GTC Awards and AGM 2013

The 2013 GTC AGM / Awards event and Day in the Country was a packed day for the more than 100 members, sponsors, award winners and guests who attended - whether to collect an Award for Excellence, to have their say at the AGM, or just to drive a rage buggy around a muddy field and enjoy networking with other members and colleagues.

The GTC Council pulled out all the stops to make the event a great success all round. The venue, A Day in the Country, was warmly praised by all and the venue hosts could not have been more helpful.

This enjoyable day, including an excellent buffet lunch, unlimited tea and coffee plus delicious home-made cakes, was completely free to GTC members, due in large part to the generosity of the day's sponsor companies. The main 'gold' sponsors for the day were Camera Corps, part of the Vitec Group, who brought along an interesting selection of equipment, including Q-Balls and various remote heads, for members to view. Thanks to Neil Ashworth, Steve Lundie and Jeff White for attending and demonstrating the products.

Other equipment on site came from Polecam, which was used by Polecam's Stephen Rutherford and Greg Carlisle to obtain dramatic shots of the driving events; an array of minicams from GTC member and minicam expert Dan Greenway; and some wonderful drones from Quadcopters, expertly demonstrated by Dave Halton of Aerial Vue. As an excellent finale to the evening a video including footage from the specialist cameras plus coverage of the day shot by GTC Council member Max Hodgetts had already been cut together into a video by the super-speedy team from Zest4TV (also 'silver sponsors' for the day.

GTC Day in the Country 2013

If you weren't able to get along to the GTC's Day out in the Country you can watch a short video of the day's activities featuring some great shots captured on the specialist camera equipment provided by sponsors of the day. Other footage was filmed by GTC Council Member Max Hodgetts and the GTC is very grateful to the whole team at Zest4TV for putting together the video in truly impressive super-quick time. 

Despite some heavy outbursts of rain, GTC members had great fun trying their hand at: 4x4 driving (sponsored by Videosys Broadcast), rage buggy racing (sponsored by Presteigne Charter), clay pigeon shooting (sponsored by Panasonic) and archery. All the activites were excellently co-ordinated by the venue hosts who also supplied tuition. Also sponsoring the event were Miller Tripods and Zerb. 

AGM

It was great to see the lovely historic barn at Upper Aynho packed with GTC members at the GTC's 41st AGM, the best turnout for such an event for years. Reports from Council Officers and the GTC's auditor Terry Abrey reassured the audience that the GTC is in good shape both administratively and financially. The main talking point of the meeting revolved around the name of the Guild. In common with many other organisations, the GTC is saddled with a legacy gender-specific name. While all in the room, both male and female, agreed that the most important thing is the tremendous value for money the GTC offers members through its workshops, events like Saturday, publications, the GTC Forum and knowledge exchange, a lively but well-balanced debate ensued about how the name affects the perception of the organisation amongst outsiders. A vote was taken and Council was instructed to look into the branding of the GTC branding (while at the same time safeguarding the well-established identity of the Guild) in time for next year's AGM.

GTC Awards

The day culminated with the presentation of GTC Awards for Excellence for a wonderful selection of excellent camerawork across a wide range of genres - everything from filming alongside flying birds (Earthflight) to high-quality dramas (Hunted, Mrs Biggs) to the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. 

A well-deserved GTC Seal of Approval was awarded to Sony for its OLED HDVF-EL75studio colour viewfinder.

The GTC's top award, the TiCA, this year went to a true pioneer of camerawork - Charles Lagus, who worked for many years as a two-man team with Sir David Attenborough. Together they set the first very high benchmarks for wildlife film-making which in turn led to the catalogue of natural history productions for whichthe BBC has rightly become renowned. 

Finally, this year the Mike Baldock Award went to a remarkable young GTC member, Holly Bantleman, who at the age of just 24 founded a charity to help young people in Kenya, Raise the Roof Kenya, which the GTC has enthusiastically adopted as one the charities it supports. Read more about the recent achievements of RTRK.

See the full list of winners.

The success of the evening event was helped enormously by the provision of a fantastic top-quality HD screen and projector by Panasonic, lighting generously supplied by Ianiro, transfer equipment lent by Shooting Partners and, once again, the exceptional production skills of the Zest4TV team.

During the evening the result of the raffle for a great Ninja-2 field recorder, generously donated by silver sponsors Atomos, was announced. Jeff White was the lucky winner.

Feedback

Can I just say a big thank you to the GTC for organising the AGM/Awards this weekend. It was one of the best days out I've had for a long time and was extremely well planned and executed. 
Wrapping the AGM around a Day's Fun Events was an inspired decision, and the venue was superb. Great food, well run events and plenty of space. I thought the calibre of the award winners was superb and a real testament to the quality of camerabods (not going that gender avenue!) in this country.
A big slap on the back for Alan, James and all the other GTC members who contributed to the event, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant….looking forward to the next one!

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Huge thanks to everyone involved in the organisation of todays AGM. As well as all the activities on offer the day was great to put faces to names I had previously only spoken to on the phone, via the forum or by email. I would encourage anyone who has never been to attend next year. 

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Great day at the Great Barn Aynho aka A Day in the Country. The Guild has proved once again the value of membership for all TV camera professionals. Well done GTC council.

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I just wanted to say a big thank you for being so welcoming and friendly at the AGM/Awards on Saturday. I have to admit that I was slighty worried to come initially, but everyone I met was incredibly friendly and supporting and I had an amazing day.

Student member

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I just wanted to reiterate how nice it was to come along and meet many new faces on Saturday, and thank you both for making me feel most welcome. I look forward to returning next year.

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See all the 2013 winners and the full list of nominations