.

I'm sure it's not nished yet with all the distribution of prizes etc but Mary and I thought it went awlessly.

Sorry we missed the rst session on Sunday but we had to attend a lunch to celebrate the life of one of our members who died last year.

But we got back just in time for the President's address.

Well done and all the best, Bryan & Mary

Dear 'Festival Team',

We should like to thank you all for a most enjoyable 24th International AV Festival over last weekend. The technology worked really well, and everything was most professional. We greatly appreciate all your efforts in putting together the event - well done!

Kind regards and looking forward to seeing you again online sometime soon.

Malcolm and Jenny (Gee)

Dear Edgar

Thank you very much for the certicates and the medal, received today.

Certainly a great surprise and pleasure to have received a silver award, in such a tough competition - beginner's luck I think!

I very much appreciated the online event, I couldn't watch the whole weekend but it seemed to run very smoothly, and must have been a lot of work to organise.

Best regards , Lisa

Hello Edgar and Linda

Just writing a quick mail to say an enormous thank you for all the work put in by both yourselves and the rest of your "crew" both before, and during the RPS International AV Festival.

This was my rst time attending one and I loved every minute of it. My head will be full of it for days and how on earth you two manage to make AVs as well as fronting it all is beyond me!

Once again, many thanks, Cathy Fordham

Good evening Edgar,

I would like to thank you for arranging the IAVF this last weekend. I fully appreciate how much time and effort and hard work goes into getting something like this off the ground, the result was rst class well done. Please pass on my thanks to your very competent team.

Kind regards, Chris.(Bate)

A BIG WELL DONE to everyone involved before, during and (now after!) the weekend. It all went swimmingly and I was busy making notes for our weekend in just under three weeks (yipes!). The closing date was midnight on Friday, so busy, busy for the next couple of weeks.

Well done to those of you who won awards of any kind over the weekend.

I got a new laptop and broadband in just under two weeks ago and all went brilliant for Friday and Saturday up to tea time. When I tried to get back in - I couldn't get broadband for the rest of the weekend. Luckily, I have still got my trusty old computer with a dongle, that has poor bandwidth for the rest of the weekend and will be trying to rectify this for the IPF AV Championships! I must have been bombed out of the AGM 50 times!!

Give yourselves a BIG pat on the back. It was lovely to see (as Alastair said) 100 at one point, as I had noticed and we are also topping up Zoom for the month of October! It was great also that the RPS President could "attend". I sent my apologies for the RPS AGM saying that I'd be attending "Cheltenham"!

All the best, Lilian (Webb)

Hi Edgar,

Many thanks for the possibility to watch AV Festival past weekend! It was pleasure to see so many AV shows. Congratulations to you, all team of organizers and special congratulations to winners.

Please post info about results on PTE forum for other members., Igor,

Clay in My Hands

It is the 29th of June: Golem has had several days rest in fact – I felt a bit stale with it, and other things needed to be done. I have now been through all the pictures I pulled out to try and nd ones that express ‘beauty’ etcetera. There’s also one of cracked earth that drops in nicely, and I have a couple more ame effect videos which will give variety.

Andrew Gagg FRPS

Part Two: Shaping Up

30th June: Regained some impetus now. Most of the pictures I found are in place, and the thing (the Golem, even) is taking shape. It must be about the right length now – surely no longer – it’s such a simple story… Rephotographed the piece of salt-glaze from our garden. I wish it could talk – it’s almost certainly 17th century, and matches closely the complete Bellarmine bottle I bartered for in exchange for a top hat when I was at college.

I have got to the stage where I keep running through the whole thing and making small adjustments to the timing, the position of the bits of voice-over and maybe superimposing images to existing slides. The dummy voice-over seems satisfactory, and it remains to be seen whether Jeff will be able to improve on it. I do so want that Potteries sound!

The piece has a climax of vivid colour and beautiful sharp images, but the start and nish are about darkness and earthiness and confusion. Most of these have a brownish transparent vignette ‘supered’ on them – it’s handy to have a set of standard vignettes of different opacities available.

Clay in My Hands continued ...

25th August. There has been another long gap – partly other matters, and partly a chance for it to cool down (as if from the kiln?) so that I can assess it from a distance. I think the sound that Jeff has recorded will do very well, but I have asked him to re-record one or two phrases. I hope he’s not offended –he’s gone very quiet, so he’s either doing it, or he’s gone off the idea altogether!

1st September. Another long pause. I ‘phoned Jeff a few days ago, and he says he’s rather enjoying trying his hand at acting! He has recorded the bits I wanted re-done. He had to take a break for a day to let his throat recover after all the yelling in the middle – you can hear it on the recording! He has certainly done a good job with that part! We agree that if we were trained actors, neither of us would have had that difculty with our throats… Anyway Pat seems to have managed to keep the sound levels within limits – tricky when so much of the rest of it is quite quiet!

4th September. I have edited the new takes, changing the pitch of Jeff’s voice slightly, as before, and I think they are okay – He’s followed the example of the guide track I recorded for him closely and has given it exactly the inections, and thus the emotions, that I wanted.

