IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

The title of this thread is a bit of a mouthful, do we have to copy it exactly to retain the thread? I disagree that the best time is during good weather, I hate it when the sun is shining whilst we are closeted in darkened rooms! I remember going to Oslo for their festival in darkest Scandanavian w...

Of course the production costs of a film need have no relation to the merit of the final product. Some of the very best and most moving films involved one man and his dog (sometimes not even the dog). Having said that I have no problem with people making money from their films or indeed making their...

Willy, try also some local commercial companies as there are often rooms or buildings that are not used in the evenings and weekends. You might be surprised at the re action and willingness to help. Also your idea of a film about the matter might help and would certainly embarrass the Mayor. Ian, I ...

We have gone a little 'off topic' here but this is an important matter. Tripods as such have always been frowned upon, mainly on safety grounds. Having said that I made my film 'Oxford Street' using a tripod for my 16mm film camera but that was in 1972! Now it seems to me to be merely paranoia with ...

Billy, I meant no criticism of you personally, my comments were meant to be general. Indeed we spoke after one of your screenings and I complimented you on the quality of your presentation. Of course you can't 'retire' from projecting, unless of course you are making films which is even more useful!...

Billy, you're wrong and Dave's right. I always letterbox my mini DV tapes for my 16:9 films if I'm sending them somewhere that might not be able to show 16:9, either projected or on a 4:3 TV. That way I know the picture will look right and the black bars top and bottom don't worry me and the screen ...

I waited to put 'my oar' in because I wanted to see what points were raised. If we are not by now all bored with the subject I would like to comment. I did not think that the standard differed all that much from previous years, and I particularly noticed that technically, the picture quality was bet...

Ned's right, the dreaded word 'amateur' is the killer. I always just say "I make films" or "I'm a film maker". If they want to know more I explain the non commercial aspect of my activity. The best defence is if they can see a half decent film and they are very surprised. Have yo...

Why are we all getting so uptight about age? A film maker is a film maker of whatever age. How do the pros do it? The Coen brothers came on the scene with immediate success and they were probably fifty years younger than some of the old greats still making films. Spielberg was in the same category. ...

Surely if a film is good it must be entertaining, otherwise why is it good? Problem is who says whether it's good or not? I agree with those that promote films that go beyond the 'steam engine' genre but I showed one of my (very successful) films at a modern art gallery who were showing a programme ...

This is a long overdue topic for dicussion on this forum and I hope 'the powers that be' are listening. Certainly the IAC is doing an admirable job as far as it goes in uniting film makers and giving them a forum, competitions, meetings, magazine, library etc etc. How do people learn of its existanc...

All these numbers bandying between Tom and Thurso! As far as I can see they are only fiddling around at the edges of the frame surely? We know that cinema screens are not in the same aspect as modern TV's but no one is going to notice when 16:9 video is shown on a cinema screen and feature films on ...

For shooting yes I agree and all new cameras will shoot 16:9 anyway. But we must still be able to show 4:3 surely, most of my stuff is in that aspect and frequentnly have to show them. Tom, you should have re set the projector when you had finished and Dave was following, unless you assumed that his...

The matter is really quite simple if you shoot in 16:9. When sending a tape for projection and you aren't sure that the projector will be set correctly do a 'letterboxed' version and say nothing. It will be assumed to be in 4:3 and therefore projected as such and you will get a nice 'widescreen' ima...

I also belong to the second group although I quite like to know why a judge gave the grading he did even if he is only trying to justify his decision, nothing wrong with that but his general tone is explanation enough. Speaking personally I am never surprised by any judgement on a film because I kno...