Television of bright retention

[Continued from last issue]

TV crews from Japan were brought in at the time of the inauguration ceremony of television in Pakistan to shoot the program in the studio. The team contained cameramen, producers, engineers, etc. At that time, the Bengalis who have joined the television earlier had seen the set for the first time in their whole life in Bangladesh Television. Hence, everyone was busy thinking of how the cameramen and producers will solve the technical issues. And due to that, the Japanese company NHK brought in experts in all the production aspects from Japan.

There were three cameramen at that time; Golam Mostofa, Syed Mahmud Ahmed and Rafiqul Baari Chowdhury.

The first television program was telecast on 5th December, 1964. And the camera had reached the television on 14th December. That camera did not have the zooming option. Japanese engineers brought the zoom lens on 24th December. But the Bangladeshi cameramen and engineers were enthusiastic to take the responsibility of everything for the first day's program. From that responsibility, they took day long training from the Japanese engineers on 3rd and 4th December and at the end, the Bangladeshi television crews were in charge of the first day of television program telecasting.

Television should never give the credit to any single person. The idea of a program can be generated by one person. But, to make the program happened there are contributions of each of the television crews. In 1964, television programs could grab audiences' attentions just because of their (the crews) excitement, encouragement and love for the television.

Nowadays, to make a program a producer first thinks which artists will be taken from the artist list, which technical support he will take. If the drama is produced by the channel, then they think of choosing the location in and whether it is at home or abroad. But, at that time there were not much artists in television. There was only little technical support. Yet, producers, cameramen, and directors, everyone expected to make some variations in their programs.

The first drama of television was named “Ektola Dotola” and written by Munir Chowdhury. After that, many dramas have been telecasted LIVE from the DIT studio. At that time the directors were careful enough to move the scenes and sets. No one could remember a time when there was any noise while shifting the cameras to another set. Kalim Sharafi and Jamil Chowdhury, as head of the programs, often used to sit for meetings with the producers and cameramen.

At that time, cameraman Syed Mahmud Ahmed made a proposal of whether it was possible to take footages outdoors, in the studio premises. The camera needed two people to move its wire which meant that when the cameraman was changing the camera position, there were two other people holding its wire. Thus, it was possible to take footages of the outdoors.

The writer is Managing 
Director, Channel i
Translated by Imtiaz Salim