5th September. Fitted the new bits in, replacing the older takes – fairly easy in Pictures to Exe, especially if you stretch the timeline out so that you can see plenty of detail. I’m not sure how well the levels match, but I will leave it for a day or two now. I have other sh to fry at the moment, so I’ll wait for a quiet day (I wish!) to listen to the whole thing as objectively as I can. I am a bit worried that in stepping back from this project as I always like to do I will lose impetus – it is probably time it was completed, but I know I still have to nalise those middle pictures. There is pressure.

Next Time …

‘ The Fire at its Height ’ – Ready to emerge …

Tribute to Anne d’Oliveira

Eric Thorburn APSSA, Vice-Chair AV Makers SA

Anne d’Oliveira has very sadly passed on from this life, but has left us a legacy of Audio Visual achievement and skill that is beyond compare.

Anne was never content to be a passive photographer - she was a dynamo at the centre of any and every activity, had an enormous appetite for work, loved to interact and talk to fellow enthusiasts, and it was always a pleasure and a privilege to be associated with her

The AV team of Franz Jesche and Anne raised the bar to incredible heights !

Franz wrote the most amazing scripts, while I believe Anne had a air for the audio side. She was an absolute perfectionist, and even the voice-over artist was carefully selected, to match the theme and mood of the sequence they were working on.

There is now a void in our life, but we must not ll it with negative thoughts, Anne would be the rst to encourage us to get going, to do better, to feel inspired and alive !

We pay tribute to you Anne, as a friend, a mentor, and a superlative AV producer.

Pictures below (left and right): From Inside Darkest Africa

Anne made ve memorable sequences in the short time she was actively making AVs. With their main awards they are:

Inside Darkest Africa: PSSA Silver Medal National 2014 Our Natural World

Mozambique: PSSA Bronze Medal National 2015

Mysterious Venda: Prix Sonore and public vote La Coupe Lumière 2017

PSSA Silver Medal 1st IPCC AV Salon

PSSA Silver Medal 1st NPC AV Salon

PSSA Silver Medal National 2018

Silent Cries: HM FIAP Ribbon 12th AV FEST 2015

Image Trophy and Audience vote La Coupe Lumière 2016

Acceptance Trophée de Paris 2016

COM FIAP Ribbon 23rd RPS International 2018

PSSA Silver Medal Knysna/George National AV Salon 2015

AV Makers Gold Medal 'Emotion' International Theme Salon 2018

Tears from Heaven: HM 5th Citta di Garda 2017

AV Makers Gold Medal 'Water' International Theme Salon 2016

Pictures Above (left and right): From Mozambique

Pictures below (left and right): From Mysterious Vanda

Pictures (above and below) From Silent Cries

Pictures (above and below) From Tears from Heaven

Peter Brown ARPS DPAGB Hon PAGB

A tribute from Malcolm Imhoff FRPS FACI(M)

Iam overcome with sadness to inform you that Peter Brown died on 20th October.

Peter died in hospital, and I am told that he had cancer, and a broken heart. We knew he had cancer and had had treatment but thought he had beaten it. Not so the broken heart.

Peter’s wife, Joan, died last year, and Peter found that very hard to bear. Joan had dementia and Peter cared for her lovingly and selessly, giving up all his interests and responsibilities in every other part of his life to care for her.

Peter was a founder member of East Midlands AV Group, originally Leicester Forest AV Group, and led and guided it for many years through many changes, especially the move from slides to digital AV. He was Chairman of the AV Group for 23 years, and donated the most prestigious trophy for their Annual Competition in memory of his daughter Caroline.

He started the New Horizons AV Competition for the MCPF in 1993 and took over from Brian Jeffs as Mid-Phot AV competition organizer in 2001. He ran both competitions combined until 2005 when New Horizons came to an end. In this role he helped and encouraged new workers to show their work and he was very persuasive in cajoling experienced workers to produce new work to ensure that the event continued to maintain its prestigious status in the AV calendar.

For many years he organised RPS AV Days together with Brian Jeffs, and these were always eagerly anticipated and well supported, with countless AV workers beneting from the shared experience.

He has been a major worker for the National Audio Visual Championships. He was Treasurer from 1997 until 2003 when he became Chairman and Treasurer continuing in both positions until 2009. He continued as Treasurer for the 2011 championships.

In 2011, at the National AV Championships, Peter was awarded the Dobson Henry Medal, the highest honour in the AV world, for his outstanding contribution over many years to photography and to the Audio-Visual medium in particular.

Many of you will know Peter through his work with the MCPF and PAGB. He served as President of both the MCPF from 1988 to 1990, and the PAGB from 2003 to 2005, and held the highest honour bestowed by that organisation, that of HonPAGB for the work he did, and I know that it was an honour of which he was exceedingly proud. Joan was proud of him too, and supported him in everything he did, serving as Secretary of the MCPF and of the East Midlands AV Group. They were a devoted couple, and I pray that they are now reunited.

