The Surrey Film-Video Festival once again took place in the excellent surroundings of Guildford’s Electric Theatre on Sunday 21 January 2007.
A larger than usual and appreciative audience enjoyed a full and varied programme of videos. The theatre catering and bar was well patronised during the tea and supper intervals. 37 entries were received - a 44% increase on last year’s festival and only three fewer than the SERIAC regional festival at Cranleigh in November. The festival operates a two-tier fee system with an entry cost of £5 for IAC members and £7 for others. Nearly all the entries in the general section were from IAC members from which fact you may draw your own conclusions. Not only has film totally disappeared from the scene but only three entries were on VHS, all the others being on MiniDV or DVD. Some excellent movies were received in the Open, Youth and Junior categories for which there is no entry fee. The judges were particularly impressed with three student entries from the University College for Creative Arts in Farnham. One was awarded the Open Trophy for pro-am student entries and each of the others was awarded a Highly Commended Certificate.
The organising committee for ‘The Surrey’ believes it has two commitments - to ensure that every entrant gets a sympathetic and constructive assessment and to entertain the audience with the best possible Public Show. This year 37 entries had a running time of nearly 7 hours so inevitably a number could not be shown. 21 movies were included in the Public Show which ran from 2.30 pm to 9.00 pm. The judges rose to the challenge magnificently. The final judges were Dave Watterson FACI, Carol Black and Alan Colegrave ARPS. Ron Clements, June Evans, David Jackson FACI and Vicky Morgan acted as a preliminary team. Judging took place in the very early days of January and within little more than a week the seven judges had written something over 20,000 words. Each judge wrote his/her separate notes - the practice of one judge writing for the team does not happen with ‘The Surrey’. As well as commenting on individual movies, the final judges are also invited to provide some general comments on their reaction to the entries they had seen.
On the technical side, the back projection system produced the stunning pictures we have come to take almost for granted. Once again the projection team of Maurice Barham, John Myall and Terence Patrick concentrated on improving the quality of the sound - source of adverse comment in previous years. The crystal clear sound from some movies proved that the acoustics in the theatre have been conquered although it has to be said that sound quality of some other films was variable at best with some sections being virtually unintelligible. Too many movie makers need to work much harder on the sound side of their productions, monitoring sound while shooting and paying particular attention to getting a consistent level of modulation in post production. As Alan Colegrave commented “with so much high quality equipment around at reasonable prices, no film outside the family should have any technical issue.”
At the beginning of the awards ceremony Alan Colegrave spoke about the judges’ general assessment of the entries they had seen. They said that the general standard was very good and the sheer variety and entertainment value of top quality work was a surprise and delight. It was good to see several dramas but some were too long and the standard of acting was very variable. Makers of comedies based on familiar jokes were encouraged to give them added value and keep them as short as possible. They were pleased to see entries in 16:9 format although few had taken full advantage, still composing as if for 4:3. Some films had potentially fascinating subjects but were lost through technical inadequacy. Movie makers were encouraged to study film techniques and script writing - for documentary as well as fiction. The judges were particularly impressed with the student entries to which they would have given more awards if the Festival rules had allowed. Too many student productions tend to be derivative, scatological “and ...well, juvenile”. Not these films.
The Festival was honoured and delighted that Valrie Ellis - National President - and Linda Gough -National Chairman - with husband Michael, had made long journeys from Manchester and Sunderland to be with us. Valrie announced the awards and Linda presented them and in closing the festival complimented the movie makers on a very high standard. Major awards included The Red Kite Returns by Phil Martin which was awarded the Leonard Robinson Trophy for the best senior movie and the Angus Bryant Trophy for Natural History. Last Night by Guildford Institute Video Group was Runner Up and The Other Cup went to Jennifer from Heron Productions. Dennis Mabey accepted The Surrey Documentary Cup and The George Sewell Trophy for Ghost Towns of the West. Star by Emily Mayson took the Surrey Youth Cup. Adam Baxter was awarded the Student Open Trophy for his sensitive film The First Stages of Grief. David Longley - Competition Officer 23 Jan 2007
Now the festival is over we have here a few more goodies for you to download and browse:
A list of entries shown [PDF - 12kbytes]
A list of the award winners. [PDF - 11kbytes]
Thanks to all those entrants who have provided 37 entries.
Some facts and figures on the entries are listed below. All winners and selected others, were given a big-screen presentation, and every entrant received copies of the comments by each of an experienced panel of judges. There were no restrictions on the subject matter or running time of the entries.
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Last revised: 11 July 20107 © John Myall Surrey Film-Video Festival