A repeat of this tale for those who missed out first time round.
Around about 1964 - 1965, working as a film cameraman with the BBC, I was involved in making a film on the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, well-known as the island where the plane lands on the beach. The purpose of this film was to indicate the benefits of tourism to the Scottish economy. In one particular scene we were to film a pair of visitors to the island leaving a small cottage, having made the purchase of a bale of cloth from the occupier. The camera was set up in the road outside, the people were to emerge from the front door, stand talking for a few moments & then walk out of shot.
During the first ' take ' there was a shout from the sound recordist, his recorder, although it has a governing device, was running at an incredible speed with loops of tape spilling off in all directions. Eventually, the recorder having been stopped, cleared of tape debris & cleaned & it's mechanism found to be functioning correctly, we re-started the filming. Within a minute or so I was aware of grinding & grating sounds within the camera. We stopped filming again & on investigation I found the film was literally being chewed - up by the camera. There was a further break in the proceedings whilst I endeavoured to find a reason for the malfunctioning of the camera but as with the recorder it appeared to behave normally again. These faults might well be regarded as coincidence & we had no reason to believe otherwise, except that they were quite untypical of any experienced at any time, both by myself & colleagues.
Ultimately, filming re-started & all went well. However, after we had completed this particular scene the director queried an aspect of the speech which might prove difficult to edit. In order to check this the recordist rewound the tape & prepared to replay the recorded voices through a portable speaker.
On switching on we heard our own voices, then the ' clapperboard ' & instead of speech from our ' cast ', total silence, the tape had no sound on it !
During filming the recordist listens to the recorded sound on headphones & had heard the entire conversation between the persons concerned. What he hears comes from the playback head, not what is going into the recorder but that which has already been recorded onto the tape. Incidentally, there is no facility for erasing a tape on this type of machine.
We were all so confused & bewildered by now that the decision was made to return to our hotel in Castlbay & have lunch & a drink ( or two! ).
Whilst helping to ' wrap-up ' the gear I was approached by an elderly man , also staying at our hotel. Having explained that he & his wife were leaving the island that afternoon & having a couple of shots left in his camera, he decided to finish off his roll of film on some scenes to include the cottage with the film crew in the foreground, although at a considerable distance away. I mentioned in passing that I hoped his photos would turn out alright & would be a pleasant souvenir of his visit to Barra. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head & said, " You know, the strangest thing has just happened, if I hadn't seen it myself I wouldn't have believed it." It was then I felt the proverbial hairs rising on the back of my neck !
Having exposed his last two shots, he then wound on the film. The camera was an ancient 120 roll film folding model with bellows & had been in his possession for many years. When he opened the back of the camera the film literally ' shot out '( his words ), fell to the ground & unrolled completely.
On examining the camera I found as expected that the film is prevented from becoming too loose by contact with a rather flimsy ' leaf ' spring. About as much strength as a leaf on a tree ! And totally unable to cause it to be ejected. I also dropped & threw the film to the ground but it showed no inclination to unwind more than an inch or so, certainly not in the manner he described to me.
Return to our base in Glasgow. All equipment checked & tested. No faults could be diagnosed, recorder, tape & camera. All in excellent condition & remained so for very many years.
p.s. Several years later I attended a series of lectures on the paranormal by prof. Archie Roy of Glasgow University. I informed him of my experiences.
" Would I please tell my story to the class ? " Of course I would & when finished & thanked profusely, he addessed the class;
" You have just been listening to an absolutely classic description of examples of poltergeist activity. "
( Who am I to argue with such a man - gamba )
As a matter of interest & for the record this item appeared in ' Paranormal Review, ' Journal of the ' Society for Psychical Research ' January 2002.
Around about 1964 - 1965, working as a film cameraman with the BBC, I was involved in making a film on the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, well-known as the island where the plane lands on the beach. The purpose of this film was to indicate the benefits of tourism to the Scottish economy. In one particular scene we were to film a pair of visitors to the island leaving a small cottage, having made the purchase of a bale of cloth from the occupier. The camera was set up in the road outside, the people were to emerge from the front door, stand talking for a few moments & then walk out of shot.
During the first ' take ' there was a shout from the sound recordist, his recorder, although it has a governing device, was running at an incredible speed with loops of tape spilling off in all directions. Eventually, the recorder having been stopped, cleared of tape debris & cleaned & it's mechanism found to be functioning correctly, we re-started the filming. Within a minute or so I was aware of grinding & grating sounds within the camera. We stopped filming again & on investigation I found the film was literally being chewed - up by the camera. There was a further break in the proceedings whilst I endeavoured to find a reason for the malfunctioning of the camera but as with the recorder it appeared to behave normally again. These faults might well be regarded as coincidence & we had no reason to believe otherwise, except that they were quite untypical of any experienced at any time, both by myself & colleagues.
Ultimately, filming re-started & all went well. However, after we had completed this particular scene the director queried an aspect of the speech which might prove difficult to edit. In order to check this the recordist rewound the tape & prepared to replay the recorded voices through a portable speaker.
On switching on we heard our own voices, then the ' clapperboard ' & instead of speech from our ' cast ', total silence, the tape had no sound on it !
During filming the recordist listens to the recorded sound on headphones & had heard the entire conversation between the persons concerned. What he hears comes from the playback head, not what is going into the recorder but that which has already been recorded onto the tape. Incidentally, there is no facility for erasing a tape on this type of machine.
We were all so confused & bewildered by now that the decision was made to return to our hotel in Castlbay & have lunch & a drink ( or two! ).
Whilst helping to ' wrap-up ' the gear I was approached by an elderly man , also staying at our hotel. Having explained that he & his wife were leaving the island that afternoon & having a couple of shots left in his camera, he decided to finish off his roll of film on some scenes to include the cottage with the film crew in the foreground, although at a considerable distance away. I mentioned in passing that I hoped his photos would turn out alright & would be a pleasant souvenir of his visit to Barra. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head & said, " You know, the strangest thing has just happened, if I hadn't seen it myself I wouldn't have believed it." It was then I felt the proverbial hairs rising on the back of my neck !
Having exposed his last two shots, he then wound on the film. The camera was an ancient 120 roll film folding model with bellows & had been in his possession for many years. When he opened the back of the camera the film literally ' shot out '( his words ), fell to the ground & unrolled completely.
On examining the camera I found as expected that the film is prevented from becoming too loose by contact with a rather flimsy ' leaf ' spring. About as much strength as a leaf on a tree ! And totally unable to cause it to be ejected. I also dropped & threw the film to the ground but it showed no inclination to unwind more than an inch or so, certainly not in the manner he described to me.
Return to our base in Glasgow. All equipment checked & tested. No faults could be diagnosed, recorder, tape & camera. All in excellent condition & remained so for very many years.
p.s. Several years later I attended a series of lectures on the paranormal by prof. Archie Roy of Glasgow University. I informed him of my experiences.
" Would I please tell my story to the class ? " Of course I would & when finished & thanked profusely, he addessed the class;
" You have just been listening to an absolutely classic description of examples of poltergeist activity. "
( Who am I to argue with such a man - gamba )
As a matter of interest & for the record this item appeared in ' Paranormal Review, ' Journal of the ' Society for Psychical Research ' January 2002.
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