Clubs - the past or the future?

[Dave Watterson]

In other threads we have considered broad questions about the future of the non-commercial film movement, whither the IAC and so on ... but we have only touched on clubs. Britain has hundreds of lone workers, but clubs are still the backbone of the movement. They teach, inspire, encourage and occasionally infuriate film makers.

In the latest issue of the AMPS newsletter, David Fuller comments:

"A Club agenda that fills the evening with “technicals”,
is doomed ! It will perish. The glue in an amateur video
club is “actually making movies” and a Club ignores
that at its peril. "

He goes on to give practical ideas which might be summed up as "get people doing things, make it fun, seem organised, be welcoming."

What specially good things does your club do?
What could/should a club do?

Let's try not to get bogged down in the negatives. We all know the stories of unfriendly cliques, cruelly critical audiences and dictatorial officers. If those were in the majority there would be no clubs. Most clubs do pretty well ... can we come up with ideas which will help them all do even better?

Dave

[Willy]

In the latest issue of the AMPS newsletter, David Fuller comments:

"A Club agenda that fills the evening with “technicals”,
is doomed ! It will perish. The glue in an amateur video
club is “actually making movies” and a Club ignores
that at its peril. "
...

What specially good things does your club do?
What could/should a club do?

Dave

I agree that it's wrong to fill the evening with "technicals". However, I feel that many filmmakers enjoy talking about "technicals". For instance about editing programmes, about cameras, about TV-sets, ... Also on this forum. Take all threads about technical problems and then you will see that they get more replies.

The quality of a film is not determined by the quality of the images but by the contents, the power, the structure, etc... In my club a nature filmmaker took shots of different water birds. His documentary is a series of these animals. That's all. In fact the story is very poor. However, the photography is superb also thanks to the fantastic quality of the images and thanks to his wonderful camera. That filmmaker has already been very successful with his naturefilm. Good for my club, but to be honest I have my doubts about the standard of his film(s).

What do I mean ? In a club we should talk about the structure, the story etc... of a film.

We should also try to make films together. In my Antwerp club (I am a member of two clubs) my friend Gerrit has written a scenario. We talked about it in our club. The discussion was very interesting.

Second step was: who can find the best locations for that film called "Monsieur Louis" ? We need a tailor's shop, a police office, a house for prostitutes, etc...

Third step : "Who would like to do what ? For instance : camerawork, editing, finding the best music, script-girl, acting, etc... So we make a list with tasks.

Fourth step : "What do we need and who can get it ?" For instance : a bottle of brandy, a pair of scissors, a bible, etc...

Fifth step : When are we going to film ? For instance : in the month of February next year. For instance : twice in the evening and two weekends. ... etc... etc... I think that we already had some interesting club evenings by preparing the film "Monsieur Louis".

Also the members who are not the best filmmakers feel involved in the process. Their names appear in the credits. They are proud because they could contribute... etc... In other words : we should try to intensify the team spirit in our clubs.

[billyfromConsett]

I'd go along with all the things Willy put forward, though at my club only about 30% actually make any films at all. Most just come along to see people, and watch whatever is on the screen.

I fear technical evenings would just persuade some not to bother coming that night.

Many members would be most content to feel that we are giving them just what they want. So if we can show that we are trying to keep them entertained, that would be all that is needed to keep their membership.

From my point of view, when I make a new movie, the members are an audience, so I need to keep them happy.

The club should do all it can to publicise itself in the local area.
The club should show its movies in the community - and so interact with non film-buffs.

[stingman]

I'd go along with all the things Willy put forward, though at my club only about 30% actually make any films at all. Most just come along to see people, and watch whatever is on the screen.

To be a member of any sort of club, one has to become involved, or one is just a hanger-on-er! To go to a filmmaking club and not make any films, IMHO, is wasteing peoples time and club resources. I`d shoot them all! We have the same problem. But these sort of people do keep the coppers coming in with membership and tea-money. So maybe it`s ok! But they should be involved!

Be good....

Stingman

[billyfromConsett]

Nah disagree. Some of our members are old folks. They shouldn't feel any pressure to do anything more than turn up and enjoy the club nights.
Our members watch my movies and show appreciation. That's good enough for me, and is far better than showing my movies on the big screen in an empty room.

[ned c]

I think all types clubs are in trouble at the present. We have a visitor from the UK with us from the village where we lived in Suffolk; we learn the Horticultural Society is ending the monthly meetings and just having the annual "Flower & Vegetable Show". Reason? Lack of people willing to take on the organisation and management jobs. Sound familiar?

ned c

[Willy]

I'd go along with all the things Willy put forward, though at my club only about 30% actually make any films at all. Most just come along to see people, and watch whatever is on the screen.

Old folks in our films
Yes, Billy, Ian and Ned, ... you are right. The old folks and non-filmmaking members shouldn't feel any pressure to do something, though they always enjoy playing a role in one of our films. They have always had a dream : being a filmstar ! They can also contribute in a different way. There is only one disadvantage : the cast in our films mostly consists of ... old folks.

Audience = "indoor"-tourists
Moreover, from time to time we offer them a very entertaining programme. Not every club night must be spent on preparing and making films. We invite other clubs that offer interesting/entertaining programmes. Not long a lady, who often visits our club, said : "Thanks to the filmclub I have already visited many countries - from the east to the west, from the north to the south". Tourist films are most popular in Belgium and that's normal. It's a pity that we sometimes forget to visit our own country.

