The Art of Working with Machines: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Film Production

One of the most crucial aspects of film production is timing, and it's an industry that has mastered the art of making things happen. "They have everything wanted tomorrow, that's a problem," as one technician remarks. This highlights the importance of having backup plans in place, especially when it comes to machines. While these machines are incredibly reliable, there are always those instances where something goes awry, and a quick thinking technician is needed to salvage the day.

The Machines Themselves

When working with film equipment, the machines themselves can be quite temperamental at times. "We have to make sure they know that," our technician notes. This means being prepared for anything, from machine failures to unexpected color limitations. Take, for example, an 8-bit machine that's supposed to produce a wide range of colors, but can only manage eight. While this may seem like a limitation, it's actually a great opportunity for creative problem-solving.

Consulting and Communication

In film production, there are often multiple people involved in the decision-making process, which can lead to confusion and miscommunication. To avoid this, our team likes to consult with each other before making any decisions about what's possible or not. This ensures that everyone is on the same page, even if it means tempering expectations from time to time.

A Personal Story of Passion for Film

One of our technicians has a personal story of passion for film production that dates back to his childhood. "I used to have a cardboard box with a screen cut out of it and a keyboard cuts out of it," he recalls. This may seem like an embarrassing admission, but it highlights the technician's genuine love for film and his willingness to engage in creative play.

The Joy of Writing Code

Working with machines can be surprisingly enjoyable, especially when it comes to writing code. "I used to write some simple stuff... a little routine here, a little program there," our technician explains. This may seem like an unlikely source of enjoyment, but for those who enjoy tinkering with technology, the process of creating something from scratch can be incredibly fulfilling.

The Importance of Timing

In film production, timing is everything. The machines themselves are not immune to this pressure. "If you're on set and you're shooting that could be 50 people's time all held up by this thing not doing what it's supposed to be doing," our technician notes. This highlights the importance of having a backup plan in place, whether it's an additional machine or a different approach altogether.

The Fun of Making Things Work

Despite the pressure and technical limitations, film production can be a fun and creative process. When something doesn't work out as planned, our team likes to think outside the box and come up with alternative solutions. "You write some code, and you're like, 'Oh, this won't make it on the film,'" our technician notes. This kind of thinking is essential for staying under pressure.

