2025 Christmas Small Edit Challenge
Over Christmas our competitions officer set us a ‘Small Edit Challenge’. This was the brief:
The Small Edit Challenge
Here is a way to hone your skills, in a different way, and have fun over Christmas! The idea is to make us better film makers – especially newbies like myself. Those with more experience can flex their creative muscles. The snippets can be just a couple of scenes from a larger movie project or a whole project itself (provided most of the footage is within the rules of the competition).
There are 3 Themes.
You can do any or all of the Themes. The rules are as follows:
THEME 1 – GREEN SCREEN
Clever use of green screens. (perhaps make a 3 foot cube from green cardboard and turn it into a multi-dimensional portal right in your living-room – an entire world you can walk round (all 360 degrees). Or green screen the windows of a car to make a road movie without moving.
Or a horror movie involving creepy cemeteries without actually being in the cemetery. Holes in your ceiling or floor can magically appear – odd mirrors with green reflections could have aliens within them. If you are in a team you can have half the team inside the footage of the green screen and the other half on the outside of the green screen looking in – like two movies at once.
THEME 2 – SOUND
We want some really good sound effects -sort of “B roll” of walking over gravel, animal life, – perhaps make a movie made entirely from old silent World War 1 clips. Then add in the sound of the squaddies making a brew, pouring of the water, stirring of the spoons, while the cannons fire, and the squelching sounds of mud is everywhere (perhaps green screen images of rats).
THEME 3 – CLOSE-UPS
We ideally want clever close-up shots in the movie of peoples feet, eyes, hands or mouth – odd items in the film, elbows, close up of fabrics/clothes, anything a bit quirky and unexpected. The snippets can be just one of the three categories or all three of them. It’s up to you entirely….
IMPORTANT
The Bulk of the film/scenes need to revolve around green screens and/or sound (eg. adding sound effects to WW1 footage) and/or close ups. At least one of these categories must be centre stage of the project.
Behind the Christmas Green Screen by The Pathfinders B
kafka does santa with wonky camera.
Green screen.
Night at the Gallery by the Pioneers
Two robbers release a beautiful woman from a picture and strange things begin to happen.
Green screen
Variety Performance by The Odd bods
Sand dance & snake charmer.
Green screen.
The Making of Variety challenge by The Odd Bods
Car Pooling by Marcus Henning
Green screen style background replacement (rotoscoping).
End of the Line by Jonathan Hill
Music and sound effects added to silent movies.
December 2025 saw a large number of entries to the club’s member’s competition. So many, that there was not enough time to show them all. T his is the story of the unscreened films which had their airing at the Club’s first meeting of 2026 held via Zoom on Friday the 9th of January. Overall there were 20 entries to the competition, with only enough time to screen the prize winners, leaving 13 unseen. Here, in no particular order, are the unscreened films.
Peter Stratford – Off The Rails
“A remote abandoned railway village in the high altitude Andean desert.”
Judges Comments:
Pip Critten: An evocative, well-crafted short that blends striking visuals and moodful sound to create a haunting sense of place.
Overall, this film maker clearly has a strong eye for composition, capturing detail and desolation simultaneously. It’s impressive work.
Robin Slater: There is a story of better times here and you managed to capture the abandoned beauty of this place that still had glimpses of how things used to be.
Brian O’Connell – ‘Reform Promotional Video’
This was a promotional video made to support the work of Guildford Reform and to encourage local membership.”
Judges Comments:
Pip Critten: The closing sequence is timed beautifully, providing a strong, dramatic finish.
Overall, this expertly crafted film is an impressive example of its genre, and the entire team should be congratulated on what they’ve achieved.
Robin Slater: A nice, well put together promotional video in support of Guilford Reform. The film had a strong message and had a good feel of a party-political broadcast. There was a good mix of graphics used and the music was well chosen.
Dave Skertchley – ‘Free Tickets on the Vale of Weedol Tramway’
“We all like a bargain and Dave has some free tickets for a trip on a preserved railway.”
