Motion picture cameras were developed for the obvious purpose of capturing events as they happened. Since then, the field of photography has never been the same.

The first practical movie camera was the manually operated Kinetograph,developed by William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, a native of Scotland, and an employee of Thomas Edison. By the mid 1890s, the movie camera had become a practical reality.

Between 1909 and 1911, Polish inventor Kaziemierz Pròszynski patented theAeroscope, which required no hand cranking and resulted in smoother photography.

Several years later, 16 mm film stock was introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1923, thus reducing the cost of film and making motion photography more accessible to the general public.

Following World War Two, more compact home movie cameras became available, allowing consumers to capture and preserve the people, places and events in their lives with relative ease.

While most professional movie film remained at 35-mm in width, home movies were done with 8- or 16-mm film with exposed film sent away to commercial developers. On return of the processed film, consumers could then display their work with projectors by Bell and Howell, Bolex, Kodak and others.

The drawback, of course, was the delay between the original event and being able to view it on screen. Something new was needed, and that led to the invention of the video recorder using magnetic tape. In contrast to home movies, videotape could also capture sound.

The first commercially viable video tape recorder was the Ampex VRX-1000developed in 1956. At $50,000 each, only networks and large stations could afford them. In spite of several limitations, they remained the industry standard until 1980 when the helical scan system was introduced.

The first home video tape recorder was the Telcan, developed by the Nottingham Electronic Valve Company. Open reels of tape being difficult to handle, the videocassette recorder appeared in the early ’70s. Among several available recording formats, VHS and Beta became the top competitors, with VHS somehow emerging triumphant over the superior Beta format. Since then, more than a dozen new formats have been introduced including digital technology and the digital video disk (DVD).

What’s next? No one really knows. There will, however, always be something new!

A bright Chester County songwriter has recorded an original ballad addressing the continuing wave of school shootings and presenting a sensible way to prevent further incidents. The song will be added to a professionally produced video.

With a quick warm-up and just two takes, she was finished and out the door in just 45 minutes – a good example of how ample rehearsal at home produces both efficiency and economy in the studio!

Depending on chosen curriculum, a college application may require a musical audition. A Chester County high school senior has recorded three classical pieces here using three different brass instruments: the tuba, the euphonium and the bass trombone.

To add depth and richness to the recording, I used the same stereo mike setup I would normally use for a full symphony orchestra.

Because an audio recording can be improved through skillful editing, the college required a live video as well to ensure that what they see and hear is the real thing rather than something assembled from selected small pieces. We made both recordings simultaneously and will schedule a second session soon to decide which is the best performance of each selection.

Using a list of questions provided by family members, I enjoyed interviewing a delightful lady who immigrated here from Ireland as a teenager in 1953.

Looking for a better life and more opportunity for their children, her parents had sold their Dublin home and arrived here with nothing but two trunks of clothing – most of it unsuitable for Philadelphia weather!

After finding suitable lodging, her father found work as a seafood buyer for a major supermarket chain. Mom set up the house, and the daughter started school. She discovered rather quickly that the different teaching style, and the change in customs, made her studies difficult.

High school graduation was followed by employment as a cashier in the store where her father worked.

A few years later, while attending a party, she met the man she would eventually marry – he was a buyer for another branch of the same supermarket chain!

Because my websites are available to browsers worldwide, more out-of-towners are finding their way to this small studio – by way of UPS and the U.S. Postal Service. In addition to local folks, the current client list includes folks in Arizona, California, Florida, Germany, Hawaii, New Jersey, Texas and Vermont. I wonder who I’ll hear from next?

In salvaging old videotapes and transferring them to disk, I find that some are especially interesting. One recent tape was a copy of an original home movie made seventy-eight years ago in 1940. The movie was literally a “tour of the town” of Charleroi, Pennsylvania, population (then) about 9000.

Located in the lower left hand corner of your Pennsylvania map, Charleroi was typical of the thousands of small communities that dotted our national map so many years ago, and typical also of a gentler time that few remember.

