Quote:
Originally Posted by David Roper
Camera moving in for the closeup of the juror (Will West?) who says "He doesn't even know how to speak English."
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David,
I agree the bottom object in the picture is a camera lens.
All lens on camera turrets in that era pointed in the same direction, and you will notice top object does not.
On some live programs with a lot of fast camera changes, cameras had small fill lights, in case they needed to grab a shot quickly and the shot they needed was in the shadow. On live shows they could not stop and adjust the lights.
The top protrusion is one of the probable two camera lights. You can see the diffusion filter in the lamp to prevent it from blinding the actors. Using lights on cameras was dropped as soon as film and later video tape ended live drama production. When these lights were not needed, they were kept turned off. In most operations these lights were remotely controlled from the booth by the video engineer, and not by the camera man.
The two lights slightly higher than the lens were needed so the talent could act straight into the lens and not be blinded. We tend to forget how bright the studio light had to be in 1954.
I am very impressed with the mobile camera work on this live presentation.
Jas.