AV News 225 April 2022

Chairman's Chatter

Edgar Gibbs FRPS, MPAGB, AV-AFIAP

Over the last two years and despite the challenges we all faced, it has been really heartening to see that the AV Community has remained as strong as ever, if not more so. It seems that many new people have taken an interest in our great hobby particularly as there have been so many events they can join via Zoom to learn and enjoy our special medium. On the Saturday Linda and I logged in to the rst NIPA International Audio Visual AV Competition, which was well presented. Although we had a chance to "see" and chat to other attendees, we said how nice it would have been to actually have been in Ireland. So hopefully, if the situation continues to improve, we would like to think that we could plan to actually be at the 2023 event.

However, there's already an AV event this year that we are planning to attend. As you may know the RPS AV Group Committee has decided that the 2022 National Audio Visual Championship (NAVC) will be held in person. Alastair Taylor and his team are already planning the details of the event and I for one look forward to seeing and meeting our friends from the AV Community in the esh. Please put the dates, Saturday the 10th and Sunday 11th September 2022 in your diary when you will be able to see the AVs on the big screen at Leeds Trinity University.

Last year we were delighted that Judith Kimber was awarded her Fellowship of the RPS with her AV submission. A closing date has now been set for the receipt of applications to the Film, Video and Multimedia Panel. This will be 29th July 2022 and I am hoping that there will be some applications for Assessment.

For those of you considering a distinction, there will be an advisory day on Saturday 25th June 2022. It will be held at RPS House, Bristol and as the Society has the technology it will be live streamed as well as being an in person event. Discussions are ongoing with Evan Dawson, RPS Chief Executive Ofcer, and Andy Moore, RPS Distinctions Manager, which have been very positive. Further information will be provided in a special edition of AV News e-xtra.

By the time you read this the IAC Peter Coles International AV Competition will have been held and I’m sure it will have been an enjoyable event. The Jurassic Coast International Audio Visual Salon 2022 is also on the horizon combining a Zoom event of Awards and Acceptances over the weekend of 28th & 29th May 2022 and a live Gala Showing at Woodbury Hall, Devon, on 11th June 2022. The PAGB is holding an Adjudication on 21st May to consider applications in respect of Awards for Photographic Merit in AV. This will be live streamed via Zoom, and will be a good event to watch if you are considering submitting an application in future.

For those that did not know, Ron Davies celebrated his 90th birthday in February, and I’m sure you will join with me is sending belated birthday wishes to Ron, considered to be the “grandfather” of our AV Community!

I look forward to seeing you and your entries at the National Audio Visual Championship on 10th and 11th September 2022.

Best wishes. See you soon.

Editor’s Welcome

Alastair Taylor ARPS DPAGB/AV

Just a short note from me this time. I hope you enjoy this edition of AV News. You will see a few changes with some new features and content ideas. I would like to thank those of you who responded to my request in the last edition and especially to those who provided lovely images and words to help bring alive our AV Productions. I am pleased to report that I already have some copy for the next edition although do please keep sending me your contributions. Without you we are nothing. Best wishes to everyone and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the National AV Championship in September.

All contributions to: magazine@avnews.org.uk or alast.taylor@gmail.com

22nd National Audio Visual Championship (NAVC)

Avery warm welcome from the organising team of the 22nd National Audio Visual Championship (NAVC). The championship will take place on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September 2022. The big news is that the event will be a physical event (subject of course to any pandemic related developments which might arise between now and September, so to that end there is a ‘Plan B’ although we all hope that there will be no need for that).

At this stage, we would like to furnish you with the essential facts to aid your planning.

Organising Team

Championship Chair: Alastair Taylor

Team: Malcolm Imhoff, Keith Watson, Peter Warner, Andrew Gagg

NAVC Venue

The Championship will be held at Leeds Trinity University (LS18 5HD), a compact university, outside and north-west of Leeds city centre, offering easy parking and a modern and comfortable auditorium with refreshment facilities.

Judges

 Ian Bateman FRPS MPAGB AV -AFIAP APAGB

 Sheila Haycox ARPS MPAGB/AV EFIAP

 Alan Tyrer ARPS DPAGB/AV

Key Diary Dates

NAVC Dates: Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 September 2022.

Competition Entries: from Monday 18 July to Midnight on Sunday 21 August. Event Bookings: will open on 18 July and close on Sunday 4 September.

Costs

These will be in line with previous events. Payment can made via PayPal, BACS, Cheque and Card.

Information for Entrants and Attendees

Visit www.rps.org/groups/audio- visual/navc/ to download:

 22nd NAVC Rules

 22nd NAVC Entry Form

 22nd NAVC Booking Form

Accommodation and Timings

There are several hotels nearby, as well as Leeds/Bradford Airport (should you wish to y up). The nearest hotel is the Premier Leeds/Bradford Airport Hotel. As has happened at the previous Nationals and Internationals, attendees are expected to make their own accommodation arrangements.

We anticipate plenty of entries, though we will try to avoid pre-selection if at all possible. We estimate that on both Saturday and Sunday we will start at around 10:00 am and run through until around 5:30 pm.

We are anticipating having a Championships dinner on Saturday in a local restaurant, hopefully on the same basis as previously, i.e. we will need to know numbers beforehand, but you will be able to choose your meal on the night.

There are few people who have devoted most of their adult years to Audio Visual. Richard Brown is one of them. For this AV Lives interview we were able to meet face to face and it was the rst time I had seen Richard in two years. As with all old friends we picked up the conversation as if it were yesterday. We were both in a reective mood

An interview with Richard Brown FRPS

I asked about Richard's rst involvement with AV and discovered that it dates back to 1975. That’s forty seven years ago! Richard explains: “There was a photographic club when I was at school and at rst I was interested in black and white prints. I was about 12 at the time. Later, I got a Saturday job in a camera shop where one of my workmates was a member of Fentham Photographic Society. He invited me to the Focus '75 exhibition, which he thought I would enjoy. Little did he know what he was starting.”

On the Friday evening there was a show by Richard Tucker FRPS, one of the early adopters of AV. “I knew that night that I was going to be chasing around after AV from then on” adds Richard. He went back on the Saturday evening when Fentham member Ray Dowding gave another AV show. Ray became Richard's rst mentor and through his encouragement, Richard became a member of the RPS in 1976.

Pictured Below: An early AV Group lecture. Leeds 1981. l to r Brian Snowball, RB, Betty Crampton, Brian Bower, Richard Tucker, Marjorie Cook, Ray Brightman, Yorkshire Area Organiser Stuart Clark.

Audio Visual Lives continued ...

We mused over what it is about AV which attracts us. Like me, Richard is not a great fan of routine camera club competitions. We are drawn to the multidimensional nature of AV, where you need to be competent in a range of skills: photography, script writing, sound recording, production, etc.

Another early inuence was Lady Doreen Pollock who he rst met in 1977, just a year into his RPS membership, when he attended a panel meeting in London. He recalls how it worked back then. Authors had to bring their own equipment. He remembers that Colin Balls arrived on the train with a rucksack containing his projectors – perhaps a forerunner of the Royale system. At that time the RPS had only recently started telling applicants the panel's recommendations on the day. Previously they had had to wait several weeks for a letter in the post.

Richard recalls: “Lady Pollock was involved with my rst three big AV achievements, all in 1980. I won the rst NAVC - she was on the jury. I gained my FRPS – she was on the panel. And she was the rst Chair of the new LRPS distinctions panel and invited me to be one of the founder members, along with Ray Dowding and Colin Balls”. Since then, Richard has served on all four iterations of the AV panel: slide tape, audio visual, multimedia and now lm. He adds that distinctions have been a big part of his life for over forty two years.

Pictured Below: Hamming it up at the Dyffryn Summer School for the costume drama ‘Death at Dyffryn’ 1980. l to r David Hawkins, Richard Brown, Eric Cooke, Peter Clarke.

Lady Pollock was also responsible for Richard’s work with the RPS AV Group. He recalls “I attended the AGM in 1983 and there were a couple of vacancies for committee members for which there were no nominations, so a general call went out for volunteers. I shufed down in my seat trying not to be noticed. But Doreen called out from the back of the room that she thought I would be a good choice. So that was that. After the meeting, the new Chairman Ray Brightman buttonholed me and ‘volunteered’ me to be the West Midlands area organiser as well. So I set out for Kenilworth that morning as a free spirit and returned home with two jobs! A couple of years later I took over from Ray as Chairman and later on moved to become Secretary when Harry Tyass retired. It was a rewarding and productive time to be involved, when the AV Group was at the height of its activities with about 700 members and twelve very active areas having regular meetings.”

