Veteran cine cameraman Peter Goodall demonstrates a range of early cameras from an era when film was the prime visual source of television news coverage. As videotape equipment and electronic cameras became smaller, film was displaced by the new medium, which required no processing. The early 16mm black and white film was shot on reversal stock, which meant that the film shot by the camera was developed using a variety of chemical tanks to produce a direct positive image. That same film would then be edited and finally taken to telecine, where the moving image was projected onto an electronic camera tube, to produce the television image. The reversal film process avoided the need for a negative stage, which then would have required time consuming printing and further developing to achieve the normal positive image.
TVW Film Processing Unit
Left to Right “unknown”, Jenny Alford standing, Stuart Leadbetter.
Peter Goodall reports on the AURICON Pro 600… “A Beast it was… the first “sound-on-film” camera in Perth. At one time, Alex McPhee was sent to cover the Australian Golfing Championships at Karrinyup! The rest of the camera crews couldn’t believe it…. On his own… with this camera plus tripod, sound amplifier, mike and a car battery… Alex covered two holes of the course. It’s no wonder that the incidence of injured backs for camera operators in Australia was 80 per cent !!!! No body seemed to care too much in those days.”
TVW Cine Cameraman Alex McPhee Jrn
Peter Goodall and the 16 mm Auricon Pro 600
The Bell & Howell 70DR had an impact when television stations ventured out of the studio and incorporated film into the nightly news programs. Some of the most dramatic close combat footage from the Vietnam war was shot using these cameras. It has a spring driven motor that was wound up using a crank attached to the side. A fully wound camera would allow one to shoot for 35 to 40 seconds at 24fps. Cameramen had to become experts at quickly winding up the camera to insure they got the shot.
BELL & HOWELL LENS TURRET
BELL & HOWELL 16MM 70DR
BELL & HOWELL 70DR
Peter demonstrates brother Mike Goodall’s Cinema Products CP-16 Sound Camera, which was primarily designed for television news filming and were quite popular before the advent of portable videotape Electronic News Gathering (ENG) formats, as well as for documentary and drama production. They featured a magnetic audio system with a built in mixer that recorded onto special pre-striped 16mm single perforated magnetic sound film. It accepted a 400 foot film magazine.
CINEMA PRODUCTS CP-16
CP-16 OPEN
CP-16 BATTERY SLOT
CP-16 INSIDE
CP-16 CONTROLS
CP-16 BACK
The Paillard Bolex automatic loading non reflex 16mm camera was also a good animation camera.
PAILLARD BOLEX NON-REFLEX
PAILLARD BOLEX TURRET
PAILLARD BOLEX CLOCKWORK WINDER
PAILLARD BOLEX LENS TURRET
PAILLARD BOLEX VIEWFINDER
PAILLARD BOLEX INSIDE
Pioneer TVW News Cameramen
1959 – Keith ‘Digby’ Milner and Tom Hall
1980’s – Jenny Alford in the TVW News Library viewing 16mm news film on a Steinbeck.
Very Interesting article Ken. Thanks for that. It left me wondering how much tape they archived, how much tape they transfered to various digital formats, and how much was lost or thrown away. And how they did it. It’s the bane of any T.V. or Radio executive or producer, to find that a perfectly good interview with Joe Blow from 1973 who is now the Leader for the Green Dolphin Party about to win the seat of South of Geraldton, has been lost to the great media archive in the sky, only to be seen again by a passing alien three thousand light years away who was thinking about making Perth his home. He had already downloaded the space-cast of the complete Good Morning Perth series featuring Jenny Seaton. I digress.
I’m sure the old tape developing machine was running 24/7 at times. Do they still have such a lab? Do they do much outsourcing? Aaah, so much lost skill and talent I’m sure. And a new age of media makers. Much lost in the technology transfer? Many ‘old timers’ still in the industry keeping things straight and passing on some of the earlier learned tricks of the trade? I can’t count how many times our then 108 year old radio technician snapped into action with an on-air cart machine or two, while patching me into the new digital on-air systems, almost on and under my lap at times. There are many areas of talent, business and production that come to mind, that may gasp a sigh of relief when a ‘veteran’ presents on set, on cue.
Always nice to see pioneering Perth stories. Capturing light and sound old and new as performed in Perth.
Love it.
Cheers.
Peter! I traveled with you (and Bill and Harry Butler) in 1967 in the W.A. outback. Found your website on Google, so am dropping a line to catch up.
Have recently put my super 8 films of the trip on dvd, so could send you a copy (and one for Bill if you are in contact).
Is Harry Butler still livingJ? Lots of questions . . . What are you up to? We are well and semi-retired.
Hoping to hear from you.
Cheers,
Lowell
Peter..well done good display..one camera I didn’t see ..the 16mm
Canon Scoopic..good histoical material.
Congratulations. My address P.O.BoX 728 Bribie Island Qld 4507
When I sold the Auricon back to Ch7, they did not want the Pan Cinor zoom lens as illustrated in the still image above but a small Cosmicar prime lens which was regarded as more typical of the type associated with the camera.
I still have the Pan Cinor lens if it is wanted to be donated for the foyer display.
Hi Peter
This brings back so many memories of my days at TVW. A wonderful collection of photos.
Great photo of lou Belci in his trademark safari suit. Great memories