From the very beginnings of the PAGB awards for photographic merit in 1994, it was decided to include AV among the categories open to potential applicants. For many years Peter was responsible for organizing the assessments, as well as acting as Chairman of the adjudicating panel, and they were widely regarded as a model of excellence.

Even after ceasing to be a member of the PAGB Executive Committee he continued to undertake these co-opted tasks with enthusiasm and great skill, and has always been meticulous in advising the PAGB of the outcome of the awards assessment days. Remarkably he managed to achieve a most commendable reduction in running costs for an event that traditionally ran at a nancial loss prior to his input.

His enthusiasm and dedication to any task and to all the many roles he has undertaken have been of the very highest standard. Whatever responsibility he took on he always did it with efciency, dignity, charm and quiet determination. He has been an excellent ambassador for the AV world and photography generally.

Emerald Isle Memories

Lilian Webb, AIPF ARPS.

Following on from Ron Davies’ & Brian Harvey’s memories, I’d like to add some of my own. I was a member of the Photographic Society of Ireland (which was founded 2 years after the RPS), when I rst saw my rst AV - by the late Joe McCusker, called Weeds in the Garden, which was on rubbish left in the garden county of Ireland - Wicklow. I still remember his wonderful images and third images, along with his humorous narration. When I hear the music on the soundtrack, I’m taken right back. My rst single projector sequence was Windmills of Your Mind. About 6 of us decided to pick a piece of music to illustrate as our rst entries to the Irish Photographic Federation’s National Audio Visual Festival. It was judged by the late Ken Tomlinson, recipient of the Dobson Henry medal. My hand was absolutely shaking showing the show manually - and I had to illustrate each part of the song - which of course wasn’t a good idea.

Though that wasn’t much of a start, we all became mentors for new AV’ers and I helped a young lad, with very dark images in a graveyard, to punk music, which denitely wasn’t my forte! Of course, I knew the piece off by heart as I tried to help him with transitions with his 1 roll of lm. Anyway, at the IPF nationals, when the sequence came to be played, it wouldn’t work as the tape was put into play - until it was realised that the sequence was called The Other Side and not that the tape had to be played on the reverse side!

I recalled an experience to Keith Brown recently, when he judged the IPF AV Nationals in Waterford, when a “friend” played a trick on me by renaming my sequence in the programme - which of course, Keith had no access to. There was great laughter when the rst few slides were shown as my sequence was Canal Reections and Sean had put Carnal Reections!

It was amazing that over the years of slides and tapes that I never put the slides in a wrong order when they came in boxes to be put into magazineswhile Frank Malthouse, Kieran O’Loughlin & Alan Lyons were in another room checking the rst 4 and last couple of slides as representations of what they were had to be drawn on the entry form! As there were about 6 different camera clubs entering the championships, there were banks of equipment and screens, with the judge and audience having to move around! Each camera club would have a car full of equipment and spares!

When James Hamill upgraded to a Royale. I bought his twin projectors. The ”twins” had a very exciting life being brought around the country - but the most unusual place was a pub in a bog in County Kildare! Another camera club had brought their sequence to me for them to pulse - it was a single projector sequence with two trays - which was very difcult to pulse the “gap”.. and make sure there was a hand to collect the tray of slides so that they didn’t fall out! Countless attempts were made to get the pulsing right and I knew the script off by heart! So, we brought the sequence A day in the life of the Bog for those involved in it to see themselves!

I miss the dinosaur days! Bringing a memory stick isn ’ t the same!

Not “tailor made” for AV on Zoom …

Lilian Webb AIPF ARPS

Irish Photographic Federation National Audio Visual Co-Ordinator.

The 38th IPF’s National AV Championships were held on Saturday,16th October along with the 2nd Open Photo Harmony AV Competition. Our judge was Alastair Taylor, ARPS, CPAGB/AV. Alastair judged 18 sequences from members of 5 different camera clubs over four categories in the national competition and 27 entries from Ireland, north and south, England, Slovakia, Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, New Zealand & Australia in Photo Harmony.

In the Photo Harmony Competition, Mark Allen won the best Irish Entry and a gold medal for “Wild Scotland” and Andrew Gagg was the overall winner and recipient of a gold medal for “Kitchen Music”. The over-all winner of the National Championships was Judith Kimber, who won both the Best Sound Production Trophy & the Kieran O’Loughlin Memorial Trophy and 2 gold medals - as winner of the Advanced section also and also won the audience vote. Both trophies she was the holder of from AV2019! We did not hold the event last year.

Brendan O’Sullivan, chairman of the IPF AV Group Committee, did very well with silver and bronze medals, an Honourable Mention Certicate and the Best Photography Trophy. Images for two of his three sequences were on his trip with myself and two other members of Celbridge Camera Club to the Peter Coles Internationals - a bucket list item for Brendan - “The Ugly House” & “Snowdonia”

It was great to see that over the course of a VERY long day - that we had attendees from Australia, Africa, America & Europe .. and I’ll have to work harder on Asia & Antarctica!

