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Priceless! Look closely…

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

Priceless!

Look closely…this is very interesting on two counts. First, this is the hard way to do a mat shot…holding the Lucky Strike transparency still for the camera to shoot through is no easy trick, especially in a crowded football stadium.

Second, take a look at the top of the camera door. See the tubes glowing inside? This must have been one of the RCA TK30s permanently assigned to one of the NBC mobile units. It seems that instead of adding the round screen vents, they have cut a piece out of the top of the door for ventilation. Even if the camera was hot, it would usually keep making pictures…the real problem was the heat transfer into the viewfinder and if that got too hot, it would go out and the operator would be blind.

As in the ‘America’s Got Talent’ post just before this, we have a 1950s example of Field Innovation 101. Thanks to Reno Bailey for the photo! Enjoy and share! – Bobby Ellerbee

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13 responses to “Priceless! Look closely…”

  1. Ritchie Williams

    not seeing glowing tubes (very difficult in daylight). What I am seeing are ventilation louvers that are reflecting sunlight.

  2. Steven Bristow

    As one of the last generations that used videotape, I would’ve loved to have work in television during this day and age. This is real television, not having some computer do it for you.

  3. Will Davies

    Mattes like this are a lost art and cheap if you are a doco producer.

  4. Don Hougland

    Before videotape, images like this had to on film or on paste-ups teleups or slides….Recall at KTBC Ch 7 in Austin TX, JAX Beer sponsored the sports segment during the news Bloc.. There was a 4’x8′ black plywood board hung from the grid in front of the sports anchor, with the letters J A X cut-out, and only the experienced camera operator could DOLLY a B&W RCA camera with a 90 or 75mm lenses ,through the A to show the anchor.. Lots of early TV was done with “smoke and mirrors”. NOW there are computers that ado it all…

  5. Alan Maretsky

    Damn! Real TV!

  6. Brett Gripe

    High tech

  7. Tom Edwards

    Agree that this wold be a gobo. Also agree with Terry, I studied under very much the same conditions at Ohio University in the late 60’s. We also did news six nights a week and a couple of NET (now PBS) syndicated shows. All starred by students. Our studio was in an old duplex house and had only one studio which was used for classes and on air.

    Never seen that before. Creative idea. Wonder how they manage to keep both the field and cigarette graphic in focus. Even with a short lens and stopped down lens, that a long depth of field. And the shot of the stadium must be super (no pun intended) wide. And the guy holding the graphic wold have to be very still.

  8. Dave Dillman

    There is a generation of people who are here at Eye who would be amazed if they found a dusty old copy of Rudy Bretz’s book on TV production. Full of stuff like this, how things got done back before technology evolved.

  9. Terry Drymon

    i was so lucky to learn the craft at an educational station back in the mid 60’s 2 studios B&W 2 cameras in each studio and 6/7 live shows a day plus some tape shows in school programs like science and history and the “tricks” we could do wit NOTHING a 5 button switcher top and bottom and a fader bar no chroma key just supers…what an education !

  10. Chris Skrundz

    You would have thought someone in engineering would have fabricated a frame to hold the transparency in place, especially if this was a normal practice.

  11. Scott Comstock

    That is simply amazing, and even though TV isn’t my primary profession, I deeply respect the folks who make it possible.

  12. Greg Dunlap

    Gives today’s operators-of all disciplines, an insight into really old school. Director, producer, AD, cameraman and ‘insert artist’ working together to create a live multilayer composite shot.
    You can almost hear, “a little up, now right, down, ‘woof’, hold it for 30!”
    It’s a great shot. Thanks for posting it.

  13. James Stanley Barr

    These days, we would not need a big transparency….we do it all by computers. That same shot could easily be accomplished with state-of-the-art CGI (That is if cigarette advertising on TV were still legal)

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