Midlands at Westminster in Strasbourg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo from Sue Robinson, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is of a ‘Midlands at Westminster’ shoot in Strasbourg. Featured, left to right are: Sarah Foley, Jim Knights (camera), Naomi Goldsmith (producer), Gordon Nightingale (sound).  Merrick Simmonds was the director.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Sarah Foley: ‘Was great fun! In the days of a full crew. Definitely very early 1990’s. Interesting, very busy, lovely weather, and snails in garlic butter are the things I remember!’

Peter Poole: ‘Mike Greatorex and I worked on ‘The Midlands at Westminster’ from its start. It was broadcast live from the Foyer. The director was John Taylor. I think the first presenter was David Davies. Other presenters include Peter Hobday, Steve Le Fevre, Michael Collie and Naomi Goldsmith. At a later date the programme moved to Studio B. Patrick Burns always produced high quality programmes. He also seemed to manage a very happy production team. I have many happy memories of working with you all.’

Telecine – Ray Lee (Part 2)

Telecine, BBC Pebble Mill

Photo by Ivor Williams, no reproduction without permission. Photo from 1971, of the Rank Cintel  16mm Flying Spot Telecine Machine.

The majority of inserts to Midlands Today, and Pebble Mill at One were on film in those days (mid 1970s), as this was before lightweight cameras, and film cameras were at that time the best means to obtain location shots. Studio inserts were often recorded on VT then played in live quite often without editing. Film was much easier to edit then.

The process of getting a news story involved a film camera crew going out, shooting on film with sound onto tape. The tape also recorded a pilot tone from the camera to allow re-syncing of the sound after editing. The film (usually reversal film) then went into Film processing while the tape was transferred to Sepmag using the pilot signal to lock to the sepmag bay, thereby giving the sound track frame for frame correspondence with the film. The two parts then came back together in the film cutting room, where the film editor selected the parts he wanted using a Pic Sync ( basically a set of about 4 sprocket wheels on a shaft, with an illuminated mini projector on the far end to see the film images. The sepmag track (or tracks) would be on the nearer sprockets. On either side was a film bin. Often a “wild” track sound was recorded (not sync to pictures) in order to add additional effects and bridge edit points. The Clapper board was used to sync the sound and picture together with giving details of what item this was. The film editor would look for the first frame on which the clapper was completely closed, and align that with the clap on the soundtrack, thereafter the sprockets would ensure that the sound and picture remained in sync.

With news stories there was not usually time to go into dubbing, so the edited film and sound track then came straight to TK and one hoped that the edits on the sepmag would hold together.

Where time permitted a dub the sound was often tracklaid. This allowed sound to be carried over an edit to smooth the effect. In this case the sound was edited into 2 or more rolls with film spacer being used to make all the rolls the same length. Each roll would have a leader spliced onto it with the familiar sync cross and then a 12 second count down.

At the dub, the film projector and the sound rolls on the sepmag bays would all be locked together electrically so the they ran synchronously. The machines would be laced and set with the cross in the projector gate and on the sepmag sound head, and then the lock button pressed which linked everything together. Due to the nature of the electrical locking, very occasionally the sepmag bay would go into runaway, and one needed to hit the stop button fast, otherwise there was a danger that the film sprockets would be damaged, and a lot of film could end up very quickly on the floor!

Dubbing involved balancing and mixing the soundtracks together, adding any voice overs, commentary, and spot effects, and recording the whole sequence onto a new continuous sepmag track. At the end of the process there would be a single continuous sepmag track and a single edited picture track, which could then be played by TK into the studio.

The process was the same for network programmes on film, although in this case the film was usually shot on negative film, and a rushes print made. This is what the editor used to compile the required shots and soundtracks. The edited rushes were then returned to the lab for a print to be made from the original negative, using the rushes edit to align the required shots. The lab also graded the pictures at this stage to match the exposure and colour balance to some extent. This print was termed the “answer print”. This was usually the one used be dubbing, and sometimes also for transmission, although some programmes had a Transmission print made as well. The answer print basically gave an opportunity to the producer to change his mind, and for the lab to further trim the grading of pictures, although as it entailed quite a lot of expensive processes, in later years the answer print was quite often the transmission print as well.

By the time it got to TK there was usually a picture roll, and a sepmag sound roll. In a few cases (usually prints of commercial films) the sound was an optical track on the picture roll, in which case there was no separate sound. However this gave rise to problems if ever the film needed to be cut and spliced as the sound head was separated by 16 frames from the film gate so the picture would change, and the sound continue, only to change about half a second later.

