An overview of the video topics presented at our General Meetings in recent years.
2021 General Meetings
No General Meetings were scheduled in May, June, July, or August, 2021.
April 15 (via Zoom): Member Fred Harshbarger, veteran travel videographer, on “What to Bring on Your African Video Safari”
March 18 (via Zoom): Member John Glassco, 2021 Goldies Short Video Contest second-place winner for his animated video, “Lego Houdini,” presenting “A Brief Venture into the World of Stop-Motion Animation”
February 18 (via Zoom): Annual Short Video Contest; top three winners were Stephanie Brasher, John Glassco, and Don Hill
January 21 (via Zoom): John Schmidt, Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Arts at Biola University, “War Stories from A Feature Film Producer”
2020 General Meetings
November 19 (via Zoom): “Music, Memories & Motivation,” a collection of beloved music videos chosen by member, instructor, and Mac guru Stephanie Brasher to inspire your video creativity
October 15 (via Zoom): Dr. Mike Gonzales, screenwriter and Cinema and Media Arts Professor at Biola University, “How to Write A Story That Others Will Want to Hear”
September 17 (via Zoom): Chuck Holland, Village Management Services Information Technology Director, “Village Technology Update”
NOTICE: Due to COVID-19, no General Meetings were held in March, April, or May, 2020. June, July, and August are normally dark for General Meetings.
February 3: 10th Annual Goldies Awards Banquet, Clubhouse 2 Main Ballroom; top three winners were Stephanie Brasher, Fred Harshbarger
January 16: Jeff Parker, CEO of Village Management Services, Inc., shared his vision for the Village. Eileen Paulin, VMS Director of Media and Communications, discussed Village communications, especially the new Village Breeze semi-monthly magazine. Watch this program on our club YouTube channel.
2019 General Meetings
November 21: Panel with John Kelly and Bill Hemberger on “Thirty-Second Spots: How to Make Them and What They Can Do. Watch their presentation on our club YouTube channel.
October 17: Meeting cancelled due to last-minute unavailability of speaker.
September 19: Village resident Don Hill, a Board member and instructor for the Camera Club and now a video enthusiast, shared information about new, light, high-tech video equipment in his talk, “What’s in My Camera Bag? New Toys for Old Folks.” Watch his presentation on our club YouTube channel.
Don’s talk included a new 36-minute video, “What’s in My Camera Bag?” which he created to be part of his presentation. View Don’s video separately at this link.
May 16: Village resident Larry Cunningham drew on his extensive background in aerial photography for his talk on “Drones: All You Need to Know.” Watch his presentation on our club YouTube channel.
April 18: Producer, director, writer, editor, and publisher Jane Altschuler discusses “Finding the Spine of the Story” Watch her presentation on our club YouTube channel.
March 21: Entertainment Attorney Jules Zalon discusses “Copyright in Motion Pictures: Whatever Else You Do, Write It Down!” Watch his presentation on our club YouTube channel.
January 17: Premiere of Video Club’s first dramatic video, “Write It Down,” at 30th Anniversary Open House — when new Video Studio Control Room/Classroom was shown to guests
2018 General Meetings
November 15: Resident and “Discovering Laguna Woods Village” TV show host Cyndee Whitney on “The Importance of Creativity Throughout Our Lives”
October 18: Resident Don Swetz on “Disneyland Behind the Scenes: How It All Works”
September 20: Irvine-based filmmaker Taryn Hough, who directed and produced the award-winning 21-min. documentary, “The Last Doll Lady,” about Village resident Selma Bukstein, on “The Importance of B-Roll and Other Documentary Filmmaking Tips”
May 17: Chuck Holland, Village Management Services’ Information Technology Director, on “New Communication Services Coming to the Village”
April 19: Steve Carman on “The Critical Role of Video in NASA Space Projects”
March 15: Dr. Tom Nash on “The Importance of Music in Your Video” (No General Meeting was held in February due to our 8th “Academy” Award Banquet held February 24.)
January 18: Dr. Tom Nash on “The Making of a Docu-Drama” – a film produced by Biola University film students about Manson Family member Charles “Tex” Watson
2017 General Meetings
November 16: Sally Rubin, Chapman University Film Faculty, “Steps in Making A Documentary Film”
October 19: John Kelly, “Pre-Production: The Art of Fixing Problems That Haven’t Happened Yet”
September 21: Wolfgang Kutter, longtime club member, frequent European traveler, and Corel VideoStudio editing specialist, on and editing “Making Travel Videos”
May 18: Historians Jennifer and Cindy Keil, consultants to the Laguna Woods Village Library, on “Indexing Video for Oral History”
April 20: Cyndee Whitney, host of Village TV6 “Discovering Laguna Woods Village” show, on “Storytelling: It’s Everywhare”
March 17: Sally Rubin, Chapman University Film Faculty, “Documentary Filmmaking: The Art of Earning People’s Trust”
January 19: Brad Hudson, CEO of Village Management Services, Inc., on “The Future of Village TV”
2016 General Meetings
November 17: Community Manager Lori Moss of Village Management Services spoke on preliminary plans for renovating the Clubhouse 2 Annex (which houses the Video Lab and Studio) as well as new directions in Village communications.
