Tag: John Burkill

Pebble Mill Club – final days

Photos by Tim Savage, no reproduction without permission.

Tim took these photos on 23 Nov, 2004, one of the final days at Pebble Mill.

The photos include post production staff including: John Burkill, Jim Gregory, Amrik Manku, Brian Watkiss, Ivor Williams, John Duckmanton, Tony Rayner, Martin Dowell, Mike Bloore, Pete Shannon, John Macavoy, Dave Pick, Frank Stevens.

Please add a comment if you can identify others.

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

Stuart Gandy: ‘In image 1016 the guy in the blue shirt holding a pint is John Macavoy, Engineer, and in image 1017 I see Dave Pick in the check shirt and next to him is Frank Stevens, former engineering services manager.’

Keith Brook: ‘If I may take friendly issue with Stuart Gandy about John Macavoy. He wasn’t just an engineer, he was a god. He was able to invent magical cures for any crazy idea that production could conjure up. Even worse, he would undertand their mumblings and give them more than they ever dreamed of. I hate him. The best days were, of course, when the bar was on the second floor. Very few managers realised all the post recording toxic, adrenaline, hyper-excitement that could corrode a great day’s work was diffused with a few beers upstairs. Incidentally, a truly ‘involving’, ‘participating’ and ‘egalitarian’ system, as we had at The Mill, works in any organisation. British industry, banking and the NHS would be major successes if they applied the same rules.’

OB in the back of a van

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by John Burkill, no reproduction without permission.

The photo takes from October 1980.  It looks like part of an outside broadcast set up.

The portable 2″ quad recorder, in the briefcase on the side is an Ampex VR 3000. It was a specialist piece of kit designed for field recording, when it wasn’t possible to take a full 2″ machine.  Even so, it was pretty heavy to carry around – weighing 55 pounds!  It was capable of high or low band recordings, used 20 minute reels, and could be powered by battery or on AC.  Visit this link for more information: http://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/TV/Ampex/VR3000.htm

The men in the photo are John Smith (multi camera director), Peter Hodges (sitting down) and Derek Price (engineering manager).

The shoot was almost certainly for a ‘Pebble Mill at One’ programme, since John Smith was one of the principal directors on the show.

Paul Vanezis added on the Facebook page that the ‘Pebble Mill at One’ titles, with the fisheye look, were in fact recorded on an Ampex VR 3000, as were some of the opening titles of ‘Look! Hear!’.

Please add a comment if you can add any information.

Jim Gray on location – photo by John Burkill

Photo by VT engineer John Burkill, no reproduction without permission.

The photo dates from January 1985, and features cameraman Jim Gray filming on location, possibly in the Alps.  This is probably from an outside broadcast, rather than a single camera shoot, for a Pebble Mill programme.

Please add a comment if you can identify the programme, and location.

Top Gear – John Burkhill’s photos

Photos by John Burkill, no reproduction without permission.

These ‘Top Gear’ photos date from 1977 (with the Lotus Esprit and Porsche 928 photos) and 1982 (with the photo of the Ford Granada).  They show early in-car recordings onto 1″ videotape.  The recording machine was the VPR5.  The camera mounted on the Lotus and Porsche is the Bosch Fernseh, which was one of the first ‘lightweight’ cameras, although it was extremely heavy in reality.  The camera mounted on the roof of the Ford Granada is an Ikegami, probably an HL79.  It is being operated by Keith Salmon, director David Weir is holding the gun mic and Tony Wass is on the right-hand side.  Inside the white Granada, Steve Searly is operating the racks control for the VPR5.  John Burkill, VT editor/engineer would have set up the VPR5.

The photos show how cumbersome in-car recording was in the 1970s and 80s in comparison to today, when cameras can be really tiny.

David Weir, Keith Salmon, Tony Wass