VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

ConnieTerwilliger · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:29 am Post subject:

My first real job in media was as a graphic artist in a TV station in Iowa (WMT). I set type in a hot press and printed out names for the newscasts. We shot them for lower third projection with a small camera on a curved board.

I got promoted into full-time production and we also used the old black "sandwich boards" with the white letters to list all the numbers for the farm report.

Two sets of about 4 boards each which had hog, corn, soy prices on them. We had two cameras and two people. One camera would whip around and focus on the first board. That camera op would run around to the back of the table and be ready to pull the boards one by one. The other camera op waited for the director to get onto the first board and then whipped the other camera around to frame up on the second board. Then that camera op would zip from one camera to the other nudging the focus and the framing as the director cut from board to board.

One day my headset cable got caught on the pan handle of the camera and the viewing audience got a great view of the control room, the Max and Mombo set and the Farm reporter before I was able to get things under control again.

Then we got a character generator. And the heavens opened, beautiful music played and all was right with the world.
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Bob Stevens · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:37 am Post subject:

My first job out of high school was running programs on an IBM mainframe on a swing shift. 10 MEG platters that looked like a layer cake. The hard drive itself was the size of a small floor standing freezer.

My file names were saved on punch cards. Trays and trays of them. Lol

The BIG RED Oh Crap button physically pulled wires out of a socket.
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"Dialog is the painting on a canvas of silence"

Bailey · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 2:33 pm Post subject:

I'll throw this in to see who catches it...

Modifying old "step" equipment because Ma Bell wanted to squeeze every dime out of their investments.
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"Bailey"
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Retired... Every day is Saturday, except Sunday.
VO-BB Member #00044 W00T

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Mike Harrison · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 2:59 pm Post subject:

Scott: WOW! Someone else familiar with multi-image shows! The company I worked for started with AVL's second programmer, the ShowPro V, the first programmer capable of syncing 15 projectors (five sets of three). AVL's first programmer, the ShowPro III (pictured below), could sync 9 projectors (three sets of three). The ShowPro V looked just like the ShowPro III, only a bit wider, with more buttons. From the ShowPro V, we went to the first incarnation of the Eagle and then, several years later, went to the Roadrunner (still with 15 projectors). We processed our own Ektachrome in-house and, yes, used #2 Wess glass slide mounts. (The film, anchored on pegs to ensure proper position, was sandwiched between two thin layers of glass to maintain sharp focus.)

In case anyone's intrigued, these systems (again, they utilized 35mm slides) – depending on how the producers conceived their vision and planned photography – could produce some spectacular screen effects, even animation. For the company I worked for, multi-image shows bridged the gap between single-projector shows (aka 'klunkers'), or even two- or three-projector dissolves and the later addition and ultimate shift to video.

This photo (not my company) was taken behind the screen at a 1987 model launch for Ford Motor Company in Detroit. The two Eagle programmers in the foreground were paired to control what could have been 60 slide projectors and a few other devices. As Scott mentioned, the cues that triggered everything (and was similar to SMPTE time code) was on one track of a 4-track audio tape, with the sound track occupying two tracks.

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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

Mike Harrison · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 3:13 pm Post subject:

Lee Gordon · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 3:26 pm Post subject:

Not the original intention of this discussion, but I think we are beginning to identify the guys who clapped the chalk dust out of the erasers in grammar school. cool

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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
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Deirdre · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 4:53 pm Post subject:

I remember the sound of feedback in the production room with you didn't pot down the receiving cart deck.
. . . and the smell of cigarettes in the acoustic tiles and drapes.
And having to rotary-dial the meter to get remote readings.

Hey Jim— I was on the test board in LA at the time of the ESS "cutover".
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Mike Harrison · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 6:31 pm Post subject:

Scott Pollak · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 6:48 pm Post subject:

Bailey: step offices, couldn't handle touch tone. I remember them well. Still had a bunch of them operating even into the mid 80's or so. There was another c.o. in between step offices and ESS (electronic switching systems). Was it Crossbar?

Mike: I STARTED on a Show-Pro III! Then we moved up to Eagle and then the Genesis. We also had a little Travler III if you remember those. Ran off a cued cassette tape that you had to use a special Tascam 133 to record onto.

I did everything from 2-projector shows up to 21-projector. And Mike, do you remember the Assoc for Multi-Image? AMI? I was president of the Alabama chapter for a while and we won a number of Gold and Silver awards at the Southeastern and International Conferences. I still have the awards, all dust-covered on my bookshelf here.
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

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Scott Pollak · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 6:49 pm Post subject:

heyguido · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 7:54 pm Post subject:

In the run-up to deregulation, I worked as a hired gun of programming, flying in to remake newly acquired stations in the image of the brand...

I remember one particular acquisition, a free-form album rocker, where the carpet and acoustical tiles reeked of years of not cigarettes.... But marijuana. Wink

The new gm was a real straight arrow.... So shocked and outraged, that he immediately leased another building and had a team of engineers flown in from corporate for an emergency build-out. Laugh

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Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"

JBarrett · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 8:11 pm Post subject:

cyclometh · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 9:25 pm Post subject:

JBarrett · Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:03 pm Post subject:

Yes! After some digging, I think the machine that I used was the Compugraphic EditWriter 7500 (or some variant thereof). According to some info that I unearthed, that thing was released in 1977. I started working at the print shop between '87 and '89, so it was at least 10 years old at that point. Desktop publishing was just starting to kick in, but the folks who ran this shop were not exactly interested in keeping up with tech trends, even in their own field. I don't know how much longer they kept using that 7500 after I left, but I think they hung onto it for some time.
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Justin S. Barrett
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Bailey · Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 1:14 am Post subject:

Crossbar I may have gotten into, but not ESS. I left... was told to leave... in mid 1973. Union problems. But I never forgot... tip ring sleeve...blue orange green brown slate... and 10 cord.
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"Bailey"
a.k.a. Jim Sutton
Retired... Every day is Saturday, except Sunday.
VO-BB Member #00044 W00T

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AOVA Graduate 02/2004 ;
"Be a Voice, not an Echo." Ninja