A couple of days ago I scored a contract job to strip an old TV studio that’s been closed since the mid 1980’s. I’d like to be vague here, it was in a small mid-western city. The studio had been through the hands of at least two major owners, you could still see the outlines where the old network logos used to adorn the walls.
The place was small, a tiny studio room, an equipment room and a relay antenna. I guess back in the 70’s and 80’s everywhere had to have a broadcast centre. Whatever network owned it last must have forgotten all about the place. According to some paperwork I found inside it seems to have been sitting empty since 1986. Mostly I was looking to strip the copper wiring and sort any equipment that might be worth selling on ebay. Normally I hired two guys who worked with me, but the place was so small I didn’t need any help on this job. I’d save money and do it myself.
I started early, had all my tools and a small diesel generator to power them.
There was a good haul of copper but most of the equipment was junk, apart from some proprietary video playing equipment. Nerds on ebay went crazy for stuff like that. It was dark when I finished clearing out the equipment room, a metal equipment cabinet was all that was left, it was locked. I used a crowbar to open it. Inside I found it completely bare, not even any shelves. The steel back of the cabinet was warped and bulging toward the wall. But the wall was flat, how was that possible? I shone my work light into the cabinet and saw a locking pin up in the corner. Pulling the pin released the rear of the cabinet with a pop and it swung open.
I shone my light and revealed a tiny room. There was a small metal desk and chair with a phone. There was also an old U-Matic video editing and playing unit with a built-in monitor. On the desk was a briefcase. I was deeply unnerved by the room but too curious to leave well enough alone.
The case was locked with a simple combination lock, but the case was so old and degraded I was able to easily pop it open with the crowbar.
Inside were two video cassette tapes. They were U-Matic format, an antiquated tape format TV studios used to use. The first tape was labelled ‘Whistleblower’ and the second ‘Home Protection’. I was relieved, the room was clearly some kind of room to store pilot tapes or something. The networks hottest new property of 1982 or whatever. Was Whistleblower a show? It sure sounded like one, but it would have been way before my time.
Well curiosity killed the cat, I wanted to see the pilots and I was pretty much done for the day. I ran a cable from my diesel genny into the room and powered up the player unit and slotted in the tape. It took some fiddling, but the unit came to life and started to play.
I turned off my work light and sat at the desk as the blue glow of the screen lit the tiny room.
A test card appeared and then video began rolling.
There was no intro or titles, just raw footage, the monitor didn’t seem to have any audio output. A massive pit of some kind was shown. Men in strange hazard suits were milling around the pit, the kind of suits scientists wore when they were taking samples from a volcano. The picture was a little fuzzy and the colors faded. The pit was filled with large white satchels. Dozens of them, maybe more. There was a sudden flurry of activity. One of the men was gesticulating wildly at the pit. One of the satchels was moving, thrashing around. Many of the men fled from the pit area. The writhing satchel disappeared for a split-second and reappeared nearer the edge of the pit. Had the tape skipped? It happened again, the satchel seemed to move several feet in a single frame, it had moved right to the edge of the pit. The few men that remained were panicking. One of the hazmat men came into shot with a flamethrower. A huge stream of fire jetted out of the flamethrower into the pit, he focused the stream of flame on the writhing sack. Other hazmat-clad men returned, they seem to have rallied behind the guy with the flamethrower. They threw some kind of grenades into the pit that burst into intensely bright glowing light, some kind of incendiary grenades or flares. The whole pit was ablaze. Some of the other satchels started writhing in the flames. The men kept attacking the pit. The video cut off.
What the hell did I watch? Was it news footage, what the hell was in the bags. It certainly wasn’t some unused TV pilot. My hands were shaking. Could it be some early found footage movie. Why was it stashed back here. I had to watch the second video. I ejected the first tape and put in the second.
A title card appeared, ‘Emergency Broadcast Tape 4: Emergency Home Protection, again it had no sound. The picture was even more degraded than the first tape. Some graphics appeared showing a rifle and a shotgun with a big red ‘X’ through them, another graphic showed a combat knife and a machete, again they had red X’s through them. To the right a graphic of some road flares and a jerry can appeared with a big green tick beside each. Another graphic showed a Molotov cocktail with a large green tick. A warning appeared at the bottom of the screen. ‘Never use indoors’.
You don’t say.
The graphic disappeared and another appeared, it had a title ‘Sealing your home: The best defence’. Items on the graphic slowly appeared, there was clearly supposed to be a voiceover. Rolls of duct tape, caulk in a caulk gun and black plastic garbage bags appeared, all had green check marks. Another graphic appeared with a title ‘Critical’, below a container of household table salt was shown taking up the full screen with a large green checkmark, it was clearly important.
What the hell was this?
The video cut to the exterior of a typical suburban home, then it cut to the interior. A middle-aged couple were stood at their kitchen table. The man had a large handlebar moustache, the woman had thick glasses with big frames. It looked to be very late 70’s or possibly early 80’s.
They had garbage bags, tape, a caulk gun and two containers of salt. The video cut to the pair near a window with the garbage bags and tape. They seemed to be sealing the window. The quality of the tape became worse and the U-Matic player gave out a nasty mechanical clunking, and the picture shut off.
The tape was wedged in the machine, I couldn’t get it out. It might have been destroyed.
What the hell were these tapes? What should I do with the one that was still working? I had a minor freakout there in the tiny room, but knew I wanted to get out of there. I stuck the ‘Whistleblower’ tape in my backpack, then disconnected the U-Matic unit from the generator. I sealed the cabinet entrance behind me with the locking pin. Quickly I got all my tools into the truck and got the hell out of there. I’d tell them the job was done, the place was ready for demolition.
Driving home I couldn’t stop thinking about the first tape. The way the satchels just disappeared and reappeared frame to frame. I’ve stashed the tape somewhere safe. A buddy of mine went to film school, knows about editing. Might show him the tape, see if he thinks it’s genuine. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep right until I know the things I saw on the tape weren’t real.