1960s
In 1964 a small group of school leavers started making films as a circle of friends on the smallest film gauge of 8 millimetre – hence the Group’s name. In the Group’s early days, Circle Eight produced a procession of slapstick comedy films, one of which became the longest amateur film ever made in the UK at that time. Made in 1965, it lasted for 3 hours 41 minutes with two intermissions!
1970s
The comedies changed to horror and drama in 1970, when the Group produced ‘The Haunting’. It proved to be so convincingly horrific that Circle Eight were unable to show it to the public as it was banned by Surrey County Council’s licensing authorities! The same film redeemed itself the following year, when it won the top three awards at the London Amateur Film Festival.
By 1969, the Group had started to show their latest work to local audiences in their tented cinema at the annual Guildford Show and added to their achievements in 1977 by producing a film of the annual Guildford Carnival Procession. After filming the progress of the Carnival through the town on Saturday evening, the 16mm footage was rushed up to London for processing and editing overnight and then shown to capacity audiences in their cinema tent at the show the following day. It proved a great success at a time when video was still in its infancy.
Another high spot in the Circle Eight story occurred in 1978 when the Group’s much acclaimed documentary about the BAC Weybridge tug of war team, gained the Group one of the amateur film world’s ‘Oscars’ – a Movie Maker Ten Best Award. Entitled ‘Tug’, the film went on to win another six awards at national, regional and international Film Festivals
1980s
Since the early 1980s, Circle Eight has concentrated on producing historical local interest films featuring the legends and folklore of Surrey and its county town Guildford. The first of these ‘The Tales of Olde Guildford’ was premiered in 1984 and its sequel ‘The Tales of Olde Surrey’ followed in 1989. Both films have now been seen by over 50,000 people from all over Surrey and beyond and are also available on VHS video from the Guildford Borough Council’s Tourist Information Centre.
1990s
In 1991, Circle Eight produced their much-acclaimed Victorian Lantern Slide show ‘Grandad’s Guildford’ . In 1995, their documentary film ‘Guildford…This is Guildford!’ celebrated the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first train in the town back in 1845.
1996 found Circle Eight celebrating the centenary of the cinema with ‘Grandad’s Picture Palace’which traced the history of Guildford’s cinemas and told the story of Surrey’s pioneer film makers.
In 1998, Circle Eight became the first amateur film group in the UK to make a full-length documentary on the life and times of Lewis Carroll – the author of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’. Circle Eight’s ‘Alice Through the Camera Lens’ was made to celebrate the centenary of Lewis Carroll’s death in Guildford in 1898 and tells the story of his life in Oxford and Guildford. Requests for showings of ‘Alice’ came from as far away as Derbyshire, where a Lewis Carroll Centenary Festival was being staged to mark the author’s death. A Circle Eight projection team made a special journey to Buxton to present the film, where it was received by an enthusiastic audience. In August 1998, ‘Alice Through the Camera Lens’ was also presented at Lewis Carroll’s old Oxford college Christchurch as part of a week-long centenary event staged by the prestigious Lewis Carroll Society.
2000s
Throughout the 2000s, Circle Eight continued to make video productions for entry into annual local and national film competitions and enjoyed further success with them. However these productions initially took second place to the completion of our major Millenium project ‘The Tales of the Pilgrims Way’, in which a group of Morrismen dance their way along the old pilgrims way from Winchester to Canterbury, investigating the tales, history and folklore to be encountered along the 133 mile route.
The acquisition of a DVCPro video camera in 2001 was the first step in the changeover from film to video for future work. In May 2002 we were successful in receiving a lottery grant from ‘Awards for All’ for the purchase of a new video projector, enabling our current and future productions to be shown using the video format.
