[Tech1] TV History

[Alan Taylor]

Getting paid to have fun certainly makes up for some of the more tedious times.  As always I enjoy combining two recent thread discussions.  In particular Pat's recording of breaking glass on a massive scale and multiple railway reminiscences can be linked up with two of my adventures while shooting The Tripods series 1 and 2.

There was a sequence in series 2, shot in a slate quarry in wales where our heroes destroy one of the Tripods ( rather like War of the Worlds machines 150 feet high ), which culminates with it crashing to the ground.  The lovely Chris Barry was directing and it was obvious that he would want a suitably epic sound effect to go with the finished scene, which was mostly shot using models and some bits built to full scale. I had my doubts whether the BBC sound effects library might have furnished quite the right effect, so decided to make my own recording.

I chatted with one of the quarry workers and arranged for two of those enormous Tonka Toy type of quarry tipper trucks full of boulders and rubble to be driven to the top of a ravine away from the shooting location and reversed right up to the edge.  I set up microphones in likely spots down below, found a safe looking place to operate, started the Nagras and gave my cue over a walkie talkie. The drivers had been briefed to rapidly tip the contents and cut their engines the moment that the load started moving and not to restart the engines until I gave the all clear.  

The resultant wild track was spectacular and couldn't have been better.  A few minutes later as we were wrapping up the gear, the production manager, Nick Laughlan ( who sadly passed away earlier this year ) and a few others turned up to see what had been making this huge noise and dust cloud.  They expressed disappointment that I had set this up without letting them watch because it looked like so much fun.  I pointed out that I was only going to get the one chance to get that particular wild track and I didn't want to risk having somebody whooping with excitement as the last bits of rubble trickle down the mountain.  Nick said that it was still a shame to have missed it and asked if I would like him to arrange a second recording another day so that he could watch? He then discovered that there was no suitable time in our schedule before we were moving to the next location, which was exactly why I had arranged it for when I did.

In series 1 of that show, we were shooting on a preservation railway in Devon.  A scene involved one of those plate layers pump-along wagons, much beloved by silent movies.  The guys in the art dept were moaning that there was no vehicular access to the filming location and it was going to be right hassle getting the wagon to the right place.  I offered to drive it along the track myself and immediately was joined by Steve Chilver ( cameraman ), Graham Theakston ( director for that block ) and Ralph Wilton ( production manager ).  We all had exactly the same thought - how often in life are you going to get the opportunity to get on a plate layers wagon and pump it along as fast as you can go for a couple of miles along a real railway track?  We set off with Graham vocalising a comical rendition of a silent movie piano track as we gathered speed, grinning like four Cheshire cats.

There is a funny ending too, but that's another story, even though it's part of this one.

Alan Taylor





On 6 Jul 2020, at 6 Jul . 11:21, patheigham via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:

> To echo Nick’s remark  at being paid to have fun – I found that working on documentaries, to experience places and manufacturing systems that to a member of the public, would be denied, was fascinating.
> One job involved shooting in Pilkington’s glass factory, where they made huge sheets of plate glass for shop windows etc.
> The molten glass flowed out of the furnace on to a conveyor belt, and as it rapidly cooled, a laser scanned the sheet, looking for flaws. When one was spotted, a computer calculated how many standard size panels could be made from the last flaw location, and a motorised diamond cutter whipped across to cut the glass. Any short ends, were shot into a trench, as the belt tipped down to discard them. The smashing sound of the spare bits of glass was satisfyingly wonderful!
>  
> Regards
> Pat
>  
> Sent from Mail for Windows 10
>  
> From: Graeme Wall via Tech1
> Sent: 06 July 2020 08:41
> To: Nick Ware
> Cc: tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk
> Subject: Re: [Tech1] TV History
>  
> A real case of it being all smoke and mirrors!
>  
> Graeme Wall
>  
> > On 4 Jul 2020, at 18:18, Nick Ware via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:
> Mirror in place, camera running, and along comes the loco and smashes through the mirror. (Cut to shot of loco carrying on down the track). The shot worked perfectly, but I felt sorry for whoever had to pick up the shattered glass!
> . It was one of those days when you can’t believe you’re actually being paid to have such fun!
> > Nick.
>  
> 
> 
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