BBC Wood Norton Camera Training (parts 1-3)
Introduction
A fascinating step into the past courtesy of the YouTube channel of Dan Gale.
A selection of BBC Training Videos from Wood Norton which was used by the BBC during World War II as an emergency broadcasting centre and a station for listening to enemy radio broadcasts, it then became the accommodation for the BBC’s engineering training college that grew up in its grounds. The BBC retained purpose-built facilities in the grounds for technical training after selling the Hall, which became a hotel.
Oh Lord, Link 125s… bloody awful camera. I worked with the damned things for nigh on ten years. They were originally a two-piece camera (the 120); a back-pack and the head proper, connected with an umbilical. The giveaway was how many of the cards were identified either with “P” or “BP”.
Doing my BBC 12 week “A” course, shudder. The camera is an EMI 2001, the first video. They gave you a shot were a presenter is sat at a desk, then gets up and walks over to the weather map. You have to track the presenter getting up and walking accross to the weather map and then zoom in for a closer shot. These things weigh a LOT! To get the camera moving you have to start pulling the camera as the presenter stands up and then move the height of the ped up with the rising presenter. At the other end your trying to stop the lot whilst zooming in slightly and maintaining focus. The first time this was carried out by the first student there were some strategically place metal paper bins just beyond the weather map. Off course this first student couldn’t stop the camera due to its momentum and weight so crashed into the bins.