IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

So, COVID-19 has caused Staines Movie Makers to cancel all meetings until further notice. Given the demographic of most clubs I suspect we are not alone.

It has meant the cancellation of our Annual Inter Club which has been held since 1973 and normally attracts 7-11 clubs.
Well, not cancelled as such. We are sending the films away to be judged, but it does rather remove the excitement of the judges having to decide after one viewing and comment on the night.

Who else is affected?

Cheadle & Gatley Film Makers, and Altrincham Movie Makers have both suspended meetings until further notice. Swan Movie Makers have suspended meetings until September. Burnley Film Festival, which includes an inter-club competition, was to have been held today (Sunday) but has been postponed.

Yes we were judges at this years Burnley festival and had everything prepared a couple of weeks ago. We had the films here on DVD to be viewed and judged and critiques written up. The parcel of films was ready to be posted when Ron Harrison from Burnley rang to say the festival was postponed...NOT cancelled. But who knows what will happen from here on in and when a new date can be found?

We are due to give a film show and talk to Mercury Movies in Leeds in April, but this club is also temporarily closed and we await news.

We have not yet actually booked for BIAFF as we were waiting to see what is happening. We have been to all but one of the IAC movie festivals since 1995 and planned to be at this one but it seems likely that this will possibly not be going ahead. Does anyone here have any further information? I have not seen any announcements.

This news just in ... Tuesday 17th March 7pm

BIAFF moves to October

The May 8-10 event in Stratford is cancelled. Results of the competition will still be sent to entrants by the end of March.
It will cost IAC quite a lot of money in lost deposits etc.

Wait for announcements on the BIAFF website [www.biaff.org.uk] about bookings and refunds.

IAC has a pencil booking for the hotel in Stratford for the weekend of October 16 - 18. The idea is that they transfer the bulk of BIAFF to that weekend and conduct the AGM as part of the event.

The plans for UNICA 2020 in August are going ahead for now.

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Many thanks for your message, Dave. I think it is very wise to move BIAFF. Maybe to 16-18th October I understand. I hesitated to book the P&OFerry and choose the best B&B in advance. Also because some clubmates who would accompany me had not decided yet to go. The situation in Belgium is very serious, just like in all other countries. Moreover the authorities have asked us not to go abroad. It would be a problem to come back. UNICA (August) and BIAFF (October?)… but also summer holidays in Bourton-on-the-Water (September). I am looking forward to this new English period in my life. Birmingham, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Bourton-on-the-Water (Cotswolds) are situated in the same region. In Belgium all filmclubs have closed their doors. All festivals have been cancelled or postponed. At this moment I am enjoying the English daffodils in my garden. I planted them in November and now they are blooming.

None of us can know how long all these restrictions and safety-measures must be maintained. The British government keeps saying it will make recommendations that over-70s should stay home for 14 to 16 weeks ... but has not yet done so.

For various reasons the virus reached Britain a week or two later than it did mainland Europe, so when your restrictions are eased we can reckon our ones should follow suit a fortnight later.

I still hope UNICA can go ahead in August.

Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers has cancelled all meetings until 10th September.

It’s sad but inevitable that BIAFF 2020 has been postponed. At least we have the rescheduled BIAFF to look forward to - good to see that it’s pencilled in for October.
I was a bit worried that Doubletree Hilton might refuse to refund my two nights’ booking fee as the invoice had indicated that the reservation was non-cancellable and non-refundable. I’m relieved to report that they are happy to agree to a full refund onto my card. I’ll rebook when the rescheduled dates are confirmed.

Newcastle ACA has postoned all meetings until we get the all clear.

Having a daughter who has been in the thick of this out in the far east and ourselves not long back to the UK from Korea, I urge all clubs not to meet up, most of our members are extremely vulnerable because of their age.

we will get through this, it is just a matter of time and if we follow the advice it will be sooner rather than later.

can the IAC utilise social media to keep in touch with film related news, initiatives etc for its members?


got a couple of bottles of single malt and the complete Dad's Army DVD series so thats me sorted for the initial duration!

stay safe folks..

I have a complicated documentary in edit currently so am not bored at all! I've been using We Transfer to share files with people and I suggest that many of us can share films in this way. It's 'infection proof'!

Fortunately we have the internet and ways of keeping in touch. At Motherwell Photographic Society we have cancelled our meetings but still had one print competition to run so what we decided to do was get the members to make digital images from the original files of the prints they would have entered. These we will be e mailed to the judge who has agreed to assess and mark them. We had a successful committee meeting using Zoom last week and are running a weekly fun competition where members taking part submit an image to a set theme to be commented on. That also went well.

It's also fortunate that we are now out of winter rather than going into it and looking forward to better weather.

For me personally I have quite a few older films on SVHS that I haven't seen for some time so this is a good opportunity to try and digitise them into the computer and create digital files that I can actually watch.

I think the way the press and media have reported the current situation has been appalling and contributed to the sense of fear and panic. Thankfully we have our hobby to help us rise above it!

Fear and panic as far as food shopping is concerned yes, I've only just obtained an Ocado delivery slot after a week trying. Fear and panic as far as illness goes? No. I know of quite a few people dying, mostly older ones,my wife has it and a daughter had it. Amazing how differently it is affecting different people. I am hastening to a final cut of my film to complete it before I die!

Brian, Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers have done like your photographic club. We had a virtual committee meeting on Zoom. It was a great success. Now we have a plan to hold Club meetings with Zoom. So far 22 members have access to Zoom, so I'm optimistic that it'll work for most members, although I am aware that there are some who will not have the right equipment or won't want to take part in an online meeting. So not a perfect solution for everyone, but I think it will be something enjoyable and bonding for most of us.

The CEMRIAC Festival is also going to be held virtually via Zoom. Well done Simon Sumner and Paul Kittel for doing this. It is a TERRIFIC initiative. Paul has done a cracking intro to the festival and to Zoom: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cA0a2 ... fvklgYuJxa

Looking for ways to communicate in these extraordinary times, SCMM has opened a WhatsApp group (unofficial, so that only those who want to need be on it) to keep us in touch with each other. And we're planning to have a members' Forum/Discussion Group like this IAC Forum on our website...it's still being designed.

Oh! And I've got Michael Slowe onto Zoom!

Last night (Friday 17 April) FFM (the Finchley Gang) held a Zoom evening entitled 'So you'd like to be a Judge?' it went down pretty well I thought.

So, judging is a clash between head and heart, as there was certainly no outright winner. In fact I'm pretty sure every film was nominated for 'best film' by someone.

Just goes to show that it's human nature at play, and we find it terribly difficult to be neutral and unbiased in our appraisals. The best film for some might be the film that entertains them the most, to the extent that it trumps a better scripted, acted, lit and edited production.

I felt for the filmmakers themselves, though. They'd all worked long and hard and although their films got an airing, the nature of Zoom meant the judges were watching on laptops or tablets, with the audio coming through ludicrously small speakers. Not only that, but varying broadband speeds meant films suffered degradation through compression and dropped frames. Not ideal by any means, but locked-down club members have little choice these days.