Chips in Space (Vectrix Computer Graphics) 1984 Tom Ostertag 2011-05-15 | A video produced in 1984 on (I believe) the Apple II with Vectrix graphics hardware, and the animations were produced by rendering and capturing the image frame-by-frame onto 16mm film. One of several 3/4" U-Matic tapes I recently acquired from Vectrix.
Skyview Drive-In (Belleville, IL) Halloween Spooktacular (1958) — Theatrical Snipe — 35mm HD Scan Tom Ostertag 2025-10-31 | ...
Skyview Drive-In (Belleville, IL) — Complete Intermission Clock — 35mm HD Scan Tom Ostertag 2025-10-30 | ...
CSD Story — 16mm Film — Faded Eastman Color Correction Tom Ostertag 2025-10-29 | A sample of what the Cintel DSX flying spot telecine can do with its PCC (Primary Color Corrector) alone, to correct a faded Eastman Color print. All adjustments were done manually in the telecine in 14-bit 4:4:4. I could have further improved skin tones with some secondary correction, but this was an early test. The PCC provides differential control over pre-gamma lift and gain, gamma, and post-gamma lift and gain.See the full film here:youtu.be/Fitrf-cz1T4?si=r2nneUNFnWCXaRgW
Cintel DSX Telecine Oliver Tests (35mm, HD) Tom Ostertag 2025-04-16 | A quick test of the "Oliver" scratch/dirt removal technology used in the Cintel DSX flying spot scanner telecine from 2002-2003.In a typical flying spot scanner, any light diffracted by the scanning beam when it encounters dirt or scratches in a film frame is lost. The Oliver system captures the diffracted light from all directions with an integrating sphere surrounding the light path and a dedicated "scratch" photodetector (in addition to the main R, G, and B photodetectors), and uses the resulting image to correct the blemishes in real time. It is effectively able to "look around" dirt and fill in scratches with actual film-derived information.This differs from Digital ICE technology, which can only identify the dirt/scratches, and relies on interpolation and other techniques in an attempt to artificially re-create the missing information.My DSX is still a work in progress, and additional front-end alignment is still required to make it look its best. Nonetheless, these tests show great potential!
Baby Rabbit in Carrot Pie (1950) — 16mm HD Scan Tom Ostertag 2025-01-07 | I felt this fever dream of a film deserved a new scan and re-upload.
Kishi Bashi — Unplugged Encore, St. Louis Tom Ostertag 2024-10-20 | @MrKishiBashi with @talltalltrees and @officialsweetlorettaband At Delmar Hall, St. Louis, MOChapters:0:00 Hi0:20 Penny Rabbit and Summer Bear4:00 Manchester
Imagica Imager 3000V Scanner Stability Test (35mm, 2K scan) Tom Ostertag 2023-04-18 | With a very worn out length of 35PA, with some nice arc burn in the center. Raw color scan.
1920 Marchant Calculator Performing Long Division Tom Ostertag 2017-04-05 | Real-time and high-speed video of this 1920 calculator dividing 355 by 113.
The Cousins — Sugar Mami Tom Ostertag 2016-06-29 | Sugar Mami, by The Cousins (Sam Kahiga & Patrick Kanyue). Sugar Records, Nairobi, 1974
Bobby McFerrin – Wanna Be (Square One), unfinished work reel Tom Ostertag 2015-10-12 | A work reel used during the assembly of a segment for the television show Square One, made by the VideoWorks company in the early 1990s. The program's polished nature degrades as the video progresses, eventually revealing timecode-burned elements, and even some live Paintbox drawing in the background. Found on 1" Type C broadcast videotape, and transferred by Tom Ostertag on his restored Sony BVH-3100 VTR.
Some 60s Drive-In Advertising and Snipes on 35mm Tom Ostertag 2015-10-06 | Shown without an aperture plate in the projector, so some things outside of the normal projection frame are visible, including part of the soundtrack. The theater spliced the leader out-of-frame by one perforation, presumably to shift the lower titles onto the screen when cropped to 1.85:1.
Century SA Intermittent Noise Tom Ostertag 2015-03-13 | Noise produced by an intermittent that was let run without oil for an undetermined amount of time. Currently filled to spec with LaVezzi intermittent oil.
Ikegami HK-355A Studio Camera Full Auto Setup Tom Ostertag 2013-01-02 | Recorded from the pix output of a Ikegami HK-355A camera via a BS-323A wide-band triax base station. The camera is equipped with a Fujinon 34x10 box lens with an Ikegami CPU chart equipped diascope.
Time Lapse — Lindenwood University Tom Ostertag 2012-12-13 | A time lapse video made by me with various computer-controlled Canon DSLRs (40D, XSi, T2i) for COM301. I used a combination of Canon and vintage Nikon lenses.
