Origins | Results 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006

NORTH v SOUTH GRAND FINAL

Arriving at Farnborough Village Hall at Midday to start setting up for the 3.00pm show, my wife Jo and I were somewhat surprised to find 15 people from a local drama group having a dress rehearsal for an upcoming play. When they enquired about our presence there, it came to light that they had booked the hall until 6.00pm that evening. With an audience of around 60 people expected from as far afield as Nuneaton and Portsmouth, you can imagine the sort of thoughts crossing our mind. Had our original booking been received? Had we got the wrong day?

Having already spotted a sizeable contingent from Medway Camcorder Club heading towards the nearest pub (no change there then!), I started to discount the latter theory. However, I was suddenly reminded that on another North v South occasion, it was indeed Medway who turned up a week early, so the niggles started again.

Fortunately, at that moment, Peggy Parmenter, OVFM’s Catering Manageress extraordinaire, appeared with the Hall Lettings Secretary, key in hand. They were equally surprised to find the hall already open. Even more fortunately, she had her bible (hall bookings dates) with her which clearly showed our booking against that day’s date. The drama group produced their own booking details and it was clear a genuine mistake had been made. Realising we had no alternative, the drama group kindly agreed to cancel their rehearsal and let us have the hall for the rest of the day. Sighs of relief all around, I can assure you!

By this time the winter sun was streaming through every window, so our initial idea that we could probably save some time and dispense with blacking out the hall was well and truly scuppered.

We were planning to open the doors as usual at 2.30pm, however, people started arriving shortly after 2.00pm and a steady stream continued until the start of the show. We ended up with an audience of over 80 people, the largest ever for a Grand Final and more surprisingly, a larger number than attended the Southern Heat. The ‘Heats’ in both the North and the South usually attract more simply because there are more films to see. However, a new innovation was introduced this year. As well as the final 10 films, we decided to show all the entries from the Northern Heat which seemed to prove a popular idea with the audience and one we are likely to continue with in future years.

It was the turn of our colleagues in the North to provide the final judges and these were Gavin Taylor, a Programme Director in commercial television and now working freelance and David Peffer, well known to most amateurs as the man behind the success of St Cuthbert’s School who are regularly among the award winners in IAC Competitions.

Whilst there is only one winner, awarded the John Wright Trophy, the judges allocated the first 3 placings as follows:

Knock knock... you've got a prize. (picture courtesy of Dong Collender)

We ran the usual audience participation competition where they have to match the judges decision. This has only been achieved once in the last 10 years, so it was no surprise that nobody managed it this year. In fact, only one member of the audience actually guessed the film which came first. That is not to say, anyone was unhappy with the result. It was an extremely high standard competition and any number of films could have been worthy winners. Indeed all of the films were well received, even those that didn’t make the Final itself.

We also had a ‘Guess the Theme’ Competition and congratulations must go to Diggie Mottram for getting it right. The theme for the 2004 competition, chosen by last years judges is:-

TENSION

An entry form will be available as soon as possible on the IAC web site and all eligible clubs will be contacted in due course. The closing date will once again be the end of October.

As mentioned on the day, I thought it might be useful to club secretaries to list some of the other guesses we had for the theme competition in the hope that they may be useful for their own in-club project or theme nights. Here is a selection:-

Weather, Seasons, Welcome, Remorse, Leisure, Secrets, Revenge, Records, Regrets, Revival.

Needless to say, some of the others are not printable.

In closing, may I thank Newcastle ACA for stepping in halfway through last year to organise the Northern Heat. They were thrown in at the deep end and have done a remarkable job. If it were not for them, we wouldn’t have had a competition. Better news still is that they are willing to run the Northern Heat for at least another year.

Finally, thank you to everyone who supported both the Southern Heat and the Grand Final, with special mention of Medway Camcorder Club who brought along no less than 14 members. Your attendance is greatly appreciated and we look forward to welcoming you back to Farnborough Village Hall next November.

- Mike Coad    Jan 2004

Doug Collender added:

The Northern final was held in the premises of Newcastle ACA at West Denton Community Centre on January 25th 2004 at 3pm. - 44 people attended - a VERY full house!!!.

Page updated on 21 March 2008

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

Free JavaScripts provided
by The JavaScript Source