{"id":196,"date":"2017-11-26T20:03:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-26T10:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/?page_id=196"},"modified":"2017-11-28T11:23:49","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T01:23:49","slug":"196-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/national-film-and-sound-archive\/196-2\/","title":{"rendered":"ATV0 Origins"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part of an interview Series for the National Film and Sound Archive Aural History Programme.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

My name is John Fife (JF<\/strong>) and I have with me Morrie Pilens (MP<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 I want to just go back to those very early days.\u00a0 You said to me before that channel 0 originally had its beginnings in Swanston St, and then right from day 1 of broadcasting were they out at their studios in Nunawading?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No, from day 1 broadcasting we were broadcasting from the tower.\u00a0 On the top of the hill.\u00a0 Well, WE were \u2013 don\u2019t know about the rest of it.\u00a0 We had music playing \u2013 beautiful music, which was rating *the pants off everybody else.\u00a0 And we did all stories which I filmed and Stan Harder? edited, and we had two Steinbecks (editing machine) which are machines that replay film, synchronised up at the rooms up at the tower, and who stand by and make sure we press two buttons at the same time, one for sound and one for pictures.\u00a0 And that was the first transmissions for channel 0.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Have you got a camera pointed at the screen of the\u2026?<\/p>\n

*MP:\u00a0 Yes, your camera\u2019s pointed at the straight top on?\u00a0 And the Steinbeck and you\u2019re switching on two Steinbeck\u2019s at the same time.\u00a0 One for sound, one for vision.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 These were kind of like a test broadcast?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah, all this is in between test pattern.\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 It might not work!\u00a0 It\u2019s been done before \u2013 well, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s been done before but we did it!\u00a0 Actually I did similar thing transmitting thing from Hobart.\u00a0 We went there for some sort of sports meeting, and I did the same thing with TCN, VC6 or *something\u2026 with Tony Dougherty?\u00a0 and similar type.\u00a0 He had a mirror to look back so he could read the prompts as well!<\/p>\n

Laughter.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Ah, I tell you what.\u00a0 It was good fun.\u00a0 You could do it, you know?\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t imagine today, that that sort of thing could happen.\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t actually do it today \u2013 well, I wouldn\u2019t know how.\u00a0 But then, I did.\u00a0 So we did it.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And there\u2019s a spirit of adventure.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 \u00a0Oh yeah.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t try, you won\u2019t succeed.\u00a0 But we tried.\u00a0 And thought, alright.
\nAnother one was when William De L\u2019Isle, our governor, arrived by ship, and there was a big parade in front of the ship that had arrived, and things were going on.\u00a0 It was a windy day and the plume blew off his hat and what have you. \u00a0ABC news was direct telecasting.\u00a0 And they say \u2018Oh, I wonder how we can get clips of that for the news.\u00a0 We just can\u2019t get it, there\u2019s no possibility of taking out the tape of the direct telecast and putting it on the news.\u2019<\/p>\n

I said \u2018Yes you can!\u2019<\/p>\n

They said \u2018How can you do it?\u2019<\/p>\n

I said \u2018I\u2019ll show you.\u2019<\/p>\n

So I got an Arrifflex and I got them to play the incident back on the monitor.\u00a0 And I got a two shilling *piece, controlling the movement of the motor so that the 50 cycle bar(?) stays in one place.\u00a0 And we had 60 seconds of news of his plume blowing away!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You can\u2019t do that today, can you?<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 No.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 But this is like fun and games.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Those early days in the channel 0 newsroom, when it very started, almost from day 1 \u2013 what was the set up?\u00a0 What was the atmosphere?\u00a0 What did people do?\u00a0 What was the daily routine?<\/p>\n

