[opendtv] Re: NYTimes: Test Pattern Girls...
- From: "Cliff Benham" <cliff.benham@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 11:20:33 -0500
How about the 'tea girl'of BBC fame? In 1967, at the beginning of PAL =
colour,=20
the BBC advertised for models to be screen tested. On the appointed day =
they=20
appeared at the television studio but after many hours none was deemed =
suitable.
Some one suggested testing the 'tea girl' who was there to serve tea to =
the models.
She was chosen immediately.=20
I still have an 8X10 transparency of her.=20
-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Peter Fasciano
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 9:34 AM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: NYTimes: Test Pattern Girls...
I believe that Lena Soderberg still lives in Sweden with her hubby and 2 =
=3D
grown children. She was honored in recent years at a Siggraph event in =
=3D
Boston. For those unfamiliar, Lena inadvertently became a digital =3D
imaging test subject when her November Playboy centerfold photo =3D
(portrait shot only) was scanned into the digital world in the early =3D
seventies. =3D20
The earliest visual record of an actual "China Doll" shot exists in a =
=3D
photo of the Farnsworth Wyndmoor PA television studio in 1932. There's =
=3D
a reference life-size porcelain bust of a woman surrounded by artificial =
=3D
flowers sitting in the studio corner. =3D20
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: Henry Baker [mailto:hbaker1@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2005 12:09 PM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] NYTimes: Test Pattern Girls...
FYI -- Beats the heck out of a boring test pattern... BTW, does anyone =
=3D
know where "Lena"
is these days?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/movies/30sich.html?oref=3D3Dlogin&pagew=
an=3D
ted=3D3Dprint&position=3D3D
January 30, 2005
DIRECTIONS | FROM THE ARCHIVES
Big (Test) Break
By CHOIRE SICHA
Opening on Friday: portraits of 60 female film stars you've never seen.
The women in the exhibition "Girls on Film," at Anthology Film Archives =
=3D
in the East Village, belonged to a secret cinematic world. They were put =
=3D
before the camera not for the audience's eventual enjoyment, but for =3D
brief tests that technicians used to adjust the film's color and =3D
exposure. These "China Girls," as they came to be known (though no one =
=3D
seems to remember why), were sometimes actresses but more often lab =3D
assistants or secretaries who were roped into service. As far as the =3D
moviegoing public was concerned, they never existed, but they captured =
=3D
the glamour and attitude of the period. And they lived on for decades as =
=3D
projection booth pin-ups.
"We're always looking at these old test girls," said Robert David, chief =
=3D
executive of the CinemaLab in Englewood, Colo., which specializes in =3D
film restoration. The test strips are used to gauge absolute =3D
black-and-white tones but are most useful for skin tones. "In Europe, =
=3D
the test girls are naked - they're topless," he said. "Because the more =
=3D
flesh, the more helpful it is." Though the film-strip models are useful =
=3D
for restorations, digital technology has made them otherwise obsolete: =
=3D
perfect white balance can be achieved with the touch of a button, not =
=3D
the squint of an eye.
The exhibition's curators, Julie Buck and Karin Segal, work in =3D
conservation at the Harvard Film Archive and spent nearly a year =3D
restoring scratched and damaged snippets of found film for the show, =3D
which is made up of photographs. "They were used since the silent era, =
=3D
but probably the predominant period when they were on everything was =3D
mid-60's to mid-80's," Ms. Buck said. She added that "Chinese film has =
=3D
Chinese girls, Indian has Indian girls" - "French has French girls," Ms. =
=3D
Segal interjected - "but they're always girls," Ms. Buck concluded. They =
=3D
had not yet found any tests of topless models.
Karin Kolb, now the program coordinator for film at the Goethe Institute =
=3D
in Boston, served as a test-strip girl just once, in Munich in 1992. Her =
=3D
on-screen moment hasn't yet been found. "I didn't have to dress up - I =
=3D
just had my regular clothes on, I wasn't stripping!" she said. "When =3D
you're an intern, I think you always do what they tell you to."
=3D20
=3D20
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