• The tour began at the local newspaper, the Charleroi Mail (1928-1960).

A dignified two-story building, it was constructed of a revolutionary new material called stone! After a brief visit at the classified desk where advertisements were placed, we peeked in briefly at reporters at work pounding out the latest news on their manual typewriters.

The open office areas featured three secretaries and a bookkeeper “doing the books” by hand with a paper ledger and a fountain pen.

From there, the movie tour moved on to the roar and clatter of the actual pressroom. Working from the editors’ final texts, linotype operators formed the type from melted lead. Typesetters then arranged the type to accommodate the size and format of the paper – being certain to include the advertisements, of course!

All technical requirements completed, large sections of type were then installed in the presses so that the actual printing could begin. Huge machines printed both sides of all pages, assembled them in order, and poured them out in a continuous stream, neatly folded and ready for distribution.

In this digital age, few remember the sheer volume of “people power” that was required to produce our local newspapers. This proud profession could, at times, be brutally physical and was very much “hands on.”

• Next on the tour was another impressive stone building housing the First National Bank. A two-story structure with an elegant second floor mezzanine, the bank also featured a sophisticated, high-tech (1940?) safe.  No, they didn’t show the combination!

• Moving down the street, we looked in on local merchants, many of whom seemed to be in the apparel business as the video featured several fashion shows. All stores had large display windows – without metal grates. This was 1940, remember!

• A quick peek in at the ladies’ hair salon showed a row of women with enormous domed metal hair dryers over their heads. Oh, what they went through to keep themselves attractive!

• Farther down the street, Charleroi also featured an old-fashioned drugstore. In a rare view from behind the pharmacy counter, I could watch pharmacists carefully measuring, combining and compounding specific prescriptions for their customers. When was the last time you saw a mortar and pestle?

The drugstore also had something many have never heard of: a soda fountain where experts of another kind could mix tasty concoctions to the customers’ specifications.

• Moving right along, the local five- and-ten had a lunch counter where shoppers could have a snack and local employees could grab a quick bite before heading back to work.

• At Gysegems Bakery, I could watch the team in action, creating anything and everything from white bread to exotic pastries and reminding me that the art of baking involves the skillful combination of chemistry and art.

• Along the street, most men and women wore hats and walked to work. Street repairs were performed by strong men with picks, shovels and strong, calloused hands. Brick sidewalks were constructed of real bricks, each one set carefully in place by hand.

• A major industry in Charleroi was Clover Farm Stores, with their fleet of sophisticated, refrigerated delivery trucks. Constantly on the move, the trucks kept their stores fully stocked with the company’s fine products.

All in all, the video was a lovely visual reminder of “how things used to be” – a time I remember with a sense of pleasant nostalgia.

Over the last fifty-five years as a professional musician and entertainer, I’ve must’ve seen hundreds of young folks take their turn in the spotlights. They all seem to make the same general mistakes. This year, I decided to share what I’ve learned about show business by creating a newsletter just for young musicians starting out in the performing arts. Packed with proven principles and handy hints on how to be more effective on stage, the first issue of Stagecraft 101 is ready now. If this is of interest to you, please give me a call at 610-647-4341.

Q: Why did you choose this location?

A: It was convenient and private. Here in this detached brick building, I’m less likely to disturb the neighbors.

Q: How did you make it so quiet in here?

A: Many, many happy hours  – and a whole lotta bucks – invested in soundproofing.

Q: What’s the largest group you’ve ever recorded?

A: A fourteen-voice chorale.

My Sony Hi-definition camcorder is working out extremely well. The resolution is excellent, and the extra recording capacity allows capturing extended events such as concerts and seminars.

In conducting video interviews, the wide-range zoom allows being very close to the subject for excellent sound capture.

In case you missed it, there was a…

Performed and recorded on Saturday, October 20

Featuring:

Al Bien

Larry Ahearn

& Me