[QuadList] 8mm film at WGGB-- (was Re: TCR-100)

[Ted Langdell]

Hi, Kyle,

Very surprising. Thanks for the details. Sounds like it worked OK when  
needed.  Was the system used for programming or news footage... or  
just the PSA's.

Do you remember whether the sound was optical or magnetic?

I'm thinking magnetic.

Partial interest as I rep a German HD 8/S8 transfer system... and  
looking back makes me truly appreciate where we are today.

Now back to figuring out where to stay near but not in lower Manhattan  
tomorrow and Friday night... or longer : ) I'm thinking in Secaucus or  
elsewhere in the Meadowlands. Suggestions welcome. Off list replies,  
please to ted at flashscan8.us.

Now back to our regularly scheduled TCR-100 thread...

Ted


On Feb 3, 2010, at 10:51 PM, KYLEBOOK at aol.com wrote:

> Hi Ted,
>
> To be specific, these were Super 8 projectors.  In addition to the  
> standard 16MM RCA projectors,  WGGB's telecine area had these 3 side- 
> mounted (onto poles) Bell & Howell Super 8 projectors.   Physically,  
> they were slightly larger than a first-aid kit, with a feeder reel  
> on top, take up reel on the bottom, and a door on the front to  
> access the threading area, focus knobs & lens.  Each of the machines  
> had its own CCU, located next to the master control switcher, and  
> its own telecine island & mirrors. The quality was not nearly as  
> good as the 16MM, with rather saturated chroma levels & orangey  
> flesh tones that the CCU couldn't completely eliminate.
>
> The PSAs themselves were super 8mm films provided by state & federal  
> government agencies, generally 1-2 minutes, on subjects like drunk  
> driving, poison control, fire prevention, etc.
>
> The operative attitude was "Well, it's better than black or an ID  
> slide".
>
> In the 6 months I worked at Channel 40 as tape op in 1985, I only  
> participated in one outright TCR crash that forced us to use the  
> Super 8 projectors.  Murphy's Law being what it is, the TCR went  
> down (due to a faulty tractor belt) an hour after the 11 O'Clock  
> news ended, and another hour before sign-off, after the on-duty  
> engineer had left for the night.  The station was running a  
> syndicated show called "Tales From The Darkside", followed by a  
> rerun of the old NBC show "Real People", and a 15-minute late  
> newscast from the ABC Network, taped at 11 O'Clock (on the station's  
> lone 1" machine, a Sony BVH-2500).  There was only 1 paid spot (our  
> sign on & sign offs were always preceded by a spot for a local  
> discount retail store) the rest of the night, so the engineer said  
> he'd be in before sign-on, so the rest of night was spent scrambling  
> to grab as many Super 8 PSAs, and stringing them as fast as possible.
>
> Such is life in the small markets...
>
> Kyle Bookholz
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ted Langdell <ted at quadvideotapegroup.com>
> To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>
> Sent: Wed, Feb 3, 2010 9:00 pm
> Subject: [QuadList] 8mm film at WGGB-- (was Re: TCR-100)
>
>
> On Feb 3, 2010, at 7:37 PM, KYLEBOOK at aol.com wrote:
>
>>  if "Fred" took a siesta, the backup was PSAs on 8mm projectors,
>
> 8mm?  Do tell more!
>
> Ted
>
> Ted Langdell
> Secretary
>
> =
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Ted Langdell
Secretary

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