Photos by Paul Scholes, no reproduction without permission.
2″ Quad machines were substantial enough to be sat on!
This is Sue Robinson sat on the Quad, with Mike Bloore to the right, and Nigel Evans foreground. The photo dates from 1980 or ’81, when Sue was working in the Planning Department.
The lower photo is of Trudy Stanton.
Photos by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.
The photos are of a 1″ Videotape machine, in action.
1″ videotape was introduced in the mid 1970s, and was the broadcasting norm in the 1980s. 1″ machines took up much less space than the earlier Quad machines, and required less maintenance. You could also spool in vision on them, which was a great advantage when trying to locate a particular clip.
The following comments were on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:
Christopher Hall: ‘It is an Ampex VPR-6, 1″ C Format machine. VPR-2 machines were probably more widely used, and Sony BVH- 3100 machines were the last ones bought. ‘
Mark Davies: ‘Looks like VTF/MFA to me’
Alan Miller: ‘It’s funny to think how much we welcomed the arrival of the first “C” format machines. I seem to remember that we all thoughtt that at last VT could compete with film editing?’
Photo by Ivor Williams, of Pebble Mill TK 1971, no reproduction without permission.
I joined telecine (TK) in 1974 having transferred from telecine in Television Centre. At that time there were 2 Rank Cintel flying spot telecine machines. There was a 2 storey block to the rear of the main office area and Studio A. Much of the first floor level was occupied by Telecine, Video tape (VT) the Dubbing theatre, film processing and an assortment of film cutting rooms.
TK and VT shared a common area, with a corridor down the middle. There were 3 rooms /cubicles on each side TK on the left, VT on the right as approached from the main door. TK A, TKB, and an expansion area, likewise VTA, VTB and an expansion area. VTA, and B had a large sliding Marley Door between them where the common wall would have been, so that they could be worked as an edit pair by sliding the door back, or as individual machines working to separate areas, with the door closed.
Just inside the entrance, was the film transfer area, where 1/4” tape was transferred to Sepmag film in order to be edited synchronously with the film pictures. There were a number of SepMag bays some of which could be linked to the Dubbing theatre in order to dub additional sounds onto the film. This area was reorganised shortly after my arrival, so the detail is hazy.
Working in the area at that time were Paul Richards, Jim Gregory, Graham Winter, and Peter Hodges, and myself (Ray Lee). Peter soon moved on to become VCMS in Studio A, and there were a number of other people moved through TK in the time I was there. Charles Osborne, Peter Greenhalgh, Keith Salmon (who moved into News), Tim Savage, and some others whose names have been lost in the mist of time.
Ray Lee
photo by Steve May
photo by Steve May
photo by Jim Gregory
Photos by Steve May and Jim Gregory, no reproduction without permission.
The first photo features Pip Cooper; editor, Nigel Evans; and Shirley O’Mara.
The second photo features Imelda Stevens and Shirley O’Mara.
The third photo taken in Pebble Mill’s Telecine, show Nigel Evans (background), with Shirley O’Mara and Pip Cooper, ready in their fancy dress for ‘Children in Need’.
Photos by editor, Steve May, no reproduction without permission.
The photos are of the Film Unit office. Film Unit was responsible for booking PSC (portable single camera) crews for programmes, and also for booking editors. All the bookings were put up on huge notice boards, so that it was easy to see who was booked to which programme. These photos are probably from the early 1990s.
The first photo is of Shirley O’Mara, and Pip Cooper (?).
The second photo shows Pip updating the Editing noticeboard.
The third photo shows Imelda Stevens, and colleague. Mel used to book the camera crews.
The office was on the first floor at the back of the building, just by the edit suites, and handy for the crews loading up their kit.