Another big part of Richard's AV life were the AV Summer Schools at Dyffryn House near Cardiff. These were born out of the Barry AV Summer School run by George and Doreen, which was part of a much larger arts festival. Richard attended his rst event at Dyffryn in 1979 and went on to attend every one until they ended in 1993. The early events were run by Richard Tucker and later the dream team of Richard himself along with Clive Atkins and Keith Brown.

Pictured Below: The Boys from Brum. Richard with Clive Atkins and Keith Brown. “Two of my closest friends - still together after forty years and countless adventures. Birmingham 2021”.

Audio Visual Lives continued ...

The summer school would last upwards of a week, with around 15-20 delegates who would absorb themselves in AV making from taking the images, processing the slides and recording the soundtrack, right through to showing the nal production.

“It was a wonderful creative atmosphere where we were learning all of the time” comments Richard. “It was a period of great innovation and I have so many happy memories of the friends I made and the enjoyable times we had. It was a very sad day for me when Dyffryn closed in 1993.”

We go on to talk about the various AV workers who have inspired Richard over the years. Having already mentioned Richard Tucker, Ray Dowding and the Pollocks who were the rst people to introduce him to AV and valued mentors, Richard runs through a list of other major inuences.

These include Colin Balls on account of his documentary making skills, an AV style which Richard greatly enjoys doing himself. Then there was John Dawkins, a name now long gone from AV circles, who was a great interpreter of music and poetry – two genres which Richard feels are underappreciated these days.

A contemporary of Richard's is Martin Fry, who is renowned for the quality of his photography and especially the use of third images, another aspect which Richard feels is increasingly being lost in the modern era. Another name is Norman Veale who was a great script writer and story teller. He had a wonderful turn of phrase and could take the viewer on a journey with the illusions he was able to create.

In Richard's eyes, one of the game changers in the AV world was Peter Coles.

“I think that one of the most pivotal moments in the history of AV was when Jill is Still won the NAVC in 1991. Up until then, straightforward documentaries had pretty much ruled the roost in domestic competitions and distinctions. But Jill is Still was really the rst AV that showed the possibilities for a personal voice and can be said to have changed the direction that the medium subsequently took - putting the author's own experiences and feelings front and centre”.

Another hero of Richard's is Keith Leedham.

“He has produced some great AVs over the years and of course everyone remembers For the Sake of Example which is a classic. But one of the most moving sequences I’ve ever seen is That’s Our Stephen which makes Keith another worker who can bring real emotion and depth to the story.”

Anyone who knows Richard well will remember his close association with Keith Brown and Clive Atkins. They rst met at the Midphot AV Competition in the early eighties and started to do shows and workshops together. They had various unofcial names including 'The Boys from Brum' and later 'The Tree Fellas'. They took their shows all over the UK, including many memorable trips to Cornwall, Scotland and East Anglia. There was the infamous ‘Nine O’Clock Sharp’ tour of Ireland in 1987 and also a continental trip to Antwerp in 1991 to help encourage the newly formed Diaporama Club of Belgium. Richard made many friends on these visits and still keeps in touch with some of them.

Richard has particularly fond memories of his trips to Ireland as a visitor, lecturer and judge. He has been back to Ireland, both North and South countless times since his rst visit to Belfast in 1985 and it has almost become his second home. “I am enormously proud of my status as an Honorary Irishman which was awarded to me by Lillian Webb” he laughs.

Pictured Below: Richard with Clive Atkins and Keith Brown - Three Fellows on Tour. Dublin 1987.

Over the years, Richard has entered many international AV festivals, with varying degrees of success.

He has a special attachment to Adelaide, where he won his rst and for many years only FIAP Grand Prix with The Little Red Box in 1999. He lectured and judged there in 1997 and 2007. More recently, he has been to the St. Gallen festival in Switzerland, the Trophee de Paris, Lake Garda and Garbagnate in Milan where he judged in 2019.

He would like to have attended more, although sadly the number of festivals on the continent has been dwindling for a long time.

Pictured Left: Richard’s best known sequence for many years. The Little Red Box 1990.

We go on to explore Richard's views on AV making and the recipes for success. Scriptwriting is an area where he has particular strengths.

“First of all, the subject has to really interest the author, otherwise why would you make the effort at all? Then the task is to make the script or the story appealing to the viewer, because that doesn’t automatically follow.”

We both agree that those AVs which are on a subject clearly close to the author's heart and where there is a strong enthusiasm are often the most engaging for the audience.

We discuss Richard's highly successful and celebrated AV In Search of Christina which is the best part of 12 minutes long, but is so absorbing that you do not notice the time at all. Richard mentions the AV Portrait of the Author which in his view is an all-time great and in which the personal aspect of the scriptwriting is also paramount

Richard has a particular view on AVs which use images collected on a holiday. He feels these can sometimes be self-indulgent.

“I’ve seen many AVs over the years, particularly holiday documentaries, where the author is so wrapped up with remembering the enjoyable time they had that they overlook the need to make the sequence interesting for the audience. The ultimate level to aim for is that the narrative is so engrossing that the viewer forgets they are watching an AV. That’s what the best cinema lms are capable of doing.

If you want to know more about scriptwriting, you'll have to come to one of my lectures” he jokes.

We go on to talk about the concept of Intents and the words you sometimes have to supply when entering an international competition or applying for a distinction. “These are difcult to write” he says “although we should really ask if they are needed at all, since a successful AV should not need a paragraph of explanation to introduce the intent to the audience – it should speak for itself.”

Pictured Below: Wartime codebreaker Joan Clarke Murray, played by an actress, returns to Bletchley Park. And Never Cackled 2009.

Audio Visual Lives continued ...

Then there is the tricky subject of images rst or script rst. Richard has tried both over the years, but on the whole he says the most satisfying approach is one where the idea comes rst and the content afterwards. “That’s the way nearly all of my own favourite AVs have been produced” he adds.

Our discussion leads on to the current class of AV makers and who is inspiring Richard at the moment. There are many, although Richard singles out three.

“I spotted Robert Albright's unusual approach many years ago when he entered a joint sequence into the NAVC entitled The spaces between the words are more important than the words themselves which was as quirky as its title suggests. Back then, there was a pre-selection process, with those rejected being shown in a Salon de Refuse on the day before the event. Peter Coles and myself were the only ones who voted to have it shown in the main competition! Robert has gone on to produce many idiosyncratic and thought provoking AVs which have been highly successful.

Another worker is Alan Tyrer, who I rst spotted at the Great Northern. I remember thinking then that he has what it takes. I like his work because you never know what you are going to get. Alan is condent to tackle many different genres of AV rather than sticking to one, as most people tend to do”.

And of course there is Judith Kimber, who is denitely one our brightest stars of the new generation of AV workers. She uses an innovative combination of brilliant artistic photography and her own music to tell engaging stories. What’s not to like about that?”

Pictured Left Top: Poetry interpretation with a personal slant. The Burning of the Leaves 1999.

Pictured Left Bottom: From In Search of Christina, inspired by Richard attending the RPS 'Drawn by Light' exhibition in 2015 which led to the discovery of a once in a lifetime story.

In Search of Christina awards

FIAP Grand Prix: RPS International, Cheltenham; Garda, Italy; Port Elizabeth, South Africa plus 1 silver and 4 bronze FIAP medals. Other festivals won: Coupe de Europe, Epinal; Cannes; Clic Triel, Paris; MidPhot. Runner Up: National AV Championships; Great Northern Festival; South Africa 'Emotion' competition. Best Documentary, Adelaide.

Audio Visual Lives continued ...

So what about the future and where are we heading with AV?

Richard is feeling more optimistic than before. “Ten years ago it was quite depressing. AV seemed to be on a downward trajectory with fewer competitions, workers, events and attendees. But now things have picked up, with some good quality work and promising new people”.

We both agree that digital AV is coming of age, with technical gimmicks like panning & zooming, animation and gratuitous video being used less. In fact, Richard sees a move stylistically back to the days of slide-tape, where interesting stories are taking a higher prole again. The term ‘Back to the Future’ comes to mind.

He is less convinced by the attempts to use Photo Harmony as a means of encouraging newcomers to the world of AV.

“Photo Harmony is difcult to do well, and hasn’t really realised its potential in bringing new people into AV” adds Richard. “Audio Visual at its most effective is about self-expression, from people who have something to communicate to an audience, rather than as simply a vehicle for showing off photography”.

We conclude that we live in a world where there are so many people who have something to say and that our challenge is to introduce them to AV as a way of doing that. On that basis, the future of AV is bright.

Pictured Below: Getting our priorities right at the festival! Lake Garda 2018. l to r Edgar Gibbs, Linda Gibbs, Sheila Haycox, RB, Robert Albright.

Pictured Above: Family history research turns into urban exploration. The Power of Memories 2013.

Pictured Below: Almost everyone who went to Dyffryn made a Barry scrapyard sequence. Death of Steam 1980.

