Portapak

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The Portapak introduced in 1967 was the first portable video recording device. The first Portapak-type video recorder was the Sony DV-2400 Video Rover, which allowed a single person to record video in the field. From A History of Camcorders:

"The first ”portable” video system, this two-piece set consisted of a large B&W camera and a separate record-only helical ½” VCR unit. It required a Sony CV series VTR to play back the video. Even thought it was clunky and heavy, it was light enough for a single person to carry it around. However, it was usually operated by a crew of two - One shot the camera and one carried and operated the VCR part."

The introduction of the Portapak had a great influence on the development of Video art. Suddenly not only could rich production companies afford to make movies, but artists could experiment with an easier form of recording. You could play it back instantly insead of waiting to process film, and it was much more affordable.

" The Portapak would seem to have been invented specifically for use by artists. Just when pure formalism had run its course; just when it became politically embarrassing to make objects, but ludicrous to make nothing; just when many artists were doing performance works but had nowhere to perform, or felt the need to keep a record of their performances; just when it began to seem silly to ask the same old Berkleean question, 'If you build a sculpture in the desert where no one can see it, does it exist?'; just when it became clear that TV communicates more information to more people than large walls do; just when we understood that in order to define space it is necessary to encompass time; just when many established ideas in other disciplines were being questioned and new models were proposed - just then the Portapak became available "*1

Lord of the Universe, which won a 1974 DuPont-Columbia Award,^[1]^[2]^[3] was the first Portapak documentary produced for national television.^[4]

[edit] Bibliography

"History of Camcorders," by Mark Shapiro, Internet Video Magazine, 2002
1 Hermine Freed, 'Where do we come from? Where are we? Where are we going?' in Ira Schneider and Beryl Korot (eds.) Video Art: An Anthology, 1976

[edit] References

^ DuPont-Columbia Award, Columbia University, The Journalism School, The Lord of the Universe
The Lord of the Universe, Subject: RELIGION, News Organization: TVTV, Awarded: 1974, Summary, Silver baton. 16-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji and his American following at a three day spiritual festival. Producer: David Loxton., Jurors' Comments, TVTV and WNET/13’s "The Lord of the Universe," a 60-minute report on Guru Maharaj Ji, was, according to the jurors, hectic, hilarious and not a little disquieting. With a heavier and less sure hand, the subject would have been squashed beneath the reporters’ irony or contempt. As it was, cult religion was handed to us, live and quivering, to make of it what we would., Original Air Date: 2/24/1974 Total Running Time: 01:00:00, Archive Number: 1973/74.9.TV
^ Lord of the Universe, Video Data Bank, retrieved 1/18/07.
^ Electronic Arts Intermix, "The Lord of the Universe", 1974, TVTV, retrieved 1/18/06.
Awarded the Alfred I. du Pont/Columbia University Award in Broadcast Journalism, The Lord of the Universe is a forceful expose on the sixteen-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji and the national gathering of his followers at the Houston Astrodome -- Millennium 73, billed as the "most significant event in the history of humanity."
^ Top Value Television, biography, 2007, Electronic Arts Intermix.
TVTV's innovative verite journalism included an award-winning expose on the Guru Maharaj Ji and his followers, The Lord of the Universe (1974), which was the first Portapak video documentary produced for national television.