I have been editing video from the mid-1990’s using VHS with Hi-8 tapes, then moving onto Mini-DV, and in early 2000’s acquired my first PC based editing suite.
In 2016 I bought my first ‘modern’ camera, a 4k Sony AX-53, high speed with built in Gimbal. After seeing the club in a local newspaper I joined in July 2017.
I’ve selected these few videos as being representative of my work and interest.
I came to film making with no background in photography or particular interest in storytelling, but through the simple route of wanting to have a record of my newborn baby growing up.
Digital video was of a high enough quality and cheap enough in the mid 2000s for it to be worth me trying out and abandoning if a failure.
I have since become an Associate of the IAC (AACI)
I have been making films since the age of 14, which is 56 years ago! I started with 8mm film and moved on to video in the 1990s. My films are generally made at a low cost; usually something around about around nothing!
They are based on things I am interested in. I don’t even try to ape the professionals so I class my films as “craft films” rather like “craft beer”.
I use very little equipment, just a low cost camcorder and some editing software on my laptop computer.
My interest in film making started in the late 1960s with a short lived stint using the school’s Bolex H16 film camera to record various school activities for posterity.
As the technology improved and prices dropped, I graduated to digital video and recorded my travels around the world for work and pleasure from the 1990s onwards. I joined the SBMM in 2017.
My hobby in making films developed from my father who was an active member of Bournemouth and New Forest Film Makers.
I made my first Standard 8mm film in my twenties and many others since, using clockwork ciné cameras, in the intervening years. I made do with an auxiliary portable tape recorder for sound and avoided the progression to Super 8.
I mostly film holidays, but I try to add information to make them of interest to a wider audience.
I like to take part even if in a small way when the club makes a film, and twice was the editor of a club production. Otherwise I usually do shot logging or clapperboard. Very occasionally I appear in front of the camera.
Brian O’Connell SBMM Writer and Director
‘Sarah’s War’ is Brian’s second full-length play, now a feature film.
Although written as a play, Brian always had the idea that it could be a film as he believes that if a script has the narrative traction to hold a live audience, then it would also have legs as a film.
Brian’s overriding passion is in storytelling, and would love to create a feature film of his first full-length play ‘Estate Agent’.
I started making videos in the mid 1980’s. Since then, I have remained a passionate videographer. My journey started with a focus on holiday films and then moved on to wedding films, mostly for friends and family and, over the ensuing years, has developed into making all types of movie genre. I am especially interested in making documentary films.
Having joined SBMM 15 years ago, I am the co-editor of the Clubs monthly magazine Border Post and currently the club’s Vice Chairman.