October 20: GRF Member Beth Perak and videographer Scott Marvel discussed The Thrive Project, which creates videos for Channel 6 and YouTube, showing how Village residents are thriving.
June 16: Videographer and Village resident Scott Marvel discussed the future of video.
May 19: Animator and Chapman University film school faculty member Judy Kriger spoke on “Introduction to Animation: Drawing at 24 Frames Per Second”
April 21: Entertainment attorney Patrick Reynolds discussed “The Business of Show,” monetizing video content.
March 17: Documentary filmmaker Sally Rubin of the Chapman University Dodge College of Film and Media Arts faculty explained “How to Make A Documentary Film: From Concept to Distribution.”
February 18: “The Big Switch.” Live demonstration of the Video Club’s new switcher in action, mixing video from multiple cameras and other sources.
2015 General Meetings
November 19: Paul Oritz, General Manager of Laguna Woods Village Channel 6 on “Channel 6: Past, Present & Future”
October 15: Club Past-President Scott Marvel on “Using Video Technology to Enrich Your Life”
September 17: “Creating A Winning Video” — Lucy Parker and Linda Lenthall, co-recipients of “Best Picture” Award in Video Club’s 2014 Short Video Contest, shared steps they took in creating their winning entries.
June 18: Dr. Michelle Stanton, Village resident, retired higher ed communications faculty member and TV professional, “An Inside Look: Aspects of TV Production”
May 21: Mike Bajc, Owner Digital Arts Plus, Mission Viejo, “Organizing Photos and Videos”
April 16: Dr. Tom Nash, retired Mass Communications department head at Biola University and Club VP , “How to Stay Out of Jail While Doing Video” (legal aspects of video production)
March 19: Hiro Konishi of the Saddleback College Cinema/Television/Radio faculty presents “How to Tell A Story Visually.”
February 20: Phil Doran, producer of “Never too Late to Date” to be aired on TV6 under Video Club sponsorship presented A Sneak Peek of the show.
2014 General Meetings
November 20: Susy Botello, founder of the four-year-old, San Diego-based International Mobil Film Festival, discussed “Smartphone Movie-Making” and showed videos from the festival.
October 16: Video Club’s 25th Anniversary Celebration
September 18: Dr.Tom Nash presents “Seven ways to Make Your Videos More Interesting”
June 19: Kristin Kennedy, Hollywood-based documentary filmmaker and guest presenter, explains the essence and essentials of pre-production planning.
May 15: Phil Doran, resident and former “All in the Family” TV show writer, presents “An Idiot’s Guide to TV Production”
April 17: Resident Artist Marge Kinney: Creating and Sharing instructional videos on YouTube
March 20: YouTube Treasures designed to enhance your learning experience
February 20 : Mike Bajc presented highlights from our annual January gala. Linda Lenthall facilitated review of her award-winning video on Alaska.
2013 General Meetings
November 21: Video Device Options Four presenters, Lawry Bau, Charles Higginson, Lucy Parker and Mike Bajec, explain their choices of devices and feature preferences
October 17: You Be the Judge! of a selection of member-created videos
SEPTEMBER 19: ICELAND 2012 PRESENTED BY GEORGE HARPER
MAY 16: ADVENTURES IN TRAVEL CINEMA PRESENTED BY HAL MCCLURE
APRIL 18: SHARING MY VIDEO PASSIONS PRESENTED BY RICH LEHRER + RESOURCE EXPO CLIP
March 21: Video Club EXPO
February 21: How to Make a Green Screen presented by Lucy Parker
January 17, 2013: Our Gala Event of the Year… A Red Carpet ‘Oscar’ Evening
featuring 10 member-created videos, voting and awards; buffet dinner; installation of club officers.
2012 General Meetings
November 15: Making and Preserving Memories with Mike Bajc, using a restoration project from Maddie Langsford.
October 18: How to Make Contest Videos, just in time for our entry deadline. Presented by three members in the know: Wolfgana Kutter, Dick McCartney and Lucille Roberts.
September 20: Scott Marvel explained how to use mobile devices like IPhones for videography.
May 17: The remarkable short movies of the late Bob Wiener, who loved to make the audience laugh, delighted and impressed us, and yes, made us laugh. In this tribute program, we also discussed some of the production elements Bob stressed along and celebratied Bob’s contributions to the Village and the world by using his camera and editing skills.
April 19: Our April program featured Thea Iberall, a playwright, videographer, poet and scientist who has just completed “Making a Video of a Theatrical Performance” using one of the clubs computers. In this presentation, she showed her promo of a current project entitled “We did it for you. Women’s Journey through History” and explained how she used Vegas Movie Studio to edit together three separate performances into one coherent video, adding overlay graphics and rolling information. (Note: This was a program change; the previously announced program was to feature Harry Antonian’s experience and insights into creation of an internationally distributed TV show and use of social media to get more exposure.)
March 15: Chuck Hale presented two of his videos, including a 10-minute special on our community’s Golf Starter Building construction project and a video he created for the benefit of a women’s shelter.
