Landscape into AV

The Landscape Group created a Shipping Forecast project which produced images plus their forecasts of coastal areas in the 31 sea areas of which 17 also have a land (or nearby) boundary on Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It is was in 17 coastlines that they wsre keen to capture as part of this new RPS Landscape Group project. We’re also keen to include islands that lie within these areas.  Please go HERE to view their project.

The Landscape Group sent the Audio Visual Group images that were taken by their members including the forecasts that were also recorded when they took their images.  They suggested we make some AVs from their images to show what can be done.  Four of us produced something and the Landscape Group have now published them on their YouTube site   If you wish to view any of them please click on the following links, each one has used a different idea to represent The Shipping Forecast, one has used a song, another used their own images with a parody forecast and one of them with the correct forecasts.

The Shipping Forecast by Ian Bateman FRPS

The Landscape Group’s “Shipping Forecast” project was an excellent opportunity to present the results as an audio visual sequence. The participating members had not only ventured out to take the images of their local sea region, but had also provided the text of the actual shipping forecast for that day. This allowed me to create a script that illustrated each of the images as we moved around the coast. I narrated it in the style of the classic Radio 4 Shipping Forecast announcer to give it an (almost…) authentic feel. I also felt it was important to include images from each of the contributors rather than just select the winning images – after the participants had gone to the trouble of taking the pictures I wanted to be as inclusive as possible, even if it meant shoehorning some vertical and panoramic images into the sequence!

Shipping Song by Martin Addison FRPS 

The Shipping Forecast project organised by the Landscape Group produced many splendid images from around the coast of Britain. When I came to create an audio visual presentation using these images I decided that I would use a single piece of music and allow the images to flow through without any commentary or other graphic elements. I chose a piece of music which I discovered some years ago by Lisa Knapp called ‘Shipping Song’ from her album called ‘Hidden Seams’ and it consists of Lisa singing many of the names of the areas of the forecast accompanied by a simple but atmospheric backing track.

Celebration 100 Years of the Shipping Forecast by Alastair Taylor ARPS]

The Shipping Forecast celebrated its centenary in 2024. It is such a big part of our lives and especially for those who live on our shores, make a living from the sea, and look after our mariners. Using the wonderful images from the RPS Landscape group which capture the weather conditions around our shores, together with the music and words we associated with the Shipping Forecast, this AV Production seeks to capture the love we have for this great institution.

The Shipping Forecast by Sheila Haycox ARPS

Longwave and then Radio 4 was always on in our house and as a child must have listened to The Shipping Forecast so many times.  It probably sent me to sleep quite often!!  So the Landscape Project was an absolute delight to see and it gave me inspiration to make something from the images that were produced but as three of our AV Members had already done their versions with the images supplied I decided to use my own landscape images, which don't match the areas but as I had added a spoof recording from Brian Perkins to give it a bit of humour I felt it all added to the effect.

Landscapes photographs are ideal material to use for making your first Audio Visual Sequence.  They can be used in a general sequence of photographs  with a piece of instrumental music.  Other ideas for their use is to put a poem to the photos which can be narrated by the author or from a downloaded poem already recorded;  or perhaps using landscape photography to interpret a song using ones imagination.  The final step would be to make it more into a story and narrate it yourself.

The Committee have created a YouTube Channel of AV Sequences using mainly landscape images.   There is a mixture of different ideas on how to use landscape images, they can be put to music; a song; a poem; or event a narrated story.   (a summary is given with each AV to give you an idea of its content).   The can be anything from 1 minute to 12 minutes long. 

To help anyone who is interested in developing their skills to use their landscape photos please go to any of the links below, which includes our You Tube Channel. Some of the links are on our site but others are accessed via the internet

On the Making an AV Sequence page there is a great deal of information and guides on the software editing programmes that the majority of our AV workers use in the form of PDF documents and links. 

Mentoring - we have members who are willing to help anyone interested in making an AV,  like how to size, which music to choose, how to narrate, which software programme to use.  They are also willing to put together a short AV in a zip format so that you can open it and see how its put together with all the necessary workings. 

Any questions please contact anyone on the Committee.

Useful Links

The Audio Visual Group ran a Zoom Workshop for members of the RPS Landscape Group, on Saturday 29th June 2024 with four speakers showing how to make an AV, information on music,  on how to make an AV using Landscape images  and script writing.  The day went well and below are links some of the information given.

Useful Information/ Sources of Help

Soundscapes Presentation by Alastair Taylor ARPS DPAGB/AV

Going a Bit Further by Adrian Battersby

AV Workshop: How to