Judges Comments:
Pip Critten:A delightful trip into a miniature world, filmed with creativity, warmth, and an obvious love of the craft.
Robin Slater: The camera positions were imaginative and added to the feel of actually being in the railway. The use of graphics was good in the history section. To answer the question greenhouse or workshop….no contest, you can always get tomatoes from the
greengrocer.
Paul Ashworth – ‘The viewing’
A commercial for a property portfolio, captured with DJI Mini and Avatar drones.
Judges Comments:
Pip Critten: A beautifully crafted property film showcasing impressive drone work, with just a few
small refinements that could make it even stronger. Well done, Paul.
Robin Slater: The strength for me is the internal flow of the film, which really shows the house off well. It’s stable and appears effortless as the drone drifts silky smooth from room to room revealing all the key aspects of the listing.
Paul Ashworth – ‘The visit’
“A record of a first visit to V&A East Storehouse. Shot using a Samsung S24 Ultra.”
Judges Comments:
Pip Critten: A visually engaging tour of the V&E East Storehouse that showcases a great eye for detail and atmosphere while offering room for a bit more narrative shape. Well done.
Robin Slater: The film shows off the space well. It is expansive and eclectic and has the look of a ‘Raiders from the Lost Ark film. It’s well-lit and each shot adds to the visual story telly well.
Marcus Henning – ‘Hinton Ampner’
“A visit to Hinton Ampner; a short documentary. A bit of ‘something to do’ on a Sunday.”
Judges Comments:
Pip Critten: A well-crafted debut film that combines descriptive narration and considered visuals to
offer an engaging and enjoyable exploration of Hinton Ampner.
Sandra and Marcus should be warmly congratulated on their first-time entry, a genuinely enjoyable and leisurely meander through Hinton Ampner. Well done.
Robin Slater: The garden shots are very good and the filmmaker has bought out the colour and design of the grounds well. Also, the narration is well paced, suitably artistic and very
informative giving the feel of a visitors blog, or tourist guide to the house.
Jonathan Hill – ‘The Owl & the Pussycat’
“One Sunday afternoon I unexpectedly found myself at the wedding of Stuart (Owl) and Christine (Pussycat). Almost automatically I started filming with my Samsung S2 hoping to catch some of the happiness of their special day”
Judges Comments:
Pip Critten: This film will no doubt be a cherished reminder of a joyful and meaningful occasion. You should feel proud of what you’ve created, especially in such an informal and spontaneous way. Congratulations on your first-time entry.
Robin Slater: A nice film of an important day which will be great to look back on over the years.
John Hawthorne – ‘Murder in u Paesolu”
“A holiday in Corsica filmed by an evil and good director. Style: vaguely like Generation Alpha’s (think 6-7 meme) love of bad films eg Skibidi Toilet (by DaFuq!Boom!) – Plot: In English (lol), its a holiday video with a little story wrapped around it to make it more interesting for people who have seen one too many videos of other families holidays. It was filmed in southern and central Corsica.”
Judges Comments:
Pip Critten: Overall, this is a truly novel film that highlights what can be achieved by novice film makers with a spark of imagination and good production skills.
Robin Slater: As a travelog/murder mystery it was light-hearted and fun. As a viewer it was easy to enjoy this film, getting to know the family a bit and having some fun around the concepts of good v bad in filmmaking – reinforcing the fact that the director is always right.
Peter Goodman – ‘Ride to Bellagio’
A ‘short’ that was made for my social media channel. As it’s for social media it had to be brutally short and portrait format!”
Judges Comments:
Pip Critten: This made-for-social-media film is just the right length for its audience, any longer and you might risk losing their attention.
As a first-time entry, it really shows promise, a strong start that suggests great potential for future projects.
Robin Slater: The scenery and shot mix look very nice and shows the ride off very well to those of us unlucky enough not to have visited that area. The music is good and gives the piece that warm relaxed Mediterranean feel.