I joined the Ringwood Movie Club in 1976 at a time when experiments in Amateur movie making were well under way. A number of members had been shooting film for many years and had a great deal of information to pass on. That was the key to a successful club. Super 8 was the “in” format although a few stuck with standard 8.

  On Friday evenings members would line up their projectors and reveal, from 50ft reels, their latest works. There were many do's and don'ts propounded and, whilst the newcomers tried to stick rigidly to them, the old hands smiled and broke a number of rules usually to good effect. This was another part of the learning curve. So, I had a sort of apprenticeship watching others movies and, in a sense, trying to emulate their efforts.

  Like many others I vouched never to turn to video. The quality could never be the same. I think this was trying to justify not having the courage to ask the spouse for funds for the new medium. It was quite expensive. Then the gadget man inside took over and in 1989 I bought a Panasonic VHS C, camera. Oh and a VCR. This was a grand little camera and provided very good images. I just had to remember to press the button again to turn it off. Of course when I went into VHS, most other videographers were turning to Hi8!

  This was a new and somewhat confusing era in movie making. The choices were many in formats, camera, and VCR's and in the Ringwood Club as with many other members, we had a wide range. Which was best? I think we still don't know. Early on in my membership I joined the Club committee, and with a number of stints as Vice President and President served until fairly recently. Being a committee member is probably one of the hardest jobs in a club. Satisfying most of the members most of the time is difficult.

  When I look at cameras now, with the amount of storage they achieve, I wonder how anyone, who is not in a club, can possibly undertake reasonable editing. Getting through a 90 min mini DVD is enough never mind the five or six I might shoot on a trip. The Club often has one min and three min editing challenges. We try to make a movie of this duration which tells a story.

                                                                                              Regards from Jack Vaux