NAVC Best First Time Entry

Tim Harvey Itinerant Magpie

The origins of this sequence go back around 20 years when I rst came up with the anagram (Olaf Pirol/April Fool) and produced some of the artworks used in the sequence. However, it wasn’t until the lockdown of early 2021 that I started to map out a life story for Pirol, inspired by the lives of many 20th century artists. I wanted to create a vaguely plausible story, with ction tied into real events, including those in the lives of Picasso, Dali and Kandinsky whose art inspires much of the sequence. One of my favourite authors is Robert Harris, whose books are interwoven with real events in history, and I also love the spoof BBC y on the wall documentaries on the life of musician Brian Pern, so I drew on them when I was putting the sequence together.

As well as having fun creating (and naming) the artworks, one of the joys of producing the sequence was in expanding my Photoshop skills: adding Pirol’s paintings to real art galleries, the Taschen book on his life to a display.

I photographed in Waterstones, the spy books that he wrote when his father cut off his allowance and the fake newspaper front page (the ‘Daily Newt’…). For those interested in ‘Easter eggs’ there are also a few of those scattered around.

Pirol is ultimately a tragic character, his life a series of disasters (many of his own making), striving to be original but always ending up several years behind the trends in the art world. Ironically, in that respect my sequence is merely following in the tradition of many of the TV comedy greats!

The RPS Great Yorkshire AV Day

Sunday 6 November 2022

It was great to be back at the Leeds Trinity University, for the RPS Great Yorkshire AV Day, a place which the AV Group loves on account of its huge screen and great sound system. It was the usual format of members AV sequences for review in the morning and a key note speaker in the afternoon.

Tim Harvey reports ...

Above: Bryan Stubbs and Tony Collinson in action.

Left: Leeds Trinity University makes the point that it “loves” us being there

Right: A big thumbs up from the audience. It was great to be back together doing what we all love to do. Live AV with a big screen and big sound.

As we know, you can wait an age for a bus and then two turn up at once. The same seems to be in play when it comes to AV events here in Leeds. Hot on the heels of the National AV Championship back in September was the return (after a gap of three years due to ’you know what’) of the Great Yorkshire AV Day. As always it was held at the wonderful Leeds Trinity University campus, organised by the usual team of Bryan Stubbs (complete with distinctive designer jacket), Tony Collinson and Keith Scott.

Despite ongoing concerns over trailing cables, and a short feedback glitch with the microphone during the afternoon session, the event went off very smoothly, with the audience of 60 or so enjoying a full day of high-quality AV. The morning session, hosted by master of the stopwatch Keith Scott, provided everyone with a chance to share sequences and get feedback. Due to time constraints a couple of submitted sequences had to be omitted, (Bryan promised they would be top of list for the next event) but this still left time for 13 AVs to be viewed, and due to Keith’s timekeeping, this was completed three minutes early (something that rarely happens with buses!)

The sequences transported us far and wide, from Lincoln and Teesdale in the UK, to Bhutan, Denmark, Egypt, Italy, Poland and Zanzibar. We had two very different illustrated songs, alongside the adventures of George the Knight, the Venice Biennale art exhibition and an entirely ctional art heist.

We learnt of Steampunks and drifting sands, why the castles on Lake Garda are all on one side of the lake, how Abu Simbel got its name, and the birthplace of Freddie Mercury.

The RPS Great Yorkshire AV Day continued

After Betty and Barbara’s magnicent buffet lunch, the afternoon session was allocated to Keith Leedham (who had originally been booked for April 2020) and provided him with an opportunity to share a wide variety of AVs with an appreciative audience.

Keith is a master of the soundtrack, which in many instances comes before the images, and his sequences demonstrated a wide range of techniques.

Key amongst these is nding a voice – often not Keith’s, with several sequences using more than one to great effect – alongside a mixture of appropriate music and sound effects. He showed us several collaborative AVs while others used bespoke or existing poetry and in the case of To The Editor a script that came from the internet.

The combination of the soundtrack and images created a wonderful chilling atmosphere in both The Inn on the Pass and The Assignment, really bringing out their supernatural themes. Keith’s most successful competition entry, the powerful For the Sake of Example told the tragic tale of those solders executed at dawn for desertion, while another moving story from Norfolk Island (1000 miles from New Zealand) covered prisoners executed for mutiny, such as 21 year old William McGullock.

Closer to home, we were treated to A Birthday Gift in the form of a humorous visit to Bluewater shopping centre that contained some wonderful candid photography, while To The Editor cleverly illustrated a comic tale of unrequited love.

Keith’s natural history photography came to the fore in both versions of his Waiting Game sequence, illustrating the forward planning, patience and ingenuity required to put together an AV of this nature; the caveat being that even the best laid plans can come to naught if the nest fails to attract any tenants.

The presentation ended with a beautiful tribute to Keith’s wife Marilyn, who sadly died last year, showcasing her singing against a series of portraits taken by Keith.

Bryan ended the afternoon with the hope that there will be two more AV Days in 2023, but he would welcome some feedback on the format and suggestions for content.