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Be Sure Your Sins Will Find You Out...or not in this case


Nick Flowers

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When I was working on a news crew in the 1980s the newsroom told us to go to the Savoy Hotel in London to record an interview with some faded starlet or other. So we duly arrived, but the hotel knew nothing about it. Assuming that the newsroom had neglected to inform them, we insisted that it had all been arranged, so the hotel gave us access to a room to set the gear up, which we did. Unfortunately one of the lamps burst its bubble and spat molten glass all over the floor, where it set light to the carpet. While we were stamping on the smoldering bits and moving the furniture to cover the worst burns a message reached us that in fact it was The Ritz hotel that we were to film in, the newsroom had got confused. Silently, smoothly we wrapped our gear and stole away giggling, I am ashamed to say, not deeming it necessary to own up to our misdemeanours. All this happened in the days when we traveled as a crew in a Ford Transit van, parking for which in London was arranged with the police by the production team. Hah! I can just see that happening now.

Below is a photo of our heroes, posing in the manner of a Victorian fire brigade beside their engine.

 

Film Crew.pdf

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That is an Auricon mixer/amplifier and you can see that it is plugged into the camera. There was a recording head inside the camera for the magnetic stripe on the edge of the 16mm film, and a playback head too which sent a confidence signal back to the Auricon. That camera is a Frezzolini and it sounded like a sewing machine. The little silver box wedged under the neck strap provided 12 volts T power for the Sennheiser 805 that is gripped in my manly hand. The bearded phase I was affecting did not last long after I was told that I resembled a house fly.

The camera assistant, Rick, is holding a clapper board for no real reason except self importance. We only used the board when we were shooting double system (that is, with a Nagra). When the sound was being recorded on the edge of the film it would be in sync with the picture, if Rick had laced the camera up rightly.  About the only positive thing that can be said about single system is that the sound will be in sync - the quality, as you can imagine, was appalling. The great thing about shooting with film was that film stock was expensive and the reporter couldn't go on and on for bloody hours asking his questions in the interviews. Two mags were the limit for ordinary stories, and that's 20 minutes in total. Try and get a journo to keep to that now. 

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From left to right: Sound Recordist, Electrician, Cameraman, Camera Assistant and Reporter. This was the Southern Television Brighton crew before Southern lost the franchise and TVS took over (and TVS were a bunch of jumped up barrow boys with delusions of adequacy). Thames Television (London based) had dedicated drivers, but that was understandable given the traffic problems in the capital. In the South the assistant usually drove with the spark and the cameraman sitting up front. The recordist lay across the back seat, usually in swinish slumber. I know of one soundy who had a screaming cushion, into which he used to scream his frustration on the way to the next job; I never took life that seriously.The reporter had his own car as he would take the film back to the studio for processing, while the crew went on to the next story. Very happy days indeed, strictly governed by union agreements. A book needs to be written about those times, so different in every way from work now, both technically and in working practices. And it just so happens that on my hard drive is a masterpiece just waiting for the right time to release it upon the unsuspecting world....

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