Latest News
April 29th 2010
Have you been and checked out the new videos and list of winners yet? If not then do pop along to the Winners Page.
There has been some wonderful feedback from the ceremony, here are a few samples...
Hi Chris
Firstly, I would like to congratulate everyone at Morecambe Bay Video club for the fantastic finals day. I really enjoyed it and thought it was very well organised and run. The format was great and seeing my film on the big screen was something in itself. It's amazing how many more things I thought about tweaking whilst watching it! A Day to Remember is now totally put to bed and onto the next.
The film selection was great and had some crackers of all different types and styles. I especially found 'Mutter' disturbing as I was widowed just over 2 years ago and I know what it's like to even think you may lose someone, but very interesting as I feel it caught many aspects of the desperation of a mother to see her child well again. The Crystal Meth film was very dark and just went to show the expanse of film genre you received in the competition. A great competition. I was very pleased to receive criticism from the judges and will be taken on board for my next project.
Many thanks again for a great competition.
James Agland
Hi Chris
We all thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Lancaster, and felt that the Awards Ceremony was excellently organised. Your slick timing is something that the IAC should take note of. My thanks to all who were concerned in the organisation of the show and the beautiful buffet afterwards.
Thank you also for the crits from the two judges. They were very fair and I am now making some small changes in the film which should make it even better.
I shall be showing my trophies to members of SAM at their AGM towards the end of May, and I will encourage people, along with myself, to enter next year's Festival.
With every good wish, and very many thanks to all.
Daphne
Hi Chris,
Thanks for everything - your kind reception of myself, (and from Mike), the Fab nosh-up and also for the very high standard of professional presentation in the theatre. Please give my congratulations to the theatre projectionist, (if you see him), for the smooth and first class projection. The vision and the sound were superb.
Kind regards to your wife, to all those of your club members that I met including Ken the Hon. Sec.
Best wishes,
Lee.
Hi Chris
Thanks you very much for the email and the club will be absolutely delighted with the award. It sounds like you had a really good day and glad the event went so well.....a credit to you and Morecambe Bay organising such a successful International Competition. I know it must have taken a lot of effort on your part and we certainly appreciate it. The postal address for the award is: xxxxxxxxxxxxx (deleted by Chris)Thanks once again for all your hard work.
Kindest Regards
Clive
Chris,
Allow me to congratulate you and your team on a very well managed event that stamped its authority on to the amateur film circuit. I believe your show certainly demonstrated a level of commitment to the Amateur film world, or if you like a statement of Intent to step up very seriously to the festival plate. The Cinema and Big Screen are too - almost unheard of in our world - and that is definitely the way forward.
On the downside the poor attendance after all your hard work and input must have been disappointing......somehow the Younger University and Media students have to be engaged and motivated to take part. I see it as the only solution.
Your prizes were certainly generous ... and at least I will not have to polish my Gold! I am not sure about: " And the nominations are.....part of the program" but I can appreciate the hard work that made it all so slick. I thought, curiously, that the little 'clips' revealed something about one of my films......the brief 'clip' of ROCK BOTTOM screened revealed about 9 separate cuts which started to 'drive' the story even in only an exert. Then a 'clip' from MOTHER was shown....one shot and the Mother was still on the phone! I think it is in the shot variety and pace which might have given me the extra half point.
So, thank-you All for a tremendous first time effort....'from acorns, Oak Trees grow.'
Bob Lorrimer.
Hi Chris,
I'm Howard Smith ("Howard-Smith for my film-making) and was present yesterday at The Erics. It was good to see my film Misconceptions on the big screen!
It was a most enjoyable event and it was just a pity that there weren't more people present. I gathered that the local press hadn't done anything to publicise the event, which is disappointing.
I have a couple of suggestion for your consideration. There were a few films I'd seen before at BIAFF and I noticed that some of the films had been made a while ago, as long as 5 years ago in one case. I wonder whether you would want to consider for future Erics competitions stipulating that the entries should have been made, or at least some work should have been done on them, within say the past 18 months or 2 years at most. Otherwise of course it opens the doors for filmmakers to submit films which have won previous competitions anytime within recent years.
The other suggestion is to consider an extra awards for "Best Story Film" in addition to "Best Comedy", and "Best Documentary" as well as or instead of "Best Natural History".
