[Tech1] 1961

[Geoff Fletcher]

Talking of aircraft and drama shoots, we used a lot of guest directors on
our Anglia dramas. One afternoon the great Herbie Wise was directing scenes
on a PD James detective serial when they were plagued with passing
aircraft. The UM did his best to ease the problem but there was a big NATO
air exercise going on. Herbie soldiered on until a particularly noisy
quartet of Luftwaffe F104s flew over at low level Everything came to a
halt.  He asked the UM what they were and upon being told they were from
the German Air Force he commented “Christ! They’re still after. me!”. We
all loved working with Herbie.
Geoff F

On Thu, 21 Mar 2019 at 08:46, Geoff Fletcher <geoffletch at gmail.com> wrote:

> Good one John! When we were shooting in North Norfolk I frequently had to
> ring RAF Coltishall and ask if they could avoid the area we were shooting
> in. They always obliged if they could. We cultivated good relations with
> the local aviation scene - we were never very far from active airfields in
> Norfolk.
> Geoff F
>
> On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 at 18:05, John Howell via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
>> Thank you Geoff for your kind remarks,
>>
>> On the Lot with Eastenders one of my favorite shouts was "Wait for the
>> second engine!" The diesel express trains that thundered through
>> Borehamwood went into a cutting and things were quiet enough then the
>> engine at the rear passed by!
>>
>> John H.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 20/03/2019 17:30, Geoff Fletcher via Tech1 wrote:
>>
>> Working on location shoots on film dramas I was always amazed by the
>> audio acuity of the sound recordist. I know it is a cliche but I lost count
>> of the number of times they stopped us rolling because they had picked up
>> on some distant noise ( approaching aircraft was a common one) that the
>> rest of us couldn’t yet hear or simply hadn’t noticed.
>> Geoff F
>>
>> On Wed, 20 Mar 2019 at 17:25, Geoff Fletcher <geoffletch at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I was waiting for someone to mention the old finger indication to the
>>> boom op. On all the drama  camera crews I worked with at the BBC it was the
>>> expected thing to do to help your sound mates out. Finger up, up, up....
>>> then morph it into a thumbs up ready for the cut.
>>> Geoff F
>>>
>>> On Mon, 18 Mar 2019 at 19:39, patheigham via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Replies in blue:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> *From: *Martin Eccles via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk>
>>>> *Sent: *18 March 2019 16:18
>>>> *Subject: *Re: [Tech1] 1961
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> As a boom operator I used to use the angle of tilt of a camera (Emi
>>>> 2001) to
>>>>
>>>> determine whether it was zoomed out
>>>>
>>>> so tilted down to stop shooting off the top of the set or pointing
>>>> straight
>>>>
>>>> at an artist when zoomed in.
>>>>
>>>> Interesting, Martin, never thought of that, used to seeing a monitor.
>>>>
>>>> After I left I believe that 9” monitors were fitted to booms, where the
>>>> SS could punch up the following wide shot.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The camera person's fingers out or in movement on the zoom control also
>>>> gave
>>>>
>>>> away a change of shot.
>>>>
>>>> Good camera persons would just have to point a finger upwards to
>>>> indicate
>>>>
>>>> you were still in the next shot by a fraction
>>>>
>>>> and then the thumb would come up if corrected, not to mention the vision
>>>>
>>>> mixer's rare cry of "boom up" and then the cut was made.
>>>>
>>>> This was so different in the Film Industry – I went o take a peek
>>>> through the viewfinder, to be turfed off by the operator with: “I’m the one
>>>> who looks”
>>>>
>>>> Asking for a top limit – tilted up, said you’re OK there, and tilted
>>>> back down,
>>>>
>>>> NOT Good enough!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> All this as well as being mindful of shadows and following the script
>>>> with
>>>>
>>>> the major moves marked up.
>>>>
>>>> In films, it was essential to make friends with the gaffer spark to get
>>>> flags set to minimise shadows.
>>>>
>>>> and why did makeup ladies always stand in front of the monitor just as
>>>> the
>>>>
>>>> vital shot change was about to happen?
>>>>
>>>> So you remonstrate with them and invite them out to dinner?
>>>>
>>>> Pat
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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