NEWS
Mersey Ten Report
Willys Visit to Lancashire.
Saturday, 15th March, saw Willy Van der Linden in Lancashire to act as judge for the Mersey Ten competition.
Willy had started out with his wife Vera, from his home in Belgium on Wednesday, and his intention was to take the Calais-Dover ferry, but due to prolonged severe weather conditions, this was not to be so. All ferry sailings had been cancelled, and so they had no alternative but to use the very costly “Shuttle”. At least that is his story, because we think that he “bottled out”!! Nevertheless, they did arrive here in Preston on Thursday afternoon, after spending the night in Bicester.
It had always been planned that Willy would show some of his films to members of Preston Movie Makers, at there club meeting on Thursday night. After watching “Breendonk”, “An Irish Moment”, and many others, our Chairman, Jim Whalley, performed the very pleasant task of honouring Willy with membership of Preston Movie Makers, and presented him with a club sweat -shirt.
On Friday evening we had the opportunity to meet with friends and actors from Blackburn Drama Club who have helped Willy by providing a narrator, Andrew Smith, for some of his latest films, and not forgetting the sound recordist, Wayne Avanson, who has provided great sound recording facilities for Willy. We all enjoyed a nice evening over a meal topped of with Black Sheep Bitter.
The main purpose of Willys visit was of course to judge the Mersey Ten Competition. The competition is held annually and normally hosted by a different club each year. Entries to the competition are restricted to clubs or members within the IAC North West Region. The last time that Preston hosted the competition in 2002, our judge was our patron, Nick Park, and so we thought that on this occasion we also needed to find an equally qualified judge, hence Willy Van der Linden, eminent Belgian Filmmaker.
We were of course delighted that he agreed to take on this important task. The entries for the competition were sent off to Willy some six weeks before the competition. This allowed plenty of time for Willy to make his decisions. The films were shown to members of the two clubs that Willy belongs to for their opinions, and I believe that he had as many as five winners at one time!! Life is difficult!! Eventually, he came to a decision, and he provided a written report for each film entered, including the ones which couldn’t be shown due to lack of time. His reports are quite positive and always finish in a positive way encouraging the film maker to do better next time.
The venue was St. Cuthbert’s Church Centre in Fulwood, Preston. This is a new complex completed less than three years ago, and is really an ideal location for such an event. A lot of thought has been put into the design and layout of the hall, which provided easy access for our less mobile guests. 95 guests attended from right across the region and they were not to be disappointed. A total of 19 films were shown, split into two one hour sessions either side of a refreshment break. In summing up the competition, he said that Belgian beer is best in the world, and so are the chocolates and pate etc, but this doesn’t mean that everything is better Belgian or Europe!! On the contrary, some years ago he read in the “Daily Telegraph” that Belgium is the second most corrupt country in Europe, and that’s maybe why Geoff Harrison has invited me to be the judge. He thought that he could bribe me to be the winner, but I can tell you now, he couldn’t afford his price!!. So he is 26th!! He also mentioned that his Anglomania cannot be cured. No matter what we might throw at him, he definitely cannot find a cure.
His speech was as usual marvellous and brought the house down.
Presentation of the prizes and certificates took place, and Willy and Vera were presented with gifts. A fine end to an excellent night enjoyed by all.
Willy and Vera fled Lancashire early on Sunday morning, to avoid the “hue and cry” threatened by the loosers.
Of course we thank Vera and Willy for making the journey to Lancashire, in such atrocious weather conditions, and hope that we can welcome them back again in the near future.
Geoff Harrison.
The Mersey Ten Winners:
Winner of the Mersey Ten Trophy, or Stevenson Trophy:
Paul Bagshaw -”Head in the Sand”.
Very Highly Commended: Mike Waring - ”Heaven Sent”.
Highly Commended: Peter Parker - ”Are You Special?”
Commended: Frank Baker - ”Guitarama”
Other News
The Cotswold International Film Festival
PMM chairman Jim Whalley receiving The Best Sound award for U-482 from Mark Lipscome from ITV 1
Inspired by the music of Lancashire Sinfonietta, Phil Rimmer of Preston Movie Makers scooped the Millennium trophy for the Best Use of Humour at the annual Burnley Film Festival on 17th March 2007, with his animation film "Dance..." but not as we know it. The film starts with a standard packet of child's plasticine sliding and twirling in time with Mozart's 29th Symphony. Individual strips of coloured plasticine then transform into charming little characters, all ready to dance.
Commencing with dance formations akin to country and folk dancing, the characters quickly progress to more advanced movements of body flips, in a captivating short animation.
With a complete running time of just 3 minutes,"Dance..." raised several ripples of laughter amongst the Padiham Town Hall audience, and was clearly a hit with judges Michael and Linda Gough. One of 12 films entered into this North West region competition, and also a winner with Preston Movie Makers, it was the only film to receive entirely positive feedback from the judges.
Created entirely from still images taken with a standard digital camera, the animation is comprised of 2500 individual images, assembled using standard computer editing software.
I have always been interested in animation, said Phil, "making several somewhat less successful attempts using cine film in my teenage years. This is the first animation I have made using a digital still camera, and I am very pleased with the results."
Impressed by Phil's animation, Lancashire Sinfonietta chose to use "Dance..." as one of a number of films to be shown at their "Wilde Stories" concerts at Preston's Charter Theatre, in which they performed live to the showings of the Oscar Wilde stories "The Nightingale and the Rose" and "The Selfish Giant".With the remit of creating a film which was set to some of the orchestra's music, 3 other members of Preston Movie Makers took up Lancashire
Sinfonietta's challenge, and a total of 4 short films were shown just before the "Wilde Stories" began.
Geoff Harrison's 2 minute film "The Death of Summer", set to an excerpt from Haydn's Symphony no. 83. Allegro Spiritoso, showed scenes of "The Strid" near Bolton Abbey where the river Wharf tumbles down over the narrow rocky gorge.
Ted Billington's 1½ minute film "Kimberley Star" was set to an African song Iga'ma. Kimberley Star is a medal awarded to the loyals at Fulwood barracks for their part in the Boer war.
Pavel Szylobryt's 2 minute film "Particle Explosion", set to Handel’s Water Music, was a computer-generated animation of exploding colours and shapes.
All four films were well-received by the Charter Theatre audiences.
Preston Movie Makers welcomes prospective new members, and meets every Thursday night between September and May at The William Wilding Galloway Hall, Brackenbury Road, Fulwood, Preston, Lancs. Click here to view map.
Preston Movie Makers is 57 years old - Read more about club's history here.
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