BBC Widescreen Digital Test Transmission - 1998

In 1998 I was asked to direct the BBC's Widescreen Digital Test Transmission. For anyone who remembers it and who is interested, here's a bit more about the project and how it came about.
The opportunity arose when I was working for a company called Qureshi and Associates and we were doing a lot of work for the BBC. I'd been doing quite a bit of production and some direction around events and communications relating to the launch of the new digital services. I was asked (by a chap called Martin Bell, if I recall correctly, who was looking after the introduction of Widescreen) if I could create a 'test tranmission' in preparation for the launch of the new services. The brief, specifically, was that I had to provide material that would be challenging for the new encoding hardware, as the BBC were gearing up for the first time to digitise all of their broadcast streams and were thinking about bitrates, compression, quality, etc. etc.
That's why the film is actually entirely based on stuff that's traditionally difficult to digitise and compress: slow crossfades; slow pull focus shots; constantly changing fine detail like the sun reflecting on water; helicopter tracking shots over trees with small birds flying in front, etc. etc.
Other than the brief to feature lots of fast moving fine detail, I was given a completely free rein. I had a) recently got really into Cornwall, particularly around the Lizard area, and b) really liked Aphex Twin. So the location was obvious: myself, the producer (and my friend and colleague) Shaun, a crew of three or four and I got in the van, headed to Cornwall, and spent a few fun days simply driving around and looking for beautiful stuff (with lots of fine moving detail!) to film.
We were incredibly lucky with the weather, giving us several days of brilliant light and bright vivid colours.
The sunrise at the beginning was filmed at Kennack Sands (still one of my favourite spots), and the brilliant white satellite dishes against the deep blue skies are at Goonhilly. Most of the shots on the beach are at St. Ives, although I think we also shot some stuff at Newquay (the beach huts are definitely Newquay). The fishing boats were at Padstow. The windfarm was at Carland Cross. Goodness only knows where the church was - some place we discovered driving around.
Perhaps one of the best things about the project was being able to do the aerial photography. We worked with Castle Air - www.castleair.co.uk/ - and to be completely honest we had a fantastic few hours flying over the coast with the crew, the DOP and the camera mounted in some awesome gyroscopic mount that gave us brilliantly stable pictures.
And in terms of the Aphex Twin: I was using it during the initial edit because as I said, I loved it (and still do). The producer, Shaun, liked it too, and so simply looked up Warp's phone number, gave them a call, and asked if we could use it. A few minutes later Shaun's mobile rang and the man himself, Mr. Twin was on the phone. Shaun told him what we were doing, said it was a public service thing so we didn't really have budget for expensive licensing, but said we'd love to use it. He said we could use it for free, that was fine, although he asked if we could send him a digital box; sadly we didn't have any :)
There was a period around 1998 of about six months when you could walk into any high street electrical shop and every television in the place was showing this, which was quite fun. Sadly I didn't get paid per broadcast!
Shortly after that my career took me away from production and direction, which was a shame, as I loved it. Maybe it's time to get back there...

[@sitedrm]

The BBC inadvertently funded the best video to watch while on drugs.

[@RetroRecipes]

Thanks for creating this back then, and for posting it! Been wanting to see it again for years. Weirdly, these broadcasts helped me through a tough time in life.

[@fucklchn]

I know this is just for a test. But this is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

[@104ist]

The commentary under the video was so interesting, and the video itself captures such a unique time. Love the aerial photography, and love Aphex Twin! Thanks very much for uploading :)

[@justwhatever22]

+BlackDollarBills it's a pleasure! glad you enjoyed it :)

[@scottpeacock5492]

I remember walking into tv dealer shop in Cambridge and seeing these film scatcher over the tv screen in 1998, it was the dawn of the new digital tv age.

[@inigogw]

hands down best video on you tube.

[@justwhatever22]

hey, thanks! What a nice thing to say. Glad you enjoyed it and shared it.

[@almostoneword]

justwhatever22 I remember this so well! Thank You for uploading - inspired use of RDJ. Beautiful. As this was an HD test, is there any chance you can upload the 1080p50 version? ❤

[@aeiouxs]

@@almostoneword it's not a HD test - it's a Digital Widescreen test, HD was later :)

[@waynetaylor2854]

Unsure if you still respond to comments but I just wanted to say I absolutely love this and the information behind it. I live in the states so I would have never got to see this when it was on air originally. These videos and others give me a glimpse into that time of UK broadcasting and has sparked my interest about it's past and future. Thank you!

[@TheSpectre130]

The music and images match each other perfectly... Aphex twin really does blend with lots of things... It's hard to believe this was made in 1998... It makes it better understanding the history behind it...

[@OneGalleonslap]

I remember watching this outstanding video on my Pace OnDigital box. An amazing memory of that time, and how television technology was evolving. Very haunting in every way. I recorded it but unfortunately only had VHS at the time!

