best class vote?

[Medea Fleecestealer]

It's funny how our brains can suddenly forget things and then just as suddenly jog our memories to avert a mishap. I must have made sure that sig tune tape went to the studio/OB's hundreds of times before then and after, but that one time nearly became a disaster.

Ah yes, the good old china marks. Doubt they get used these days either. A china pencil? What would you want a china pencil for? What is it anyway?! Aargh, I'm getting old.

[Irma2]

We used them to mark cutting points on film. Because we worked on reversal film which went straight to broadcast rather than going through a negative film lab process to generate a new print, the film had to be in a state where a brief chemical cleaning was all that was required to remove dust and marks. China markers had a wax which was quite easily removed chemically or even with just a bit of rubbing.

We also wore white cotton gloves to handle the film as fingerprints caused dust to adhere to the emulsion and were quite difficult to remove. Usually I'd just rub the white china marker wax off the film with my glove, even prior to cleaning.

Another quirk of film-to-air was that we had to double-splice all films. Usually when editing, you'd splice two shots together with clear tape that overlaps one frame either side of the cut. But you'd only apply it to one side of the film. For broadcast, you had to apply it to both sides to prevent the tension of the projector from breaking the tape at the splice.

The result was that each cut was a bit thicker than the film which preceded or came after it, due to having two layers of tape added to the thickness of the film. So each cut would jump slightly due to the tape hitting the pressure plate which holds the film in place while it's being fed through the projector. It would drive viewers crazy today but everybody just seemed to accept it in those days.

One of the guys in Video Tech was working with 2-inch tape which snapped. So, thinking he'd take a leaf from the film editors' book, he joined the tape at the break using Scotch tape. When he laced up the video tape and ran it through the player again, the impact of the tape hitting the video heads was like a low-slung Ferrari at high speed hitting a concrete pipe placed in the road. Twenty grand and new video heads later, his supervisor issued a communique that, in future, video technicians were not to try such stunts again.

The VT guys were quite cruel at times as well. The old machines required quite a substantial run-up before recording so the machine would place a "cue dot", an electronic signal on the tape which it would use as a reference to ensure that the machine was up to speed before kicking in to record mode. During one studio session with a religious programmes producer, one of the VT guys came into the control room pretending to be in a panic, explaining that he had lost his cue dot, the machine couldn't record without it - and could the producer help him find it? Eventually she was on her hands and knees, scrabbling around under the control desk searching vainly for the mythical cue dot.

Suffice it to say, producers weren't very technically savvy. As film editors, we'd play films backwards, or at high speeds, in order to get to a cutting point. I mean, yeah, the fast or backwards motion is funny the first time you see it. But when you do it for eight hours a day, it quickly loses its comic appeal. One of my colleagues always used to say "You know you're in for a long day's editing when, the first time you rewind or fast forward the film, the producer collapses in fits of laughter."

[adys]

since this is a best class topic....Is there someone who could tell me whats the "best class to have fun as a caster", I'm all for crazy stuff etc. pure fun, but also playable (Coop with friend)

[Medea Fleecestealer]

A Diviner (Spirit/Dream) might be a good one for you as Dream provides the Trance of Convalescence which helps boost both health and energy and will apply to your friend's toon as well as any pets you have. Also have a look at Poinas' Pwning with Spirit guide in the Spirit section of Classes to find out how to get the best from the Spirit mastery. Or if you like having a lot of pets running around, try a Ritualist (Dream/Nature). 3 wolves with enough +skills items to get Call of the Wild up to 18 points, Nymph to pepper them with bowshot and Nightmare to add confusion all round.

Cruel, Irma2, just cruel. Couldn't do the same thing in radio as producers were used to using the equipment. Bet you had a laugh though.

[wayahta]

To be concidered, i will probebly give higher rank to a toon played later more then the first ones as they got better gear, and i twink.
1. Spellbinder
2. Conjuror
3. Conqueror
4. Ritualist
5. Templar

got several more that actually are as good as these are. And even with better gear, its as a question how many buttons you can use on your mouse. Its actually easier to pick the 5 worst toons, some of them needs to be played carefulley, some of them can run straight forward until the game ends, whats better? Even more, whats more fun?