LIGHTS, camera, action . . . film-making has certainly changed in the last 40 years.

Huddersfield's Video and Cine Club will be celebrating its 40th Festival of Film next month in Huddersfield Town Hall.

The film show will be a record of a whole range of activities which have happened in the town over the past year, from civic occasions to fun events for charity.

This tradition started in 1963 and the film material forms a valuable archive for both the club and the town.

Club members will also show a selection of their own films at the event which runs from November 17 to 21.

The club was set up in 1932 by a small group of enthusiastic young men and their wives, all with an interest in cinematography.

They called themselves The Screen Players and the aim was to make fiction films.

Three years later they renamed the club Huddersfield Cine Club and became affiliated to the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers.

They soon set about converting a room at North Bank House, Birkby, into a cinema and meeting room, and made film using either 16mm or 9.5mm film.

After a break during the Second World War the club prospered with the advent of much cheaper 8mm film.

"People were buying cine cameras to record the family growing up, and a few were taking things further by editing their moving snapshots into watchable films," said David Whitworth, a club spokesman.

In those days amateur film-making was technically very challenging, but things got easier in the mid- 1960s when Super 8mm film was introduced.

Many of the new cameras had automatic exposure and later also recorded the sound on the edge of the film.

Club members have also recorded major events in the town including the town's centenary in 1968 and the Denby Dale pies since 1928.

The fallen Emley Moor mast was also captured by a member on the evening it fell and, more recently the restoration of Huddersfield's Narrow Canal has been recorded in a film called Restoration Impossible.

The club has always been ready to welcome change and in 1989 it changed its name to incorporate video.

"The coming of video recorders and camcorders, and more recently computers suitable for editing video, has completely changed the technical side of film making," said Mr Whitworth.

"There is little the talented amateur can't do that the professional can."

The club meets at Dalton Grange Club on the second, third and fourth Thursdays of each month at 7.30pm.