INSTITUTE OF VIDEOGRAPHY CONVENTION 15TH –16TH OCTOBER 2008, RICOH ARENA, COVENTRY.
INSTITUTE OF VIDEOGRAPHY CONVENTION 15TH –16TH OCTOBER 2008, RICOH ARENA, COVENTRY.
Event Report by Mark Brindle, Maniac Films ltd.
The Institute of Videography (IOV) is a not-for-profit organization, owned by its members and aims to promote high levels of production competence and professionalism in the video industry. The membership is open to anyone working in the industry and has several levels of membership including student, normal member, master member and fellow. I have been a member of the IOV since early 2005 when I submitted a promotional film for assessment and joined as a Master Member.
The annual convention of the IOV was held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry from 15th-16th October and I went up to investigate. There are very few IOV members in the South West – there hasn’t been a representative for this region since I have been a member and so I was interested in meeting some of the IOV executive and putting faces to names/voices of members I had been in contact with. The convention also included the annual IOV awards ceremony. One of our films ‘Half Life’ had been short-listed in the best documentary category so I was also keen to see the competition!
The Ricoh Arena itself is a huge modern sports stadium, with hotel and conference facilities plus the usual restaurants, bars and casinos. It is fairly easy to find by road and has easy parking. The IOV convention was in one of the main exhibition areas (the jaguar hall two) and after being to other trade events such as the Video forum at Earls court, I found a familiar atmosphere and layout: lots of stands with video equipment to play with! There was a good range of manufacturers and distributors showing off a whole range from video cameras, grip equipment, audio production gear, lighting, jibs and cranes, steadicams to video editing hardware and software, hdmi converters to royalty free music and camera bags. Plus additional stands offering insurance services, disk duplicators, industry magazine and books for sale plus an IOV membership and assessment clinic to help prospective members get feedback on their own video work.
Unlike the larger video forums, the IOV convention was quite a small affair, which made it easy to get your hands on the equipment and to chat with vendors and suppliers – including Sony, Rycote, Tiffen, TLS, Edirol, Ianiro, AKM music, Calumet, Hague, Holdan, H Prestons, Keene Electronics, DVC, Planet Video, MCPS and Producton gear. This was a major plus for me as I had been disappointed at some of the larger trade events – with so many people milling about, you couldn’t see as much and had a lot of waiting time to talk to anyone. There was plenty of opportunity to chat with the vendors and really have a play with new equipment and with lots of ‘show specials’ on offer it was very tempting to go on a spending spree! There were also a few ‘trainer-led’ live demos of editing packages including Sony Vegas and Final Cut Pro throughout both days
I was keen on checking out lighting systems and so limited myself to parting with cash only for lighting. I had been looking at LED lighting since writing a review on new 1000 LED fixtures for the IOV monthly magazine ‘Focus’ a few months ago. I found a slightly updated version of the lights I had reviewed and also a couple more vendors showing similar lamps. It was useful to compare the LED systems (and prices!) and after more hands-on testing for the same issues I had found with the original LED lamps (lack of spill control) I ended up with a good deal on a 1000w redhead kit and 3channel dimmer instead. The LED lighting seems to be changing designs so quickly that I will be sitting on the fence for a while longer...
Aside from the trade exhibition, the IOV convention also has a series of seminars on both days – many aimed at Wedding film makers, but also on video journalism in the BBC, creating perfect voice-overs and health and safety for videographers. There were also three ‘question time style’ Q&A panel sessions on corporate, documentary and wedding filmmaking on both days. I had been roped into being on the corporate panel on the second day and decided to sit in on the documentary/general q&a panel on the first day to see the format and calm my nerves a bit. The panel sessions turned out to be very informal and fun really - not as daunting as I had envisaged. The sessions attracted a range of questions from ‘how do you price corporate video production’ to questions on music licensing for dvd and web, getting into corporate video (I guess from members who mostly film weddings), to questions on use of contracts, selling stock footage and copyright issues. It was very interesting to be involved both as part of the audience and as part of the panel and I discovered a new IOV member from the South West on the same panel as me.
This year the IOV annual awards ceremony was held on the evening of the 15th October – a short walk up the stairs from the main exhibition hall. The event had been deliberately played down this year from the previous glitzy style, so there was no dress code and anyone could come along just after the exhibition closed on the first day. There was a big turn out to this part of the event where you could mingle and chat, amongst the array of plasma screens playing sections of the short-listed entries in each of the awards categories – from best wedding video, best corporate, best short film, best documentary to best open category. It was interesting to see all the different films although there was no sound playback, which I thought would have helped the viewing.
After a few false starts and the usual ‘where are the trophies?’ the ceremony was under way with a selection of the IOV executive committee handing out glass awards for 1st/2nd/3rd places and two ‘highly commended’ awards in each category. I managed to secure a highly commended award for Half-Life in the documentary category, which was a great result based on the high level of competition from across the UK and Europe. After the awards it was off to the Casino (part of the Ricoh centre) for more food, drinks and networking (and maybe a bit of blackjack and roulette!).
Overall, I was very pleased with the two-day convention and managed to meet up with many IOV members who I’d only spoken to and emailed in the past, plus meet many new members in the informal atmosphere of the q&a panels and the convention itself. I think next years event will be in my diary – only hoping it could be a bit closer to home.
Links: IOV website www.iov.co.uk