RPS Great Yorkshire AV Day

Mark Allen DPAGB/AV

Sunday 21 November 2021 and the doors opened at 10.00 am allowing for a quick catchup amongst the audience. We had visitors from all over the UK and Ireland and even one from the USA.

Bryan Stubbs had earlier pointed out that he needed more shows for the AV Day. He was then inundated and ended up with too many. Sadly, some of the AVs had to be dropped. There was enough time to show 22 AVs before lunch. Keith Scott emphasised the need for positive comments on the shows. There was a lot to be positive about. I mention three that I particularly enjoyed.

Howard Bagshaw's Oc (pictured below) had won South Africa's themed 'Yes' competition and it was a pleasure to see it again. I love to see things I missed on the rst viewing. This is often the sign of a well-crafted production. The audience was informed that Oc is the language still used in parts of Catalonia. Feedback revealed that the audience thought it was clever, well crafted and owed well. Overall an excellent production and we were delighted at the end to be offered a glass of wine. The universal answer from the audience, was, of course “Oc”.

Adrian White's Snapshot of Yorkshire was most appropriate for Great Yorkshire AV Day. We saw the four seasons and beautiful landscapes of Yorkshire. A most enjoyable tour of the White Rose County, serenaded by Delius.

Jane McIlroy's As Time Goes By was simply sublime. Beautifully constructed, long slow fades demonstrated clever, subtle blends and transitions. The audience was enthralled as a white cottage appeared in the previously empty landscape, only to fall into ruin and mere stones. I am sure I was not the only one to wonder 'how did she do that?' I hope to see a Photoshop/PTE masterclass in the future.

And speaking of a Photoshop/PTE masterclass, Sheila Haycox ARPS, MPAGB/AV EFIAP provided the afternoon's session. Sheila offered four main demonstrations She selessly discussed her thinking on both the hows and whys behind the shows. She revealed how to use 'Modiers' in PTE.

I wonder how many members of the audience, like me, said 'modiers?' We were then shown how she made the wheels go round in Daisy's Bizzare Day Out. And how the spray worked when Daisy took to a jet ski. It was an educational tour de force.

It was evident that Sheila could comfortably and eloquently talk all day, and with passion, on any of her favourite AVs and I would have been more than happy to listen, all day long. We were very lucky to see behind the scenes in Behind The Mask and the approach used in the captivating Theresienstadt.

I suspect there are some AV workers who would want to keep their secrets to themselves. Not Sheila, she entertained us by sharing her knowledge, skills and experience. She delighted, in explaining the whys and wherefores. The audience was engrossed as Sheila continued with expert advice on not only PTE but also composites created in Photoshop .

Whilst the technical brilliance was impressive, it was her approach to storytelling that had the most impact on me. "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story". Sheila has a magical ability to make up a most convincing tale, that in the past I have to naively admit had me completely fooled. All-in-all it was a captivating afternoon, closing a successful Great Yorkshire AV Day.

Turn over for images from a selection of AVs shown on the day

The next RPS Great Yorkshire AV Days are scheduled for Sunday 3 April and Sunday 6 November 2022. Contact Bryan Stubbs for details.

RPS Great Yorkshire AV Day continued

Above: A Window to Windows by Ron Henry

Top Right: Billingford Lakes by Ian McIntosh, Middle Left: My Snapshot of Yorkshire by Adrian White, Middle Right: Is it Art by David Walker, Bottom Right: As Time Goes By, by Jane Mcllroy.

Below: Set The Ball Rolling by Edmund Spavin.

Dear Sir,

The Photo Harmony debate rumbles on. At the recent MCPF MidPhot AV Competition the three judges admitted they did not entirely agree on the denition of “Photo Harmony” and which sequences qualied. I don’t blame them. They were faced with an almost impossible task, given the variety of sequences they were sent to judge. They seemed to have reservations about most of the AVs that were entered in that category.

It appeared that if the sequence was based on a song, it was not considered to be Photo Harmony as there would inevitably be some degree of “interpretation”, literal or not. A sequence using a poem would likewise be questioned. Many of the “pictures to music” sequences were described as having transitions that were “predictable”. I think that in most cases they meant “regular”, in other words, the slides had been auto-arranged on the timeline with the same length of transition and screen time throughout. Most of us nd that boring!

As I have maintained many times in AV News (Issues 222, and 223 for example) the key word is “harmony”, so if the author and the viewer have recognised the structure and the phrasing of the music and timed the transitions to synchronise with it, it will be “predictable”, because it harmonises. The images and music compliment and move together as one.

It is interesting that in the The East Anglian Audio Visual Competition organised by The Essex Audio-Visual Group, there is no Photo Harmony section. Entrants are asked to say which category their sequence ts best, and they have kept with the old familiar “Music, Poetry and Song” category, thus avoiding any confusion.

Yours faithfully,

Malcolm Imhoff

Please send your letters and comments to the editor: alast.taylor@gmail.com

Reverend Dr Gordon Gray - 1935 to 2021

A tribute from Raymond Hughes

It was with great sadness we learned in December that Revd Dr Gordon Gray FRPS had suddenly died. Gordon had been a stalwart of Audio Visual for decades and was a founder member along with the late Ken Tomlinson of the RPS Audio Visual Group (Ireland). The group drew members from across Ireland North and South and most AV workers in Ireland today would have learned their craft there. Gordon's successes in AV were in the days of Slide/ Tape with sequences with a religious message and others based in the middle east were he had an interest through his work with Christian Aid, often working with his friend Ross Mulholland on sound.

Unfortunately Gordon never really got to grips with Digital and his sequences in later years were rare. However he was always ready with constructive help to others. I put some of my own successes down to his wonderful narrations of my scripts. I waited each year for his call that 'unfortunately he had not managed to nish his sequence in time for the NIPA Festival'. When he did complete his last sequence Talisman I sent him an email with the 'Hallelujah Chorus' attached which he took with his usual good humour

Despite his struggles with digital his interest did not diminish and he would encourage anyone who would listen to have a go at Audio Visual.

Despite being in his eighth decade his interest did not wane and he was an active member of the AV Group until Covid stopped meetings and until recently was on the NIPA AV Festival organising committee and an active member of his Camera Club, 'Fairhead Photographic Club.' Gordon had been in attendance at the Club's Zoom meeting a few hours before he sadly passed away.

The title of Richard Brown's sequence in the NIPA 2022 Festival brought Gordon to mind There was never anybody like him

We will miss Gordon's enthusiasm, energy and wisdom.

Andrew Gagg FRPS

Clay in My Hands

13 th September. The new bits of speech seem mostly to t quite well – a few tweaks to get those levels right, but I think we are nearly there with that aspect. I have made tiny adjustments to the timings of the rst and last parts of the piece, which seem to improve it – some serendipitous coincidences are kept in. I have put in a blackness after the golem has suffered the agonies of the re – the next frame becomes very bright – rebirth – emergence as something new and very different. Still mulling over which pictures should symbolise the beauty – sometimes overblown - of ceramics. Gaudy and glitzy, they get further and further from the true nature of clay, and then recede.

16 th September. Progress at last – I am now ignoring the rst half, which is virtually complete, and focusing on the ‘post ring’ aspect. I have added various effects to the pictures, to try and give the thing subtlety. I have retaken a few pictures because there was dust evident on some of the pots when seen in extreme close-up!

Sadly, the Laughing Cavalier plate that Clive Stanley’s dad painted when he was working at Worcester Porcelain does not go well with the other images. The original, now in fragments and I believe thrown away, was a tour de force of the enameller’s skill, but the face of the smiling Dutchman somehow didn’t seem to t, so it had to go.

The turquoise-blue passage with the Arabian Sea in the background seemed to call for gentle lapping sea sounds, which it now has.

29 th September. Another long gap. Preparations for the National Championship have claimed all our attention for a while, and it has given me a chance to take a fresh look this morning. The bit I used to replace the Laughing Cavalier works well – the crash after the fade to black made me jump when I saw it afresh just now! That’s good.

It is so nearly there. I have done a few nice tweaks, smoothing the colour change from one image to the next, and splitting Jeff’s initial groan into two, with a change of volume between them. I think that the Wedgwood spiral bit still needs another look.

Christine has not seen this yet. She was heavily involved in the last one, but I am somewhat in trepidation as to what she will make of it – it’s a very peculiar idea, and she doesn’t do ‘weird’!

1 st October. Quite pleased with some of the subtle adjustments I have made to the voice-over. There’s one phrase which I have made much more hesitant by putting in tiny pauses. In particular the start of the word ‘from’ now has an extended ‘f’ sound, made by replicating the expelling air sound that was already there several times. Amazed it worked so well!

I have also worked on the frame ‘my beauty entraps me’ – the spiral has now taken on a pinkish hue, and fades and softens so that it is not so crude.

