Clearing out an old cupboard we came across the first camera we had owned – a wind up 16mm Bolex from the 70s, this dated from the time that video was a dirty word and everything needed to be shot on film. The wait for rushes from the national Film Unit was normally 24 hours, and I think clients were so pleased to see ‘anything’, that they were perhaps less critical than today. We subsequently graduated to an Arriflex BL and from 16 to 35mm.
This is the Bolex alongside our 4K Sony FS7.
The Bolex had a parallex viewfinder which only approximated the real framing. The DOPs in those days really had to be on the ball. But video was on a roll if only for its immediacy. I recollect that the first days of video required more technicians with white coats to overcome its unreliability, than creative people. Our first videotape recorder which was the size of a church organ, required a hole in the roof to get it into our studio and thankfully now resides at MOTAT.
Looking at the results 4K delivers, it’s fantastic to see how user friendly video has become and how creative too. I wonder what the next 45 years will bring.