2008 Concert - November event

 Movie Music Concert

St James Church, Woburn Road,  Central Lower Hutt
Saturday, 15th November, 7.30 pm

The last concert for 2008 featured music from eight movies, with extracts from the movies on a screen.

Movies with too much light

Excess light delayed the opening for half an hour until 8 o'clock. Free coffee and tea were supplied to the waiting audience. Even so, there was quite a lot of light initially, as can be seen in the photo taken during the first item. As expected, light faded quickly and before too long, the orchestra were reading the music using a variety of lamps, either clipped to the music stand or attached to the head like miners.

Playing in the dark

The excellent movie clips were put together by Iain Matcham.  Most were evocative compilations of short clips, but two in particular had added value. Star Wars had  a commentary in the 'text scrolling to a distant galaxy' format that the series made famous. Unfortunately for the orchestra, they could not see it, just hear the laughter from the audience.

No official movie clip could be shown for 'Titanic' because an exorbitant fee would have been charged. Instead, there were black and white stills (from 1912) of the actual Titanic, and a movie of a little model ship sailing around in a sink until it hit an ice cube and sunk. From Chilton School there was art on the sinking of the Wahine, both on screen and the originals on display in the church.

It was an excellent evening's entertainment, and the format is likely to be repeated some future year. There are a lot more movies out there.