King of the cameramen
QUESTION Why do TV credits no longer list a rostrum camera, which at one time was operated by the ubiquitous Ken Morse?
THE simple answer is that new technology has largely superseded the rostrum camera, which was used to shoot TV and film title sequences and end credits.
It operated a frame at a time, with 24 frames to a second, usually on 16mm or 35mm film.
The item to be filmed was put on a moving lower platform with the camera placed above on a column. This allowed for tracking into the image by moving the camera down the column. The lower platform was moved to pan the image on the horizontal and vertical axis.
Rostrum cameras were used to film maps or diagrams while allowing pans and zooms to highlight areas of interest.
In the Fifties, the basic model was refined by companies such as Oxberry Products and Neilson-Hordell for greater motion control and to allow for aerial image back projection of transparencies and film. The sophistication of the camera allowed each frame to be exposed a number of times to create multiple exposures and superimposition.
By the early Eighties, they were controlled by computer. Video cameras were added later that decade when digital storage became available.
Throughout the Sixties and Seventies, the rostrum camera was a mainstay of TV and feature film graphic design departments. They were used to produce the title sequences for TV programmes such as Doctor Who and The South Bank Show, and films including James Bond pictures, Superman and Star Wars.
There were a number of rostrum camera production companies in London used by the BBC and ITV graphics departments as well as for film and advertising sequences. The camera operator was a key member of the team, with most designers having their favourite.
Ken Morse, based in Shepherd’s Bush close to the BBC, was the mainstay of rostrum camera work for many documentaries. So often does he appear in the credits of TV documentaries shown
Rostrum master: Ken Morse at work worldwide that his name is synonymous with his profession.
He is believed to be the most credited cameraman in history and was presented with a Bafta Lifetime Achievement award to recognise his contributions to the industry over 40 years.
I am the former head of graphics at ATV and Central TV. In the Eighties, I met Ken at his facility, where he produced many sequences for our film editors.
He was credited as recently as 2014 for Junior Masterchef. However, graphics and text design and manipulation using software such as Adobe After Effects and Adobe Illustrator have become the main method for creating film and TV graphics and commercials.
Geoff Pearson, Hanbury, Worcs.
QUESTION Why is the town of Dumbarton spelt with an ‘m’, but the county Dunbartonshire uses an ‘n’?
THIS came about because of confusion between the Gaelic spelling of the name and its pronunciation. The Scottish Gaelic was Dun Breatainn, meaning fort of the Britons. Despite the ‘n’ in Dun, the correct pronunciation is with an ‘m’.
Dumbarton was formerly the county town and by the 18th century Dunbarton and Dumbarton were used interchangeably for the county.
Different bodies used the two spellings: the Dunbarton County Constabulary was formed in 1857 by the Commissioners of Supply for the County of Dumbarton.
Dumbartonshire County Council, set up under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, adopted the spelling Dunbartonshire by 1914, recognised by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947.
Paul Ridgewell, Glasgow.
QUESTION Has any royal died of smallpox?
SMALLPOX, which has been eradicated worldwide, was for centuries a highly contagious disease.
The variola virus produced pustular bumps over the body. A dangerous form, variola major, led to smallpox disease, which killed a third of people infected. Variola minor had a mortality rate of under 1 per cent.
In 1552, Edward VI, the only legitimate son of Henry VIII, contracted smallpox and measles. He survived, but a compromised immune system may have contributed to his death from tuberculosis the following year at the age of 15.
His death had major political ramifications, with his Catholic half-sister Mary I taking the throne. On her death in 1558, her half-sister became Elizabeth I.
In 1562, the 29-year-old Elizabeth was taken ill at Hampton Court Palace with smallpox. She survived, but the disease left scars on her face that she famously covered within lead-based make-up.
Mary II, the Protestant daughter of James II, ruled jointly with her Dutch husband, William III, after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. She died in 1694, aged 32, from haemorrhagic smallpox, a form characterised by excessive bleeding.
Other world rulers killed by smallpox include Louis I of Spain in 1724, Tsar Peter II of Russia in 1730 and Louis XV of France in 1774.
Mrs K. E. Richardson, Ettington, Warks. BEFORE Edward Jenner developed his smallpox vaccine in 1796, variolation was a process by which people were inoculated with infected material from a smallpox patient in the hope that a mild, but protective, infection would result.
In 1783, Octavius, the eighth son and 13th child of George III and Queen Charlotte, and his older sister Princess Sophia were inoculated by the SergeantSurgeon Pennell Hawkins. A few days later, four-year-old Octavius died ‘from suffocation that nothing could relieve’.
Amy Gallacher, Harrogate, N. Yorks.
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