2 nd October. A good early start this morning. I have made the kiln interior become ‘white hot’ as we pan down it, while hearing the shriek of ‘the ames…!’ I did it in Objects and Animations using a second version of the image as a ‘child’ of the rst, over-exposed and treated in Topaz.

I still haven’t quite got the colour bright enough in ‘but still I live’ – it’s meant to segue into the ceramic grave cross in the next frame, although it is better, I think. I’ve found a better, sharper picture for ‘my shards persist’.

Clay in My Hands continued ...

3rd October. In between making nal preparations for the Leeds Championship, I’m still making tiny adjustments to timing and the synchronisation of the pictures with the speech. I think I have sorted the ‘entraps me’ bit – the spiral of Wedgwood’s acanthus leaves now changes colour on a certain keypoint, and now looks rather like a strand of sinisterlooking dark green seaweed.

I have used two recordings of the nal line now, both exactly in synch. One has a strong, weird echo, the other is ‘straight’ matching all the rest of the speech. I have cross-faded them, so that the reverb gets stronger through the phrase. It was easier to do this in PicturesToExe than in Audition, and gives me more control over the nal effect. In one of those quite radical late insights, I have dropped a couple of pictures – the bling of the Pavlovsk Palace didn’t seem quite right.

I have played around with the music channels in Audition too, so that those strange sounds seem to move around, rather in the same way as the changing light does on the clay and soil.

I keep on making these little tweaks, but I think it is nished as near as possible. The thought that troubles me is that, not for the rst time in my life, I have fashioned something out of a lump of clay – I just hope I am not now just polishing a turd!

13th October. A nervous morning, as I have nally decided that it is all ready for Christine to see. Thankfully she approves, while wondering how readily it will be understood in some quarters. We agree that it might be suitable for an International audience – the dialogue is brief and will translate easily, and the idea might strike a chord with our continental counterparts – who knows?

Anyhow, it looks as if my gure of clay will have to remain buried for a little while longer – until September in Cheltenham, in fact.

31st January 2020. Nothing much to do now but sit and wait - Golem will not be released on the world to do his fearful work until the Internationals. Preparations for that are under way already!

Postscript:

9th January 2021. It seems an eternity since I wrote that last sentence. A whole wasted year edited from the life of humanity, and Golem has lain undisturbed throughout it all. Jeff has been sent a copy of it at last, with my most grateful thanks, but it has been seen by no one else. The RPS International as a competition ceased to exist until the following year, and was replaced by a virtual Festival – a great event, but somehow not quite the same.

13th January. Sudden realisation – I’m about to miss the MidPhot deadline! A quick review of it all, some tiny tweaks, and at last my pygmy giant is sent out to do my bidding. The clay is not in my hands any more…

My Private Peaceful

Jim Waddington LRPS

About 13 or 14 years ago, when I lived just South of Chichester, I happened to get hold of a magazine called ‘Village Life Magazine, West Sussex’ and one particular story held my interest and as often happens I could see images as I read. I imagined an AV sequence with the correct narration and images would be quite moving. At the end of the story it said “by Bethany age 12” and that blew me away as the words were so good.

One sentence reads ’15 minutes to go. I reach into my pocket and pull out a battered photograph of my family back in England, as I look at it my eyes ll up with water and the tears start to run down my cheek.’

I wrote to the editor of the magazine and lo and behold it was the editor’s daughter and the story was for a school project. I asked if I could use the story and was given permission.

Roll forward about 10 years and I suddenly had the motivation to do something with the story.

I didn’t wish to narrate the words myself and asked others, including a member of Buckingham Camera Club who was into lm and video making. It turns out he new someone who might make a good job of it and what a break that was, as when the recording came back, I was blown away by the professional result.

I had accumulated many images of trenches. including re-enactors, when a few years ago a trench system was built at the Great Dorset Steam Fair. Also, a trench system was discovered in woodland within the boundary of Royal Air Force Halton and when there for an apprentice re-union I was able to visit and get a few more images. Most images were mine and a few were borrowed from historical sites on the internet.

Having put it all together I entered it in the New Horizons section of The Great Northern and although well received it was criticised for the font used for the title. There was an article on the very subject in AV News some time ago. I have since changed the title font to something more sympathetic with the sequence content.

Since the completion of my sequence, I have tried to locate the author the words, Bethany, but with no luck. I wrote to her address, which was under the editor’s name but no answer. I then wrote different letter to the current occupier and to two houses either side of the last known address, even including an SAE, but nobody, that’s right, nobody had the decency to answer. Estate agents have been no help either so really, I have given hope of nding the Bethany, the author.

Thank you all for your support for our “Magical Mystery Tour”, our annual Audio Visual Show and Supper in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, which this year was a Beatles Spectacular. If you came you will know what a fab evening it was. If you were not able to come thank you especially to all of you who sent donations, or donated via my Facebook page, or via the Just Giving website.

I am very pleased to tell you that we have passed our target of £1500. To date we have raised £1512. This is amazing as we were not able to accommodate as many people as usual because of the need for social distancing. A large part of that sum was raised from the Rafe, so thank you to all those who generously donated prizes and bought tickets. Another large part (which goes directly to Macmillan) are the on-line donations as mentioned above.

If you came you will already know the date for next year’s event, Friday 25th November 2022. If you missed it this time put the date in your diary!

Thank you once again,

Good wishes, Malcolm Imhoff

Left to Right: John (aka Malc), Paul (aka Jose), Ringo (aka Dave), George (aka Richard)

26th Great Northern Festival

Alastair Taylor reports

Taking place from 3rd to 5th December 2021, the 26th Great Northern Festival (GNF), enjoyed 67 entries with 18 of these in the New Horizons section. The audience was mostly from the UK & Ireland, but there were also people joining from Russia, Norway, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Slovakia, The USA and Canada.

The event managed to reach 100 logins on Friday, but with several couples and small groups, there must have been at least 175 watching. There was plenty of time to chat to fellow AV workers during the breaks to discuss the sequences, or just to get together and have a laugh..

Sincere thanks go to our hard working Jury, Keith Leedham, Judith Kimber and Pat Mansell. They spent many hours viewing the entries, then several more hours having meetings on Zoom to discuss and decide their awards. They then watched everything again during the Festival weekend, having more discussions during the breaks, before making their nal decisions on the Sunday afternoon. Their hard work and dedication is appreciated by all.

Over the next few pages AV News shares some images and brief descriptions from a selection of the top GNF winners.

Full results are listed at: www.gnfestival.org.uk

The next edition will focus on the work of the New Horizons Award Winners.

Haiku, My Father and Me

GNAVF Gold Medal Winner

Robert Albright FRPS

Haiku, My Father and Me is an exploration of my relationship to my father. The production explains how the experience of war against the Japanese Empire made the person who later became by Dad. It explores how my own life and traumas, specically Maureen’s death and my own cancer, have shaped me. I have found that the study and writing of Haiku poems have helped me to survive or, rather, to live with these traumas.

The Haiku art form is of Japanese origin, Japan being a nation which Dad hated, so it is ironical that my growing understanding of Japanese art and culture has, spiritually, reconciled me to my father and might have enabled him to make peace with his previous enemy - or even with himself.

Red is an important colour in Japanese culture and in this case represents wisdom and transformation. On the journey across the bridge the individual is stimulated to reject their attachment to physical things. In its structure and its colour, the bridge offers a symbolic sense of purity, inner peace and unity with nature. Its crossing also symbolises a journey from the mortal world into the afterlife and the cleansing of one’s worldly burdens.

Below Left: Dead Tree, Living Wood

Above: Tree of Life and Eagle of Death

Below: Red Bridge

Go to Hell

GNAVF Bronze

Howard Bagshaw ARPS

Die Hell, or properly Gamkaskloof (valley of the lions) in Afrikaans, is an isolated valley in the Swartberg mountains of South Africa. The road to the valley is rough and considered one of the more adventurous routes in South Africa. Roel and Adri took us to Hell, to stay for a few days, to experience this heavenly valley.

Between Sea and Sky

James Hamill

You are very aware of the sea and the sky in the Faroes - 18 small islands, in mid-Atlantic, exposed to passing weather systems. The sea has provided a good standard of living for the Faroese people. It has also brought tragedy and in my AV I wanted to show both aspects, as well as the spectacular scenery and bird life of the islands. Of the 9 islands we visited, the most westerly was Mykines, with only 10 permanent inhabitants and thousands of seabirds. Here you feel very small and remote, with wide sea horizons and a huge expanse of sky. Hour by hour, weather on the Faroes is changeable and we experienced torrential rain, bright sunshine and drifting veils of mistiness. It really did feel like a place apart - between sea and skyand I wanted to show this in my AV.

