CLIPS, TIPS AND GRIPS – BMM club meeting 7 May 2026

President David opened the meeting with 17 members present including guests Rick, Berryl and welcomed back Aveena Anthony who had a starring role in the club’s movie Awakening.

David kicked off proceedings with a short video he shot at the Woollongabba Art Gallery which he said was a “good space for movie projects and concerts” and had the potential for the club to screen movies in future.

He recommended Japan’s film festival Sapporo international Short Film Festival and Market which attracts around 3,000 entries per year. It’s promoted as “one of the best opportunities for filmmakers looking for exposure and appraisal of their work”. You can see some of the past entries on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/sapporoshortfest

Film Bites – David presented an interesting collection of film bites, particularly Evoluition of Paris – a fixed-camera timelapse of the history of Paris over 2,200 years in 15 minutes.

Other clips included Body Fixers , a series of short videos about a group of experts who help people ‘fix’ their looks from “removing badly damaged dreads” to “out of control toenails” and everything in between - seriously;

Artificial Angels a unique music video style; and a trailer for Terence Malick’s Song to Sing   

Check them out, the variety is amazing, inspiring and, at times, just plain weird.

Project updates – Quiet Achievers is about 80% finished. Smoke and Mirrors is progressing well with some videos well advanced in production, others are progressing through the process. Sandeep said he was re-writing his movie Vital Stable to make it a bit shorter. He has a few actors lined up but neeeds a camera operator. Details will be on the club’s website under the Upcoming Projects tab.

Heather talked about a possible new project based on a book she wrote in 2014 called “Talk to me - Conversation strategies for parents of children on the autism spectrum or with speech and language impairments”. It’s based on real life experience with her son.

Members watched a final edit of the club’s video Awakening which was written by Heather and produced by Jen. The final version is on Vimeo but you can click here to see it.

Peter W gave a de-brief on his amazing ME project which screened in the Elizabeth Picture Theatre in the city on 18 April. He said comments and feedback were very encouraging. People found that each of the 12 interviews were “inspiring“, ”different perspective on life”, “a pot pouri of people and ideas”, “Inspiration came through on each individual”.

The program ran around two hours but Peter said the challenge was to keep the interviews, many of which ran around 40 minutes, down to 8-10 minute. He said the choice was to cut them short, or cut some out – he wisely chose to include because each of the stories provided “good fruit for thought and discussion”.

Peter showed a video that Nigel shot on the night of the screening which included audience reaction and feedback. Great work all round.

Green room activities… Peter is continuing to run his weekly Green Room activities providing members with the opportunity to enhance their experience and talents in all levels and functions of video production. Last weekend he filmed a documentary on Southbank.

• May 16 he will interview a couple of musicians in the Green Room and video them playing their instruments in front of the green screen.

• May 23 he will be doing some outdoor interviews highlighting the challenges associated with doing interviews outside.

• May 24, the last shoot for Sally’s feature film on World War 1. The scene will be a cemetary which will be incorporated utilising Peter’s green screen. Any club members who are interested to see it all happening are invited.

• May 30 , Peter is also making a video called “Horror on a running trail”. He has the female actor for the video but needs a male actor (in the 20s age group).

• If you want to be involved in any of these activities, see "Upcoming Events" on the club's website and contact Peter.

My Journey as a Film Maker.  Lachlan talked about his journey as a film maker which began in regional NSW “during the great toilet paper famine (aka Covid)”. His first video was shot and edited on an iPhone which he said he “hated”. When he came to Brisbane he had 24 subscribers to his YouTube channel Breathe deep and Seek adventure which is “devoted to showcasing the weird history and other gems found in Brisbane and the surrounding areas”. With 147 videos now on his YouTube channel, he now has 11,300 subscribers.

However, Lachlan said he recently looked at the analytics and found that 75% of the audience were dropping out after 30 seconds so he realised he needed to get advice “to make me stand out”. He recently came to BMM where he asked for and received a whole range of tips and tricks to improve the quality of his videoing and editing. Like the subjects he covers, the rest is history as his techniques are improving and his audience is building. Great support from the club.

Equipment review #1 videographers lens. Peter reviewed a lens he recently bought for his Panasonic camera. It’s called 7Artistans MF 25MM spectrum 35mm T2.0 Full Frame cine lens. Peter said it was specifically for film making and videographers. It has no automatic focus, only manual focus, it has no F stops for the aperture but has T stops.  It's built like a tank, which makes it very sturdy but twice as heavy as a Panasonic lens, and it’s not ‘weather sealed. However, Peter said the advantage is that it has excellent image quality, good for low light shooting”. He said it cost $450, compared with a comparable standard ot lens which would cost $1200.

Equipment review #2 - camera cage. Glenn demonstrated a new piece of kit that he bought recently for his DSLR camera. The camera cage is described as “a metal frame mounted on the outside of your camea that allows you to attach various accessories externally”. Glenn said the best thing about it was that it greatly improved functionality, allowing the operator to mount accessories such as a monitor, power bank holder and microphone. He described it as very practical piece of equipment. However there isn;t one cage for all cameras because cameras come in all shapes and sizes so you have to select the cage that is designed for your camera. He said the prices can range from about $76 to $400.

There’s lots of information about camera cages and ‘how to’ videos available – just search for “camera cage rig”.

That’s a wrap. David brought down the clapper at 9.35PM.

Keep an eye on "Upcoming Meetings" on the club’s website for details of our next club meeting on Thursday 21 May.