*MP:\u00a0 Well it was interesting because Ian McFarlane? was the news editor, and I helped him select \u2013 he used to ask me whether there was any journalists on the road that were worthwhile.\u00a0 So there was a couple of guys that I thought were good on their own, so we collected those.\u00a0 The rest of them came from other channels.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere was such that we could beat them.\u00a0 We knew, we thrash all this old fashioned crap and restrictions behind us!\u00a0 Like restrictions at channel 7 and the mucking around at channel 9 \u2013 actually, the channel 9 newsroom wasn\u2019t bad, they had some good guys there.\u00a0 And the feeling was really terrific.\u00a0 We can do it.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Why were the others restricted, what was their problem?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 \u00a0Well, one problem was belonging to The Age, and the other was belonging to The Herald.\u00a0 The Herald was basically dictating the news service.\u00a0 If the Herald didn\u2019t know, the newsroom didn\u2019t know.\u00a0 And channel 9 had old Packer \u2013 the real old Packer (Sir Frank Packer) \u2013 he was running the place.\u00a0 And he was running it with a whip and a chair.\u00a0 So whatever was said was done.\u00a0 So were the only ones with no newspapers to dictate to us, no radio stations to tell us what to do.<\/p>\n

It was good from beginning, it was fantastic.<\/p>\n

It was a bit hard to collect news because we didn\u2019t have the backing of those organisations, but we got familiar and friendly with some of the radio stations which means we pick up local stuff from them and we were doing very well actually.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So you\u2019re free really to do what you want to be doing, but where were the stories coming from?\u00a0 These days it\u2019s often dictated\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Handouts<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Yeah, handouts and manipulated, but, I mean, you\u2019d have a telex service I guess?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Oh yeah, telex service, we monitored the police radio, I asked and got installed a high power radio set, we were listening to overseas news.\u00a0 But (mimics whingers)\u2019It\u2019s too much bloody trouble, you got to tune in, find this\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

The facility to receive and listen was there.\u00a0 But most of the time the patience and the willingness wasn\u2019t *so much.\u00a0 Basically we were picking up things from, you know, listening to typhoon? from the amateur readers, amateur bands\u2026 if something happens.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And you\u2019d be getting press releases coming in?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Oh yeah, press releases came in all the time.\u00a0 And by telephone, and by mail and you know.\u00a0 That\u2019s the regular things, you only have to sit it out.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And so the original news bulletins in the very early days\u2026<\/p>\n

MP: \u00a0Oh, God forbid!\u00a0 Oh shit.\u00a0 There was an hour\u2019s bulletin, of two bloody news readers standing up and reading news!\u00a0 They discarded that eventually.\u00a0 That was a disaster.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 That was channel 0\u2019s first attempt at news?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Two guys standing in front of a lectern reading news and then film comes in between.\u00a0 But for an hour!<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And was the news service 5 days a week or was it a seven day operation?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 it was 7 day a week.\u00a0 I think it was cut down on Saturdays and Sundays, because Saturday was sport and you film highlights of footy on 400 feet of film.<\/p>\n

Chuckles.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So you were allowed to just go in and film an AFL game?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Oh yeah, no problem, yeah.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 No rights restrictions?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No rights restrictions.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve got a film camera you can do anything!\u00a0 Just walk in and do what you want.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 I guess that meant with any sport then, you could go in and film?\u00a0 Cricket, tennis.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes, I think there is something that says you\u2019re allowed to use a certain amount, a certain length for the news.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll tell you a nice little story about football.\u00a0 This is going back to ATN7 Sydney.<\/p>\n

Sydney rings me up and wants the finals of the Melbourne footy.\u00a0 So I write a letter to Jack Hamilton.\u00a0 Back comes the letter, says no.\u00a0 So I go into the office. \u00a0I say, \u2018Look Mr Hamilton, I represent ATN7 Sydney.\u00a0 Sydney wants highlights, whatever I can get on 100 feet of film of the final football game.\u2019<\/p>\n

He says \u2018No.\u00a0 You\u2019re not covering in the week, you\u2019re not getting anything.\u2019<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So what, he felt that you should be covering football..?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 \u2026right through the week, you know.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re not doing that, no, forget it.\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to just come and pick the eyes out of it.<\/p>\n

And I said to him \u2018Look Mr Hamilton, with due respect, I need it, I have to have it, and I am going to have it.\u2019<\/p>\n

He looked at me and said \u2018Okay, if you can get in I won\u2019t chuck you out.\u2019<\/p>\n