February 16: Three distinctly different video projects and story-telling approaches presented by The Harpers.
January 20: New Year Kick-Off in lieu of regular meeting.
A red-carpet gala (think the Oscars) that started at 5:30 p.m., complete with sumptuous buffet dinner and all the excitement of an awards event featuring participant voting for best-of-the-best short videos created by members.
2011 General Meetings
December 14: 4 p.m. Deadline for submission of Short Movie Entries
November 17: Member Bonnie Beaux Fullerton presented “An Evening of the Creative Process” using informative and charming slides for “show and tell” about skillfully combining photos and video.
*October 27: (Meeting date changed from Oct. 20 because of Gate 12 parking lot resurfacing.) Program featured guest presenter Chaz Curry, who shared and illustrated his techniques for producing remarkable works with video and stills.
September 15: Hal McClure, a pioneer in presenting travel adventures in digital forms, shared highlights from his creation of The Reel Dracula, which he made in Romania.
May 18: A much-anticipated general meeting with a Chuck Hale presentation of Cruise Highlights. In his own inimitable style, Chuck regaled and enlightened us with tips on travel with camera, camcorder and laptop. His presentation, based on recent experience in creating new productions, featured one segment of a lengthy cruise and Australian land tour.
April 21: Our general meeting featured Linda Lenthall’s Antartica Adventure video, complementing the photography of her husband, Jim. In this presentation she shared the story of an Antarctic trip, including the Falklands and South Georgia. Now working with HD and editing with Adobe Premiere CS5, she told us about her process, from start through Blu-ray disc.
March 17: Our general meeting featured a real workout in the form of a circuit of lab stations designed to reveal hidden treasures for videography: all our resources and capabilities that users can use to produce memorable videos.
February 17: John Dewey presented the compelling life story of his wife Yvonne, created in iMovie following highlights of the 2011 Kick-Off Party.
January 20: 2011 Kick-Off Party. Our annual gala featured a Lombardi-catered buffet, the Top 10 videos entered in our very own academy-style competition, and awards for Best of Show as well as 2nd and 3rd place winning entries based on audience votes.
2010 General Meetings
December 15: Deadline for Short Movie Entries
November 18: Five Video Producers (Mike Bajc of Digital Arts Plus, Lawrie Bau, Chuck Hale, Wolfgang Kutter, and Bob Wiener) each present Show & Tell about one of their creations so we can learn from them.
September 13-November 15: Video Production Class Mondays from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. Class designed for beginners and limited to 20 learners. $20 donation. Experienced members teach and assist on an array of topics. Contact Norma at 699-0679 for more info.
October 21: Gordeon Richiusa, instructor of script writing at Saddleback Community College, and students from his Thursday evening class join us to present the trials and tribulations encountered in the making of films that will be shown.
September 16: A Connection Technologies (Broadband) representative explained new phone service available only in Laguna Woods Village AND Saddleback Community College Fine Arts Instructor Pamme Turner did a show and tell about the making of her enthralling Plein Air “Sea of Light” DVD using Final Cut Pro on the MAC.
September 9: SIG with Ed Larson (Movie Maker); Lawrie Bau (Pinnacle); Al Koch (MAC users); Wolfgang Kutter (Corel/ULead editors) and Norma Benner
July and August: Learning opportunities in the Video Lab as announced.
June 17: Ed Larson presented his work with Photodex ProShow Gold and Mike Bajc of Digital Arts+Plus covered the newest technology for transferring film to DVD, including Teranex for broacsact applications.
May 20: A collaborative production of the 2010 Senior Games by Camera Club and Video Club members was shown during our Socializing Time, which began at 6:30 p.m. The featured program of the meeting was a presentation by Jim Baker about
the documentary he produced on the life of aviation great, Jerry Lederer. It was an opportunity to learn about how he did what he did using special effects, including “jump backs” and other techniques and get answers to questions.
May 27: Family History Special Interest Group featured step-by-step instruction on creating you own website using Google Site as a follow-up to April’s meeting with Herb Abrams.
May 20: General Meeting
May 6: Open House 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
April 22: Family History Sig focuses on creating websites to share family genealogy, photos and storeis. Herb Abrams, a volunteer, will assist.
April 15: George Harper shares results of his creative efforts with video and still photos using the latest equipment, software and technology.
April 1: Video Club Open House welcomed 45 participants. Chuck Hale demonstrated creation of a Talking Photo Album. Transforming old and decrepit specimens into clean, sharp images and then adding music, titles and narration is now a relatively easy process with software available in our lab; individual training for a suggested donation is also available, with all proceeds used by the Club to maintain, replay and purchase equipment.
March 25: Thirteen members met at South Orange County California Genealogical Society in Mission Viejo Library to learn about the many resources available there.
March 18: Orange County High School of the Arts students share their Greatest Generation video project.
February 18: Videos by Lawrie Bau and Bob Wiener
January 28: Family History Sig. Effective Interviewing Skills: Listening with Your Heart and Head
January 21: Kick-Off Party with Luau-style Buffet; Music by the Silver Strings and Hula by the Wahine O Lani.
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