I was always a great admirer of Howard Gregory’s expertise on all things to do with sound, and it was a very pleasant surprise to be awarded the Howard Gregory Memorial Trophy for ‘The most creative soundtrack’. On the GNF website it says, ‘The judges will be looking for the best use of all the elements of Sound that have been blended together creatively by the Author to produce a soundtrack that compliments and enhances the sequence.’

I always give great thought to the soundtrack. For this one the script was edited many times before I was happy with the words; the music was carefully chosen for the mood I wanted to create - some is from a Faroese CD I bought there, some from an Icelandic CD I had and the nal piece is from Vangelis’ 1492 CD; for the gannets, kittiwakes and pufns I did have a small digital recorder with me, but the results were not great so I used the internet to nd the sounds I needed. I enjoy creating a soundtrack for AV and I hope this one evokes something of the atmosphere of the Faroe Islands.

GNAVF Highly Commended and Winner of the Howard Gregory Memorial Trophy for the Most Creative Soundtrack

Above left: A small village on Kunoy

Above: Klaksvik Harbour

Below: Pufns on Mykines

Guernica

GNAVF Highly Commended

Jean-Paul Petit

During the Covid Pandemic we were “locked down” and I read a book called The Night in a Museum. This gave me the idea of wandering around in a virtual exhibition with the painting "Guernica" in my mind.

Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso. And is based on the events of April 27, 1937, when Hitler's powerful German air force, acting in support of Franco, bombed the village of Guernica in northern Spain, a city of no strategic military value. It was history's rst aerial saturation bombing of a civilian population.

Guernica is a statement against the Spanish Civil War and war in general.

After an initial historical reminder, the virtual exhibition guides the visitor tthrough the possible inuences of Picasso. He drew it, consciously or unconsciously, from his roots, from all the painters who preceded him. (Déluge de l'apocalypse de Beatus de Saint Sever, Tres de Mayo etc.)

At the end we discover the Painting Guernica. But an attack occurs and the whole exhibition is destroyed. Guernica's message is in vain.

From the Sacred to the Profane

GNAVF Commended

Liam Haines

This AV seeks to examine the paradox between religious beliefs and scientic fact. The Hindu people of India believe that the river Ganges is a sacred river which cleanses them of sin. They believe also, that to be cremated on its banks and to oat down the Ganges will cleanse the sins of those who die and carry them directly to salvation.

The science indicates that the Ganges is the most polluted riven on the planet, a mélange of urban sewage, animal waste, pesticides and fertilizers, industrial metals and ashes from cremated bodies.

Nearly four and a half thousand Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of waste are released into the Ganges ever day! For example, as it courses through Kanpur, 80 per cent of the city’s sewage is dumped in the river along with toxic waste from textile, leather and chemical factories.

This type of pollution is repeated along the entire course of the river! River waters laced with toxins irrigate farmland – eventually seeping into food and into village wells! It causes untold sickness, from cancer to renal failure, from dysentery to cholera and hepatitis. It also causes severe diarrhoea – which is one of the leading causes of death in children in India.

There’s a terrible grim irony, that in seeking protection from the river, believers actually hasten their own demise!!

The AV also questions the use of wood in traditional cremations - with fty to sixty million trees being burned during cremations every year. It results in about eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions. Air pollution, deforestation and large quantities of ash, much of which is later thrown into the river, adds to the toxicity of the water, and poses huge environmental problems.

The Covid epidemic has brought an additional catastrophe to India and to the Ganges with so many extra deaths and the resultant shortage of wood. The Ganges, the river of life, has become the river of death!

Tintown

GNAVF Commended

Brendan Gillan

Tintown is destroyed by a pandemic: Life was a carnival.

Now everything has changed.

Yesterday there was happiness.

Today there is sadness

We hope that tomorrow we will live, love and laugh again.

The Moor, The Monkey and the Wall Street Crash

GNAVF Commended

Ian Bateman FRPS

I’m always on the look-out for unusual and interesting stories, as these can create memorable AV sequences. The central thread of this story is quite bizarre – back in 2008 when the world nancial markets were in full meltdown, a trader from the New York stock exchange spent a whole week in a Weatherspoon’s pub in Exmouth using their Wi-Fi to make millions of dollars in a series of frantic sales. Although not widely known even in Exmouth, the unlikely story was made into a Hollywood lm called “The Big Short”, with a cast of A-list actors.

To get to that point, I worked backwards from the pub’s name “The Powder Monkey”, and worked in some historical facts about gunpowder and its use in naval sea battles. I visited the ruins of the Powder Mills on Dartmoor on what turned out to be a very overcast day. After spending a couple of hours photographing the site, the sun broke through the clouds for about thirty seconds, and all of the pictures in the sequence were taken in this brief interlude.

To add some action, I re-built one of the ruins by adding a roof in Photoshop, then used an animation effect on PTE to blow it up in an explosion. I also like to occasionally add ‘Easter eggs’ to a sequence for eagle-eyed viewers to spot, such as the addition to the road sign, which doesn’t really mention cream and jam

The story took a lot of editing to boil down a complex nancial structure into a straightforward narrative, and I was delighted when this was recognised in the Adelaide International AV Festival by winning the award for the best script.

Zoomed Out

Keith Watson LRPS CPAGB/AV

East Midlands Audio Visual Group held their annual competition in January as a live event rather than using an online conference platform. The event was held in a safe environment within Enderby Civic Centre in Leicester where the audience wore face coverings whilst walking around and with seating spaced at least 2-metres apart. Ample hand sanitisers were available and each member of the AV group and attendees were asked to perform a lateral ow test for Covid before arriving.

The organisers of the event felt that the best way to watch competition and other AV sequences was on a big screen, in high denition along with cinematic quality sound, which online platforms just cannot offer. The other big enjoyment of this full day event was to meet with other AV producers and friends, something which we have all missed the past two years.

East Midlands Audio Visual Group decided to take the plunge and hold the competition as a live event, which was clearly appreciated by those who attended and the feeling was, if not now, when?

The competition was judged by Martin Addison FRPS. Although Martin had already viewed the competition entries at home, he passed comment that he was enjoying watching them again properly on the big screen and just how much of a difference it made. Between the showing of each entry, Martin gave valuable critique of each sequence whilst pointing out the strengths and attributes of every AV.

There was a total of ve awards to be had in the competition. Malcolm Imhoff (pictured left) won the Open category with, Watch Where You’re Putting Your Feet. The AV also won Malcolm the Maggie Imhoff Trophy for best narration. Time Stood Still (pictured above) won a rst place for Keith Watson in the Photo Harmony group and Keith also won the audience vote with, Son of the Dragon Lives Here. A trophy is also awarded for the best AV produced by an intermediate worker, which this year was awarded to David Cooke for a very entertaining sequence entitled, Ow Am Ya Gooin.

The day was made complete with a superb presentation by Martin Addison which he called, “Creative Photography & Music”. Martin showed an array of his AVs and enlightened the audience with some of his techniques and thinking behind each production. The quality of his photography and audio was wonderful to see and certainly inspired the club’s members to go out and to take more photographs and produce AVs in order to show to like-minded photographers and AV makers at future gatherings and events.

Watch where you’re putting your feet

Malcolm Imhoff FRPS FACI(M)

This is one of my favourite AVs. I often include in a show as it is one of those which has the power to move people. I have recently remade it in Hi Denition and cleaned up a lot of the photographs.

As many readers will know, I am a keen fellwalker and the Lake District is one of my most special places, where I feel completely at home. My rst summer camp as a Scout was at Syke Farm in Buttermere in 1960, so you can imagine the effect that would have had on a young lad. Buttermere was also the rst place I took Maggie camping and walking. Having walked in the Lakes so very many times I know it very well. My "other" companion would usually be one of Wainwright's guide books, which I rst discovered in the Scout Hut library. It's a set of seven, and the books were being published every two years, as it took Wainwright two years to plan and nish each one.

I completed climbing all the 214 Lakeland Fells in Wainwright's books in February 1987, in the snow. Of course I have climbed some of these fells, or "Wainwrights" as they have since come to be known, very many times.

When I made the audio visual it had to be Wainwright's voice, and I have Maggie to thank for that as she heard him on Desert Islands Discs, so I recorded the repeat and sought permission from the BBC to use it in my sequence. In many ways though it is my story too.

The music is a very important part of the programme. I use two pieces by Vaughan Williams, "The Lark Ascending", and the "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis". These are now quite well known pieces, but whenever I hear them what I see in my head are my photographs and my AV.

The AV is quite long, but maintains interest by having a dramatic shift in direction, and a complete change of mood half way through, and I use the music to achieve this.

Wainwright starts by telling the story of the guide books, and how they came into being. He then expresses his views on fellwalking in the Lake District, and the changes he is experiencing with increased numbers of walkers. It is ironic that he was the person responsible for much of the Lake District's popularity. He then reects on solitude.

