Lighting for 16mm film

This video was produced as part of the European Research Council funded ADAPT project based at Royal Holloway, University of London. For more information about the project visit www.adaptTVhistory.org.uk
This footage was filmed in May 2015 in the television studio at Royal Holloway University of London in Egham, United Kingdom.
A team of veteran television film cameramen, electricians, and sound engineers who worked at the BBC Television Film Studios in the 1960s and 1970s recalled various aspects of their work.
Their memories were filmed using three Sony PMW-100 digital cameras and recorded using wireless microphones. The conversation was free-flowing with occasional questions and interventions from the ADAPT crew.
Cameras: Joe Burns and Zak Derler
Director of Photography: Sri Southall
Sound: John Walsh and Summer Walker
Producer: Amanda Murphy
ADAPT (2013-8) is a European Research Council project at Royal Holloway University of London. The project studies the history of technologies in television, focussing on their everyday use in production activities.
ADAPT examines what technologies were adopted and why; how they worked; and how people worked with them. As well as publishing written accounts, the project carries out 'simulations' that reunite retired equipment with the people who used to use it.
Participants in these simulations explain how each machine worked and how different machines worked together as an 'array'; how they adapted the machines; and how they worked together as teams within the overall production process.
www.adaptTVhistory.org.uk
adaptTV

[@karlkarlos3545]

Damn, I could listen to this old chaps for hours.

[@orangebetsy]

this came up again after a long time in the youtube menu and what a pleasure to watch these guys

[@cmedley]

This is now my favourite video on KZbin.

[@user-fe5yj6ww8r]

it's awesome! I've expected to see a guide on setting lights in a scene, with this mature filmmakers showing that all. but, surprisingly, their talk appeared to be much more fascinating! many thanks ♡

[@Chucklesrailarchive]

Really very interesting thanks guys. I only ever dabbled with video for filming. Still have my set of Red heads in the loft. Always dreamed of being a BBC Cameraman. First came into contact with film when I was a cinema manager for the ABC chain. I then moved on to working in a London advertising agency for few years in the preview studio handling 16 & 35 mm, reel to reel video recorders and very early telecine. The telecine l always remember for 35mm film was a pair off modified cinema projectors with arc lamps for a light source which shone through a prism to the video camera which had a very large number of ND filters stacked in front of the lens. Not quite BBC kit! I did however get a job offer from the BBC later but just at that time l my wife had an outbreak of twin daughters which made it impossible for me to accept the position.

[@thermonuclearcollider4418]

2:37 I used 800watts spotlights by Ianiro (the "redheads" - or "mandarines" over here) for ages as a RAI cameraman and freelance DP before the advent of LED and the bulbs never suddenly explode on me (provided you always switched them off every time you moved them, even while figuring out a lighting setup). The 2K blondes, on the other hand, had a 50\50 chance of sending sparks everywhere all the time. I remember the first time it happened to me, we were filming inside a high precision mechanics workshop, where every machine was plugged into industrial sockets and the flying sparks fell very close to one of the power grids. It was scary.

[@eyesofisabelofficial]

Brian Tufano, my favorite DP.........Mr Wroe's virgins (BBC 1993)

[@dominojordan3d]

I'm watching this next to my gear shelves, I'm unwittingly continuing the BBC legacy with my 3 red heads, single blonde and poly...

[@Dutch3DMaster]

Lol, funny to hear them say "absolutely appaling" while not pointing to the Laniro/Red Head lights but naming basically the exact same problems (except for the color-shift between each lamp). My video teacher was from the old days but was absolutely fed up with them for the problems of not being able to spot them well :P. I have a video of one of the RED Head bulbs that blew while on-site somewhere but fused the glowing wire back together while partially outside the glass housing. A colleague who had been a cameraman for around 25 years (nothing close to the people in the video, but still, to state how rare it was that that happened) was astonished when he saw it, he had never experienced a light blowing out, not knocking out a fuse and also staying lit (allbeit a lot dimmer and with a lot of smoke bellowing out of the fixture after some seconds). I have used the 800W Red Heads mainly for bouncing them against ceilings, that was basically the only thing that they were easily usable for without to much of a hassle trying to sort-of spot them. Interesting video, I liked this a lot. Sometimes I feel regretful not having lived a little bit more in the more analog era of television making (even if it only consisted out of home movies), it feels so incredibly easy just to push a record button right after having switched on the camera (Still then, it was hard to almost impossible to explain to a 14 year old how incredibly easy it is for them to record video of a very decent quality with a telephone, as opposed to the usually really expensive camera's at the end of the 80's and in the 90's that still didn't really came up to the standards of reliability you can expect of a phone these days).