Not only did Alastair give excellent constructive comments on each of the National entries and a general comment on the Photo Harmony section but he showed several of his sequences - “Devotion”, “Ghost Town”, “Preservation Divine”, “That Picture”, “In the Footsteps of the San”, “A Mother’s Son” & “Beyond the Wall”. He also explained the rationale behind the making of each, which was much appreciated.

Many of those in Ireland would not have had the opportunity of seeing his sequences before. In fact, Jeff Morris, emailed me to say that he is pinching this aspect for his “Yes” competition - showing some of the judge’s work!

I have been the IPF AV Group Secretary/Treasurer since 1998 and the IPF AV Co-Ordinator for about 15 years. When the committee met to organise the IPF AV Championships in those days, we had to put slides in magazines, test them that the pictures on the entry forms matched the rst 5 and last image and played with the cassette. Of course, on the day, the authors had to play the sequences themselves pressing all the right buttons at the right time .. and in the early days manually!

I never thought that I as a Webb would be talking to folk on the www and was very relieved that I managed to stay awake and the internet didn’t die. However, the stress levels were way out of my comfort zone - as I saidnot tailor made for Zoom. But Alastair Taylor was tailor made for the day. Many thanks Alastair.

Hints and Tips: Music Credits

Malcolm Imhoff FRPS FACI(M)

We often see music credits in AV sequences. Sometimes the music is not credited and the question is asked, "what was that piece of music, I would have liked to know?"

If you possess, and I am sure you do, the Licences to use commercial copyrighted music in your AV sequences, then the conditions are quite clear and can be checked out at https://www.theiac.org.uk/iac/copyright/ copyright.htm, where it states "The names of all instrumental groups, bands, orchestras, choruses, solo artists and/or performers shall NOT be identied in subtitles or credits etc."

Thus it would appear OK to mention the names or titles of the pieces of music used, and in some cases that could be very helpful. For example, in my AV sequence "In Search of Paradise" it is very important that the viewer is made aware at the end in the credits that the music used is "The Walk to the Paradise Garden" by Delius.

Copyright is a thorny issue, and the IAC Copyright Clearance Scheme is very comprehensive and detailed in what it covers. Maybe a topic for the next article…

A Point of View – Who’s telling the Story?

Peter Young

When you’re creating the voice-over for your AV, who exactly is telling the story? The default position is that familiar version of you. You’re telling it like it is, speaking from an all-knowing position, using your normal or narrator voice. This diegetic approach, concentrating on the facts, provides ‘information’ for the audience, but it is not guaranteed to be particularly entertaining for them – and delivering enjoyment is one of the functions of the AV.

You don’t have to tell the story the same old way; it’s cool to nd an alternative voice. A recent talk to a camera club showed me that many of my AVs used a voice-over that purported to be someone or something else: the dog talking about the Dog Show (pictured top right ), the lord of the manor speaking about his tomb (pictured lower right), the intrepid explorer in a lost world ...

I recently set myself the challenge of making an AV of a one-time event: a visit to a restored working water-mill, no retakes possible. I recorded the sound effects in between taking photos of the mill and the people who had restored it. For the voice-over, I rejected the diegetic device of describing what the images showed, and instead imagined what it was like for the guys who had worked on it over the years: their philosophy, their reasons for doing it. And rather than imitate the local accent I used one of my own voices. Interviewing them would have required a more complex set-up, and a great deal more editing.

Your Many Voices

You don’t need to be a raconteur, do impressions, tell jokes or anecdotes using character voices. We all have a number of different voices which we effortlessly switch to according to our social situation, for example, when talking to people of a higher social status – the boss or authority gure. It also changes when you are talking to babies, toddlers, young children and teenagers, and even more so when talking to loved ones and spouses – for better or for worse. And people tell me that if I mention Australia, I acquire a bit of an Aussie twang! Not just the tonality of the voice, but the vocabulary as well. Too right.

A Point of View – Who ’ s telling the Story? continued ...

So what could you do differently?

So instead of speaking from your bland neutral observer position, you could put yourself in the role of any person or thing, animate or inanimate, depicted in your AV and then talk from that character’s imagined experience. It’s a good idea to have some close-ups of the narrator or speaker, just to clarify whose voice we are meant to be hearing. I have had shop window dummies and cuddly toys on lockdown; and dogs, pigeons, seagulls commenting on life in the street... They all have something to say, if you’ll let them! Remember Nick Park’s Creature Comforts animations?

Use appropriate language for your character or narrator, and speak in the way they might speak. For example, a cat’s POV will be vastly different from a dog’s. Or your character may adopt any other tone, modern or streetwise, as for example in Jim Tews’ “Felines of New York” [https:// felinesofnewyork.com/]. What would my cat say about this topic? You could bring out your inner actor and deliver your VO in the style of someone wellknown. Not to impersonate them but to adopt their manner of delivering the message. Think Sir David Attenborough, think Morgan Freeman, think Dame Maggie Smith. How would these people, and others, approach your subject matter? Think of the clipped English accents in Newsreels of the 1940s and 50s.