I often walked with Maggie, I like walking with friends, but I also like walking alone. It is different, and gives me the opportunity to sing folk songs out loud with no one to complain! Wainwright usually walked alone. Wainwright then talks about the problems of growing old, and the fact that we can't always continue to do the things we used to, something that strikes a chord with most people who see the AV, and it has brought a tear to very many eyes.

MidPhot - A View From Across The Pond

Mark Allen DPAGB/AV

The MidPhot AV Competition 2022, part of the Midland Counties Photographic Federation (MCPF) Exhibition, was held via Zoom on 29th January. The keen joined early for our traditional chat before ofcial proceedings. This is the new normal. Over the pandemic years folks have talked about getting their rst vaccine, then their second and their booster. But, there are a number of aspects we are all agreed on. We miss the big screen. We miss the vast soundscape and for many, most of all, we miss the people. Those delicious chats over a cuppa. Catching up, comparing notes and debating your top three so far.

Before the pandemic, I decided to up my game and attend as many AV Festivals as possible. Clearly, this involved a ight over, a stay at my daughter's house and borrowing their car. I was able to get to Wilmslow, The Great Northern in Manchester and the RPS Nationals in Leeds. Then the viral curtain came down and I thought that was the end of that cunning plan. But, I was wrong.

Zoom AV Festivals started off a bit shaky but the powerhouse behind so many of our AV competitions Jill Bunting and John Smith quickly had it sorted. And so the MidPhot ran smoothly as is to be expected nowadays. 39 entries to a festival only open to Midland Counties clubs is a healthy level of competition. There were many familiar names, folks who always produce top-notch work. We knew we were in for a treat and for a mere £3, it was a steal.

This brings me to the one big positive of Zoom, the audience. We now have international regulars. Prem from North Carolina, Harry and Susan from Canada. The locality is no longer an issue. We have folks from Ireland, Wales, the north of Scotland and the south of England. Over 60 participants at one stage. Folks have found ways to continue with their debates on the top runners by exchanging their views by private messaging. My friend and I both agreed on the top two shows in the open section, but disagreed on the order. The judges agreed with him on this occasion.

Both of us, having been on a panel of three judges, know how it works. There is often immediate consensus but equally, there are occasions where is some debate. This results in a more rounded approach that you simply do not get with just one judge. The judging panel was led by Andrew Gagg, ably assisted by Brian Stubbs and Jeff Mansell - all well known and respected within the AV Community. The three-judge approach allows for each judge to choose which shows they want to comment on.

As a member of the audience, I nd this approach more interesting to listen to. It was evident that there were no instant off the cuff responses. The comments were prepared in advance and delivered in a helpful manner pointing out the consensus view as required. For example, we often heard that the panel thought the show could be improved by having a better link between the images and the beat of the music. The comments were measured and professional.

There were some interesting comments from the panel about what is and isn't Photo Harmony. This has been raised in RPS AV News before and I think the consensus was that there should be a agreement across RPS, PAGB, FIAP.

The event was professionally managed by Alastair Taylor, who keeps everything on time and entertained us with his light-hearted approach. A most enjoyable, grand day out, albeit indoors. Congratulations to all the winners.

Pictures courtesy Alan Tyrer ARPS DPAGB/AV from the winning AV Nameless

MidPhot Reflections

Keith Watson LRPS CPAGB/AV

For me, the MCPF annual AV competition was the rst AV event which I attended outside of my club of East Midlands Audio Visual Group. That was several years ago now and ever since then I have always felt the competition day had a nice feel to it, an almost glow inside sort of feel. Perhaps that is the gift of Alastair Taylor who once again hosted this year’s event, with his able and calming presentation skills which make you feel right at home from the start. Even the past two years where the competition has been held on the Zoom conference platform instead of a real-life event, the MidPhot AV competition has held on to that feeling and togetherness as best it can.

I have to say, I was very much looking forward to the 2022 MidPhot AV competition when it was announced that it would take place as a live event, only later to be disappointed that changes had to take place and hold it once again on-line due to the Omicron variant of Covid. Whilst Zoom and other online multimedia platforms have kept us together during the past two years it is a poor substitute for showing AVs on.

There is no replacement for seeing a well-made AV unroll its emotions to us whilst being projected onto a big screen with fantastic sound. Plus of course, an annual gathering of AV makers at MidPhot, all talking and sharing their passion of producing these works of art is priceless. Some may say that is exactly what an AV is meant to be.

None-the-less, the organisers did a grand job again this year where we were treated to some amazing AV sequences and a joy to see some new names too This is so important to the future of AV and the AV community. As the day went on it became clear to achieve an event as good and as enjoyable as this many people were having to put a lot of hard work into it. A competition is most helpful when you receive critique from judges who know what they are talking about. Let us be honest, at a photographic competition a judge only makes one short-term friend that day, and that is the winner. It is an almost impossible task to do. This year, Andrew Gagg FRPS, Bryan Stubbs ARPS and Jeff Mansell CPAGB-AV took on the roles of judging and between them share a fair amount of years’ experience, probably more than they would care to admit. They did not let anyone down with their honest and fair comments on each sequence and we would have all gained some useful knowledge from that.

I never expect to achieve anything at competitions let alone at MidPhot, for it has so many great AV makers there. But then, I can honestly say that competitions are not really about winning but the aspirations gained from watching all of the other entries. But when your name is read out as part of the nal results, the feeling nothing short of a privilege and an honour. It is only when you recall some of the other superb AVs which you have witnessed that day when you really feel humbled.

In a way, it is sad to call such an enjoyable day a competition. Perhaps there should be an annual “AV Spectacular” where producers can show their work to an appreciative audience without having to compete all of the time. Maybe it could be made into an event with guest speakers willing to share their knowledge of AV production in the form of short seminars or perhaps workshops. I am sure there are many out there like me who want to learn more in the pursuit of making better AVs.

Whatever the future holds for Audio Visual, I dearly hope this competition will be the last I have to watch at home, on a small screen and by myself. Let’s embrace the big screen wow factor once again very soon and praise this wonderful world of Audio Visual.

Pictured Below: Whitby Abbey from Son of the Dragon Lives Here. Background image from Yellow. Both images courtesy Keith Watson

Results from the L&CPU AV Competition

Alastair Taylor reports

What an enjoyable & successful day. The Lancashire & Chesire Photographic Union (L&CPU) Annual AV Competition, hosted by Wilmslow Guild AV Group, was held on Saturday 12th February. The audience of over 100 people enjoyed 39 entries, which covered a wide variety of topics and AV styles.

As well as regular members of Wilmslow and Leeds AV Groups, visitors attended from various clubs around the L&CPU Region, as well as North Wales, Midlands, The Netherlands, USA & Canada, making an International event.

The Judge Keith Brown FRPS MPAGB APAGB EFIAP FIPF, commented that he thought the overall standard was high and that he enjoyed viewing all of the entries.

He gave constructive comments after each was shown, which not only helps the Author, but others can benet as well.

As well as judging the Competition, Keith gave a talk illustrated with his own AVs on the Friday evening 11th February. This was an excellent presentation, showing the skill that Keith has in creating AVs.

Part 1 - Great Fun was a tribute to Keith's wife Kate. This showed that AVs can be made for a variety of purposes, enjoyment, entertainment, to get a message across and also as a tribute to someone's life. It really was as Kate would say 'Great Fun'

Part 2 - The Beatles & Beyond told the stories of 3 of the Beatles, George, John & Ringo. An AV using one of Paul's songs made sure that the 4th Beatle was also included. Keith is currently working on an AV about Paul & hopes to have it completed later this year. We look forward to seeing it.

Pictures Right: From the L&CPU Winner The Quest by Sheila Haycox ARPS

Salon Director Jeff Morris Reports

Our grateful thanks go to a wonderful international jury who had a very difcult task making selections amongst some wonderful entries. The judges were Andrew N. Gagg FRPS (UK), Liam Haines (Ireland) and Francois Roux Hon MPSSA, MPSSA, EPSSA (Mille), AV-LPSSA, EFIAP (South Africa).

Pictured Below: First place: Oc by Howard Bagshaw ARPS MPAGB AV Makers South Africa Gold medal and Pictures to Exe Studio 10 Deluxe licence key compliments of wnsoft.com

Pictured Above: Second place and best South African entry: A Child of Africa by Eric Thorburn APSSA AV-LPSSA, AV Makers South Africa Silver medal

Pictured Below: Third Place: What a Wonderful World by Irmel Dunaiski. AV Makers South Africa Bronze medal

An International Audio Visual Salon

Photographers are encouraged to explore the photographic medium and to use it to communicate their own personal vision incorporating feeling, senses and imagination to the viewer. The photography is not restricted in any way, neither in subject matter nor in manipulation during the taking or reproduction stages of the photography provided that it addresses the theme of ‘Glass' in some way.

