Riders in the Sky (TOTP 1980)

[drakula63]

Wow!!! Just found this!!!

Brilliant. They look like they are really having fun and check out the funky camera angles!!!!

;0)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdfGQwEN-rs

[RayL]

check out the funky camera angles!!!!

To get those camera angles, a special piece of of equipment had to be booked out of Television Centre Technical Stores. That was the CHAR - the Camera Head Attachment (Rocking). I kid you not!

Ray

[drakula63]

Seriously?

I'd have done it hand-held...

[MartcasterJunior]

In 1980? I don't think you would. Not without a block and tackle!

[drakula63]

I eat a lot of spinach... (mind you, I wouldn't want a 1980s studio camera on my head!!)

But surely they had shoulder-mounted E N G cameras then? Still, point taken, it was a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago!!!!!

[MartcasterJunior]

I'm pretty sure ENG video cameras were of fairly low-quality back then - good enough to capture a news story as it happened and get it back to the studio for broadcast but not something that would be used on a prime-time TV show as part of a multi-camera set-up. I'm sure there are others more knowledgable than me on the subject though!

[drakula63]

It's easy to forget just how large and cumbersome studio cameras were then. They were real behemoths! I have done a bit of camerawork and assisting in recent years and it's amazing how small and light and incredibly good cameras have become. I take the point, however, that the kind of handheld camerawork that we take for granted now would have been difficult if not impossible 34 years ago!! All I can say is, how time flies...

[Iain Purdon]

I'm pretty sure ENG video cameras were of fairly low-quality back then - good enough to capture a news story as it happened and get it back to the studio for broadcast but not something that would be used on a prime-time TV show as part of a multi-camera set-up. I'm sure there are others more knowledgable than me on the subject though!

I worked at BBC Scotland in 1980 and well remember sneaking into the observation gallery in Studio A Glasgow, to watch the Shadows doing a TV recording with George Ford on bass. Those colour cameras were mighty beasts: they didn't have small ones. News footage was still being shot on film in those days. Indeed, one of the film editors used to add discreet sound effects to news reports for the amusement of friends. You'd pass him in the corridor and he'd mutter something like, let's say, "Ambulance story - hyena". Sure enough, Reporting Scotland that evening would show some item involving an ambulance and, if you listened very carefully to the wildtrack, you could just make out low-level canine laughter!

[drakula63]

I'm pretty sure ENG video cameras were of fairly low-quality back then - good enough to capture a news story as it happened and get it back to the studio for broadcast but not something that would be used on a prime-time TV show as part of a multi-camera set-up. I'm sure there are others more knowledgable than me on the subject though!

I worked at BBC Scotland in 1980 and well remember sneaking into the observation gallery in Studio A Glasgow, to watch the Shadows doing a TV recording with George Ford on bass. !

That would be nice to see...