A Brief Moment in the Spotlight

Finally, even those involved behind the scenes can receive a moment of recognition when they least expect it. Our technician recalls a particularly memorable experience where he was asked to play a minor role in an acorn-themed scene from a film about a museum visit. While his contribution may not have been formally credited, he still enjoyed being part of the project and even got to keep some memorabilia as a memento.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe museum is a charity we have to find ways of generating funds that keep us going so what we do commercially helps us do what we do for education one of those were things that we do is hire out some of our machines to the world of TV and film documentaries all that kind of stuff eight live events even and make them do things that the director of this program might want them to do so this is where the idea came from to be honest so we were approached by if I remember rightly somebody on Twitter I think Graham Graham Linehan was looking for some interesting props to put on the set for the second series of the IT Crowd and had just put a post out saying what should I have there and somebody says hey you should get computer museum to supply some stuff and something I think quite can't quite remember the rest of the what happened but ultimately we were in contact and we said oK we've got some things we talked about some stuff but then we said well actually if you had something like that behind moss the people that know are going to freak out because it's quite a rare machine they're gonna see that and go yeah but that that just doesn't that would not normally belong in a in an office like that they love the idea and that's it it was there though I think we had a victim NZ there and a where as X 81 in a wooden case all sorts of weirdness but that was kind of a star and then all of a sudden they started getting emails going isn't that now Terry in the background in it and so job done that's what it was there for just that little nod to the Nerds did you provide the Internet this gen it's the Internet we didn't provide the Internet in fact I tried to get the internet from him and he wouldn't give it to me Sony's shelf still is that it is a living room I think yeah he wouldn't do it but I know the box that it was made from well the projects have you words on what sorts of things have you supplied loads of stuff it's quite weird actually the number of places old computers and old because we it's more than just computers so we supply old TVs it's just old tech fax machines phones any anything you know so it's you know Christmas everything gets a bit nostalgic so a lot of the big supermarkets come to us and want old things to show those old scenes of old family life I keep saying old and it's not the race of one is ready player one first person to find the egg will inherit half a trillion dollars we supply there lots of stuff to them actually not so much computers but tons and tons of software games packages and things so they kind of wipe this out nearly of software as far as I'm aware and I haven't even seen it yet just kind of implemented our archive as part of our ology possibly so that will be interesting to see can't wait to go see that but but yeah this quite a few films Eddie the Eagle and old TVs in and yeah whenever they might want somebody interacting with the computer then we might supply the Machine spec it I'll tell them what kind of machine they would have had and then maybe write some software that allows the actor just to basically do that and and it come up with whatever the script requires so we have a box called code like a boss it's basically just an Arduino in a box with a serial port so we can connect into old terminals and whatever is required of the actor they do that and perfect perfectly-formed C code appears on the screen or or a letter to the president I don't know whatever just appears well then exactly so at the moment it's in Hackney of the minute onset so no but but we could do maybe we could do another video about that later it's just an Arduino it's nothing clever but it's good fun what's the weirdest thing or the wackiest thing that you've been asked for and he provided here we've been asked for edible paper clips which which is interesting I don't think they really looked at the website to see what we did but we get the we get asked for a dentist chairs and completely while weird and wonderful stuff but actually on more of a computer on topic for those that do actually read the website we well we're currently being asked for what I thought was 50 IBM pcs from a phone call you've just overheard he's now 60 and we couldn't even do the 50 let alone the 60 so I don't know what's going on there so yeah but that best fun you know we it's really hard to do we've we've got about 18 machines here that we can but yeah we've done what we do for the rest we don't have to wear that one out what's the trickiest part of it is it is it finding the things is it making them work what's the trickiest thing about this industry timing they have everything's wanted tomorrow that's a problem yeah I think the machines themselves through I mean we everybody's well aware of how reliable the machines are or maybe so we have to make sure they know that but that means us then maybe if they want one machine they'll have to we'll have to have a backup in some way because actually if you're on set and you're you're shooting that could be 50 people their time is all held up by this thing not doing what it's supposed to be doing that doesn't go down very well so so generally speaking we try and have in a second machine even if you can't do a second machine just another way of doing it just a back-up plan might be a different machine and done in a different way but as long as that shot it's done that day that's all that matters so we have to work in those kind of it's all good pressured but it's it's got to happen but that's actually the good fun of it you've got a whole bunch of people that are there whatever happens that day those shots will all be gone and everybody has a very much of a can-do attitude like