TeleVISIONS (Autumn 1976)

NEWS FROM THE VIDEOSPHERE VIDEO PRODUCTION No Boring Spectacles: TV on aHuman Scale Independent Videomakers cover election ’76 Four years ago in Miami Beach the Nixon and McGovern conventions magnetted hundreds of counter-cultural and political activists, including a few with microphones and portapaks. Remembered best were those whose work had been organized and edited by the newly formed video company, TVTV, into two landmark tapes— World’s Largest TV Studio (Democrats) and Four More Years (GOP). Another experiment aimed at live transmission to cable systems around the U.S., but failed to get it together. Some cable systems’ public access producers made local election-eve tapes. A lot had changed by 1976, in the country as well as the video “movement.” But the fact that the Democrats held their convention in New York City gave rise to fantasies by videopeople that weren't too different from those we had in 1972. This TELEVISIONS special report is not a comparison with 1972 or an evaluation of the progress, technically, organization- ally, aesthetically. Instead, we asked several tape-makers to tell us about their experiences while they were still hot. All-women Crew See Se a are ese By HALI PAUL | wanted an intimate sketch of several individuals who had traveled several thousand miles to New York City for that interesting mix of political business and pleasure unique to party conventions. | chose two lowa delegates to magnify the individual experience at the Democratic National Convention. One was’a 17 year old Black woman from Waterloo and the other, an Avoca farm woman in her 50's. The documentary, independently financed and produced, will be available by December for distribution. The piece is tentatively titled, ‘““PROCESS '76”. It was shot with the Sony DXC1600 and the 3800 deck. The production crew consisted of Teri Mack, Mary Tolan and myself. Being an all-women crew was an experience in itself. Since all the straight press people were feverishly ferreting out so-called “human interest” Stories because of the lack of ‘‘hard news”, we became minor league media stars ourselves. This shoot was by no means all glitter. lt was probably the most arduous and taxing shoot any of us had ever been involved in. Aside from the numerous technical and equipment problems we encountered, we also had to deal with just the sheer weight of the gear. This equipment was not really appropriate to the kind of verite piece we were after. It was a tradeoff in terms of less maneuverability, greater weight and needing more foot candles, for a stronger signal and greater stability. At the last minute, | was invited 16 partic: ipate in shooting a documentary at the Republican Convention in Kansas City. This seven-person team was for University Community Video in Minneapolis. While this shoot had less direction in terms of thematic concept and less cohesiveness in terms of a shared vision amongst the crew then my New York experience, we still managed to shoot some amazing footage that highlighted personalities. The 24 hours of raw tape will be edited down to 30 minutes to be shown on Changing Channels, a small format show on KTCA, the Minneapolis PBS affiliate. Technically there were hardly any problems with our three porta-paks, two of which were outfitted with newvicon tubes. We were far more mobile than with the color equipment | had used in New York. As far as | could tell there was only one other small format group on the floor of the Kemper Arena. This was vastly different small format people abounded!” —~se 2, OSkewiowers ves and It's interesting to note the difference in credibility between the two conventions. In New York where we were working with more sophisticated equipment, we were more readily accepted by other press people as serious documentarians. In Kansas City we were still placed in that category of “video freaks.” Image Union ease ie oS Siete es Se ee By MAXI COHEN Scene: 8 a.m. Bloomingdales’ RedWhite-and-Blue Room. Champagne breakfast for governors’ and diplomats’ wives. Lots of Southern accents and strawberryfilled crepes. “Hi. I’m Shirley Love and I'm a delegate from West Virginia. And I'd like to welcome you to The Five Day Bicycle Race.” He did two takes. We used them both. While the three look-alike networks fought for ratings during the Democratic National Convention, some 40 _ independent video producers from around the country came together as the IMAGE UNION (International Personhood of Image Workers) to provide a very different sort of program—The Five Day Bicycle Race. Going live-and-tape from Manhattan Cable Television into 400,000 New York City and Long Island cabled homes, the IMAGE UNION set about to cover and uncover the