The ‘Dance’
On April 12, 2013
- TV History
The ‘Dance’
In the days before video tape, wireless mics and zoom lenses, camera rehearsals for live shows at the network level were a combination of art and technology. Each scene had to be blocked and practiced to get the shots, but not get the boom mic, other cameras or the wrong backdrops. Hitting the marks for the crew and equipment was as important as the actors hitting their marks! All that becomes very apparent as you look at this photo from Playhouse 90 from Television City in 1954. SNL is the only place still left that embodies the craft of live television as it was done by the pros before them.
Is that Edmund O’Brien in the fight scene?
There are a lot of great interviews of the veterans of early television at http://www.emmytvlegends.org. There is much talk about the “crossing of cables” by the directors of the time. John Frankenheimer’s interview is very interesting.
My only cable pulling job was supporting a hand held camera at the starting line of a motocross event. We were shooting IN FRONT of the revving bikes up until 10 seconds before the start of the heat!
Many decades ago, I worked in videotape at NBC in Burbank. Due to some short staffing, one day I had to work on Days of Our Lives as a lowly junior assistant cable puller, third class. I had a new respect for that lowly position. I had to be intimately aware of the camera blocking and set changes so a camera would not be painted into a corner by crossed camera cables. And yes it was still fun!