n1rul1m said: I watch the ones I haven't converted to laser disc on beta-max...
In semi-seriousness, there was never a WAM laserdisc, right? The technology was too expensive for any sort of small-time venture (which MessyFun and Splosh were, even in their heyday). By the law of averages, there must've been at least one WAM shoot shot on Betamax...
Simpler times.
I'm glad someone else remembers laserdisc, and I don't think there was any WAM ever on laserdisc.
wambob said: I'd imagine that Rob probably shot the majority of his stuff on BetamaxSP, then edited it down to VHS...
He shot using professional newsgathering cameras on Hi-8, which was Sony's high res vcr format (the VHS equivalent was sVHS). Both systems recorded 400p as opposed to the 240p of domestic Beta and VHS VCRs. I think by the time commercial WAM videos were being produced Betamax was already dead, though there were probably amateur scenes shot by individuals before then, now lost to time.
I've worked in broadcasting on and off since the late 90s and I don't remember ever seeing a true pro ENG camera that used anything but BetaSP back that far. Neither of our trucks had any Hi8 gear on board, but around 2002 or so we started taking most stuff to digital formats including DVCAM and MiniDV. Still never had a Hi8 deck, but there were several VHS machines just because we did a lot of live sports and people would bring us clips of kids who had made the big time when they were just starting out, and we'd use those for fluff pieces in between events. When the last truck got sold off in 2011, there were still a couple of Sony BetaSP decks in the back...
I feel like I remember Brittany saying, during the time that some of the MFV catalog was being released as downloads, that the masters were Hi8. I was bugging her to release the footage from both (or all three) cameras on some of the mudpit scenes that were unedited at the time of Rob's death, but it never happened. Would Beta SP have made them easier (or cheaper) to transfer? I don't think any of the various successors to Rob knew what they were doing, technically (or had money to invest in the catalog).
Absolutely. Hi8 is basically equal to SVHS; BetaSP had ~20% more lines resolution, and more importantly, vastly better encoding, chroma values, and so on. The cameras also had substantially larger CCDs and correspondingly larger and higher-quality lenses.
So i dug out my old Messy Fun VHS tapes... and no mold on them Then i dug out my old VCR and it works And a VHS to PC converter kit from amazon, about £35. Plugs the VCR directly into a USB port on a PC and converts the VHS to MP4 or whatever
So now ive got all my fave Messy Fun scenes on the PC (for personal use only obviously)
Love you, too