As usual, the judges will base their judgements on how well the sequences interpret the theme. In other words, they will place an excellently produced sequence with little relevance to 'Glass' lower than a slightly less accomplished sequence with far greater relevance.

Salon Director: Jeff Morris AV-AFIAP AFIAP LRPS AV-DPSSA APSSA

Email: avmakerssouthafrica@gmail.com

Registration will open on 1st October 2022 Registration and will close on 29th October 2022. Results will be announced on or before 16th December 2022, and emailed to authors on the same day.

The smashing logo was designed by Andrew Gagg FRPS

Making a Virtual Background for Zoom

Andrew Gagg FRPS

Over the past couple of years we have found Zoom an absolute boon, and it seems we are going to continue to nd it an invaluable tool. To that end I’ve been asked to write a short note on how to make a ‘virtual’ background in Zoom, which can help create a professional look to your public appearances.

First of all you need to nd or make a suitable image. Zoom virtual backgrounds work best if you make your images the correct format and size –that’s the same as regular HD projection, which is 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) at 72 dpi. This can be easily done in Photo Shop. It is best to choose something not too complicated – I have found that simple tonal backgrounds work well –you could just ll the whole thing with a graduated tint (you can give yourself a halo-like glow if you think you deserve one!). Otherwise an interior shot is rather less improbable than a palm beach, or Mount Everest! One or two of my own favourites are based on mural paintings – at decorative images, rather than a whole cavernous interior.

In order to make your background look realistic and credible, it’s not a bad idea to put some blur on it, so that it looks a bit out of focus when seen behind you. Similarly I often darken my images, in order to enhance the illusion, and avoid distracting highlights and details. Now you should le away your processed images together, somewhere where you can navigate to them once you get into Zoom.

No one wants to be upstaged by the scenery!

Making a Virtual Background for Zoom continued …

Now go into Zoom and open up a test meeting. Be sure to switch your webcam on. Now look in the top left-hand corner of your screen for a small green shield icon with a tick in it (remember Green Shield stamps?). Now, in the top right of the small window that opens up, look for a little cogwheel. Click on this and it will open ‘Settings’. Go down the left -hand list to click ‘Backgrounds and Filters’. Be sure to select Virtual Backgrounds. This will show some ready-made backgrounds, including some moving (video) ones. Above these and below the live view of your screen is a small + sign. Click it and select ‘add image’ and navigate to where you have stored your prepared backgrounds. Click on whichever one ones you want to use. (You can choose several). This will permanently install them in your copy of Zoom. Click on the one you want to use and hey presto, you have your virtual background in place.

Nowadays, Zoom makes a pretty good job of ‘clipping’ so that it gets just you and not assorted disembodied bit of furniture etc. Included in this selection is ‘Blur’, which will just blur your real background while leaving you and your lovely phisog sharp – ideal if you just want to suppress the clutter behind you, without making a statement. If you want to create your own moving background, I guess you will have to make a video loop in which the join doesn’t show. (NB: I have never tried this!)

If in ‘Settings’ you click the ‘Video Filters’ tab, instead of ‘Virtual Backgrounds’, you will nd all sorts of pretty wacky graphics to superimpose on your live picture – frames, funny hats and the like. If any of this is your thing – ll your boots!

It is unlikely that most of us will want our ofce taken over by a ‘ green screen’ (I certainly don’t) but if you do have the luxury of owning one, and the space to erect it, then there is a tick-box at the bottom of that Backgrounds and Filters screen in Zoom that you can then select. This should give a very perfect illusion, with no stuttering or missing bits of anatomy. It is the same technology that was used when I worked at the BBC – what we called CSO (Colour Separation Overlay). Things that were meant to ‘disappear’ were painted a horrible cobalt blue. We just had to make sure the actors weren’t wearing anything approaching that colour! A green screen works the same way, but it is an equally unappetising shade of green of course.

So … enjoy! Your credentials are always better if you come from a decent background!

The IAC* Copyright Clearance Scheme

Malcolm Imhoff FRPS FACI(M)

If you sing "Happy Birthday" at a party, the rights owner, Warner/Chappell Music Inc., expects to be paid a royalty.

Copyright is recognised by Acts of Parliament. The Law is designed to protect the ownership of the work of writers and composers and others to whom the creators of the work have assigned their Rights, as well as the manufacturers of sound recordings and broadcasting authorities. Current legislation extends the protection period to seventy years after the death of the creator and an infringement of its provisions can give rise to legal action.

If you copy music, use it in your AV and show it to friends and family, strictly speaking you have broken the law, but no one is likely to worry about it. Show it at your club or send it to an AV competition and that is a different matter and you should have the necessary permissions. Most competition organisers require evidence, such as the Licence numbers, showing you have permission to use copyright material, or ask you to indemnify them against any possible action. Most of this information is UK-specic. The situation will be different in other countries.

*IAC = The Institute of Amateur Cinemaphotographer, aka “ The Film and Video Institute”

Disclaimer: The writer and AV News wish to make it clear that the views expressed are not their own, they are drawn from other published sources. We are not lawyers and this information is offered for practical guidance only. The law is complex and none of the above should be quoted as legal advice. Every case is individual, and we suggest that if you are in any doubt you should consult a lawyer.

In the UK, YouTube reached an agreement with the main music copyright agencies allowing most music used in videos uploaded to their website. This agreement broke down in 2009 so the situation is more complicated. What happens when you upload a video to YouTube it that it is scanned by powerful algorithms which will immediately identify the specic recording and ag it as "a copyright claim". Quite often that is the end of the matter, but always with the condition that you are not allowed to "monetise" your video. Sometimes the copyright owner will refuse permission and it is blocked. You can appeal against this, citing your Licences and this usually works, except in the case of Beatles recordings.

Music downloaded from the Web is subject to exactly the same copyright restrictions as a CD you have bought in a shop. Even so-called "Copyright Free" music will have certain conditions about where you can use it, usually not commercially, and some music creators, such as "Incompetech", insist that you include a credit in your production.

The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers (IAC*), aka "The Film and Video Institute" has negotiated special arrangements with the various licensing bodies, to issue licences allowing the use of both Commercial recordings, and Library music, in members’ sound tracks for their video, lm, and audio visual presentations.

What are the licences?

There are three Licences which have been arranged with three organisations:

 Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS)

 British Phonographic Industry (BPI)

 Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL)

All three are available to members of the IAC and IAC Afliated Clubs, so you could try to persuade your camera club to afliate or you may wish to join the IAC yourself. AV workers have so much in common with video workers and as part of your subscription you get an excellent bi-monthly glossy magazine, "Film and Video Maker" which has a wonderful AV Column (end of advert).

Members of the RPS and the PAGB (so that just about covers everybody reading this) can obtain the MCPS and BPI Licences, but not the PPL Licence.

(Note that if your club has a Licence, it only covers productions made by the club, not individual members.)

The

IAC* Copyright Clearance Scheme continued ...

What do the Licences cover?

This is a condensed summary of the terms and conditions.

MCPS

 Permission to record (dub) sound recordings used:

 to show to friends and relations in private

 on club premises where admission is free, or a charge is made for club funds

 for public exhibition to raise money for club funds or bona de charities

 for exhibition at up to two annual festivals

 for showing to judges in amateur competitions

 for inclusion in YouTube and Google videos, with the usual caveats

BPI

The BPI licence issued by the IAC permits an unlimited number of copies of recordings made by leading manufacturers with the following conditions:

 the original recording must be your personal property and purchased legitimately

 the names of all instrumental groups, bands, orchestras, choruses, solo artists and performers shall NOT be identied in credits or subtitles

PPL (for IAC members only)

Covers the reproduction in public of sound tracks created from commercial recordings, and the live use of recordings played as background during the entrance and exits of audiences and during intervals

(Note: most venues where you may be showing your AVs will have a PPL licence anyway).

The Musicians' Union

As from August 2005 it is no longer necessary for IAC members to apply to the Musicians’ Union for performers' consent for each incorporation of a sound recording into a project, provided it is only for private use and/or exhibition to a non-paying audience.

Outside the Scheme

Things like church services and weddings are excluded, and you would probably need a PRS (Performing Rights Licence).

Has legal action been taken against anybody in the AV world?

I have never heard of a case, and I don't know anybody else who has. We are amateurs (in the non prot making sense of the word). That's not to say it will never happen, so it would be prudent to take advantage of the cover provided by the IAC.

How much do the Licences cost?

Peanuts! The MCPS Licence is £7.13; the BPI Licence is £1.41; and the PPL Licence is 63p. No excuse for not being covered.

