Bolex H16

I shot my first footage flying over Norwich. As a National Service photographer in the RAF, I was handed a box one day. It contained a brand new 16 mm Bolex and I was ordered to bring back aerial film of road congestion, at a time when six cars constituted a traffic jam. After several happy hours sticking the H16 out of the side door of an Avro Anson, I eventually handed over the finished project. Drivers have been complaining about Norwich’s one way system ever since.

Next came another Bolex, a B8 this time, to record our first baby Ray, who is now a bouncing 44 year old with a family of his own. The B8 was traded in for a bubble car. A Lancaster driving a Messerschmitt? – I’ve heard all the jokes, thank you. When our second baby was on the way we did establish a record, being possibly the only family in the world that traded up to a Fiat 500, which had a wheel at each corner, and was so big and spacious.

Beaulieu 6008

While based in Paris in the early 70’s I bought the local product, a Beaulieu 4008 which I eventually changed for my only other Sup8 camera, a 6008 which I still own. It’s the only way to save money, buy the best to start with, and you won’t lose out constantly part exchanging to upgrade to something allegedly better.

Orpington Cine Society

On returning from France, my fellow Daily Express photographer Vic Blackman asked me along to his club, the Orpington Cine Society in 1974 (Now Orpington Film & Video Makers.) I joined straight away, and started to edit the yellow packets we all used to collect in those days. I was hooked, and I am still at the OVFM, having been Chairman for 18 of the intervening years. When I stepped down, the club were kind enough to make me Hon. President, a proud moment.

I like to vary my output, and make films on my own, with my wife Annabelle, and with various groupings within, and outside, the Orpington club. I have been fortunate to make a range of movies that have won awards at club, County, Regional and International levels.

Some years ago I picked up on the Wakefield club’s annual newsreel idea as a way to shoot film at local goings-on without having to make a complete film out of any single event. A handful of us do the bulk of the shooting, and, without a crystal ball in sight we chose 1987 to launch it.

Our Spring Show footage of the Great Storm got us off to a flying start. I love the tight editing challenge, slashing our material hard so as to squeeze nearly thirty snappy little stories into a 22 minute slot. This year, for example, we have our own very close up footage of HMQ on her only visit to our Borough in Jubilee year.

Cross Channel Movies

Vladimir Murtin

In 1978 I was asked to judge for the first time at the Shooters Hill club, who didn’t put the maker’s name on their movies in those days. First, second and third prizes went to three different and original movies, all made by Vladimir Murtin, a Dutchman working locally at the time. When we met up Vlado and I became firm friends, and eventually decided to make a film together, starting a fruitful cooperation which was both stimulating, great fun, and successful. Unfortunately, Vladimir was recalled to Rotterdam almost immediately, but we’d enjoyed working together so much that we decided to go on, making what became known as the Cross Channel Movies for another ten years.

This was all on Super 8, but we teamed up with Annabelle to win the top Photokina award (against 540 other films) with Cheeseroll. The three thousand Deutsch mark prize money allowed us to move up to 16 mm for a while.

Jan Schoonen joined us, and together we won the Ten Best, Scottish Eight, a Silver Knight at Malta, and several other International prizes. Since Britain wasn’t in UNICA then, some of our films represented Holland, winning a Bronze medal at Baden Baden, and a Silver at Hradece Kralovie in the Czech Republic. I was delighted for Vlado this year when his new group won a gold medal for The Suspicion, which you may have seen at Movie 2002, the IAC International Festival at Chesterfield, in April.

UNICA has been an important area in my film making life, for after Annabelle and I went to Ste Nazaire in 1983 to our first UNICA, we campaigned for UK to re-join the top table, and were delighted when that took place in 1997. It was a thrill for us to share a UNICA Gold Medal in 2000 in recognition of our work for the hobby.

Orpington Video and Film Makers

Eventually video made its appearance, and as the number of users increased we changed the club name to take account of this. Personally, I was sceptical about early video because of the appalling picture quality. However, when SVHS appeared, and it was clear new ciné gear was no longer being made, I went for a Mitsubishi C50, for its full size drum, sound level meters and focussing scale.The pictures were quite good and it lasted ten years (see above) before giving up the ghost.

I was camera-less for a year, because of the lousy selection. Focussing scales had disappeared, level meters, too. I finally chose DVCAM, a Sony PD100, a pro version of the TRV 900. Very good in low light, a major step forward.

A year later Annabelle moved to miniDV, a Canon XM1, but its vastly superior lens meant we could no longer inter-cut our material seamlessly. So I bought a second hand XM1 and our stuff could match perfectly. When the XM2 came out, my quibbles with the XM1 had been solved. It's now terrific in low light, has sound level meters, better control layout etc. I love it.

Canon XM1

For years editing video was unsatisfactory, since cutting a frame or two out of a scene meant redoing everything thereafter, and no, insert editing something else does NOT solve the problem. Then NLE arrived, but the erratic crash syndrome put me off permanently, despite the denials of every PC user I meet. Four years ago we went for Casablanca. Enough said.

Writing

While shooting film is my passion, I enjoy bashing the typewriter, too. With Tim Jones, I co-wrote and then directed The Job, which stopped the North’s long winning streak in the N v S Competition, and followed that up with two further wins when working with the Gerry Attrick Group from within our club. I was especially delighted with an IAC International Award for Best Story for Present, made with Jan and Vladimir.

The writing habit had started with a monthly From the Chair piece in the club magazine, and after 18 years I started to get it right, I suppose. My Movie Man’s Diary column is still going strong. Editing the Regional magazine SERIAC NEWS for 10 years helped, too and my OFF-CUTS column drawn from the Region’s magazines has been going for over 20 years. Liz Donlan, the IAC’s magazine Editor, even coaxed me into becoming Book Reviewer for Film and Video Maker.

Obviously after travelling the world with Daily Express hacks for forty years something rubbed off on me – I just hope my copy reads a little better than the truly awful holiday snaps they insist on showing me at our First Tuesday reunion lunches.

That first judging invitation to Shooters Hill led to others, of course, and I have served on quite a few panels. High spots have been the UNICA jury in 2001 in Estonia, and Jury President of the Croatian One Minute Festival at Pozega this year. For 5 lovely years I was a jury member at the French language Huy Short Film Festival in Belgium. Imagine, forty films on 35 mm projected 15 metres wide!

Chairman

Finally, it has to be said that for someone who once was overheard describing himself as "Not a Committee type person" I wonder how I have managed to spend 28 years on the OVFM Committee, and 25 on SERIAC Council, including 2 as Chairman?

Four years ago I even came onto National Council. This is my second stint for as part of my UNICA campaign I volunteered to join in 1983, but the Council wasn't ready for UNICA at that time and I went back to the OCS to make a propaganda movie called Graz Hat's which is the cheery greeting used as the logo for UNICA's stay in Austria's second city.

It included 17 people  - from a massive Bulgarian to a very beautiful Peruvian - asking a question to camera. Finally Jean Claude (Mr UNICA) Lejosne tells the viewer that what these 17 people want to know is "When is Britain going to come back to the UNICA family?" Hardly subtle, but from the heart! Once we were back in, I was only too happy when Val Ellis asked me to come back on Council.

It is my contention that one quiet Sunday at an IAC National Council meeting, I didn’t quite catch the Chairman’s question, wondered why everyone else took a step back, and found I had let my name go forward for the position of Vice Chairman to Kenneth Seeger! That’s my story anyway.

Nevertheless, I was delighted and enormously proud to succeed Kenneth as Chairman of the IAC.

- Reg Lancaster FACI

Page updated on 21 March 2008

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

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