A Tuner's Life 9

 

In early June of 2016 I took a phone call in the afternoon. A lady wanted her piano tuned and one ivory had popped off, requiring re-attachment.

We spoke for a while regarding vintage pianos. She asked me about the older tall uprights she was finding in alleyways all over the Vancouver city area. I offered the history on how this came about; the fact that most of these instruments were very old now, built previous to 1936, and, for the most part, the majority of them would require a complete restoration to become a viable musical instrument once again. I described how the cost for that far exceeded the cost for a new upright, and for most people, too much money. The pianos were being left in alleys and recently purchased homes due to the cost of disposal.

She then informed me she was a radio journalist, and asked me if I would like to be interviewed for a radio segment documentary she was developing about the piano industry in the local area and the country.

It was mid-August when she came by and sat in my garden for about 90 minutes for the interview.

I was contacted in October when the broadcast was going to air. It was on a show called The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright.

The documentary "End Notes" was broadcast on October 16 2016. What happened after that surprised me in several ways.

First, I had no idea how many people in Canada still listened to and enjoyed talk radio. Secondly, the enjoyment and sentiment Canadians feel about the old vintage pianos was remarkable.

Following the initial broadcast, I received hundreds of letters and emails about the show. My phone rang continuously with calls from people all over Canada who wanted to talk about their old piano. Some were emotional, even wept at the memory of Grandma’s or Auntie’s old upright that was still enjoyed in their home.

The show touched a nerve right across the nation.  I had a flood of jobs come in from people who listened to the show, and decided to have their vintage piano restored.  Several of them remarked that it was a good idea to do this now as I was the only piano restoration shop left in Vancouver.

It was interesting to discover how many Canadians still enjoy gathering around the old piano and enjoying music.

Here is a link to the CBC article and the radio show. The link for the radio show is at the top of article and runs about 20 minutes.There was a rebroadcast the following summer and the phone calls, emails, and letters started over again. It was a truly enjoyable experience.

Here is the link below. Enjoy reading and listening.....

End Notes 

 

 

Been A While

 It has been some time since I have posted here. 

A lot has happened in the past 8 years so there will be a number of postings coming.

I trust all are busy and happily doing well.

A Tuner's Life 8

A while back I received a call from a Disney executive. There are a lot of vintage instruments in my shop so I receive these kinds of calls often. 

 This was a set purchaser who was working on an upcoming film pilot for Disney called Big Thunder.  The movie centers on a 19^th century doctor who relocates himself and his family to a frontier mining town owned by a powerful but mysterious tycoon. The doctor and his family quickly realize that this town is not what it seems to be.

  Initially Disney was looking for a vintage player piano that had been electrified. However after looking at the shoot call sheet and the scene requirements I recommended that they use a manual pump player.

 Electrified players are convenient of course, but one of the problems is that when the unit is in operation the electrified player piano is limited when special effects are required. Of course the reproducing features the instrument has will work but these effects where not called for.

With this particular scene the director, Rob Bowman, wanted the music to play then falter off-key and slowly grind down to a halt. What would happen is the motor noise would overtake the sound of the song being played as the tempo was reduced.

The director took my recommendation and ordered the manual pump player for rental. Below is the scene.

SCENE TAKE;  Circa 1856 saloon scene

What was once a thriving town just minutes ago is completely devoid of people.  A lady’s dress-shoes nearby. A bag of groceries spilled next to it.

Seed spilling out over the back of an abandoned wagon. A rider- less horse gallops towards the man, right past him out of town…..

The man begins to hear the sound of a slightly off key piano. Playing what should be a jaunty tune, but is instead eerie…. The man heads towards the sound….. inside the saloon a steaming cup of coffee on the table….a spilled drink dripping off the bar onto the floor….and the player piano still playing slower and slower….END SCENE.

The camera and the cameramen were mounted a golf cart type vehicle and this unit had to roll close by the player piano forward into the saloon. This was why they had wanted an electric player piano. To sit at the piano and pump the pedals I would have been in the way. This would have meant I needed a dark green outfit to be edited out post production. 

Much easier and less expensive to do this another way.

In order to complete this scene I had to lie on the floor and work the pedals with my hands un-evenly so the song would distort and slow until the song become un-recognizable, then the song stops in the middle of the roll. 

We practiced for about 30 minutes having me lay on the floor and pump until the camera cart got to me then I would back off and let the cart roll by. 

3 final takes were called for due to mistakes or additions to the scene. These were done with the modern camera equipment. Then the scene was repeated using what is called a hand winder.

This is a camera used in the early days of moving pictures and is run manually with the winder on the side. It gives the film an old style flickering effect and uses the old beige colour scheme. Today we call this colour “sepia.”

A while later I heard that a second pilot shoot was ordered by ABC in January of 2013. The second shoot was done at a location in LA.

The set used for the initial pilot shoot was the 200 acre Virtue Studio Ranch owned by Danny Virtue located in Mission BC.  The set location was the old Bordertown set in Maple Ridge/ Pitt Meadows. Bordertown was a TV series that ran from 1989-91.

When working for the production side of a film shoot it is best to arrive early to iron out any small problems previous to the director and the director assistants coming on set. This way everything is ready to go when required.

While I was waiting for the shoot to commence I grabbed my digital camera and took some photos of the Bordertown set.  A lot of work was going on to make this a place called Golden Horseshoe, Wyoming circa 1856.

Here is a link to the photos I took of the film set. The location map, crew call sheet, and script for the saloon scene are all at the end of this photo set.

I have recently changed the way I load photo album links. Now you can click on the photo album link and this will automatically open in a new window.

Bordertown Film Set