Colour programmes made in black and white during strike

There are various cases (eg A Family at War) where a series that was
normally made in colour has some episodes that were made in black and white
due to a technicians' strike.

Would the programme have been made using the normal colour cameras and
edited on the normal VTRs, but converted to monochrome as a protest when the
master was made? Or did the strike-breaking technicians actually have to use
different equipment (older B&W cameras and VTRs) because the technicians who
were skilled in operating the colour equipment were those who were on
strike?

Where there were colour filmed inserts, did those tend to survive long
enough to be re-edited into the master at a later date (eg after
transmission) for achive/DVD purposes, or was there a policy of ditching the
filmed inserts once they had be telecined and added to the master tape?

If colour cameras were used, would enough of the PAL carrier survive in the
monochrome master to allow (at least in theory) the colour recovery process
to be used that has been used on episodes of Are You Being Served, Dad's
Army etc?

On 26/09/16 12:03, NY wrote:
There are various cases (eg A Family at War) where a series that was
normally made in colour has some episodes that were made in black and
white due to a technicians' strike.

Would the programme have been made using the normal colour cameras and
edited on the normal VTRs, but converted to monochrome as a protest when
the master was made? Or did the strike-breaking technicians actually
have to use different equipment (older B&W cameras and VTRs) because the
technicians who were skilled in operating the colour equipment were
those who were on strike?


Dunno, sounds plausible. They may have had different training about not
pointing the camera tubes directly at studio lights, or filming people
with check pattern jackets etc.

About strikes, I remember when some lighting techs when on strike and
live studio programs started with excuses to apologize for the dim
picture...

I'm just thinking of tactics that today striking techs could do to 'air'
their grievances other than the once also popular blank screen.

1) muddy the picture
2) muffle the sound
3) invert the picture
4) add a large DOG
5) spoil the lip sync
6) mess up the aspect ratio

but as some of that list is normal operation today outside of an active
strike, I don't think it would be as effective, and anyway the computers
would playout something else if the viewer didn't reach the remote
control first.

But none of that is relevant to your historical enquiry. Whoops.

--
Adrian C

"Adrian Caspersz" wrote in message
...
About strikes, I remember when some lighting techs when on strike and live
studio programs started with excuses to apologize for the dim picture...

Going off at a complete tangent here, how did the "film speed" of TV cameras
compare with ordinary 16 mm film in the 1970s? In other words, to give a
well-exposed picture using a sensible aperture (ie to allow a usable depth
of field and not so wide that lens aberrations were obvious), did TV cameras
need brighter light than film cameras? I realise that lighting needed to be
more even because TV cameras had worse exposure latitude and were more prone
to artefacts such as lag and coloured streaks on reflections from shiny
surfaces (including bald heads!). I'm assuming for comparison that the film
is used at a sensible speed: you can push-process film by several stops but
the grain and the excessive contrast aren't pretty, as I know when I
push-processed Ektachrome 35 mm slide film by two stops when taking some
photos of a school play :-)

On 26/09/2016 12:03, NY wrote:
There are various cases (eg A Family at War) where a series that was
normally made in colour has some episodes that were made in black and
white due to a technicians' strike.

Would the programme have been made using the normal colour cameras and
edited on the normal VTRs, but converted to monochrome as a protest when
the master was made? Or did the strike-breaking technicians actually
have to use different equipment (older B&W cameras and VTRs) because the
technicians who were skilled in operating the colour equipment were
those who were on strike?

I'm pretty sure all the 'colour' kit was used, I recall one programme
where a camera ended up in shot, it was one of the colour EMI-2001s

I think they just switched off the colour s/c on all the kit ?


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

"Mark Carver" wrote in message
...
On 26/09/2016 12:03, NY wrote:
There are various cases (eg A Family at War) where a series that was
normally made in colour has some episodes that were made in black and
white due to a technicians' strike.

Would the programme have been made using the normal colour cameras and
edited on the normal VTRs, but converted to monochrome as a protest when
the master was made? Or did the strike-breaking technicians actually
have to use different equipment (older B&W cameras and VTRs) because the
technicians who were skilled in operating the colour equipment were
those who were on strike?

I'm pretty sure all the 'colour' kit was used, I recall one programme
where a camera ended up in shot, it was one of the colour EMI-2001s

I think they just switched off the colour s/c on all the kit ?

Ah, so there's no chance of recovering the "lost" colour if the subcarrier
was switched off at the camera stage. And I suppose it would have looked odd
if they had used colour film inserts with monochrome studio interiors, even
if the strike had been sorted out by the time of transmission and they'd had
time to insert the colour film into the master tape.

Mark Carver wrote in message ...

I think they just switched off the colour s/c on all the kit ?

Correct.

But those surely were just poor recordings that aged, I would not imagine
the carriers would be there at all if b/w gear was used.
I can remember there was always issues around some ofATV videotaped shows
like the Muppet shows having noisy colour on them.
Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"NY" wrote in message
o.uk...
There are various cases (eg A Family at War) where a series that was
normally made in colour has some episodes that were made in black and
white due to a technicians' strike.

Would the programme have been made using the normal colour cameras and
edited on the normal VTRs, but converted to monochrome as a protest when
the master was made? Or did the strike-breaking technicians actually have
to use different equipment (older B&W cameras and VTRs) because the
technicians who were skilled in operating the colour equipment were those
who were on strike?

Where there were colour filmed inserts, did those tend to survive long
enough to be re-edited into the master at a later date (eg after
transmission) for achive/DVD purposes, or was there a policy of ditching
the filmed inserts once they had be telecined and added to the master
tape?

If colour cameras were used, would enough of the PAL carrier survive in
the monochrome master to allow (at least in theory) the colour recovery
process to be used that has been used on episodes of Are You Being Served,
Dad's Army etc?

On 26/09/2016 12:53, Adrian Caspersz wrote:

I'm just thinking of tactics that today striking techs could do to 'air'
their grievances other than the once also popular blank screen.

I've noticed that when Nigel Farage is interviewed over the phone it's
often a poor quality line.

Bill