May I introduce you to Steenbeck's French cousin. This is an Atlas. As you all know by now, a "Steenbeck" is not only our faithful, just-turned-40 (JUST) US of A correspondent or indeed a beautiful dog, but also a flatbed film editing machine. It serves to view your rushes and synch up the sound - or it did on the good old days when people still shot on film. Sniff. Anyway. I was at a "do" at our local TV station the other night and spotted this beauty in the corner. It is, in fact, the machine I edited my final year short film on as I came out to France with my rushes in my suitcase - got the job before I'd
finished my studies y'see. And the director of the local TV station very kindly let me go down into the cellar every night after work and finish my film on this beauty. And now they have it exposed in the corner....AS AN ANTIQUE.
(Deep breath)
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!
(Mental note to self: Must practice more on Final Cut...)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEENBECK!!!
9 comments:
Go on - show us yer film!
Ha Ha - VHS melted in the hot attic<; don't even know where the original film is....Probably just as well....
It all started as a simple but sirius tale about a boy and his dog. It was an old yellow dog. A lassie who cujo no wrong.
I'd like to fang the academy now.
@ tin - we've always known you were barking mad ...
FP--thank you!! It's a beautiful machine though, isn't it? It just makes so much sense compared to Final Cut Pro. (I must practice more, too). And surely you have a copy of the film somewhere?
I hold French film equipment in high esteem, my favorite camera was the Eclair NPR with an Angenieux 12-120 mm lens, I had one for about 25 years, a perfect camera, I ran millions of feet of film through it without it ever needing attention. It's the camera that revolutionised 16mm documentary film, totally silent, 400ft mags that could be changed in about 30 seconds and perfectly balanced for the shoulder. Arri had nothing to compete with it.
Recently on Craigslist SF there was an Eclair package for sale, camera, 3 mags, 12-120 plus 3 primes, all cases, power belts, O'Connor legs and fluid head,---$2800! with no takers. $50,000+ when new.
My editing table was Swiss, as was my Nagra, it was a KEM 8 plate capable of handling 1 picture and 3 audio or vice versa, or 2 and 2, 16mm or 35mm. Beautiful table! I just googled it and found 2 going free, $60,000 new, now they're giving them away, I gave mine to the film students. I bought it used from a bloke in SF, he'd just completed a film on it, "Fillmore", a documentary about the last week at the Fillmore West, I saw it for the first time about 2 weeks ago, I taped it. All the usual suspects, the Dead, Airplane, Quicksilver et al.
@ Tin and Toffee: "Arf!"
@Steenbeck:The difference between this baby and your namesake is that the reels are not lying flat but standing up vertically. As for my film (it was a 20 minute version of Saki's short story Sredni Vashtar - ferret and all....) I'm sure the rushes and soundtrack are in the attic somewhere - and they've had many hot summers. Wouldn't dare to open the tins to tell you the truth...
@GF :Loving the film equipment nostalgia! Our technician at the college knew all about eclairs and said they were very very good indeed. And Nagras are one of the most beautiful pieces of machinery I've ever seen. Swiss perfection. Forget the watches......
I was a noise grrrl myself, used Nagras, learned so snip sound on a Studer. But used a Steenbeck at college in later years, tutored by the Monochrome Set's visuals guy. Old precision machinery is a beautiful thing - you could get the BBC engineers to make anything... and it would turn up in a nice grey brushed steel box with a knob on it - and, if you were lucky, an on-off switch and a nice red lamp.
yyyyes!!! brushed grey steel boxes and flicky switches with the on/off light. Now THAT's a machine!! None of ya digital crap. Ehem......
Post a Comment