For more information, visit:

www.theiac.org.uk/iac/copyright/copyright.html

Next Time

In this new “Sound Hunters” series, we will explore various themes around sound showing how to mix a soundtrack in Audacity, Audition and within PTE AV Studio.

Anyone wishing to share their approach will be most welcome. Please contact the editor if you have an article submit.

Derek Tanner

A tribute from Mike Reed of the Mid Thames AV Group

Derek passed away following a short but aggressive cancer which although this left him in great pain he always strived to attend our meetings, even from his hospital bed.

Many tributes have been made and all give mention to his willingness to help with any AV or technical problems that our members encountered. He was well regarded by the local clubs that also have an AV content, especially for his exceptional poems and descriptions of his cycling escapades . He was an accomplished AV producer and he and Anne always enjoyed their travels by bike to some of the wildest parts of the World.

As the Chairman of Mid Thames Audio Visual group he is a sad loss to our group. We shall all miss his AV openings of ‘Tannerarma Presents’

Microphones – Part 2: Developing the Technology Further

Keith Scott FRPS DPAGB AV-AFIAP

Due to their small diaphragms electrets are highly transient and transparent, responding rapidly to high frequencies from musical instruments. Pictured at the end of Part 1 in AV News 224 is the Sennheiser K6 back-electret module with an ME66 short shotgun attachment. This modular electret system allows attachment of several different mic heads with a range of polar patterns, from omnidirectional to lobar long gun, and the small tie pin ME2 favoured by TV presenters and newsreaders (pictured left).

Fritz Sennheiser founded his company in 1945, it was originally named ‘Labor W’ manufacturing tube voltmeters, starting production the following year of a mic known as DM1, followed by the DM2 in 1947. Since then Sennheiser has been one of the world’s leading developers and manufactures of high-quality mics and headphones. In 1983 Sennheiser developed the rst ‘directional’ clip-on (lapel) condenser microphone and the smallest studio clip-on mic the ME2. Both are still made and in regular use especially by television and theatrical companies. By 1991 Georg Neumann GmbH of Berlin, manufacturer of some of the world’s most renowned studio quality condenser mics had become part of the Sennheiser group.

Development of mic technology is a continuous process. In 2010 the patented ‘EM32 Eigenmike’ was released (pictured right). This unique shaped mic designed and manufactured by MH Acoustics LLC, of Summit, New Jersey USA, is composed of 32 elements of high-quality electret pressure mic heads, arranged around an 8.4cm sphere. This allows sound to be captured from multiple directions. Its applications include multichannel surround sound recording, sound eld spatial analysis, and sound production for music, lm, and broadcast. The outputs of the 32 individual microphones are combined using digital signal processing to create a set of Eigenbeams known as Higher-Order-Ambisonics (HOA) signals.

Note that the President of MH Acoustics Dr Gary W Elko started his professional career like so many other mic inventors at Bell Laboratories. Technology of this order does not come cheap; it probably won’t be found in many AV workers’ microphone cupboard.

Peter Freedman formed the Australian Rode Microphone company near to Sydney in 1990. Having initially sourced a microphone (NT1) from China which he used to test the market. Rode began creating the organisation to design, build and manufacture high-quality mics at a time when Chinese mics were becoming very popular due to low cost. Unfortunately, the low cost of many Chinese mics was often accompanied by low quality parts, poor workmanship, and poor sound. The rst high quality mic to be designed and wholly manufactured at the Rode Australian site was the Rode NT2 (pictured right), a large double diaphragm studio condenser mic with selectable omnidirectional and cardioid polar pattern. This was a great sounding and wellengineered mic; it was a huge success but perhaps a bit expensive to manufacture. Rode subsequently invested massively in high quality, high precision CNC machinery, to mechanise production, limit labour intensied tasks, and achieve consistent high quality across a large range of different types of affordable mics. Currently Rode produce over forty models.

Calrec Audio Ltd is a leading British designer and supplier of audio broadcast mixing equipment, based at Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire. It was originally formed as a microphone manufacturer in 1964. Calrec’s reputation for high quality, reliability, and audio performance has made the company an audio industry benchmark. In 1975 Calrec produced a prototype Soundeld Mk1 microphone, the world’s rst single point-source mic capable of recording sound in three dimensions for surround-compatible playback.

SoundField pioneered broadcast quality 360° surround-with-height audio capture using four ½” capsules in a tetrahedral arrangement, as a complete sound eld transducing system, and launched their Soundeld mic in 1978. The mic records in ‘A-Format’ but is subsequently converted to ‘B-Format’ this allows a single Ambisonic Microphone to provide 4 tracks that can be manipulated in any direction in post processing, possess any polarity possible and enable creators to place their sounds wherever they like within the 360° soundeld.

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

Although this mic was a great technical achievement it was considered a distraction from their core business. Soundeld was acquired by the Freedman Group, home to Rode microphones in 2016. It is now marketed as Rode NTSF1 (Pictured left) . It uses four Rode TF-45C ½” truecondenser cardioid microphone capsules and is the rst collaboration between the two brands.

According to Peter Freedman “The applications for cinema, home theatre, music, gaming and the rapidly growing Virtual Reality medium are astounding’’. The SoundField by Rode software plugin is available as a free download for both Windows and Mac platforms. It lets users reshape their audio. The Plugin offers standard surround-sound set-ups, including Dolby Atmos up to 7.1.4 and is supported by Protools, Q-base, Nuendo, Reaper and Logic in VST, AU or AAX formats. Note: ‘Ambisonics’ was developed in the UK under the auspices of the British National Research Development Corporation.

In 1947 RAF ight Engineer Reginald Moores developed a working wireless mic system which he initially used in the performance of Aladdin on Ice at Brighton in 1949. It was attached to a skater’s costume and performed faultlessly, but the show producers decided not to continue its use because its radio frequency wasn’t licensed and therefore illegal. Moores didn’t patent his wireless device.

It wasn’t until 1953 when the Shure Brothers of Chicago (now based in Illinois) produced the rst commercially available wireless mic, they named their system ‘Vagabond 88’ (pictured right). It transmitted to a copper wire antenna either on the oor or hanging from the ceiling. It was somewhat expensive and limited to a performance circle of approximately 700 square feet, it was used mainly for live shows in such places as Las Vegas. The Vagabond mic/ transmitter operated in the 2 MHz FM band, weighed one pound, was 1.4 inches in diameter and 12 inches in length. Its electronics included ve sub miniature vacuum tubes and could operate for 25 to 30 hours on its two small hearing aid type batteries. It was marketed until 1960, following which Shure did not re-enter the wireless market until 1990.

Within a decade Shure had become a world leader in the mass wireless microphone market. The above image was copied from a 1953 Vagabond instruction and set up manual, whilst the image of the performer (pictured right) was taken at an unknown venue sometime in the 1950s.

(Both images are reproduced with kind permission of Shure, who are one of the world’s most prominent and nest manufacturers of both wired and wireless mics covering every requirement)

Around the late 1990s and early 2000s Chinese manufacturers began microphone production in large quantities. Numerous established mic companies switched their manufacturing to China due to low labour costs and modern production facilities. Many mics today are Chinese made and badged with famous names. Mics for different companies are sometimes made on the same production line. Chinese mics are often considered cheap and cheerful, however not all are of questionable quality.

One Chinese company initially formed in 2000 is unusual because its founder was not an inventor or engineer, but a successful musical conductor and composer named Siwei Zou. Initially his manufacturing was undertaken at the same large-scale facilities already manufacturing for dozens of companies. However, to ensure full control with highest quality the company opened its own dedicated facilities in Shanghai in 2003 named sE Electronics (Shanghai Electronics). Nearly everything in their mics is made in house, their mic capsules are hand built and individually tuned by skilled technicians. Since around 2002 there has been a resurgence of interest in ribbon microphones due to affordability and great technical improvements.

Many now employ ribbons made from stronger nanomaterials which also improves signal purity and output voltage. sE Electronics were quick to jump on this trend and they currently produce several ribbon models. One such ribbon mic was designed in collaboration with Rupert Nieves, one of the most famous and respected names in the world of audio recording equipment (pictured left).

Digital representation of audio has been in existence since 1937 since the invention of pulse-code modulation (PCM) by British scientist Alec Reeves, but mics remained analogue. Digital recordings relied on analogue to digital converters built into recorders and audio interfaces. In the 1990s digital recording gained hugely in popularity, and currently most audio recordings are digital.

It wasn’t until 2003 that design engineers at Georg Neumann invented the rst-ever digital microphone released under the name Solution-D D-01. Current price is in excess of £4000 so it isn’t a mass market seller. The capsule is analogue, but the mic contains a high-end analogue to digital converter, its output therefore is a digital signal.

With the rise of computer recording the mass market demanded USB mics with in-built converters, affordable ones began appearing around 2005.

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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