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That’s right, yes. He was involved in television for years. on high-definition video tape or video disc. What do you
think about all that?
Now, you were saying that you’re dealing mainly on video Well I think it’s probably inevitable. Here, Keith and Ray are
tape. You mentioned Peter Watson and Peter Lord out at still shooting television commercials on 35mm film mainly.
VFL. One of those gentlemen once said to me that he Besides the sharpness and the definition, it’s got a unique look
regarded video tape as the sprocketless monster, because it which is what people want, it’s aligned with something that’s
was going to play havoc with the film operations. Do you of good quality. You go to a cinema and see top-end films and
think he was reasonably close to the mark? that’s where your mind aligns things to. That’s the target
Yeah, I kinda like film a lot better, I suppose because I’ve been you’re looking for. Video tape is becoming better and better to
trained with film I find it a lot easier to use. You can’t see it use but a lot of series, television series, have gone back to
back straight away but I’m never particularly worried about using 16mm film because it’s quicker and just as cheap, it’s
that. I suppose the client does, more than I would. I think got a coding on the side of it, the television coding down the
complication of video cameras are covered in switches and side where the telecine chains are all geared to only transfer
knobs and everything you had to turn, crash and push buttons what you want. You’ve got 16mm art on cameras on pedestals
and fart around with which cinematographers carry in their now where they’re actually switching between cameras,
head and a light meter to indicate what’s happening around turning them off and on like they did with video. So at the
there, and batteries continually going flat and stuff. The moment film has made a recovery in that way, and people like
archival problems with video tape has been a problem but now the look of it and they’re using a lot of it. Heartbreak High and
with digital, you know, if it starts to go, you can copy it as all those damn things are shot on film. You’ve got a smaller
many times as you like. camera, and the cinematographer’s got a meter and he can
shoot rather swiftly.
How do they determine just how long a piece of video tape
will remain intact? I think some of the feature films that you were saying in
Well, only time tells. I mean I’ve seen VHS video tape gone the cinemas are actually shot on 16, probably Super
completely in seven years to the point where you can’t use it. 16mm. That fairly recent film The Castle I think was shot
Probably pneumatic tape we’ve had here, fifteen to eighteen on 16mm.
years, with drop-outs but it’s still usable. Some forty per cent Yes they do. That was shot on Super 16, which is good, but
of that tape, totally unusable. One-inch high band tape seems they have ‘Arriflex’ and ‘Aaton’ cameras now specifically
to last for quite some years. made and engineered to start with, to shoot on 16 and Super
16 — with lenses to match. In the start, it was filed-out gates
So you just lose the image completely, do you? and home-made stuff which had problems in wide-angled
White drop-outs, ‘hash’ start in certain areas as the emulsion photography and stuff, and its quality was a bit here and there
deteriorates, and down she goes. But of course, nowadays with but I think film probably will go eventually.
digital, you can copy an S.P. or a digital Betacam probably
sixty times before you’d notice much of a change. It’s just a Do you think the general public are aware of these
bit more expensive. changes? Do you think a member of the general public can
look at an image and say “that’s shot on 16”, or “that’s
Of course, the same thing applies to audio, doesn’t it? I definitely 35”, or “that’s 8mm roll”, do you think they
mean, you keep audio tape for too long, you find you’re know the difference?
getting shedding. It starts to shed, disastrously. They probably don’t know what it was shot on but apparently
It turns to dust, yeah. Audio tape’s probably not so bad according to the people who do know, they know the quality
because the frequency’s a lot lower off the recording so you of it, the look and the feel of film is aligned with something of
don’t get into much trouble more quickly. It doesn’t take quality like wide-screen high definition television they are
much deterioration before the tape in videos starts to drop out. going to use a lot of film for a standard format for a start, from
country to country. But because film has a more expensive
You frighten me because I’ve got a lot of home-grown look it might be slightly softer or grainier or whatever, but the
video tapes. I must have a look at some of it. human mind sees it as slightly better quality. I don’t say
Well, we’ve had a few people come in with their wedding everyone’s like that. Some people might like the extreme
that’s seven years old and disappeared completely. I think that sharpness of video tape. But most people seem to align a
home movies, there will be a huge era of about ten years when luxury item with film.
no one will have anything ’cause it will all be sitting in the top
drawer completely gone next time they put it in the recorder, Well, I think we’ve covered the subject fairly thoroughly.
if that format’s still around in those days. Anything else you want to say or mention now, concerning
Cine Service specifically.
Some clairvoyants or other informant or otherwise are No. I think I’ve said a lot. I could go on forever about the bits
predicting that in the next twenty five or thirty years film and pieces and the silliness. I think that’s about all. ★
will be almost a thing of the past as far as theatrical
presentations are concerned, and it will be relying entirely Peter Wagstaff was interviewed by Denzil Howson in 1999.

CINEMARECORD Spring 2001 27