Alec Bray

We were doing a music programme with Pierre Boulez – and he was conducting one of his own compositions.  Now, although it was a(nother) significant moment in my time as a Tech Op, I can’t remember either the programme title – or the Studio Crew.  One possibility, thanks to the BBC Genome project, is that it was a BBC 2 “Workshop” programme transmitted 22nd August 1966 in which Boulez talked about his life and music and conducted a performance of his ‘Improvisation No. 2 on Mallarmé’   (this date fits better than other possibilities, and I remember some chat during the programme). 

Anyway, I was in the studio with basically nothing to do.  There were a couple of peds, and there was a crane but it was not doing very exciting or difficult manoeuvres (as I recall).  There was also a scaffolding tower with a camera that had a zoom lens attached – pretty sure that it was an Angenieux zoom.

There was very little cable-bashing needed,  and as I had been crewed out, it was a question of just lurking around most of the time.  As far as I recall, there was a stagger through and really just one run-through with Boulez.

After the final run-through, the cameraman who was on the tower camera got taken ill.  So ill that he had to be released and was sent home.  I was asked to take over his camera for transmission (to VT recording, I believe).

Luckily, the cameraman had made very good notes on his shot cards, so it was easy to follow what was required.  It was an interesting programme as Pierre Boulez was conducting his own work. The production team were aware that I was an instant substitute, so I am sure that they made allowances, but as far as I was aware at the time, all shots were made as required. A number of shots were zoom and pan shots from this high angle.  Again, I must say that any success was due to the notes on the original cameraman’s shot cards.

After the recording I got thanked by the TM and Director, but really – it was all in a days work, it was just what we did.

Patrick Heigham

That shows the professionalism that was trained into us!