Quick Microtime Impact test Tom Ostertag 2012-11-20 | Quick test of the Microtime Impact DVE system. The unit is performing real-time 3D transformation on a live video signal from a test generator.
KSR-32 Teletype Lives! Tom Ostertag 2012-06-26 | KSR-32 recording a regenerated output from an RTTY modem.
LaserVision Demonstration II Part 2 Tom Ostertag 2011-12-26 | A friend sent me a dub of this Laserdisc on 1" Type C videotape made with his Sony BVH-500, and I made this copy with my freshly calibrated Ampex VPR-80. The control track and video RF signals were a little weak, but AST did a decent job of cleaning it up.
LaserVision Demonstration II Part 1 Tom Ostertag 2011-12-25 | A friend sent me a dub of this Laserdisc on 1" Type C videotape made with his Sony BVH-500, and I made this copy with my freshly calibrated Ampex VPR-80. The control track and video RF signals were a little weak, but AST did a decent job of cleaning it up.
Ampex ACE Micro and VPR-80 Slo-mo/Auto-Assemble Test Tom Ostertag 2011-12-22 | Edited with a DEC PDP-11 based Ampex ACE Micro editor, using an Ampex VPR-80 as the source deck (video shot with a Panasonic 300CLE at 1/1000 sec.), a Sony BVU-950 as the editing recorder, and a BVU-900 for playback into an FCP suite.
1951 Zenith H2438 Porthole Television Demo Tom Ostertag 2011-08-10 | A 16 inch porthole television, recently restored by me. It is a Zenith H2438, which uses the 24H20 television chassis, and a basic power supply and single-ended audio amplifier chassis, with 24 vacuum tubes in total.
1951 Zenith 24H20 TV chassis after new sweep tube Tom Ostertag 2011-06-30 | TV with a new 6BQ6 horizontal output tube, new 6BN6 sync clipper, and new IF amp stage power filter capacitor.
1940 Aeolian-Skinner Pipe Organ Tom Ostertag 2011-06-22 | There's a mistake in the title at the beginning. It's a 4 rank organ, with 268 pipes. A Dulciana rank was added later.Played by Kari Ostertag. Due to minor electrical issues all stops are active to reduce the noticeability of dead keys.
Quick Sony HVR-Z1U test/demo (1080/24p) Tom Ostertag 2011-05-21 | Footage shot in HDV with a 2:3:2:3 pulldown (24 FPS in 1080/60i), converted to Apple ProRes 4:2:2 and reverse-telecined on a clip-per-clip basis (making 1080/24p clips). No color correction or alteration to the image otherwise has been performed. Some was shot in crappy lighting at +18dB gain, but most was at 0dB with nice lighting. The difference is obvious.
Vectrix Computer Graphics Demo Tom Ostertag 2011-05-15 | A demo of the Vectrix graphics processors. One of several 3/4" U-Matic tapes I recently acquired from Vectrix.
Audio Controlled Video Effect Test Tom Ostertag 2011-04-15 | A quick video made with my rough Scanimate-inspired analog video synthesizer, simply using audio from my Technics SL-1200MK2 turntable, through my Tascam M-512 mixer, driving the X and Y amplifiers of the HP 1317A 17 inch XY graphics display to generate the green component of the image, and the blue was created by feeding the same signal from the re-scan camera into a DPS-265 Universal Synchronizer set to sync, strobe, and and shifted hue. The two images were keyed atop one another with a GVG 100N production switcher. Recorded originally with a JVC CR-850U (3/4" standard U-Matic) (part of the old system), and transfered for YouTube with a Sony BVU-900 (part of the new system), and AJA Io, in DVCPRO 50, and converted to H.264.
Hitachi FP-Z31 Broadcast 3-Saticon Camera Tests Tom Ostertag 2010-08-29 | First test footage from a Hitachi FP-Z31 broadcast 3-tube (Saticon) studio/ENG camera. The camera was fully aligned and calibrated by me, bringing it back to full factory specifications. It was shot at my quarry in Elsberry Missouri, and recorded with a Sony BVU-150 portable 3/4" U-Matic SP VTR. The camera and deck were powered off a single Sony BP-90A battery for the duration of shooting. The video was transfered to Final Cut Pro in my studio from a Sony BUV-900 U-Matic SP playback deck (with TBC and DNR options installed and active), through a Grass Valley Group model 100N production switcher, into an AJA Io via composite video, and captured and edited in DVCPro 50 format. After editing, it was compressed to H.264 encoded QuickTime with deinterlacing and continuous keyframing.
Amiga A1200 Audio Problem Tom Ostertag 2010-06-27 | Sampled from right channel output (left has same issue). The bottom half of the waveform is clipped in this way, starting with Paula pins 33 and 34. Does this mean Paula is bad, or could it be something else?
