Under the name of Southern Sound & Cine Club, the Club was formed in 1960 at the instigation of a band of enthusiasts in Bognor Regis. From this small beginning grew a Club with a membership of nearly 60 dedicated to the production of amateur films. Throughout the years films have been made on a variety of formats, 9.5mm, Standard 8mm, Super 8mm and 16mm film finally progressing to using video almost exclusively.

The Club has always endeavoured to maintain a high standard of production and soon became known as one of the foremost of its kind in the South, if not the whole country. In 1989 the name of the Club was changed to Southern Sound Film Video Club to embrace the many new video enthusiasts. More recently it has become Chichester Film & Video Makers.

Over the years a number of films and videos have been made on behalf of organisations to illustrate their work or for publicity purposes. These include West Sussex C. C. Welfare Dept. Bognor Regis Mobility and the twinning of the cities of Chichester and Ravenna in Italy. More recently the Club has made videos for St Richard’s Hospital, Legio Secunda Augusta the Roman Marching Army and a 90 minute DVD for the Chichester Dance Centre filmed before a live audience in Bognor Regis. The Chichester Canal Trust commissioned CFVM to make an anniversary video celebrating 185 years since the opening of the Canal. Members continually arrange film and video shows for local clubs and charities.

Now almost exclusively video orientated the Club caters for the beginner and advanced worker alike, and workshop evenings are held to assist with all filming aspects. Many members now use digital camcorders and PC editing, and a few are now embracing the world of High Definition and BluRay. Two BluRay players have recently been installed into the club equipment to serve the HD projector that we already use. With miniDV camcorders becoming less of an expense it may be a while before we all film in HD but the facility is there and miniDV productions will always look fantastic on our large screen permanently installed at the hall.