Prachanda this let's try another way let's do this and let's work out a way I really enjoy that but but yeah I think for the machines themselves it's just those little things where they say could it just do this you know can we get you know all the colors in the rainbow on this machine no it's an 8-bit machine it does eight and that's it yeah oh really we wanted to show a photo so yeah and look do you have to temper people's expectations that way in terms of what would have been possible though yes we've all seen those programs on TV where they go bring up the CCTV no enhancer we try and make sure that at least the person we're talking to in the first place is aware of what is and what is impossible and actually we we end up consulting on that basis anyway in the first place but the thing is there's more than one person involved so as it ends up there on the line we do get some interest and requests onset and upset people when it can't quite do what they want the nice thing about it is that I suppose go back to when I was less than 10 probably so 70s this is embarrassing I I used to have a cardboard box with a screen cut out of it and a cardboard box with a keyboard cuts out of it and I used to pretend that I had a computer because I didn't you know I didn't get once in about 1980 yeah of course it's part of the collection no I don't still have it I don't have a picture or anything you didn't take pictures back there did you really it was you took pictures your holidays you didn't take pictures of everyday life no I don't but but the ironic part is that you know mountain 48 no basically doing the same thing you're still pretending with those machines and it's actually really good fun so when you've got a machine there and then you you write something fairly simple stuff you write some code to put up other than latest when it's kind of a spy number-crunching thing coming up on the screen it's great fun you know it doesn't have them work it's not really doing anything it's just what it looks like and then in the background of the film you've got this thing just ticking over it might not even be focused but you know that you know what you did to do it yeah getting paid to do things that don't really actually work but they look good the other one I suppose we forgot about my chromium which is one of the only ones we don't that was fantastic and again you know you're just writing these little routines and things that reflect what was going on in science a simple little graph drawing programs and stuff and actually some of this stuff you do and actually quite a lot of it sometimes doesn't even make it on the film anyway so the computer might be just there but the cameras pointing just here and all that works for nothing but but you were in microphone as well weren't ya yeah it was some so I worked hard on that film really hard and just giving it all the time I could I think any haircut for a little while and then one day when they were at the Museum and we were choosing bits and pieces to have around they said oh you've got kind of 70s looking here you ought to be in the film I ignored the the remark and but but yeah of course we're going to want to be in it pair of gardening gloves so yeah there's no bit part in the acorn scenes technically I kind of played David Johnson Davies but they didn't credit methe museum is a charity we have to find ways of generating funds that keep us going so what we do commercially helps us do what we do for education one of those were things that we do is hire out some of our machines to the world of TV and film documentaries all that kind of stuff eight live events even and make them do things that the director of this program might want them to do so this is where the idea came from to be honest so we were approached by if I remember rightly somebody on Twitter I think Graham Graham Linehan was looking for some interesting props to put on the set for the second series of the IT Crowd and had just put a post out saying what should I have there and somebody says hey you should get computer museum to supply some stuff and something I think quite can't quite remember the rest of the what happened but ultimately we were in contact and we said oK we've got some things we talked about some stuff but then we said well actually if you had something like that behind moss the people that know are going to freak out because it's quite a rare machine they're gonna see that and go yeah but that that just doesn't that would not normally belong in a in an office like that they love the idea and that's it it was there though I think we had a victim NZ there and a where as X 81 in a wooden case all sorts of weirdness but that was kind of a star and then all of a sudden they started getting emails going isn't that now Terry in the background in it and so job done that's what it was there for just that little nod to the Nerds did you provide the Internet this gen it's the Internet we didn't provide the Internet in fact I tried to get the internet from him and he wouldn't give it to me Sony's shelf still is that it is a living room I think yeah he wouldn't do it but I know the box that it was made from well the projects have you words on what sorts of things have you supplied loads of stuff it's quite weird actually the number of places old computers and old because we it's more than just computers so we supply old TVs it's just old tech fax machines phones any anything you know so it's you know Christmas everything gets a bit nostalgic so a lot of the big supermarkets come to us and want old things to show those old scenes of old family life I keep saying old and it's not the race of one is ready player one first person to find the egg will inherit half a trillion dollars we supply there lots of stuff to them actually not so much computers but tons and tons of software games packages and things so they kind of wipe this out nearly of software as far as I'm aware and I haven't even seen it yet just kind of implemented our archive as part of our ology possibly so that will be interesting to see can't wait to go see that but but yeah this quite a few films Eddie the Eagle and old TVs in and