Alternatively, nd a voice that goes with your own attitude: down-to-earth, skeptical, philosophical, confused, and so on. Explore being someone who has a contrary take on things. How would someone with diametrically opposed views respond to your AV topic? You just need to apply some reasonable guesswork to build up that person’s character and POV.

My spoof piece, The Lost City of Droitwich was in the style of a vintage explorer discovering a bafing, deserted town. To record this, I spoke in a low soft voice very close to the microphone, rather intimate, and somewhat puzzled. Adjusting your POV may mean rearranging your sequence to change the emphasis. One outcome of doing this is that your commentary becomes more personal. It reveals more of your opinions, your passions, and why you’re making this particular AV. You did think the topic important, didn’t you? So show that. The more you bring out the emotional side, the stronger the link with your audience.

As the saying goes: Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of eld.

Pictures left: What would the shop mannequin have to say? Alternatively, the teddy bear in the toy shop might give an alternative view.

A Point of View – Who ’ s telling the Story? continued ... Telling a story

Of course, you’re putting words into someone else’s mouth. It’s OK to make things up – AVs are about storytelling, and a good story builds upon the socalled facts and photos to make them resonate in the minds of the audience. Your opening words and the tone of your voice set the scene. If you begin with “Once upon a time ...” your audience will relax expectantly. “That reminds me...” moves people to reminisce as they search for similar examples in their own life.

“Have you ever wondered ...” gets people curious about what they might discover. Audiences like a mystery and want to nd out how it was solved (remember Richard Brown’s In Search of Christina, AV News #215).

If you have a talent to write in verse, then a poetic voice-over, which has it’s own tonal qualities, will also establish a satisfying context. Better to write your own poetry, to get around copyright issues.

Do It Yourself – or a cast of thousands?

If your AV has turned into a debate, a dialogue, or a mini-drama, you need to consider how you will bring this off in a practical sense. Do you play all the parts yourself, or do you get other people to act the various roles? (Hiring professional actors could be expensive!) You could ask friends and family, but they may need coaching in how to say the lines you have written. Of course, rehearse the lines to make sure they are sayable and clear. If you have created multiple characters then record all the speeches for each voice at a time. If you are doing a two-person discussion or argument, you could record this interaction live to get the spontaneity, but avoid too much overlapping dialogue as it will be harder to edit.

Logistically, it’s probably easier to do all the voices yourself. This does demand greater exibility on your part – and a good memory if you have to do retakes. It’s good fun, and your audience will enjoy working out what’s going on.

Pictures Below: A variety of potential voices for your soundtarck

Sound for AV - Noise Reduction

Malcolm Imhoff FRPS FACI(M)

In this article in the series on "Sound for AV" I'm going to deal with the issue of Noise Reduction. It could be a very short article as basically the main message I want to convey is, "don't do it".

Rule #1 is you should not need to use noise reduction at all if your music sources and your voice recordings have been done properly in the rst place. In other words:

 you have used a good quality microphone, recorded at a high enough level (but not into the RED at all, as with digital recording going into the Red means the sound will be distorted. This is quite unlike analogue recording, onto tape for those who remember that, where you would often accept or deliberately record into the Red to maximise the Signal to Noise ratio).

 you have recorded your voice onto a portable digital sound recorder (or minidisc if you are Richard Brown), NOT directly onto the computer. If you do record straight into the computer you will have noise, as computers are very noisy environments and recordings done in this way will usually pick up noise from the electronics and maybe also from components such as fans.

 you have chosen a quiet room as far away from the road as possible to avoid picking up trafc noise, car alarms, burglar alarms, ambulance sirens, police car sirens, barking dogs, mating foxes, neighbours complaining etc. etc.

 you have drawn the curtains, turned your phone off, stopped the clocks, turned the central heating boiler off, put the dog out, put the children out etc. etc.

 you have chosen a suitable time of day when all ambient noise is at a minimum. This usually means about 3am on a Sunday morning.

If you get your music from the Internet it will almost certainly be an MP3 le which has already been compressed and usually you have little control over the quality. Some downloads have a bitrate as low as 96 Kbps with 128 Kbps being quite normal. If you have a choice go for the highest resolution available, 256 Kbps if it is available. I always save it immediately as a WAV le so any further processing will be non-destructive.

Sound for AV - Noise Reduction continued ...

If you are getting your music from a CD, make sure you "rip" the track, not play and record it. That way you will get an exact clone of what is on the CD. When you come to save it, save it as an uncompressed WAV le (Windows PCM on a PC), especially if you are going to edit or process the audio further and/or mix it with voiceover and sound effects. If you want to reduce the le size for your AV by converting it to an MP3 select the highest bitrate and sampling frequency, 320 Kbps, 44100 Hz in most audio programmes.

Sometimes you have to work with what you have got, and sometimes even so called "professional" commercial recordings have a lot of noise. Avoid recording from the radio if possible. You only have to listen to Classic FM playing Vaughan Williams' "The Lark Ascending" (it's on every day so you can't miss it) to hear the excruciating hiss as the compression and normalisation algorithms kick in, almost drowning out the sound of the violin as the lark ies higher.