In the case of news it was not uncommon for the editor to rush in with the film and sepmag rolls with very little time to get it on the machine before transmission. The one occasion I particularly remember involved me, and I think Jim Gregory, lacing the sepmag and picture rolls simultaneously, hitting the lock button and running the machine without even pausing on the “10” while Tom Coyne padded until the film hit the screen. Usually there was a little more time, and quite often we had a quick rehearsal, prior to the programme going out.

R. G. Lee

Milton Hainsworth – News film editor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Jim Gregory, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is of Pebble Mill, News film editor, Milton Hainsworth.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Jonathan Dick: ‘Great pic! I remember Milton well, as he was on the board that gave me my first proper BBC job, as a Station Assistant at Pebble Mill in 1987’

Peter Poole: ‘Milton was a legend in news editing!’

Jane Green: ‘Loved Milton. He was my boss too in the newsroom. He tried very hard to be grumpy about everything – it was a challenge to make him smile but you could.’

Liz Munro: ‘Even though we barely overlapped at Pebble Mill, I remember the unforgettably named Milton with a personality to match…’

Maureen Carter: ‘Milton was THE editor to head for if you were arriving back late with the top story. My favourite Milton quote? Why’s a BBC film editor like a sheriff in the wild west? Because he clears up the s**t after the shooting.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Yes, I remember milton…such a character and I liked him.’

Royal Show for Midlands Today – Sue Robinson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo from director Sue Robinson, no reproduction without permission.

The photo dates from 1982 or 3.  It was taken at the Royal Show, in Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, at an outside broadcast for ‘Midlands Today’.

The photo includes, back row: Dave Brazier (floor manager), Jane Green, Kay Alexander (presenter), Jacqueline Jones (newsroom journalist, who went on to work in news in London), Brian Conway,  front row: Sue Robinson, Tom Brisley.

Peter Poole added the following comment on the Facebook Group: ‘I remember Midlands Today broadcasting from the Royal Show. It was always a great show. I worked on the ‘Farming’ programme covering the Royal Show many years ago. I think the producer was John Kenyon. The sound recordist was Bill Barker. Bill was a great teacher and taught me many tricks of the trade. Sadly Bill passed away shortly after retiring.’

Studio B – Peter Poole

Studio B 1990

Photos by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

I probably took these photos some time about 1990. A few years later a major refurbishment took place updating all equipment except the sound desk. I did all I could to get a new mixer but due to lack of money it was not possible. The old mixer was kept in good working order by Pebble Mill’s excellent engineers. These men and women are the unsung heroes of the BBC and without them no programmes could be made or broadcast. During the gallery refurbishment we moved to Studio C’s gallery while still using Studio B’s studio area. When the studio area was refurbished the Foyer and later radio Studio 1 was used. Studio 1 was designed for classical music recording so had quite a long reverberation time. This was not ideal for a news programme and a few people asked why ‘Midlands Today’ sounded different. After another few years a new sound desk was fitted.

Deferred Facilities

If Television Centre or Broadcasting House encountered a major event and were unable to produce its network output Pebble Mill could take over. In the pre-digital TV and radio era network radio and TV would be routed via Pebble Mill’s Communications Centre and then distributed to the transmitter network. Radios 1 to 4 would be allocated their own studios to ensure network output was maintained. BBC 1 and 2 would also be allocated TV studios.  Studio B would become Network News. The regional presentation studio would become network TV presentation.

I worked on the rehearsals for Network News.  The News production team and presenters would travel from London to Pebble Mill. A full 6 pm News programme would then take place as if for real. The London team always seemed impressed by Pebble Mill’s professional staff and facilities. I don’t think Pebble Mill was ever called to do this for real.

Peter Poole

Mike Workman added the following information on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

‘just to clear up the contingency plans:
BBC One pres to come from Gallery-C and VT-B
BBC Two pres to come from Pres and VT-F
BBC Choice and Knowledge fold to One.
BBC World pres to come from an Edit C and VT-D
Domestic News was to set up in Studio-B (the Midlands Today studio)
BBC World News was to set up in Studio-A and VT-A
News 24 was to collapse into BBC World.
Weather used Birmingham’s regional weather facilities in Studio-B and Studio-B Annex/Pres.

I’ll also add, at the time lots more digital widescreen material was being made and transmitted by the BBC and Pebble Mill didn’t have any DigiBeta decks, so they had to order more of these to facilitate the Disaster Recovery Plans, Anything coming from B going to NET1 would be routed via A (which had been refurbed at this point) where it’d be ARCd to 14:9 Ratio (that horrid half widescreen thing the BBC did in the late 90s and early 00s) before transmission – this way it didn’t look like it was coming from an antiquated 13/14 year old gallery! BBC World got Studio and Gallery A, both widescreen which was funny as at this time BBC World wasn’t widescreen, Network BBC One was. The source for all this is somebody I know only as ‘deejay’ from a TV presentation site…’