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.
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
These pictures are of a gyrocopter at Pebble Mill.
Keith Brook aka Scouse adds the following information:
‘This is Wing Commander Ken Wallis, born 1916 and still going strong.
The shots are from a ‘Pebble Mill’ item where he did some acrobatics and an interview. Wonderful man, mad as a hatter!! Can’t remember the date, life was a blur in those days.
After a rather good lunch he agreed to do some more flying and we shot some extra stuff that was edited together along with the Black Beauty theme by Tony Rayner.
The autogyro was featured in a James Bond film. That was the peg for the interview. ‘ That is the reason for the missiles on the frame! Russell Parker has identified the gyrocopter as ‘Little Nelly’ from ‘You Only Live Twice.’ Apparently Wing Commander Wallis used to make these autogyros at his home, Reymerston Hall, in Norffolk.
Thanks to VT Editor Ian Collins for making the images available, and to Conol O’Donnell, Murray Clarke, Russell Parker and Keith Brook (Scouse) for adding the information.
Photos by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.
Video Editor, Ian, took photos of outdated kit which was being disposed of when Pebble Mill was cleared, prior to being demolished in 2005.
These photos are of a 2″ Quad tape editing block, used to make precision edits by cutting the tape with a scalpel and splicing the two ends together to make the edit. It was a complicated and expensive process.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Ian Collins: ‘It is indeed a 2″ Quad editing block. The magnetic recording was revealed by applying iron fillings onto the tape and then viewed through a microscope to find the correct place to cut and splice the tape to make a synchronous join.’
Pete Simpkin: ‘Re the 2″ editing, my early engineering days were with an ITV company and the cost of the tape and the time to do all that iron filings sprinkling etc led to directors using a ‘rule of three’ sysytem where they would only even think of retakes or editing after three minor fluffs or production faults had passed! you can still see loads of ‘left in’ glitches in repeats fron the 60s and 70s!’
Alan Miller: ‘If I remember correctly the sound edit was at a different point from the video, making the edit not a straight cut.Also in Scotland the editors cut football matches on a single quad machine using this technique. On play out the tape ran continuously even when we cut back to the studio for links which made studio presenting a hazardous activity. The link simply had to fit the gap in the tape.’
Dave Bushell: ‘It’s thanks to the policy of avoiding editing a 2″ tape that so many early programme programmes have been lost – they were recorded over!’
Pete Simpkin: ‘Exactly! I think if they cut the tape it had to be costed in the programme budgets.’
Ian Collins: ‘It was a very crude, by today’s standards, but fast way of editing a football or cricket match down to time, which was why it was widely used by sport. The audio was indeed recorded in a different place relative to the pictures on the tape but because in sport, the audio was mainly effects, it was not too noticeable if the two cut at different times.’
Photos by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.
The photos show Pebble Mill VT Editor Ivor Williams ‘working’ on location at an outside broadcast.
It was when Ivor got his job as an Editor. The location was Leicester Velodrome, where the crew were based for 2 weeks to cover the cycling. The photo is probably from the mid ’80s.
Thanks to Ian Collins for providing the information.