OK, so you do have a recording with some noise, whether it be hiss or some other background noise. You want to get rid of it, or at least minimise it. Both Audition and Audacity have very good facilities for doing this.

Step 1 is to analyse the waveform to identify the noise. In Fig 1 (below) you can see that the gaps between the voice clips show that there is some background noise, not complete silence. Actually, in this case the level is so low that you would probably not notice it, especially if it is mixed in with some music.

Step 2 is to select a section of "noise" as shown in Fig 2 (above) and capture a "noise prole". In Audition go to Effects / Restoration / Noise Reduction (process) and click on "Capture Prole" as in Fig. 3 (below). This is what will be removed. I recommend that you stick with the default settings to start with, i.e. a Noise Reduction Level of 50 (mid-range) and Reduce By 40dB.

Sound for AV - Noise Reduction continued ...

Try this on the selection, play it and see if you are happy with the effect. My Before and After examples are shown in Fig 4 (left) and Fig 5 (right). If not happy you can tweak the settings ad nauseam.

If you are satised apply the Noise Reduction to the whole waveform. A Tip. There is a risk that in applying Noise Reduction you will remove some of the audio frequencies that are part of the recording that you want to keep. Howard Gregory could spot this a mile off and called it the "Space Invaders" effect. To make sure you are not removing valuable stuff a good trick is to select a voice clip and apply the same Noise Reduction prole to it, but select the "keep only noise" option. See Fig 6 (below).

Play this and if you can hear any of the voice you know you have gone too far. Fig 7 (below left) shows a section of voice as recorded. Fig 8 (below right) shows it with Noise Reduction applied to "keep only noise". You can see that there is none of the voice

In the old days the main bugbear was tape hiss. We used to get round this by using a very effective Noise Reduction system, either Dolby B or even better, DBX. This boosted the noise at the recording stage and on playback reduced it to almost nothing. If you play any old tapes recorded using this method without the noise reduction on, they sound terrible (a bit like Classic FM and "The Lark Ascending").

Another good tip is to save some of that ambient noise in your voice recordings. Then, if you need to split your voice clips on your sound track to move them to t the script or music, you can insert some "silence" in between the clips to make it sound more natural.

My AV sequence Watch Where You're Putting Your Feet was originally recorded on reel to reel tape and there was one moment where Wainwright says "I prefer silence. It's eerie, there's absolute silence" and at that point I reduced all the noise to absolute silence. It did not sound right. So what I did was to record some "silence" by poking my microphone out of the window at 3 am on a Sunday morning and recording, nothing. I pasted that in the gap, and I can assure you, it sounds better.

The Sound Hunters

In a new feature, AV Producers will share their hints and tips when it comes to creating the voice over or sound scape. In a nod to the International Federation of Sound Hunters’ (FICS) who award a medal for ‘Sound’ at the International AV Festival, the feature has been named “The Sound Hunters”

This time, Andrew Gagg shares his approach to recording a voice over, Mark Allen show us his home made recording booth and Alastair Taylor shows his recording set up. If you would like to contribute, do please get in touch with the AV News editor.

Andrew Gagg on Recording a Voice - over

 Wake at 05:00h. (This is a winter scenario)

 Get up and put on my thick towelling dressing gown.

 Go downstairs and make a strong coffee.

 Collect clipboard with script, already broken into short numbered paragraphs (‘bites’). Loose pages to avoid audible ‘page turns’.

 Mount my Sony PCM-M10 on a lightweight tripod and place it on the oor by the left-hand arm of our settee.

 Plug in its remote cable and place the control box near the clipboard.

 Switch off central heating and stop grandfather clock.

 Make another strong coffee.

 Ensure curtains over our big balcony windows are closed – there’s a lot of soft furnishing in our large lounge area, but every little helps.

 Clear my throat well and mutter a short prayer.

 Seat myself comfortably in the corner of the settee (not a believer in standing up, especially at this time in the morning, and I believe there’s a bit of a myth. It might affect an opera singer, but I’ve noticed actors often speak their lines sitting down without detriment!)

 Ensure the recorder is pointing straight at my face and about a foot-and-ahalf away, but slightly off-centre so’s I don’t ‘spit’ into it. (The stereo balance always seems okay despite the slightly unsymmetrical setup.)

 Draw a deep breath and do a dummy run of the whole thing.

 Start the recorder with the remote button in my lap and speak the rst lines.

Picture above. Mark Allen shows us his homemade recording booth which seems to comprise of a plastic storage box, lined with the foam material often found in packaging. The microphone stand and spit/pop guard helps to cut out further unnecessary noises.

The Sound Hunters continued ...

 Stop the recorder on the button.

 Do the rst lines again. And again, and again, and again

 Mercilessly continue until I am completely satised. (If it’s another artiste doing the v/o I am just as ruthless – I have a bad reputation.)