Filmmaking is a man's world
Yes, it was a lady who said that.... There are ladies who frequent our filmclub only when films from other clubs are screened. It seems to me that filmmaking is " a man's world". Is it also like that in Britain ?

"Hollywood"-films in our clubs
What we can also do is showing professional "Hollywood"-films. There is only one danger. You are only allowed to show them in private clubs, not in public, but as we are closed circuits... Of course, it would be stupid to charge for it and make publicity with "flyers", newspapaer articles, etc... . That would mean "comitting suicide". Cinemas would be very angry. That's too risky.

[Dave Watterson]

"Hollywood"-films in our clubs
What we can also do is showing professional "Hollywood"-films. There is only one danger. You are only allowed to show them in private clubs, not in public, but as we are closed circuits... Of course, it would be stupid to charge for it and make publicity with "flyers", newspapaer articles, etc... . That would mean "comitting suicide". Cinemas would be very angry. That's too risky.

On that point ... yes, there are strict laws in Britain about showing commercial films.

First: you cannot just screen DVDs you bought or rented for home use. You have to rent special editions from a handful of large film libraries and pay a much larger fee - about £75 a film. From our point of view it is a pain that those versions of the films rarely have any extras on the disc - and for us those may be more relevant than the movie.

Second: you need a local authority Licence for the premises (about £100 a year) - though many venues may already have one of those.

Third: your premises may need a PRS (Performing Rights Society) Licence - again many premises may already have this.

You can get details of the film renters, known as distributors, on a wonderful website: www.filmsocs.org.uk run by a webmaster whose name may be familiar.

That's the formal situation ...



Dave

[Willy]

[quote

That's the formal situation ...
Dave

Yes, that's right. Some weeks ago in my second club (I'm not the president or secretary of that one) a commercial film was shown. Let's say ... that's an example of an informal situation. The fiction film "Confituur" was made by Lieven De Brauwer. He used to be a member of a club like ours. I don't think he has any objection. His film is not shown in cinemas anymore. Lieven still appears in our n-c world. He's asked by our umbrella organization CvB to give lessons.

Last week Ward Royaards was in our club. He screened some long parts of his "Christmas in Paris". He is the director. He did this to promote his fiction film that will be screened in cinemas from 15 December onwards. He told us how his film was made and how the money was found. He gave us posters in order to distribute them in other clubs. It was an interesting evening.

By the way : our good old cinemas don't exist anymore. The first three years when I was married I lived in the heart of the city centre of Antwerp. In the High Street there were about 6 or 7 cinemas. From time to time Vera an I walked down the High Street to look at the pictures and posters of the films that were programmed and screened. Now we have huge modern buildings in the outskirts of Antwerp, Mechelen, Brussels, etc... They're called Kinepolis, Metropolis, Utopolis, etc... They have six or seven rooms. Advantage : there you can decide which film to see. Disavantage : there is also a hamburger restaurant and children that are spoilt want to spend some time there. Perhaps they prefer to eat a hamburger and they don't want to see a film.

[henry]

Isn't it a bit ageist to talk about 'old folk'

In my club I doubt if we have more than 2 members under 60 but we continue to make films, documentaries, dramas, one minute one liners et al.
We continue to collect awards and prizes

As individuals, and as a club.

We have techy evenings, two of us conduct 'drama, acting and directing evenings.

We have just completed an 8 minute radio play, being filmed as a project within a project.

Eight of us completed 5 minute films about the tourist attractions in Kent in the last 4 months.

I have just 'found' the old cottage hospital for Margate lost in a housing developement and converted into flats and have started planning with a local historian a documentary history of it.

I don't consider myself old to me age is just a number and I seem to have more get up and go than most teenagers I know.

Stingman say sorry

[stingman]

Isn't it a bit ageist to talk about 'old folk'

Stingman say sorry

Erm........................... NO!

My reason is that if we don`t get more folk into our clubs. Then they'll die. The clubs and the people! It could be a slow death or a sudden one for our clubs.
My club is healthy in money but not in members. We have about 30 members on paper, with 12 to 18 coming on a club night. We think we may have two years left if things carry on. People are losing there enthusasiam.

Be good Henry and have fun making films. That`s what it`s all about, whatever age we are.

Stingman

[billyfromConsett]

Our clubs MUST be attractive the young and the old. Age in that sense is just a number. If the whole club don't make movies, then their competitions maybe don't run well.

Our clubs must publicise to our communities that we are there.

Henry - people of your age group are valued. Don't think anything different for a second. The future of our club scene needs to keep finding new members of any age for it to continue and not end.

We at Newcastle have just had, for the first time in my 8 years of going, our first competition where we interuptted the flow of the movies with our coffee break.
The movies running times (excluding judging pauses) added up to over 70 minutes. The image quality throughout was impressive too, we had some HDV entries, and some well put together standard def movies.

[henry]

The problem with attracting young people is universal, Five years ago we disbanded the League of Nurses at the hospital that I trained at in 1954.

We had 180 members with 50/60 traveling from all world to our bi annual meetings. We hadn't had a new member for 17 years and the executive committee of which I was chair served for the last 10 years without a break. Young newly trained nurses simply were not interested

Young people have other interests.

[henry]

PS

Stringman I have absolutely no intention of being good where's the fun in that

[stingman]

PS

Stringman I have absolutely no intention of being good where's the fun in that

That makes two of us then! Sometimes I just have to step on the cracks in the pavement, then I know i`ve done something really bad

Be good?
Stingman