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Over the years we all run across some trivia. Here's one:
The year is 1970 and at 10:55pm, just five minutes before the start of the 11pm news, there is a fatal car accident right in front of your TV station. Do you shoot the fatal crash scene using black & white or color film?
This was an actual situation, and I'll post the "correct answer" in a few days. First, I'd like to give others "in the biz" a chance to respond.
In 1970 in Miami we were shooting Kodak 7242 Reversal color film in a Bell and Howell 70DR hand wound/hand held camera. On top of it would be a 5 to 10 pound Frezzolini "portable" light connected to a 20 pound battery belt.... However, to shoot it at 10:55 would likely mean it wouldn't be available for air until well after 11News show ended. It took about a half hour from start to finish to process the film. Then, of course, we might consider editing it because back in those days going on air with "raw" footage was usually a death sentence. The ethics required so much more fact gathering too. Who were these people? Had their families been notified? WOW. .. I might have tried to roll a studio camera out into the lot but that would have been a monumental undertaking. Larry Henrichs
Thanks Larry you nailed it. At the TV station where this actually happened, the color film was sent to an outside processor about eight minutes from the TV station. The station had its own B&W processor. It took 12 minutes to process 100 feet of B&W film, and it took 35 minutes to run color film "in the soup" as processing was referred to in those days. (To this day I remember the smell of the chemicals.)Quote:
Originally Posted by larz1947
By shooting black and white it was possible to get the "film at 11."
I got several emails from people who are "new" in the business who made no mention of the time needed to process B&W vs color film. I wonder if they know how to use a rotary dial phone or alligator clips for radio feeds?