With a grant from Guildford Borough Council, we were able to produce a 79 minute video ‘Royal Guildford’ to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
Circle Eight celebrated its 40th Anniversary in March 2004, for which we produced an autobiographical movie ‘Eight over Forty’. Filming was also completed that year of ‘The Grand Hall’. Our 13 minute local history production ‘The Story of Guildford’ won the top award at the Surrey Film & Video Festival in 2006, and our comedy production ‘With a Purposeful Gait’ was also an award winner in 2007. ‘Off the Wall’ and ‘Trapped’ completed our film making activities for this decade.
2010s
Throughout this decade our in-house animator Norman Lilly and his son Chris have had continued success in national and local competitions following the initial very popular ‘Above and Beyond‘.
During this period two previous partly live presentations were converted into entirely filmed versions ‘70 Years at the BBC’ and ‘The Mayors of Guildford‘. Both have been well received.
In 2010 we completed a short comedy ‘Unfinished Business’ which incorporated some footage from our 1970s film ‘A Turn for the Worse‘ and continued the original story to an unexpected conclusion. Another comedy film ‘Crumbs‘ was completed in 2015.
In 2016 we filmed an unusual documentary regarding two of the group’s friends. ‘Out of the Blue‘ tells the fascinating story of Hazel, a child actor from the 1930s, and her husband Peter who was a member of the famous Pathfinder Squadron during World War II.
2016 also saw the start of production of ‘Tunnel under Hindhead‘ telling the story of Hindhead and the construction of the A3 Hindhead Tunnel. Included in this film is footage taken in 2010 when we were allowed exclusive access to the tunnel construction works. The film was premiered in 2018. That year also saw the completion and premiere of our drama production ‘The Dream‘.
Our involvement in popular local interest films continuied in this decade, including ‘The Story of Guildford Cathedral‘ celebrating its 50th Anniversary. To commemorate the Centenary of the start of World War I in 2014, we produced a new documentary ‘Guildford in the Great War‘ which tells the story of everyday life in Guildford during the war and the many men from the town who lost their lives. This film has been heavily requested for showing at local clubs and has proved both moving and popular.
2020
Plans were being formulated for the Group’s next production, which was hoped to be a comedy, but unfortunately these plans were seriously interupted by the restrictions surrounding Covid-19. Sadly all shows for local groups had to cease, and film production became impossible. Meetings of the group have all moved online with a regular Zoom quiz providing some entertainment. Nevertheless, during this year our animation specialist Norman successfully completed his latest film ‘The Lady of Shallot’.
Research started in the autumn on our proposed documentary regarding Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. Built in the 1960’s, the theatre is named after the French actress Yvonne Arnaud who lived in Guildford in the 1950’s. The current management of the theatre are assisting us with our research and their help is much appreciated.
2021
We are pleased to announce that the animation film ‘The Lady of Shallot‘ has won the prize for the best animation film at the SERIAC Film & Video Festival. Congratulations to our long time animator Norman Lilley.
With continued restrictions due to Covid 19, film production work has been slow. It is hoped to progress work on our next production regarding the history of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford once the worst of the pandemic is over.
2022
Still suffering from the after effects of the Covid pandemic, film production has continued to be seriously impacted.
However, we are pleased to report that showing of our films to local clubs and societies resumed in the Autumn and we have a number of bookings into 2023.
2023
Further research work is progressing for our documentary regarding Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, and it is hoped to commence filming soon.
More success for our in-house animator Norman Lilly and his son Chris with a 4-star Award at the British International Amateur Film Festival for ‘The Flight of the Robin‘, and a 4-star Award at the Sussex Film Festival for ‘Not Another Dance‘.
An initial production meeting has been held for our new comedy project with a medical theme (as yet untitled), and finalisation of the script is expected soon. Locations have been identified and it is planned to start filming in the summer.
2024
Production commenced on our new comedy film ‘The Waiting Room‘ with two major weekends filming on location in Albury in the summer. Some additional shots were completed elsewhere locally and the shooting wrapped up finally in the autumn. It is envisaged editing will be completed early in 2025.
2025
Editing of ‘The Waiting Room‘ was completed in the summer, and the film has now been shown at a number of local venues.
