Vision mixer: Difference between revisions

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 91: Line 91:
=== Season 14 ===
=== Season 14 ===
* ''[[The Masque of Mandragora (TV story)|The Masque of Mandragora]]'' - [[Graham Giles]] ([[INFO]]: ''The Masque of Mandragora'')
* ''[[The Masque of Mandragora (TV story)|The Masque of Mandragora]]'' - [[Graham Giles]] ([[INFO]]: ''The Masque of Mandragora'')
* ''[[The Face of Evil (TV story)|The Face of Evil]]'' - [[Nick Lake]] ([[INFO]]: ''The Face of Evil'')
* ''[[The Hand of Fear (TV story)|The Hand of Fear]]'' - [[Nick Lake][ ([[INFO]]: ''The Hand of Fear'')
* ''[[The Face of Evil (TV story)|The Face of Evil]]'' - Nick Lake ([[INFO]]: ''The Face of Evil'')
* ''[[The Talons of Weng-Chiang (TV story)|The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]'' - [[Pat Mordecai]] ([[INFO]]: ''The Talons of Weng-Chiang'')
* ''[[The Talons of Weng-Chiang (TV story)|The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]'' - [[Pat Mordecai]] ([[INFO]]: ''The Talons of Weng-Chiang'')



Revision as of 20:27, 25 March 2019

RealWorld.png

Vision mixers were regular members of the production crew of the 1963 version of Doctor Who.

During the recording of a programme, they sat in the control booth above the studio floor and decided when to switch between the — usually four – cameras that were being used to film an episode, according to the director's instructions. They were thus "live editors", who controlled when a particular camera was actively recording.

They also were responsible for some visual effects, such as the insertion of pre-recorded material played back into a scene, and indeed the achievement of the original title sequence. Undoubtedly, however, their most important visual effect was that of regeneration, which — as established by Tenth Planet vision mixer, Shirley Coward — was always achieved by some form of camera cross-fade.

Interviewed on The Sensorites DVD extra Vision On, early Harnell-era vision mixer, Clive Doig, had this to say about his job:

What I'm doing as a vision mixer is cutting to the camera against the dialogue of the [camera script that the director has prepared]."Clive Doig

Because no mainstream DWU show after Survival has been produced in a multi-camera environment, vision mixers essentially haven't been used since 1989. Very brief exceptions occasionally crop up, however, as when characters are seen to be watching television programmes. The clearest examples of vision mixing in the BBC Wales era are perhaps Trisha Goddard's scenes in Army of Ghosts.

Although Survival was the final story of the regular run of Doctor Who to employ a vision mixer throughout its production, the last BBC-licensed story to use vision mixing was The Curse of Fatal Death. It in fact parodied the work of vision mixers in the original series by showing how quick cutting between cameras created the "endless corridors" down which the Doctor and his companion typically ran.

List of vision mixers

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 6

Season 7

Season 8

Season 9

Season 10

Season 11

Season 12

Season 13

Season 14

Season 15

Season 16

Season 17

Season 18

Season 19

Season 20

Season 21

Season 22

Season 23

Season 24

Season 25

Season 26

Documentaries about vision mixing

Vision mixing has been the primary focus of two documentaries in the classic Doctor Who DVD range.

Documentary Released on Interviewees Subject
Vision On The Sensorites Clive Doig Basic description of job, as it existed in the Lambert era
A View from the Gallery Day of the Daleks (2011 DVD release) Barry Letts and Mike Catherwood Relationship between the director and the vision mixer, primarily as experienced in the Letts era

Footnotes