"All in the Family": Which videotape format used?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Ken K, Mar 13, 2015.

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  1. Vahan

    Vahan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glendale, CA, USA
    In the bulk of the 80's and 90's, most shows were shot on film, and then subsequently finished on videotape. Sometimes, the end result would be film but with the look and feel of videotape (i.e. The Wonder Years and Pee-wee's Playhouse).
     
  2. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    That kind of makes me wonder why we haven't gotten a Blu-Ray release of The Wonder Years?
     
  3. Benno123

    Benno123 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    Curtain call from AITF:

    [​IMG]
     
  4. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I love behind the scenes photos like that where you can see where the set ends.
     
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  5. Benno123

    Benno123 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    Rehearsal shot:

    [​IMG]
     
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  6. Benno123

    Benno123 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    This looks like a rehearsal or taping if the second episode "Letter to the President" because of the podium in back:

    [​IMG]
     
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  7. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Seeing these great behind the scenes photos makes me wish there was behind the scenes footage or footage of rehearsals!
     
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  8. Benno123

    Benno123 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    I agree! There does not seem to be many behind the scenes clips or photos from AITF. It is possible they just have not been released, too.
     
  9. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I imagine if they existed now (or ever) they would have been put out somewhere like on the DVD sets.
     
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  10. Vahan

    Vahan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glendale, CA, USA
    I love that shot with the Norelco PC-60. CBS adopted these in 1965 (their Primetime panel games began using them in 1966).
     
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  11. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    That, too!

    I worked on Murder She Wrote for a couple of years with producer Peter Fischer, and they were fairly demanding about how they wanted it to look. It was shot on film, and Murder was the very last American dramatic show I know of that also cut on film. They were very, very concerned about how old Angela Landsbury looked, but in those days (1980s-1990s) there were no ways to do it on a TV schedule. Now, we can actually tale about 10 years off with filtration.
     
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  12. OldSoul

    OldSoul Don't you hear the wind blowin'?

    Location:
    NYC
    There's 4 cameras there, but I thought multi-cam shows used 3, until the late-
    '70s. Wikipedia says Mork & Mindy was the first. My memory said Taxi. Definitely wouldn't have thought All in the Famiky, though. (I know I Love Lucy had 4 on its first episode.)
     
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  13. Dan C

    Dan C Forum Fotographer

    Location:
    The West
    That's interesting. It looks like a 4th camera is in another 'room', perhaps shooting action taking part in a different part of the house?

    dan c
     
  14. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    No, there were 4 camera shows before that. In fact, I was at a Mork & Mindy filming where they (experimentally) added a 5th camera, a Steadicam, solely for Robin Williams because of his endless adlibs. It is true that a lot of 1960s and 1970s film shows did 3 cameras in order to save money, but Happy Days was 4 cameras from season 2 onwards, as was Laverne & Shirley. They just burned through a lot of film. Because they rehearsed so much, typically each shot was only filmed 2 or 3 times, tops. Mork & Mindy was a rare film show that frequently went to 1AM-2AM due to script and actor issues.

    In case anybody cares, in the video world, cameras were generally numbered -- Camera 1, Camera 2, Camera 3, etc. -- and they recorded an iso feed directly from the camera to one VTR, and they also recorded a line feed of whatever the director was switching as a reference. In the film world, cameras were generally lettered -- A Camera, B Camera, C Camera, X Camera -- because of the tradition with that world. They generally did not use "D" camera because it sounded too much like "B," but there were occasional exceptions. Nowadays, for scripted shows, they continue the film tradition even though the camera is digital. For live shows, they continue the video tradition.
     
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  15. zonkaraz

    zonkaraz Forum Resident

    Location:
    Livonia, MI, USA
    Sir, you should write a book or more of your knowledge and experience. But from what I've read, there's been a lot already written in these threads.
     
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