And I said fine, okay.<\/p>\n

Up comes Saturday, there\u2019s me with a tripod on my back and a camera in my bag, and the other Bell and Howell in my hand and I walk up to the gate.\u00a0 Up til then if you had a camera they just let you in.<\/p>\n

\u2018No ticket?\u00a0 Sorry, can\u2019t come in.\u2019<\/p>\n

So I walked to the next gate.\u00a0 Same.\u00a0 \u2018No.\u2019<\/p>\n

I tried half a dozen gates and thought \u2018Shit, what the bloody hell.\u00a0 How am I going to get this?\u2019<\/p>\n

*And I\u2019m just up the front when a famber schneip? arrives – a black bloody limousine, and out comes Bob Menzies.\u00a0 And from the stadium side, the big roller doors are going wobble wobble wobble (Morrie makes this noise much more eloquently than I can write it), and Hamilton and his cohorts come to greet Menzies outside.<\/p>\n

See, he\u2019s too fat to get out through the turnstiles.\u00a0 So I wind up my Bell, lift it up and walk backwards through the door (pretending to film), Hamilton looking at me and smiling, and just shaking his head!\u00a0 I never had any trouble with him since.<\/p>\n

Laughter.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So your old mate Bob got you through.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Oh, yeah.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And this is for the Grand Final?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes, the Grand Final.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 You just can\u2019t walk in there these days.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Oh, you can\u2019t even get past it.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Did you ever use your cunning to get into any other places?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 \u00a0If I needed to.\u00a0 I just can\u2019t recall anything specific.\u00a0 Oh yeah, of course.\u00a0 I\u2019ll give you another one.<\/p>\n

*Zara Bates?\u00a0 Libby.\u00a0 Holt\u2019s ex wife married this farmer \u2013 big story, she got a cow as a present, and then the wedding\u2019s in the church.\u00a0 Of course, it was closed, nobody there.\u00a0 So I thought, I\u2019ll fix the bastards!<\/p>\n

I go home, get changed, get my tuxedo, black tie, the whole bloody big, with a Bell and Howell hidden underneath my armpit, just walking with the rest of the guests and just get myself a seat within about 20 feet of the alter where they\u2019re going to get married, on the aisle side, and I just sit.<\/p>\n

And up comes \u2018I do\u2019, out comes the camera and goes blirrrrrrrrrrr.\u00a0 Of course, they turn around to see what\u2019s there, and so I\u2019ve got pictures of them looking at me! (laughs)\u00a0 \u2018Sorry!\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 And off I went!<\/p>\n

So, another one like that was \u2018Golden Products.\u2019\u00a0 Similar thing, a guy was here from America, one of the actors that was helping to promote this \u2018Golden Products\u2019 bloody thing.\u00a0 We covered it for Dateline.\u00a0 We were running a story about what a sham this was, pyramid type of selling.\u00a0 So I did the same thing.\u00a0\u00a0 Walked in with Bell and Howell, half way through, filmed what I wanted.\u00a0 I got escorted out!\u00a0 There\u2019s been a couple of things like that.<\/p>\n

Another one was a strike at \u2018General Motors\u2019.\u00a0 I did the same thing but this time I had a little cassette camera strapped to my belt.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 A cassette camera?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah, a little 16mm cassette camera slipped onto my belt.\u00a0 It\u2019s one you wind up, so you just flick your coat open and press the button.\u00a0 You\u2019re in the middle of whatever\u2019s going on, you know.\u00a0 But was difficult with silent cameras you know, because they weren\u2019t silent.\u00a0 They were very bloody noisy, silent cameras!\u00a0 They mostly string driven or motor driven \u2013 Arriflex was noisy.\u00a0 Was long time before we had a sound camera that wasn\u2019t noisy.<\/p>\n