[@KristopherSatchell]

This is awesome!

[@Jim311366]

ME too .My Frist station in Springfeild mass had Film cameras left and a video film chain as there were at the time moving over to 3/4 Tape system, That was in the 80s

[@CamerieriZeppoleMix]

Awesome video 🙏 thank you

[@erikals]

Thank You! :)

[@CamerieriZeppoleMix]

Great video thank you 🙏

[@nativebullet7333]

very nice

[@craigshelley1663]

I vaguely recall there being an interview with Fred Dibnah where the film crew ended up paying for a new carpet after they set it on fire

[@christopherhulse8385]

Fred himself told the story, apparently it was an American film crew who came to interview him and their 120v lighting blew up when plugged into our 240v mains!

[@Skanda1111]

Real Gentlemen! Gaffers are always very serious when it comes to handling their lights. That is the only thing they don't want you to help with.

[@adamtaylor4785]

cool lens video I really wna to be a cinematographer when I'm grow up

[@ThomasLuca]

The British are among the best in film. Especially the studios Elstree, Ealing, Leavesdon, Pinewood, etc.

[@MrRandomRain]

alfred hitchcock will tell you different

[@bigg2838]

@@MrRandomRain Kubrick would agree with Tommy

[@srfurley]

Sounds like the ones which were different colours were quartz metal halide, and the Redheads and blonde were tungsten halogen?

[@derryk1]

Looking at all that old gear(kit) reminds me why I'm glade I'm using modern tech instead of that crude matter, especially with the lights. I have been switching from tungsten to LED putting my Arri, Mole Richardson and Lowe lights into semiretirement. Nostalgia is nice and all but best for museums and not in the modern field. Cheers

[@derryk1]

The results are a quicker easier setup with less hassle. 2 weeks ago I had to shoot an interview in an office with large glass windows low ceilings and not a lot of room to work around. I didn't want to have a masses amounts of cords and wires all about plus I had to quick set up in another part of the office lobby quickly right after the first set up. With battery powered LED lights I had everything up and running within a couple of minutes and before long we were all done and out like nobody's business. No wires to run and people tripping over, no colour gels to deal with the lights are adjustable both colour and intensity. Best of all they don't get hot so in they go immediately back into their case no burnt hands or other things. The look and feel of my work remains the same. The better LED lights the better results because they are true colour no intense purple blue or green colour shift.

[@Andresvideo]

May I ask you what LED lights do you use? Le technology is definitely the way to go in my opinion

[@Andresvideo]

Great! Thanks for your answer. I own 2 Aputure 672 (w & s) and can't be happier. Looking forward to getting the 300D to have a killer output, that I need sometimes.

[@derryk1]

Also the LED fresnels that are out now look real interesting as well, the Boltzen 55w and others like it. It is a real exciting time for this industry of film video and photography I just wish it was like this 20 years ago (the dark ages) when I first got started.

[@arricammarques1955]

Arri lighting far superior for color temp., skin tones, etc.

[@jumesluke]

You should show us a pic! You know, so we can see what it looks like...

[@popmart3272]

In the analog world, you had to be a perfectionist. It was a constant struggle with reality. And today..? Well ... Today, everyone, even a total idiot, has a smartphone in their pocket that does everything for them.

[@stupossibleify]

A shame about the modern camera work - complete failure to document the detail of the equipment with close shots. Style over substance

[@AdapttvhistoryOrgUk]

The camera operators on this shoot were men. The voice you can hear is that of our producer.

[@stupossibleify]

@@AdapttvhistoryOrgUk The camera operators you can occassionally see with the held-held digital video cameras in the shoot look like students..it's a shame there were no close up shots of the equipment in this and the other videos on this otherwise excellent KZbin channel