I look forward to attending future Erics and hopefully the word will spread by next year so that many more people will attend.
Congratulations on the event. Kind regards,
Howard
Hi Chris,
I've just got the Newsletter from Protea - they're "over the moon".....You did stay true to The Cotswold....one point that I always did and that was to have engraved on the trophies, glass too, the name of the recipient and the title of the film plus the year...just noted on the Sieberts awards that's not done! Just a comment. It certainly has raised the game for ALL other competitions. Yes, The web sites, particularly The Erics, are arresting, that's the point of any web site.
Cheers,
Lee.
PS: We nipped into Morecambe to have a gander and to particularly look at ERIC on the Prom. Mike is a great Fan of his. As we walked along from the car park everyone said "Good Morning", even a little dog barked at us - Mike was flabbergasted! I pointed out to him that we were in Lancashire not bloody Gloucestershire or worse still, London!
February 16th 2010
Judging is well underway now and we had sixty entries overall. Not bad for a first year and when other competitions are declining. Category “A” was particularly attractive to entrants. Each entry will receive two free tickets to the Winners Grand Final on the 10th April in the Dukes Theatre & Cinema, Moor Lane, Lancaster. Public tickets, £3, will be available from the Box Office tel 01524 598500.
The top films will be shown from 2pm to 6pm and the award ceremony will be from 6pm. Our host for the evening will be John Gillmore from BBC Radio Lancashire, “Gilly” as he is universally known in Lancashire. The event will finish no later than 7pm.
We are very pleased to have camerakit.TV as the event sponsors. We are also pleased to announce that the third prize-winners will receive, in addition to the award, a £25 voucher to be spent in Jessops.
We are also pleased to announce another top award, the Lee Prescott Natural History Award, named after the founder of one of the top competitions in the UK, The Cotswolds, in whose footsteps we are treading.
We were disappointed with the number of entries in Category “B” Students and have decided to withdraw that category. Also we will not be awarding a prize for the Best Film of Morecambe Bay.
Do try and attend The Grand Winners Final and see some of the best non-commercial films from the UK and abroad. Help to make this competition a success so that Morecambe Bay Movie makers can consider making it in to a festival next year.
To everyone who has entered and to all our sponsors, a big thank you for helping us celebrate our 40th Anniversary in style.
Kind regards
Chris Abram
Event Organiser
Message from Organiser Chris Abram
Since we launched the competition in October the interest shown has been enormous. It looks like this inaugural "Erics" competition year celebrating Morecambe Bay Movie Maker's 40th Anniversary, is turning out to be a major success.
Several major sponsors have come forward to offer extra prizes. Not least of which is O2 - It's Your Community and it is their very generous financial sponsorship which has made this event possible.
We are indebted to Rycote for offering such a valuable series of products and this has allowed us to introduce a valuable new award for THE BEST SOUNDTRACK. Not only that, but there will be a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize all provided by Rycote.
We are especially glad to welcome major sponsorship from CameraKit UK, who are not only sponsoring the Winners Grand Final but also providing vouchers for the second prize winners in Categories A, B, C, & D.
LowePro have also been more than generous with their offer of a top range Magnum DV 4000 camera bag. This we are offering as an additional 1st prize in the Open C category.
Sennheiser have generously donated a pair of HD 25 SP headphones, which we are offering as an additional 1st prize in Category D.
Jessops and local Lancaster camera shop Wilkinson's have also donated vouchers for use in the competition.
Classic Engravings & Gifts of Morecambe have sponsored all the 1st, 2nd & 3rd "non Eric" trophies for the competition. AKM, The UK's producer of quality Royalty Free Music, have also offered cash sponsorship towards the total event cost.
Without such generous sponsors, events like this would simply not happen. I had hoped when I began to organise this prestigious event that our local authority, Lancaster City Council, would play an active financial part, especially as we are promoting the area world wide. Some assistance in the form of a trophy, photographs and links to their "What's On " website have been supplied by the local tourism department.
Still, the competition is looking successful and a worthy climax to Morecambe Bay Movie Makers' 40th Anniversary celebrations. What irks me most is that I would have liked to have entered the competition as the" Erics " trophies are absolutely unique,.... and I would have loved to have won one!
Thank you for all those who have made an effort to help me pull this and our other 40th Anniversary events together to make it such a highly successful year.
Kind regards
Chris Abram
Event Organiser