The first portable sound camera that wasn\u2019t noisy was the CP16.\u00a0 Top camera for me.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 I\u2019m familiar with that camera, but we\u2019ll have a chat about all the equipment a little later if we can, \u2018cos we know that in fact you went through so many generations of equipment.\u00a0 In itself, that\u2019s fascinating.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Well, you know.\u00a0 Once tape came in, and the first lot of tape was great big bloody BK6\u2019s or whatever they call them, connected to a two inch tape recorder which basically two people had to carry, you know.\u00a0 I had one bloke carrying for me, I was filming a coal fire up at Yallourn.\u00a0 And he got home and just dumped the camera in front of the bloody mansion and said \u2018Stick it in your arse, I\u2019m not picking this up, I\u2019m not going to kill myself.\u2019\u00a0 It was just too big.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And that was to record two inch?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes, that was to record two inch.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about the equipment a bit later.\u00a0 Going back to the old channel 0 newsroom, you\u2019ve set up your office in the studios out at Nunawading?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes, office in the studios.\u00a0 And in front of receptionist on the left hand side was the news editor, then you came into the news room, and the right hand side was the projection room where you viewed your rushes, then you had an open room with desks and typists and journalists.\u00a0 First come, grab whatever seat you can\u2026<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So in fact, when film came in off the road and had been developed, you\u2019d all go into that projection room?<\/p>\n

*MP:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 We give it to Stan Harder? which was a little bit further down the left, he had a couple of editing machines.\u00a0 So he\u2019d put it on a reel, and everybody gets in.\u00a0 You may have 3 or 4 stories that have just come in off the processing\u2026<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Stan Harder, did he do the processing as well?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No not at that stage.\u00a0 It was somebody else.\u00a0 He was just editing.<\/p>\n

*You may have 3 or 4 news stories on a reel?.\u00a0 3 or 4 journalists who have the story will come in with *their clipboards, and they\u2019ll sit and watch the story.\u00a0 Ian Mac Farlane says \u2018Oh yeah, we\u2019ll have this and we\u2019ll have that.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll have a bit of this and a bit of that.\u2019\u00a0 And then they go out, and they have couple of other people that were editing\u2026<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So the journalists really hadn\u2019t been much on the story themselves?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Oh no.\u00a0 Oh no.\u00a0 You were very lucky if they went out with you on a gig.\u00a0 Because mainly what happened was the cameraman went out, shot it, and gave them a rough shot list because there was no sound.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So there was no use going out to grab interviews?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No.\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t interview anybody.\u00a0 You could go off and do the shot list, or you can do whatever.\u00a0 Which they did sometimes, they came up and said \u2018Can I have a little bit of this, can I\u2026\u2019 and you finish up with 3 or 400 feet of film, but you can\u2019t use 400 feet of film.\u00a0 It\u2019s just not on.\u00a0 So you just have to educate them.\u00a0 That one story at the utmost, hundred feet of film.\u00a0 But they couldn\u2019t get that in their head.\u00a0 Even later, sometimes they come back with 4 rolls of 400 feet of stand ups that you just have to chuck out anyway.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So the cameraman who\u2019s out there, he is in fact \u2013 he\u2019s got to grab the whole story rather than have a journo telling him what to do.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 If it\u2019s a scheduled thing, like a handout or what have you, the journalist would know what it\u2019s all about so he tells the cameraman what the story\u2019s about.\u00a0 Otherwise the cameraman turns up there, has a look around and says \u2018Oh yeah, this does sound good\u2019 and okay, fine.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 How were you sent out?\u00a0 Did you have your own car?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Oh yes, yes.\u00a0 Each camera crew \u2013 I insisted \u2013 had their own car and their own equipment.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 When you say crew, was that really just a cameraman?\u00a0 A one man band?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 One man.\u00a0 He was in charge of the equipment, and he was in charge of the car which he took home.\u00a0 Because he could have been rung up \u2013 like me \u2013 at three o\u2019clock In the morning.\u00a0 \u2018Go and get it boy!\u2019\u00a0 Everything\u2019s there, he can just go and get it.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So you\u2019re equipped with your Bell and Howell? In your car,<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 We had the Bell and Howell and also had sound camera.\u00a0 Oricon 100 foot, converted with an Arriflex magazine.\u00a0 Then we had a Pro 600 with an optical amplifier.\u00a0 And that was in certain cars.\u00a0 If there was interview needed you send the cameraman out and send the journalist afterwards, so they can do an interview or whatever.<\/p>\n

