Vanity Fair, photos by Chris Glover

Paul Woolston and VPR20 videotape machine mounted on carriage

Low loader

Paul Woolston on 2CV camera car + director Mike Morris

Cherry picker. For lighting purposes I think, rather than a camera platform

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by Chris Glover from the 1987 drama series, Vanity Fair.

The following comments were posted on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Malcolm Hickman: ‘Paul Woolston was a real gentleman. A sad loss..’

Jane Green: ‘Yes – lovely to see Paul Woolston in this pic. I was a runner on this. Up at 3am to bus in about a hundred extras to get into costume and make up – period dress – so took hours and hours, to shoot a ball scene at the Rothschilds’ fabulous Waddesdon Manor in Bucks. Seriously hard work! Lots of tired, hot, fed up actors to placate.’

Memories of the VPR20 – Norman McLeod

(Norman McLeod remembers the following incident involving the VPR20, a portable 1″ recorder)

Nigel Evans and Ian Dewar spent 3 days and nights trying to repair the beast in Raffles Hotel Singapore – a ‘Pebble Mill at One’ Summer shoot in 1984 with Donny MacLeod, Paul Coia, Peter Seabrook. Eventually, an Ampex engineer was diverted from Malaysia with chips. The then Video Manager refused to let us take one of the new-fangled Beta portables as back up, so we had to borrow a Singapore TV VHS for the first part of the month. Don Cooper was camera, Roger Casstles directed, Arthur Binnie producer, Nicky Barfoot prodn. asst. Dick Bentley E.M. All our credit cards (especially Dick’s) were hammered to pay for facilities not covered by production – especially the Tiger beer.

Also used on Loch Ness on a Scottish adventure with John Smith – Whisky distillery at dawn: and the “Sealink Cycle Race” with Norman Steemson sitting in the boot of a Rover hatchback from the Isle of Wight to Sheffield.

Norman McLeod

Portable 1″ Videotape Recorder (VPR 20)

Photos by Video Editor, Ian Collins; no reproduction without permission.

Ian took these photos before the sale of equipment when Pebble Mill was cleared prior to being demolished in 2005.

The portable 1″ videotape recorder (probably a VPR-20) was a useful piece of technology, meaning that shots could be recorded on location without a full outside broadcast, and before the advent of portable single cameras.

The VT editors shown in the photo are (left to right) Ian Collins, Steve Neilsen, Brian Watkiss, Ivor Williams, Mike Bloore, John Burkill, John Doidge, Steve May.

Peter Poole added the following information on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:  ‘I remember a Clothes Show recording using the Ampex/Nagra VPR5. It was an audition for models in Studio 1. The queues stretched down Pebble Mill road.’

Please add a comment if you remember which programmes used portable 1″ recorders.

VT boys and VPR20 Video Recorder – photos by Ian Collins

Photos by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.

Here are the boys from VT proudly showing off their Ampex VPR20 Video Recorder!

The photos shows left to right: Ian Collins, Steve Neilsen, Brian Watkiss, Ivor Williams, Mike Bloore, John Burkhill, John Doidge, Steve May.

Boys from VT