"No tape recorders were harmed during the making of this movie"

[ricard]

Somewhere on the Internet while perusing some of my other interests I once came across a list of films which were rated for their railway content. I don't know if there's a similar list for tape recorder content but I don't think so. I thought of it the other day when I was watching the film "Telstar - The Joe Meek story". (I can't really recommend the film as it focuses heavily on Meek's despair and downfall and largely sidesteps his creative genius as a recording engineer come studio wizard/artist to chance). (For those who don't know who Joe Meek is, he was a recording engineer in the 50's and 60's who changed the way the recording studio was used from a clinical sound-capturing environment to part of the creative soundscaping process. He has several pop hits to his name, the most well-known one being "Telstar", which very clearly features distorted tape echo during the intro and outro of the tune).

Anyway, there are quite a lot of reel-to-reel recorders featured in the film, not prominently, but present in many studio shots. From what I could see they were Brenells and Ferrographs, don't really think that is accurate, but at least the right time frame.

In one scene Meek throws a Ferrograph through a window when he gets really mad at one of his musicians. That's what prompted me to write the subject line for this thread.

In another scene there is a full-page ad for the BSR TD2 deck taped to a wall. I thought this a rather odd choice of prop, as the TD2 was a low-cost amateur deck, hardly something which would interest a recording engineer. But I guess the general public wouldn't know that and would just see it as a bit of technical advertising, in tune with the rest of the studio wizardry.

I don't know there are any other films which could be noted for their tape recorder content, it has never really struck me before.

[mrmagnetophon]

I hope the recorder wasn't harmed, why not use a Teac? Joe used an Ampex PR10 reel to reel I know, I have it in a picture.

There is a site that lists the reel to reels used in movies, I'll try to find it.

Chris.

[TIMTAPE]

I think the site was a Ferrograph site, not George West's one though.

Tim

[DOFFERY]

There was quite a good tape recorder session in the "The conversation" starring Gene Hackman.

Just to add George West is doing fine now after his operation.

Colin.

[ricard]

Originally Posted by mrmagnetophon

I hope the recorder wasn't harmed, why not use a teac

Well, I'm sad to say, at least as it appears in the movie (don't know how much CGI was involved) it hit the ground after having fallen two stories out of the building. The case ruptured but as I recall the mech chassis seemed to hold up well and didn't split into a 'million pieces'. But they were fairly substantially built those Wearites, weren't they?

[emeritus]

"Abba, the movie" has some scenes showing the reporter with his recorder, a Uher portable I think. There is also a sequence showing him editing his tapes using a wax pencil to mark the edit points and deftly splicing the segments together. Another lost art I think!

[paolo]

Lest we forget Pulp Fiction and Uma Thurman's flirtation with the Teac X2000-R

[brenellic2000]

And an early Brenell Mk. 5 survived "The Day of the Triffids", luring them to their death; another and umpteen Ferrographs appeared in Norman Wisdom's "On The Beat".

Barry

[Welsh Anorak]

Hi
Yes - 'The Conversation' with Gene Hackman featured several inter-linked machines - I think Uher Universals? I suspect they had some help from the powers that be regarding equipment...
From the sublime.. Bob Monkhouse in 'Dentist on the Job' used a Vortexion and there was a Ferrograph in episode 2 of 'The Prisoner - The Chimes of Big Ben'.
The woeful 'The Boat that Rocked' had a Studer A62 (which got very wet) and an Akai 4000. If the rest of the film is anything to go by the accuracy of this machine would be suspect, especially as it had a very Eighties Maxell reel on it!
Many Revox A and B77s in the excellent remake of 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'. John Travolta in Brian DePalma's 1981 'Blow-Out' (not Blow Up) used a Nagra, I think.
In 'Peeping Tom', Michel Powell's underrated last film, there was a bank of several Ferrographs - but, unless I'm mistaken, they were turning backwards - right to left! I'm prepared to be wrong on that one - also a small portable one that I can't identify.
No spy film, old or new, is complete without a reel-to-reel turning purposefully in the background!
The scene in Telstar did involve the machine being dropped very close to an actor. I imagine the deck would have worked after the fall! ISTR Meek used EMI machines that he had modified in various ways.
Plenty more I suspect. Perhaps I should get out more??
Glyn

[brenellic2000]

... and don't forget that almost every American TV detective series of the 1970s was virtually guaranteed to have a Revox A77 or A700 in at least one scene! Product placement or just good taste?!

Barry

[yestertech]

In the Avengers epsiode "the house that Jack built" Emma Peel plays back a news interview from a small reel on a domestic machine of some sort.
There's also a classic Monty Python sketch in the barbers, where Michael Palin replays pre-recorded replies for the customer from a machine situated behind the chair.

Andy

PS the Avenger's episode is on youtube somewhere - worth viewing for all the lovely govt. surplus racks and panels they used for set-dressing !!!

[Radio Wrangler]

I think in "Blow up", David Hemmings used a Nikon "F".

Odd the junk that collects in the memory. What was that bit about getting out more... yeah.

David

I've not had my A77 going for over 10 years and can't find the oddball mains cable.. and I built a remote control box using the dummy plug. I think that must be with the mains cable!