[@BananaTree2023]

Used to watch this over and over on my new “ON digital”box” great to find it and see and hear it again! Thanks.

[@ZeranZeran]

Great taste in music.

[@jesuitx]

I used to work in broadcast technology, and I always loved this video, and especially the soundtrack. The addition of your commentary makes it even greater. Thanks for posting this!

[@WildBluntHickok]

The 1st and 3rd tracks are untitled tracks from Selected Ambient Works vol II (although they're unofficially called Rhubarb and Parallel Stripes, due to every track having a photograph instead of a title). The 2nd track is Xtal, the opening track off the first Selected Ambient Works album (85-92). I love that these tracks are a part of such a historical moment. Also his first music video (for "On") was shot on a Cornish beach so these visuals really suit the music.

[@Allanbuzzy]

Bit of a coincidence that "On" would also be used for the name of the ill-fated ONdigital, huh?

[@MrBreadman1966]

I can remember watching this video on one of the ON Digital channels that was supposed to be used to screen feature films. But as we all know that never happened. The film was transmitted using a short clip from Top Gear at the end before it looped back to the beginning.

[@mrandrewbowden]

I was introduced to this in 2002 before the Freeview launch. Frankly far superior to most of the channels. Wonderful stuff.

[@nilelg5]

Love watching this video to wind down, reminds me of going to the south coast as a kid.

[@FourTetTrack]

We need a 4k version of this! Thanks for sharing your story @justwhatever22!

[@manchoir217]

Pleasure! :) Love to make another, but would need someone to give me a bit of budget for the helicopter!

[@FourTetTrack]

@@manchoir217 I meant if you had somehow an HD copy of it somewhere in the cupboard :D. Having worked with codecs, it's interesting how blurry some of the parts are. I'm sure it was ok on the transmission (as they usually use a higher bitrate).

[@marvy3022]

@@FourTetTrack lol, the uk didn't get hd until 2005 my dude.

[@ilias4180]

Amazing creation!!

[@ziggypop79]

Thank you for this. I’ve been searching for this for 20 years, I thought it was lost forever. I became an Aphex Twin fan because of this ‘test card’ long before Radiohead based the rest of their career output on him.

[@kei_nishimaru]

20 years later, it still looks really good. You guys did a really good job with this test, you've earned it.

[@philipread1005]

thanks! :)

[@AmigaBoingBlog]

These were actually made I believe to show the effects of Digital Transmission, the computery-style graphics that sometimes showed on certain clips and footage, most noticable around 10:12 where it shows the grass moving around, there are some general flaky scenes there. There was another Test Transmission showing alongside this one, which I believe at the time were shown on Channels 701 and 702 - about 3-4 months before the ONrequest service came to light, Now this one has been uploaded, But the other Test Transmission had different music and went past houses in its scenery, but as of yet, nobody has ever uploaded this one, It would be nice to see it again if anyone has that one

[@aeiouxs]

Not sure where you're imagining CG additions here - to me that looks simply like the limitations of digital compression and the lower TV resolution of the day.

[@TheIanoTube]

I keep coming back to this video

[@PoisonInc]

I remember seeing this way back in the day, it's how I was introduced to Aphex Twin.

[@robster773]

I remember seeing this when I first got ON-DIGITAL around 1999 great video for the DTT Test Transmissions

[@goodmoaning3179]

The thing that hits me about this is that I (probably) hadn't even started school when this was done, and it looks like it could have been shot this year.

[@CringePoop]

man i love this website. randomly stumbling upon a cool find like this with long commentary in the description always makes my day

[@PPMSIX]

Liked this so much I moved down here! As a child I used to go on the boat Superstar and play on the beach at Looe. The boat still thrills in the summer months and at closer to 60 than 6, I still play on the beach.These days I can be found propping up the Bar in the Blue Peter Polperro and skinny dipping in the sea at the rock pool swimming pool in the summer. You have been warned...

[@rseasyguidesto]

14:03 the song is called parallel stripes. The visual here is very fitting. Vravo Bince!

[@PaulSmith-iy2ez]

I remember working for On digital at the time these test transmissions were going out. I watched them over and over on our test STBs and the fact the soundtrack was Aphex Twin it gave me even more of a reason to watch

[@arkraaa]

The track from 11:00 on is "Parallel Stripes" from Selected Ambient Works II, in case anyone was wondering.

[@EREJones]

Simply incredible. Thank you so much for posting. Nowadays we get HD and 3D equivalents featuring Korean boy bands, trailers and excerpts from films like How to Train your Dragon and Monsters vs Aliens, slow motion videos of south-Asian cities etc. Wish they could look a bit more like this.

[@thisisfoxx]

Amazing to think this predates KZbin and was used to test digital encoding - something we all take for granted now.

[@chrisbate9956]

Brilliant! And you got a call from Richard himself!

[@Kenners.]