So camera crew was basically one man.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And he had a radio telephone in the car?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 He had a radio in the car, yes.\u00a0 Not a telephone just a two way radio.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 But I guess the restriction on that was as soon as you got so far out of the city, you couldn\u2019t communicate.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 That\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So what did you do to communicate?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 You got to the nearest telephone.\u00a0\u00a0 You can\u2019t carry a can of pigeons can you?<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 No, we forget that this is before the mobile phone and all that.\u00a0 So, you\u2019re back in the newsroom with your film \u2013 you had a fulltime film editor?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes, we had three.\u00a0 Three full time on roster.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Most of the bulletin then, would have been someone sitting at a desk and what we would call a voice over?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 That film processing that took on, did channel 0 have their own film lab?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes, they built their own film lab.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 What about 9 and 7 \u2013 did they have their own labs?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No, 9 was still processing at Cinevex and then eventually they did have their own lab.\u00a0 7 was processing at Victorian Films Labs and I think eventually got their own lab.\u00a0 Because you go to the lab and you give it to them, and you might get your film back tomorrow or the day after because they\u2019re waiting for a full run, they\u2019re not just going to run 800 feet of film for you.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Oh, so channel 0 had an advantage here<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Eventually, yeah.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 But at the same time they had a disadvantage, because they were further out of the city as well.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah, that was a problem until I got myself friendly with the Horticultural Society and moved into their building, right square bang in the middle of everything.\u00a0 And we even had our own carrier pigeon installed there!\u00a0 So I\u2019d come in and shove a cassette in and \u2018send it out to channel 10\u2019.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 But when you had film, you had to make that journey\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 If you had film you had to make it all the way back to Nunawading.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Down the Burwood highway\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Whichever way you can get there.\u00a0 Say you come back from the country races at Craigieburn, and you want to catch your 6 o\u2019clock bulletin.\u00a0 There\u2019s no speeding, there\u2019s low flying all the way.\u00a0 And eventually again, we had a machine which was called Whiskomat (this is actually an Eastman Viscomat) (black and white processing machine) the forerunner of video tape.\u00a0 You\u2019d put 1200 feet of blank film on it, and film a studio sequence.\u00a0 You might film Magic Circle Club or the Ray Tayler show, and that\u2019s all being photographed on this Viscomat, while you\u2019re transmitting from the studio.<\/p>\n

*JF:\u00a0 So it\u2019s kind of like kingy?\u00a0 recording?<\/p>\n

*MP:\u00a0 That\u2019s it, like Kingy?\u00a0 recording.<\/p>\n

So I came in one day and said \u2018Hang on, wait a minute, look.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s your studio, I know it\u2019s your *program (I think it was ian mac farlane).\u00a0 If we can get somebody ready and standing by the Viscomat when I come in with the races filmed from Werribee, we won\u2019t be stretched.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh, we can\u2019t do that.\u2019<\/p>\n

And then the engineer \u2018Oh, we can\u2019t do that, this is not a machine you can be chucking round with the news film and what have you\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

And I said \u2018Just try it.\u2019\u00a0 I got out of that conversation because they weren\u2019t going to have a bar of it, they didn\u2019t want the news to get their fingers in something.\u00a0 And a couple things like that, that I had to fight for, you know.<\/p>\n

*And somehow Mac farlane won, we did the test, and every time we had races in the country, or any time we had anything in a hurry in the city, if the machine wasn\u2019t working for the studio, it was standing by for the news.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how we got stuff on air sometimes long before the others.<\/p>\n

