Ikea’s Fake OB
Alec Bray
I went to the pictures Tuesday 27th June 2016 afternoon to see "Absolutely Fabulous" – there are a couple of really good jokes in it,
But of course there were the adverts before the film, and one was for Ikea – this has probably been on TV but I try and ignore all ads on the tele. There right near the start was a picture of a Marconi Mk 4 on a scaffolding rostrum on a motor racing circuit.
(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
Now, the camera seems to have a wheel for focus, rather than the three "handled" control of the BBC TV studio Mk 4s. Pictures I can find have the wheel rather than the three pronged handle in Stateside use.
Motor racing with a standard turret? The standard turret was designed for studio use, which means (in terms of OB work) they were all wide angle lenses.
The location does not look like sunny England – I think the ad is trying to hark back to the nineteen sixties but those who know their racing cars could try to identify the period!
There does not appear to be a camera cable – or at least, not the big chunky cables as in the TVC (TC3, TC3) ! The cable supplied with the camera was the BICC Mk4b 1000ft which apparently came in some different configurations, some thinner than others.
(Albert Barber suggested that it was a green screen and that someone could write to IKEA – they seem a good outfit.)
I thought that Albert’s idea was a good one …so I thought that before I contacted Ikea I ought to have another look at the advert, And lo and behold, our Marconi Mk 4 makes another two entrances: As far as I can see, the locations are actually different ….
(Click on the pictures below to see larger versions:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
This time, the camera is missing a lens!! You can clearly see the iris drive motor – this would be obscured by a lens – in studio use, possibly a 2" ?
As I mentioned, the standard turret was designed for studio use – I always remember them in terms of focal length: 2 inch, 3 inch, 5 inch and 8 inch – I remember distinctly having to go to stores for a 12 inch or a 16 inch lens for special work.
Now, these lenses gave wide shots and narrow shots when used in the studio. For OBs surely these (2, 3 ,5 and 8 inch) were all considered to be wide angle lenses?
So it is all a set up, I guess.
But I wonder why the Marconi Mk 4? From the TV Camera Museum website:"… the world’s largest user of Marconi (MK4s) was the US navy. …114 were sold in the UK and 802 exported a total of 916. As it is thought that over 950 were made surprisingly few survive, at least in the UK…"
BTW I have found that Marconi Mk 4s could uses a thinner cable – BIW** TV-33 Mini (BICC Mk4 compatible) or BIW** TV-33 Standard (BICC Mk4 compatible).
Graeme Wall
The cameraman’s going to get those 416s in shot on the pan!
One interesting detail, looks like a Mk3 head, I’ve only seen one of these in real life, at LWT, and they were trying to sell it.
As to the tripod, it’s probably man enough for the job but looks anachronistic.
John Howell
Also, bearing in mind that any racing car is noisy, the cameraman seems to have only one ear on talkback.
Can such a spindly tripod safely support the weight of a Marconi Mk 4?
Peter Cook
It is not the correct rifle mic for the period – the one with the ‘fluffy’ in the photo. "Is this a real OB" – of course it was not. Even in those days a rostrum would not have been so poorly protected in a run off area. The panning head is not a Vinten Mk 3. The tripod would take the camera, but would need to have been secured – we used to use a chain and hook connected by and tightened with a bottle screw. The hook would go through the floor and locate on a horizontal scaff pole, the chain connected with 3 wires to eyes on the tripod. Panning cars at speed so close to a track would soon topple the camera and IOs do not like percussion!
Tony Crake
The mic rig looks too modern to go with the camera and cars etc… Also (very anoraky) the right hand mic cable just disappears down the scaffold tube . 99% of all rostrums I ever rigged mics on do not come out at the bottom! They are fixed on a base plate!
The style of the mics are what was called "Come and Go" as invented by the Late, Great Barrie Hawes in the late 1980s.
Gary Critcher
…To this trained eye, the cars they don’t look like early 1960s Grand prix cars, more like Formula Junior cars of the same period – they had little 1000cc engines and these days have a huge following amongst the historic racing fraternity.
The maroon car looks like a Lotus 22, not sure of the circuit, it doesn’t ring any bells at all, so I’m thinking CGI?
Chris Eames
How can this be a real OB? Who was shooting 21/9 colour in the late 1960s when these cameras were last in general use?
The camera appears real, it is too accurate to be a replica. The only thing wrong is the paint finish, but Marconi did have a tie-up in the USA with RCA. It looks like the grey crackle finish used by early RCA cameras. The lack of the 3 pronged focus is not unusual, it could be unscrewed. We used to do this when an Angenieux zoom was fitted, so we could get the zoom focus control close to the camera body.
The cameraman’s shoes look like early 21st century trainers to me.
If it is the fake that I suspect, the person on the camera seems to make a good effort at following the car. Could it be a cameraman moonlighting as an extra?
Studio Installation
Bernie Newnham
At the university where I do a bit of work the studio has been upgraded during the summer, but not necessarily to a spec that I’d pick, and currently I seem to be lead instructor.We came in at the beginning of term to some technicians who were very proud of what they had fixed up, though as the real world of tv has come their way they are becoming less so by the day … I point out more and more problems. Like this one….The cameras need power, obviously. For years we’ve just charged batteries in the corner of the studio. The installing company decided they could do better and ran 240v to a camera power supply on the ped. Sadly the low voltage lead is not long enough, so they fixed that problem. No prize to the cameraman who can spot the error. The low voltage cable is off because they connected that and the video straight to the camera without any stress relief and didn’t make the cables long enough to crane up.
(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
Graeme Wall
Not the first time I’ve seen that done, the last time was in a “professional” studio!