happenings in New York. For five nights of the convention, from 10 p.m. to 1 am., IMAGE UNION, using black and white 1/2” video portapaks (the model-T of video) covered everything from the Convention floor, to the media, to the streets. All this in documentary, docu-drama, political, poetic, personal, and avant guarde videowork. The BIKE RACE has as its focus the convention—what appeared to be aboring event. = . * 5 Eee a Trends and key stories in all fields of electronic media. Image union forecasts the election results. L. to mE Video Production . . Technology ...p.5 Broadcast TV ...p.6 Cable TV...p.7 History . . Education . . ‘Resources .. .p.4 pe .p.9 .p.10 Tom Weinberg, Skip Blumberg, Maxi Cohen, Paul Mclsaac. Each night at 10 p.m. whoever was in the studio picked up a camera, got on the switcher, sat on the set, found something to do that had to be done and we were ON. And each night the show was different. . . because the tapes and the people on the live show were different. We took phone calls and used Votrak, slid vas us screen. The studio itself, decordicd with artwork flowed freely. A cameraperson having something to say would say it, the other cameraperson panning over to catch the remark. Control room, camera people, the on camera hosts chaotically and spontaneously connected. Exhausted and exhilarated tapemakers holding yet-unseen, fresh, hot tape in hand, rush in to pre-empt the moment. — CUT: Mock Turtle Soup. Election night, Nov. 2. The sequal media magnet of election night, brought IMAGE UNION together again (for live and tape, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. This time from Automation House, an upper east side color studio). It seemed that on election night people were involved with the networks. | guess they had the feeling that one of those numbers on the big board was their own—a sort of personal stake in the matter. With Mock Turtle Soup we tried to bring people closer to the election process. Unlike, Bike Race, where we had the opportunity of continuity for an entire week, a chance to make less mistakes each night, Turtle Soup was a one night stand. Our experience made us pay more attention to the problems of live studio and how to integrate tape producers into the live segments. Tape seems always so much more exciting to look at than live; being on live is so exciting that a proper perspective is real hard to maintain... there is lots to pay attention to. In the midst of an intelligible, hopefully not boring conversation on the phone in the studio live about why Carter (again?). Looking into camera 2, the guy says he wants to suck titties. How do you handle that? What was most exciting and special was the opportunity of live television and crea tively playing with the mix of live and tape: _and the multiple configurations of hot tape Se a ee 24 oe Het Fo ENE Rea opportunity to do. what. he Or being rushed in, phone calls, last minute guests; the way in which the production was structured and unstructured. The concept of the IMAGE UNION has been floating around for years—the notion of people working collectively and at times individually. The IMAGE UNION had no bosses, no chiefs, or rather all chiefs. Everyoue had What was amazing was that 30 to 40 really skilled people worked for no money and, at times, at their own personal expense. Together, without a hierarchy or bureaucracy, we’re trying to change the process of making television, without depending on the conventional wisdom of the networks. That’s why we were real, fresh, at times boring, boring, boring, tedious, brilliant, and funny. The Bike Race got better as we went. Mock Turtle Soup was unlike anything you've ever tasted. | think we are all in wonder of the great energy and skill that made the shows. The challenge now is to find a way to produce better television. Going to L By GORDON HYATT Three weeks before the 1976 Democratic Convention was scheduled to begin | took a telephone call from Av Westin, the news and documentary executive and consultant, who asked “How would you like to make $750.?” “Not enough,” | said, “but what’s the job?” . “Producing four two-hour programs for cable S saasiate oe the OTE, They have no money.” He went on to explain the advantages of ‘the assignment: a newly-equipped studio in the cellar of Automation House on 68th Street near Park Avenue dedicated to Community Access production; that Clay Felker, the publisher of ‘New York Magazine” and “The Village Voice” was going to make the reporters and editors of both publications available for the programs; that there were two new color cameras, anew rug and a cyclorama which had been donated by ABC. All this, plus the magnet of a catered affair upstairs, hosted each SNYVZV1NVSNS Ad OLOHd