 Draw another deep breath and take a swig of my second coffee (now nearly cold.) Continue to the second ‘bite’. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

 Dismount the Sony recorder and take it through to my ofce, to download onto my PC. (No way I would ever try and record directly onto a PC. I believe the late Howard Gregory had a microphone amplier available that gave a satisfactory level of sound, but otherwise forget it!) (And the fan noise would still be an insuperable problem!)

 Using a USB cable, transfer all the many les to the folder labelled ‘Dendrochronology sounds’ (or whatever the project’s called).

 Go through every take, changing each lename to the number on the script plus the rst few words of that ‘bite’.

 Go through it all again in Adobe Audition, snip off the tops and tails and perhaps award ++++ marks to the likely takes.

 Listen intently again (using headphones for ‘detail’), making a nal selection and then transfer all of these to a subfolder in the ‘Sounds’ folder.

 If I decide to modify the pitch of my voice (or whoever’s I’m using) I do some tests to get it right (should be undetectable) and then methodically process every nal take in Audition.

 Open up the sequence that’s waiting for it’s nal v/o (it may well already have a dummy v/o by me already in place for timing, especially if I’m using another’s voice).

 Replace the dummies with the real thing, and link each bit of sound to the appropriate slide. The numbering and the explicit lenames help to keep it all on the rails.

 Sit back and view the nal result.

 Start worrying about the nesse of the timing, and tweak. And tweak, and tweak

 If an echo or other acoustic effects seem to be required, process the relevant sound le(s) in Audition. Used with discretion.

Picture Above: For voice recording, Alastair Taylor uses a RODE NTG2 Condenser microphone plugged into the Alto ZMK52 Pre-Amp. This boosts the signal and allows some basic EQ adjustments. The Pre-Amp line out is connected to the line in on the Tascam DR5 Digital Recorder and saved on a SD Card as a WAV le for subsequent editing.

Microphones – Part 1: Developing the Technology

Keith Scott FRPS DPAGB AV-AFIAP

The humble microphone, an indispensable piece of Audi-Visual equipment with historic roots. Every recorded sound we hear on radio, television, movies, and other media, including sounds in our sequences all began somewhere with a microphone. An input of acoustic energy converted to an output of electrical energy by a transducer, the microphone being the transducer.

A microphone is the rst and arguably most important item of recording equipment. It is therefore essential to be precision designed, engineered, and manufactured to ensure that its tiny electrical output (measured in millivolts) is of the cleanest quality possible. A modern well-designed mic has the capability to convert sound waves accurately, with little self-noise. However, throughout the recording process this delicate low-level signal will pass through several other pieces of equipment. It will be pre-amplied, converted from analogue to digital, amplied, perhaps have EQ applied, then converted back to analogue before being sent to speakers or headphones where the electrical signal is then converted back to acoustic energy. At each stage there is potential for signal degradation, therefore it’s important to start with the best signal possible from a high-quality microphone.

The types and range of current microphones is far removed from the original carbon button microphone in respect of clarity, sensitivity, consistency, and frequency capability. The original carbon-based mic technology (pictured left) was developed in the 1870 / 1880’s independently by two unrelated people separated by oceans and continents.

David Edward Hughes in England, had his invention demonstrated to members of the Royal Society in 1878. However, Hughes didn’t patent his device; he gave it free to the world, probably missing out on a fortune by doing so.

In 1887 inspired by the earlier invention of the telephone accredited to Alexander Graham Bell, Emile Berliner, a German born American inventor patented his loose-contact carbon device. His patent was purchased by the Bell Telephone Company then subsequently used as a carbon button telephone voice transmitter. Consequential to Berliner’s patent there followed a long bitter legal battle between himself and Thomas Edison over patent rights, which Edison eventually won. However, Edison renowned for his protectionism was just one of many working on similar developments at the same time.

Little is documented about development of mics for some years, until around 1912-1915 with the development of the triode vacuum tube amplier, designed to improve the output of small electrical devices. This had been invented by Lee De Forest an American who in 1907 invented the triode vacuum tube, thereby making the amplier possible. In a much higher developed state and in conjunction with modern technologies many of our nest microphone manufacturers still use vacuum tube technology in their premium range.

Around 1916 Inventor Edward Christopher Wente who worked for Bell Laboratories invented and patented the electrostatic or more commonly named condenser mic. Latterly the condenser mic is more commonly referred to as a capacitor mic, either description in this instance being acceptable. For some years there were other developments by various inventors using the piezoelectric crystal effect, whereby commercially available crystal mics were introduced by the Astatic Corporation founded in Youngstown, Ohio in 1933. This technology sometimes known as ceramic mics was used in relatively low cost and low-quality equipment but eventually phased out, effectively redundant with the development of more advanced technology.

In 1928 Georg Neumann and Co. was founded in Berlin, Germany. Neumann set the standard by which others are still judged in design and quality of their electrical products, especially manufacture of mics. Neumann’s attention to detail and precision engineering led to the design and production of the world’s rst commercially available condenser mic, the CMV3. This mic (pictured right) had a peculiar shape, it was nicknamed ‘the bottle’.

Microphones – Part 1 :Developing the Technology continued ...