[Top Cap]

Working on the set for "Bye Bye Baby" at Pinewood, I was asked to get a dozen Naval B41 receivers up and running but the eight Ferrograph Tape decks also on set were to be used as non functional props. On the day of the first shoot the Director indicated that he also wanted the 'tape machines' working, or in movie speak, 'Turning Over'. I had 10 minutes to get all machines running, the largest problem was educating the actors NOT to rotate the EQ switch else the deck would shut down. Then with seconds before cameras were due to roll, I looked at Jack Rosenthal and said "Christ Jack! - Plastic reels! The Navy only used metal ones". He replied,"Yep you are right", then all hell broke loose as the reels were hurriedly sent to the props department where they were sprayed with matt aluminium spray paint. Hopefully, if you saw the film, you did not notice but the owners of these Ferrographs will no doubt have noticed, the improved earthing arrangements when the decks were returned. Pinewood are very fussy about H&S where actors are concerned.
BTW My claim to fame is teaching actor Ben Chaplin to do the proper Royal Naval salute - but that is another story!

[ricard]

This sparks my memory - there is an episode of Gerry Anderson's 1970's science fiction series UFO where a Tandberg 1600X is featured mounted in a cupboard. It is slightly unauthentically started and stopped using the on/off switch, I suppose it looked more futuristic than operating the joystick. (A search on Youtube for 'tandberg ufo' will bring up the clip).

And then there's the original Mission Impossible series where every episode starts with a message delivered on miniature reel-to-reels. I seem to recall finding a web page which catalogues the actual recorders used. On screen the machines always appear to self destruct by smoke coming out of them, but I'm assuming the machines actually made it as several of them were reused in following episodes.

Straying away from audio, no 1960's film with a computer in it would have featured the computer without one or more reel-to-reel tape drives. (Actually, the father of a friend of mine once got hold of a 7 track data recorder (not a classic tall fast running one though, more of a backup or logging recorder that ran at something more like 12 ips) in the hopes of converting it to audio for multitrack use, but I doubt whether it would ever have worked properly. Erasure was full track, and more importantly there was no flywheel in the drive system, as wow & flutter don't have the same importance in that type of machine.)

[Radio Wrangler]

So for technical accuracy an EMI machine ought to have been flung through a 2nd storey window?

For any of the BTR series machines, shouldn't it be a case of "No concrete roadway was harmed during the making of this movie"?

David

[ricard]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

So for technical accuracy an EMI machine ought to have been flung through a 2nd storey window?

Or an Ampex PR10. I suppose.

From the point of historical accuracy, the tape recorder was apparently not flung out of a window but down a flight of stairs. Makes for better drama to fling it out the window though.

(Come to think of it, I've actually done that with a record player once, no I wasn't angry or deranged (at the time anyway), it was an old machine that was due to be thrown out anyway, and I wanted to see what would happen, so with my parents permission we threw it off a second storey balcony onto a porch below. It wasn't very spectacular and afterwards felt like rather a wasted exercise, despite my young age and enthusiasm at the time.)

For any of the BTR series machines, shouldn't it be a case of "No concrete roadway was harmed during the making of this movie"?

Oooh heck! I've become a tetrode. Does that mean people either think I'm kinky, or very expensive?

I've become a hexode - and I'm not really interested in radios anyway. I wonder how you become a beam tetrode or a magic eye.

[Tractorfan]

Hi,
I've got a Ferrograph Series Five and I can just about lift it, never mind chuck it through a window! Not that I've tried, the mains lead is too short.
An anorak observation: the tape recorder in 'The Prisoner' stopped when No.6 pulled the plug out, then restarted when he plugged it back in. They don't do that, you have to operate the play lever again. Sad, innit?
Cheers, Pete

[Welsh Anorak]

Hi
It's often amusing to see actors operating the equipment - you might think it would be easier just to explain to them how to use the machine! And when a reel to reel machine is rewound in a film you always hear the audio at high speed regardless of whether it in fact does this! Just like computers that bleep whenever a key is pressed...
An honourable exception is Coppola's 1974 film 'The Conversation' - the excellent Gene Hackman seems to know exactly what he's about. Incidentally, the equipment used turned out to be the same as that used in the infamous Watergate operation.
Glyn

[Radio Wrangler]

Hi Glyn,

The high speed audio thing really gets my goat. There is a sort of Hollywood view of an unreal world with its own laws of physics. and the rel world is forced to comply with the rules of the unreal one. Self-starting tape recorders, people turning the wrong knobs and headphones in mic sockets are pretty mild compared to the rules that all vehicles *must* explode on contact with anything.

If you fire a light machine gun at a jeep full of goons, the hurtling jeep will leap into the air and turn over, the goons will be scattered and out of the fray, but will not have taken any lasting harm. It works best with a real jeep, but the machine gun must, absolutely must, be chrome plated.

As long as the fools can be persuaded to not push any buttons, things aren't so bad.

The Daleks endorse Cossor and Solartron oscilloscopes.
Mr Goldfinger has a whole wall-full of Racal RA17s (Much nicer than just one Aston Martin)

HP used, in the early days, a firm called Neeley to market their products in the western US. Neeley had an office near one of the studios outside LA. People from the studio would go in to enquire about the loan of equipment as background props. They'd get shown all sorts of things. The funny part came when the official request paperwork came in. It was for "so many of the ones with the green squiggly lines, one of the things on the big trolley"... etc. It was a well-known joke in the firm.

[af024]

Benkson 68 in Thunderbirds?

(not that it's much or a recorder .. positively horrid actually).

Regards,


Andy