Calibrated Ikegami HL-79E Broadcast Camera Tests Tom Ostertag 2010-01-29 | Shot with my Ikegami HL-79E ENG/EFP camera.Recorded on 3/4" U-Matic SP with a Sony BVU-150 portable VTR.No post color correction.
Ampex TBC-80 Problem Tom Ostertag 2009-11-27 | A strange, intermittent issue with my Ampex TBC-80, which is the time base corrector originally sold with the Ampex VPR-80 1" type C videotape recorder.The problem is present in both EE mode and playback. Pressing the bypass button on the TBC does not solve the problem, so my guess is that the issue is with the Video Input board, but I could very well be wrong.It shows up on the waveform monitor with normal levels, but the vectorscope image shows intermittent 180 degree phase shifts, which are visible on the video monitor in the video.The source signals are from a known perfect Videotek VSG-201 color sync generator.Any ideas?
Scanimate Based Analog Video Manipulation System (first test) Tom Ostertag 2009-10-16 | An entirely analog video effects system designed and built by me. Inspired by the Scanimate analog "computer" animation system.The initial image was shot with a Sony DXC-327 professional studio/ENG camera. The feed from that camera and a GVG-100 production switcher was fed into an old HP 1317A XY vector monitor, which was receiving horizontal and vertical sweep signals from two modified waveform monitors (a Videotek TVM-620 and a Tektronix 1740). The sweep signals were adjusted and mixed with a sine wave modulator with a Mackie stereo audio mixer. The image from the CRT monitor was re-scanned by a Panasonic industrial color CCD camera on a robotic head (not used in the video), and in the case of the last clip (the one with music), the re-scan camera was digitally colorized by an Amiga Video Toaster system and ChromaFX, and the feed from the DXC-327 was keyed over with the GVG-100.
Ampex ADO and Analog Video Feedback Tests Tom Ostertag 2009-09-17 | Some effects set up with a Panasonic 300CLE camera, Panasonic SEG (for the chroma keyer), an Ampex Digital Optics system, and a JVC S-VHS A/B roll suite with variable tracking capabilities (for the reversed video effects).
GVG 100 Analog Chromakey Tests Tom Ostertag 2009-08-30 | A group of somewhat atypical analog chromakey tests, demonstrating the quality of the GVG 100 switcher and Panasonic 300CLE broadcast camera.
Ikegami HL-79E Broadcast Camera Tests Tom Ostertag 2009-08-29 | First test after fixing the red tube. There are still some alignment issues, so this is more of a color and lens test. I will upload a new video once calibration is complete.Recorded on 3/4" U-Matic SP with a Sony BVU-150 portable recorder. Playback for digital conversion was done with a Sony VP-9000.
Panasonic 300CLE Broadcast Camera Tests Tom Ostertag 2009-08-28 | Some footage shot with my Panasonic 300CLE professional 3 CCD video camera. The camera is from 1989, so it is fairly early CCD technology. It has been fully calibrated and restored by me.
Modified Crosspoint-Latch 6109 and Ampex ADO Demo Tom Ostertag 2009-08-04 | A demonstration of an effect I produced using a Crosspoint-Latch 6109 production switcher I modified to use an audio signal to modulate wipe patterns. The effect was produced in the following manner: 1. An audio signal is fed through a Tascam M-216 audio mixer, and distributed to the recorder and the added 6109 audio input. 2. The 6109 generates an audio modulated wipe between a green matte, and a black background. 3. A Grass Valley Group model 100 production switcher is used to key the image from the 6109 over the output of an Ampex ADO-100 DVE system, which has the program output from the GVG routed into its input, creating an analog feedback loop, manipulated by the ADO's image scale and rotation. 4. The program out of the GVG-100 and audio from the M-216 is distributed to a Panasonic AY-NE2000 nonlinear video workstation, for high quality digital recording in 4:2:2. Note: The subcarrier phase alignment of the ADO was intentionally offset, hence the color change as the feedback generations increase.
Comfortable - Original Song by Kevin and Graham Tom Ostertag 2009-06-28 | Song written and performed by Kevin and Graham.Audio recording by Tom Ostertag.Technical info:Recorded with 2 Shure BG 4.1 microphones for instruments, 1 Shure SM-81 for room pickup, and 1 vintage Shure 330 ribbon microphone for vocals. Mixed with a Mackie Micro Series 1202-VLZ mixer, and recorded with a MacBook Pro and Soundtrack Pro. The video was shot at the recording session, and synchronized with the high quality audio recording.
Chilly Willy - Project Reject - Restored Technicolor Film Tom Ostertag 2008-07-15 | A restored version of "Project Reject" from a dye-transfer Technicolor 16mm print.
Cats Cradle (Au Bout Du Fil) Strange Animation Tom Ostertag 2008-07-15 | A very strange animated short film, from my 16mm film collection.
TomTom (Parody Project) Tom Ostertag 2008-05-01 | Parody of a TomTom commercial. Made as a school project.
