See Hear !!
This was Tony Redford’s intriguing title for his presentation to the club on Tuesday 20th of October. The evening was divided into four parts, each an AV Pictures to Exe presentation based on trips he and Dorothy had made to Beijing, to Hong Kong, and to Lisbon.
In the Beijing sequence we visited Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall of China; watched people dancing or singing in the Park, and took in a variety of portraits. It was a joy to watch Jack Bamford sliding down the mountain side on his toboggan.
Hong Kong was a great contrast, with crowded tall skyscrapers, colourful trams, and illuminated signs everywhere. The very modern buildings and giant shopping Mall contrasted with the old red-sailed fishing smacks (now employed as tourist transport). The cable car to the mountain provided a grand view over Kowloon across the harbour.
After the break a short series of portraits from China (where everyone now appears to have a mobile phone) preceded a journey around Lisbon, reliving the recent Club trip to that City. The initial rainy day slides eventually gave way to the sunny Lisbon that we also remembered and to the memorable trip to the Fairy-tale castle at Sintra.
But seeing was only half of the show; hearing was equally important, and we were impressed (and amused) by Tony’s choice of background music, when he wasn’t directly commenting on the scenes.
In particular we expect him to provide us with the words of the now famous song “I Like Chinese”.
The essence of these very slick shows was the judicious use of the various transitions provided by the Pictures-to-Exe programme; and we noted that Tony made maximum use of the screen by putting similar portrait formats side by side to present them as a single Landscape format. To complete the evening, the cat made an impromptu appearance.
Brian Bower proposed a vote of thanks. He thought he discerned a lot of Dorothy’s images in the show. Brian himself had once been keen on AV presentations, in the days when transitions had to be from one film slide to another. He had been impressed by the many transitions now available and well used by Tony, and equally impressed by the selections of music to accompany the images. His wife, Valerie, had been riveted throughout, a sure sign of a good evening.
Tony thanked Brian for his comments and admitted that Dorothy and son Peter had had a hand in producing the images used.