The Neumann mic had a remarkably wide frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz made possible by designing an omnidirectional M1 capsule with large goldsputtered colloidan based diaphragm, however this was later changed to a gold-sputtered polyvinyl chloride diaphragm (PVC). The CMV designation referred to “Condensator Mikrofon Verstärker” (condenser microphone amplier) and the number three indicated that two prototype versions had been produced. The electronic circuitry involved an RE084 triode-based ‘vacuum tube’ generally referred as a ‘valve’ in the U.K. By 1932 Neumann had developed the CMV3A this included interchangeable heads with redesigned double diaphragm capsule named M7, considered the world’s rst commercial cardioid pattern mic. This was later developed for use in their legendary U47 models where Neumann had a worldwide distribution deal with Telefunken, U47 models for export carried Telefunken logos. The only difference between Neumann and Telefunken mics were the name badges and model numbers. Re-badging continued into the late 1950’s.

Edward Christopher Wente, previously mentioned in connection with the condenser mic also worked in conjunction with another Bell engineer named Albert Thuras. Between them they developed the rst commercially available dynamic mic released in 1931, named ‘618A Electrodynamic Transmitter’ (pictured left ), marketed by Western Electric. This was quite a revolution because unlike the condenser mic it didn’t need any external power supply. It generated its own tiny electrical output using a newly developed cobalt-steel alloy magnet and thin light weight duralumin diaphragm with coil. It produced an omnidirectional pattern and was responsive to 10kHz. Due in part to its robust design, compact size, and simplicity of use this mic was used by broadcasters, and lm industry for some years.

Between years 1933 to 1944 President F D Roosevelt regularly addressed America via the radio on a programme named ‘reside chat’. It is believed that his preferred microphone for this programme was the Western Electric 618A (pictured right), although other mics are also known to have been used. Advancements in broadcasting inspired mic development, especially of ribbon mics. Whilst the original inventor of the ribbon mic was probably Werner von Siemens pre 1890 he had no way of amplifying its signal, it was therefore commercially useless! However in the 1920’s Walter H. Schottky and Erwin Gerlach co-invented the rst credible ribbon mic.

But it wasn’t until Harry F. Olson of RCA further developed the technology using eld coils and permanent magnets that the ribbon became fully viable. RCA Type PB-31 ribbon was commercially manufactured from 1931. The following year they released their 44A version which reduced reverberation. The ribbon mic produced a much cleaner signal, with a wider frequency range than previously possible from carbon or crystal mics, it was readily adopted by broadcasters, especially in the U.S.A and U.K. Ribbon mics were very popular and widely used for a multitude of recording purposes including some of the world’s most famous singers, recording artists, big bands, and orchestras right through from 1940’s into the early 1960’s.

With few exceptions ribbon mics produce a gure of eight polar pattern. At the very heart of these mics was a ‘ribbon’ made of ultra-thin corrugated aluminium foil, unfortunately whilst this produced excellent transience it was also very fragile, of low voltage output, and easily damaged.

In the U.K. the BBC co-developed and used Marconi Type A to Types AXBT ribbon mics from 1934 to late 1950’s. These were physically large mics (pictured right) with an iconic warm sound, and heavy build at approximately 4.2kg or 9.25 pounds.

Throughout the 1950’s and early 1960’s electronics technology was rapidly changing, advancements in miniaturising semiconductors enabled more compact design of condenser mics using transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors etc to replace older types of component circuitry.

Popularity of ribbon mics dwindled, rapidly overtaken by the upsurge of technically superior smaller condenser mics at an affordable price, with higher sensitivity and output voltage. Most original manufacturers of ribbon mics disappeared although Beyerdynamic, founded in 1924 in Berlin still make a model M130 double ribbon mic, along with their range of dynamic and condenser mics.

Microphones – Part 1 :Developing the Technology continued ...

James West and Gerhard Sessler of Bell Laboratories received a patent in 1964 for the electroacoustic transducer, an ‘electret’ microphone, which signicantly transformed mic development. Electret mics had previously been tried by others, but their polarised wax-based plates were not stable. An electret mic must maintain a permanent charge, the wax plate was unable to do so. Advances in materials allowed experiments using PVC, acrylics, polystyrene, and various ultra-thin metals eventually leading to the use of mylar foil (strong polyester lm developed in the early 1950s). The rst electret using metalized mylar foil was probably introduced by Sony around 1968. Today most manufacturers of electret mics use thin lm of gold sputtered mylar. The electret or backelectrets as they are known can be manufactured with great precision, small size, and at competitive cost, many are described as pencil mics. Due to their permanent charge they don’t need external power but can be powered using an internal battery, although many will also work with 48 volts phantom power. This allows their use almost anywhere, enabling simplied location work for lm and TV.

Publication Information

AV News is published three times a year by the AV Group of the Royal Photographic Society. It is distributed free to Group members and is available to others for an Annual Subscription of £22 in the UK, £25 in Europe and £27 elsewhere – contact Alastair Taylor at avtreasurer@rps.org

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