Vanity Fair – Mark Hill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Polishing off an ice lolly on the left at the back of this still is yours truly.

I recall the ‘Vanity Fair’ shoot (with many scenes at Blickling Hall). It was toward the end of my time at Pebble Mill (fond memories) before I jumped ship to Central (ITV). I was working in G41 at the time (post production and OB maintenance). As I recall, I had been sent to Norfolk as a ‘guarantee engineer’, with the aim of minimising any downtime on the production should any of the technical kit on CM2 breakdown.

I well remember the night time scenes and trying to get the best pictures out of the Philips LDK-14 colour cameras and the Ampex VPR-2B videotape recorders that were fitted to the OB unit (CM2). I remember seeing the series on TX and wincing at the dreadful video lag evident on shots with candles in them; the noise on the low light scenes; and the occasional suspect corner registration. Not suprised that the BBC re-made ‘Vanity Fair’ as part of the move to 16:9!

Mark Hill