yeah whenever they might want somebody interacting with the computer then we might supply the Machine spec it I'll tell them what kind of machine they would have had and then maybe write some software that allows the actor just to basically do that and and it come up with whatever the script requires so we have a box called code like a boss it's basically just an Arduino in a box with a serial port so we can connect into old terminals and whatever is required of the actor they do that and perfect perfectly-formed C code appears on the screen or or a letter to the president I don't know whatever just appears well then exactly so at the moment it's in Hackney of the minute onset so no but but we could do maybe we could do another video about that later it's just an Arduino it's nothing clever but it's good fun what's the weirdest thing or the wackiest thing that you've been asked for and he provided here we've been asked for edible paper clips which which is interesting I don't think they really looked at the website to see what we did but we get the we get asked for a dentist chairs and completely while weird and wonderful stuff but actually on more of a computer on topic for those that do actually read the website we well we're currently being asked for what I thought was 50 IBM pcs from a phone call you've just overheard he's now 60 and we couldn't even do the 50 let alone the 60 so I don't know what's going on there so yeah but that best fun you know we it's really hard to do we've we've got about 18 machines here that we can but yeah we've done what we do for the rest we don't have to wear that one out what's the trickiest part of it is it is it finding the things is it making them work what's the trickiest thing about this industry timing they have everything's wanted tomorrow that's a problem yeah I think the machines themselves through I mean we everybody's well aware of how reliable the machines are or maybe so we have to make sure they know that but that means us then maybe if they want one machine they'll have to we'll have to have a backup in some way because actually if you're on set and you're you're shooting that could be 50 people their time is all held up by this thing not doing what it's supposed to be doing that doesn't go down very well so so generally speaking we try and have in a second machine even if you can't do a second machine just another way of doing it just a back-up plan might be a different machine and done in a different way but as long as that shot it's done that day that's all that matters so we have to work in those kind of it's all good pressured but it's it's got to happen but that's actually the good fun of it you've got a whole bunch of people that are there whatever happens that day those shots will all be gone and everybody has a very much of a can-do attitude like Prachanda this let's try another way let's do this and let's work out a way I really enjoy that but but yeah I think for the machines themselves it's just those little things where they say could it just do this you know can we get you know all the colors in the rainbow on this machine no it's an 8-bit machine it does eight and that's it yeah oh really we wanted to show a photo so yeah and look do you have to temper people's expectations that way in terms of what would have been possible though yes we've all seen those programs on TV where they go bring up the CCTV no enhancer we try and make sure that at least the person we're talking to in the first place is aware of what is and what is impossible and actually we we end up consulting on that basis anyway in the first place but the thing is there's more than one person involved so as it ends up there on the line we do get some interest and requests onset and upset people when it can't quite do what they want the nice thing about it is that I suppose go back to when I was less than 10 probably so 70s this is embarrassing I I used to have a cardboard box with a screen cut out of it and a cardboard box with a keyboard cuts out of it and I used to pretend that I had a computer because I didn't you know I didn't get once in about 1980 yeah of course it's part of the collection no I don't still have it I don't have a picture or anything you didn't take pictures back there did you really it was you took pictures your holidays you didn't take pictures of everyday life no I don't but but the ironic part is that you know mountain 48 no basically doing the same thing you're still pretending with those machines and it's actually really good fun so when you've got a machine there and then you you write something fairly simple stuff you write some code to put up other than latest when it's kind of a spy number-crunching thing coming up on the screen it's great fun you know it doesn't have them work it's not really doing anything it's just what it looks like and then in the background of the film you've got this thing just ticking over it might not even be focused but you know that you know what you did to do it yeah getting paid to do things that don't really actually work but they look good the other one I suppose we forgot about my chromium which is one of the only ones we don't that was fantastic and again you know you're just writing these little routines and things that reflect what was going on in science a simple little graph drawing programs and stuff and actually some of this stuff you do and actually quite a lot of it sometimes doesn't even make it on the film anyway so the computer might be just there but the cameras pointing just here and all that works for nothing but but you were in microphone as well weren't ya yeah it was some so I worked hard on that film really hard and just giving it all the time I could I think any haircut for a little while and then one day when they were at the Museum and we were choosing bits and pieces to have around they said oh you've got kind of 70s looking here you ought to be in the film I ignored the the remark and but but yeah of course we're going to want to be in it pair of gardening gloves so yeah there's no bit part in the acorn scenes technically I kind of played David Johnson Davies but they didn't credit me\n"