I love watching this with sound track. Makes me feel all warm and nostalgic. I watched this regularly when i had my On Digital set top box. Thank you for the creation

[@OneGalleonslap]

I remember seeing this many times at the start of DTT, it's really good, has a hypnotic quality. Great choice of music. Excellent!

[@PaulIsTheKillingestOnYT]

I would like to be a party to an 8K version of this :D

[@MultiHammered1]

Memories!

[@bwc1976]

Thank you so much for uploading this! For the longest time I wished I could find the music from this, now I'll be sure to add it to my Spotify. Also I thought there was another film like this but with underwater scenes?

[@funkmeister2000]

Really beautiful this.

[@michaelmcdonnell5998]

Thank you for this! I used to watch this for ages. I found it so relaxing!

[@olliejenkins5148]

I’m admittedly a bit late to this video, but I love this song so much, and this video and it’s backstory are really interesting. I hope you’re doing well justwhatever22

[@olliejenkins5148]

Xtal too!! 👌🏻

[@curtis8516]

I hope this is preserved elsewhere incase its ever removed!

[@lutello3012]

I would LOVE to have the original MPEG2 of this.

[@LandMark1]

This is golden!

[@simonm9503]

Awesome work.

[@liquidmodernitytasteslikeu2855]

whoa just found out about this, definitely deserves more views! loved it

[@SunLevi]

Thanks for sharing this.

[@stephengoodey1059]

I understand from a correspondence I had with Shaun that the crew have cameos in the film. The director included! :-)

[@timmartinevo]

so cool!

[@AgentOrange101]

I can't work out which is better, the filmwork or the soundtrack ❤

[@adamjh2000]

Love it. Wish youtube could de-interlace though...

[@D3lysid]

Thx for the written info, it seemed to come from ur heart. Have u picked up directing again?

[@Auteckre]

The whole project is fantastic, especially gratifying I'm sure, seeing your work everywhere in front of countless people. And yes, Rhubarb is particularly affecting. Full of heart, it seems. The track around the 11 min mark and on sounds familiar. It's Aphex too right?

[@FOBGraphics]

Woah I watched this without realizing it's mostly filmed in Cornwall, so when I saw my town Looe I was so confused

[@thefoggydewy]

Still think this is wicked. Good job.

[@kinder7]

No one on their phones 😃

[@gustavoceballos5327]

Music by Aphex Twin

[@VintageLynx]

I remember trying to tape this on video but on each repeat it would get at least one or two bad glitches - the signal was very weak back in those early days.

[@thruxt0n]

Beautiful video, I love Cornwall. thanks for sharing. 2:03 to 3:28 I'm 99% sure is the East Looe River flowing into the Looe estuary (you can just make out the town of Looe at 2:50 mark) :-)

[@WillPS]

You did a stunning job. I remember being mesmerised by this bit of film in the early days of digital. Do you know what the source was, and if it exists in HD?

[@KeiranCounsellKC1994]

thats amazing, I always remember when the BBC transitioned into widescreen and I was wondering how it was technically done. Did it employ the use of new widescreen transmission tapes to store the extra information on the sides or did it use the traditional standard tapes but store and process the information cleverly so that it could be stretched back out into widescreen with minimal loss?

[@leethium6982]

Beauty

[@MarkPentler]

Can you give us any information on cameras/lenses used, what format they were recorded in, codec/workflow etc? This is stunning and I remember it well!

[@MrBreadman1966]

I was just thinking was there another version of this test video was featured a more upbeat pierce of music? I think the helicopter was used whilst it was playing out.

[@User-io5xt]

Hi, was just wondering if you could divulge what camera this was filmed with and whether there was any colour correction etc. put on it, post production? Theres something really unique about this video : )

[@justwhatever22]

+Moses Whitley hey Moses, glad you enjoyed it, thank you! Camera: simple answer is, can't remember - sorry! I'm almost completely sure it was shot on Digibeta, and it was some fairly big piece of kit, very probably Sony. Back in those days (sounds funny describing 1998 that way, but there we go!) 16:9 was still pretty new (hence the film) and not available on all broadcast kit, and solid state recording didn't really exist yet either. Colour correction.... hmm; hard to remember. I do actually remember the editor doing something to the blacks, but as far as I recall there was no serious stylistic grading or anything like that. Hope that answers your questions!

[@Qwertowsky]

Tfw I was in St. Ives literally yesterday.

[@quentinreynolds4955]

Does anyone know the name of the first track on this film? Great film; I recall seeing it back in 1999 / 2000 as a test transmission for On Digital.

[@boyercam]

The first song is called Rhubarb by Aphex Twin, so calming...

[@quentinreynolds4955]

Thanks!

[@boyercam]

No problem ;)

[@MightyJKF]

Widescreen TV in 1998 feels off.

[@curtis8516]

Sounds stupid, but I feel this was when the world changed at the end of the 90's. That and the end of the 4:3 aspect ratio.

[@fivequackingzephyrs]

Who disliked this?!

[@rtcp2020]

Doesn’t look like 1998.