JF: \u00a0You take the Viscomat to the venue?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No no no.\u00a0 The Viscomat is in the studio.\u00a0 It\u2019s permanently set up as a machine there.\u00a0 All you do is bring in your 100 feet of film, put it in the Viscomat and process it.\u00a0 Bypass the photographic side.\u00a0 Just use the processing rollers and process your hundred feet, or two hundred feet, or four hundred feet of black and white film with a machine like that, instead of running it through a processing machine \u2013 you\u2019re running it through a cream.\u00a0 The Viscomat has a creamy surface \u2013 very fast processing.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 How fast was the other method?\u00a0 How long would it take you to put through a hundred feet through?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Ooooh..\u00a0 Twenty minutes, half an hour, by the time you load it through and get it off.\u00a0 This one, you get it through in five minutes.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Except you had to keep the thing so bloody clean it\u2019s not funny.\u00a0 Because the slightest bit of dirt and you\u2019re stuffed.\u00a0 Like if there was the slightest grain in one of the rollers, all you had was black film with a white stripe in the middle.\u00a0 So machine had to be pristine clean.\u00a0 One of the senior technicians was doing that.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So normally though, you were just bringing in your 16mm film for processing at the lab.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah, If you knew that you were running late, you\u2019d tell them on the way, where you are and they\u2019ll be ready and waiting for you and, you know, just put it through the Viscomat and that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 What about stories from interstate, because there was no cable to begin with.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 It came by mail to begin with, or it came by \u2013 there\u2019s some sort of way of transmission, I think some of them were recorded\u2026.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know!<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 I\u2019m just thinking, if there was a big fire in Sydney\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Get it tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Okay, so it would come down on a plane?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 What about overseas news?\u00a0 Where did you get all those pictures from?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 On film.\u00a0 Come by plane or whatever.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So that meant that if something took place in London today\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 It might take two days.\u00a0 Might take a day.\u00a0 You get it on the plane \u2013 because there was no possibility of transmitting any film through from anywhere, except from your OB van.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Okay, right.\u00a0 So your overseas stories come in on little rolls of film from maybe agencies like Disney or people like that?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 What about the OB van.\u00a0 Did you use that much?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Oh that was used quite a bit, for bushfires and all that.\u00a0 Laughs.\u00a0 Ahhhhhhhh yeah, OB van.\u00a0 Ah, Holt went missing.\u00a0 Somehow (this is middle of story), next day after I\u2019ve been filming and \u2026challenged what happened down below, there\u2019s been a big storm and the planks and tree trunks and coconuts and god knows what, strewn all over the beach.\u00a0 Filmed all that.\u00a0 Sent it back.\u00a0 We had midday\u2019s transmission *from the OB van from the top of the hill.\u00a0 There was going to be Barry McQueen and Cyril Jones, going to do the reporting.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m just hanging around there, I\u2019ve done my job and am ready to go back to studio to take film in.\u00a0 And one of the the guys from the OB van points a finger to me and says \u2018Quick!\u00a0 Quick, quick.\u2019<\/p>\n

I get there and say \u2018What\u2019s the matter?\u2019<\/p>\n

He says \u2018Here, take this\u2019 and he gives me this bloody microphone with a little rat tail down there and I was playing with the rat tail.<\/p>\n

I said \u2018What the hell is this?\u2019 and he gestures to me that he wants me to talk.\u00a0 I finally get the message that I\u2019ve got a radio mike in my hands \u2013 the first time I\u2019ve seen a radio mike \u2013 and I have to cover 5 minutes midday transmission to the studio, because my two journalists have gone for lunch!<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019m talking my head off.\u00a0 I was friendly with Tony Eagleton because I\u2019ve worked at the ABC and I\u2019ve been able to court him and able to name his name, plus I was able to talk about this flotsam and jetsam that was down on the beach.\u00a0 The planks that were washed up, and the trees and the coconuts.\u00a0 \u2018Where the bloody hell is coconut coming from?\u2019 I said!\u00a0 If that\u2019s floating around and hits you on the head, then you\u2019ll know it!<\/p>\n

And I get on for five minutes and the guy says \u2018Thankyou, terrific.\u2019<\/p>\n

I said \u2018What was all this about?\u2019\u00a0 and he said \u2018You just did a crossover!\u2019<\/p>\n

Laughter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is part of an interview Series for the National Film and Sound Archive Aural History Programme.\u00a0 My name is John Fife (JF) and I have with me Morrie Pilens (MP). JF:\u00a0 I want to just go back to those very early days.\u00a0 You said to me before that channel 0 originally had its beginnings … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “ATV0 Origins”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":167,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-196","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/196\/revisions\/322"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}