Telecine – Ray Lee (part 1)

Photo by Ivor Williams, of Pebble Mill TK 1971, no reproduction without permission.

I joined telecine  (TK) in 1974 having transferred from telecine in Television Centre. At that time there were 2 Rank Cintel flying spot telecine machines. There was a 2 storey block to the rear of the main office area and Studio A. Much of the first floor level was occupied by Telecine, Video tape (VT) the Dubbing theatre, film processing and an assortment of film cutting rooms.

TK and VT shared a common area, with a corridor down the middle. There were 3 rooms /cubicles on each side TK on the left, VT on the right as approached from the main door. TK A, TKB, and an expansion area, likewise VTA, VTB and an expansion area. VTA, and B had a large sliding Marley Door between them where the common wall would have been, so that they could be worked as an edit pair by sliding the door back, or as individual machines working to separate areas, with the door closed.

Just inside the entrance, was the film transfer area, where 1/4” tape was transferred to Sepmag film in order to be edited synchronously with the film pictures. There were a number of SepMag bays some of which could be linked to the Dubbing theatre in order to dub additional sounds onto the film. This area was reorganised shortly after my arrival, so the detail is hazy.

Working in the area at that time were Paul Richards, Jim Gregory, Graham Winter, and Peter Hodges, and myself (Ray Lee). Peter soon moved on to become VCMS in Studio A, and there were a number of other people moved through TK in the time I was there. Charles Osborne, Peter Greenhalgh, Keith Salmon (who moved into News), Tim Savage, and some others whose names have been lost in the mist of time.

Ray Lee

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.