We cannot exist on holiday videos
and the occasional documentary

What's our future? Do we have one?
A personal view!

For some time I've been mulling over how the society will develop (or if it will), thinking about what we have today and what I perceive might happen in the not too distant future if we aren't careful.

We have a public show coming up and we have just about enough of good quality to go in it. If we don't get anything much at the Annual Challenge Cup competition in May or over the Summer period, we will have difficulty in filling a programme for our Autumn show. We could always opt out and plunder our library and have a "Nostalgia" section, bringing out old stories that members have made.

Are you making story films?

In a recent inter-club competition against a club that had dwindled to about 12 members, but now appears to be blooming, we saw they had some younger members who produced a very creditable and amusing story about a reactor amongst other stories.

This is what we neither have, nor make. The first question asked by the few young people who have popped in to see us from time to time is, "Are you making story films?", and we have to say not at the moment! We seem to be bereft of ideas.

Before last Christmas, when the subject of the regional competition was raised, there was a general shrugging of shoulders that we couldn't enter because we hadn't got a story video. Here we are, probably one of the best known and largest of all the clubs in the region, and I thought it was pitiful that we were prepared just to wimp out and do nothing about it.

So we gradually go down the drain and as a charity we will have to give our (your) funds away, so I suggest if no story scripts are forthcoming, the thing to do is to give members a subscription holiday. This way you can get some of your money back before we fold up and you can all then go on contemplating your navels.

We often wonder why we aren't getting any younger members in and I think perhaps we are too concerned about the technicalities of the hobby that we feel need to be mastered first, and don't make story videos. I'm not suggesting we remake "Ben Hur" but surely we can come up with at least some extended one-liner jokes as a start!

Loads of ideas and great fun

In the 60s, 70s and 80s when we only had a film camera, tape recorder, homemade lights and mixer we seem to have had loads of ideas and great fun getting a crew together to make films. Many of the ideas I have to say came initially from the ladies, (is there a clue here I wonder?) Some of the stories weren't great but at least two of them went on to win national awards and we had a great time overcoming the technical difficulties just to get something on the screen.

These days it's all too easy, no problems with lip sync, automatic exposure and sound level, instant playback, cheap tape, and while we can do it all on our own we are members of a club, and we need to make club videos. We are all getting older and unless we change I don't think we have a future! What do you think?