my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » Acrophobia. (Page 2)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Author Topic: Acrophobia. Hillary Charles Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 748 From: York, PA, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-17-2010 08:44 AM                     His site must look different on Firefox (I'm using Explorer). Good thing at least the pictures come across. Coupled with his stories behind many of those shots made the total effect even more pronounced. It must take a special breed to do such high work like antenna maintenance and such. Definitely not for me!  |  IP: Logged Galen Murphy-Fahlgren Master Film Handler Posts: 405 From: Canton, MI, USA Registered: Oct 2007 posted 03-17-2010 11:35 AM                     Heights have never bothered me, regardless of stability of what I was standing on. I used to work in a steel mill in a fairly ordinary industrial space, with the usual square windows along the ceiling. Well, part of my job was replacing broken panes and opening and closing the panels that opened as the seasons changed. I usually replaced missing panes from an extension ladder precariously balanced amongst the piles of steel coil on the ground. Once, when closing the windows, I decided to do it from the crane box on the overhead crane, which involved leaning all the way over the edge and reaching out and hooking something around the window handle to pull it in. This was only 25' or so to the ground, but I know plenty of people who can't stand even that.  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 03-17-2010 12:34 PM                     Did anybody watch 'Man on Wire?  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 03-17-2010 12:44 PM                        I have heard of that and really want to see it. Is it on Blu-ray?  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 03-17-2010 12:54 PM                     Probably; it's certainly in DVD. I went to see it at the place where I used to project; it wasn't new then, and I bought the DVD afterwards, and that was probably about six months ago now. I think the film was 2008.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-17-2010 12:54 PM                        A couple of summers ago they had some guy painting the flagpole on our courthouse dome. I didn't envy that guy! Sitting on top of a pole attached with 87-year-old bolts.  |  IP: Logged Hillary Charles Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 748 From: York, PA, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-17-2010 01:33 PM                     Those who know of FM inventor Edwin H. Armstrong most likely know of his penchant for climbing around on top of his broadcasting towers.  |  IP: Logged Ian Parfrey Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1049 From: Imbil Australia 26 deg 27' 42.66" S 152 deg 42' 23.40" E Registered: Feb 2009 posted 03-17-2010 01:59 PM                     They are great pictures, Hillary! I'm intrigued by the cage sphere Mr Armstrong is perched upon. Would that be a lightening arrestor or a capacity hat of sorts? I've seen many hats on antennas that take the form of flat, spoked discs, mostly on AM broadcasting arrays but my antenna theory isn't good enough to know whether hats are able to be used on FM arrays-or indeed if they can be spherical. Antenna design is a fascinating subject as is the maintenance thereof. I have heard stories of engineers suffering RF burns while working on live antennas and wonder if this is a common practice? If so, it can't be a healthy situation to be in. These guys really deserve any danger money they can get.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-17-2010 04:18 PM                     We showed "Man on Wire." That's the guy, Philippe Petit, who walked between the Twin Towers in NYC. He's a great acrobat but I still think he's a bit loopy.  |  IP: Logged Hillary Charles Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 748 From: York, PA, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 03-17-2010 04:26 PM                     Ian, I think you're correct, that sphere is a lightning arrestor. Those are likely AM towers. Armstrong did lots of work in AM before FM. His famous FM tower in Alpine N.J. still stands (and came into use after the WTC broadcast gear fell on 9/11). In the Ken Burns documentary, "Empire of the Air," there are also photos of Armstrong hanging like an acrobat from his Alpine tower. Randy, I remember Petit's WTC stunt! And I recall thinking he was loopy back then too.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 03-17-2010 04:49 PM                     > His famous FM tower in Alpine N.J. still stands (and came into use after the WTC broadcast gear fell on 9/11) It does indeed still stand. After Armstrong was forced out of business, it was abandoned for a while, and then the tower was owned by Columbia University which used it in the 1960's to receive seismic information transmitted from devices NASA put on the moon for them. It believe it is currently owned by Cablevision. Not sure it was used for Television broadcasts after 9/11. I know there was talk of that happening, but most of the NYC stations ended up just moved back to the Empire State Building, where they broadcasted from prior to moving to the World Trade Center. In fact, some of the stations still had backup transmitters still in place at the Empire State Building. As for Philippe Petit, it think he got the idea from...  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 03-17-2010 06:50 PM                        Anyone who walks a wire between the twin towers is loopy. I heard that the police came up yelling at him to get down and he sat down or laid down on the wire between the two buildings! I haven't seen the doc yet.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-17-2010 10:19 PM                     Yes, he toyed with the cops. He came within a few feet of the other side then turned around and headed back to the middle. He did sit and lay down on the wire a couple of times. The cops threatened to use a helicopter to pluck him off the wire but nobody stopped to think that the downblast would have blown down and killed him. In the end they just used logic: The guy can't stay out there forever. Just put a cop at each end of the wire and wait him out. During all the interviews with Philippe and in all the old footage the guy seems a little odd. At the beginning of the movie he just seems a little flamboyant or eccentric but, by the time the movie gets under way you will start to realize that he is more than a half a bubble off-plumb. It's a fairly straight documentary. If you don't like that kind of movie you will quickly get bored. But if you can hang on it is interesting to find out how he did it. Go ahead and rent it but don't expect an action packed thriller. I was not in NYC when it happened but I remember seeing it on the news. It was in 1974. I was 9 years old.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.