IPF AV National Championships

The IPF AV National Championships takes place in October each year and is usually held in conjunction with the IPF International AV Competition.

There are sections for Novices, Intermediate, Club and Advanced in the National Championships and extra awards for Humour, Best First Time Entrant, Best Sound, Best Photography and Best Overall. All sequences in the national competition will be commented on – so it is advisable for all entrants to attend and learn from both their own and other entrant’s sequences.

The IPF AV National Championships are open to all paid up members of their clubs, whose clubs should also be paid up members affiliated to the IPF.

Most entrants use Pictures2Exe to make their sequences on, which is recognised worldwide and a number of programmes are available for the sound track. A sequence can be as simple or as complicated as the author wants, on any subject matter and the only stipulation in competition is that the sequence can be no longer than 12 minutes.

The Audio-Visual medium is a great way to tell a story, interpret music, show your holiday images, make a documentary, tell about your hobby/interest or anything that captures your imagination and can hold the attention of both the judges and the audience and get the message across.

Images and sound tracks must be of a consistent competence, work together as a sequence with a natural progression for the novice with progressively higher qualifications for intermediate and advanced levels.

What tends not to work is the overuse of different fades/swipes/movements or different size images. If an author has a couple of excellent images that are of better quality than others, they may be better left out for stand alone competition.

Music should also be chosen carefully to match the images and the pace of the music needs also to match the duration of the images on the screen. Sound effects can add to a sequence if appropriately placed.

The script is a difficult part of the production – what to put in – what to leave out – are there too many facts and dates etc. Clear narration of the script is very important – so that the judges and audience can understand the story line and also be able to take in the effect the images and sound are adding.