Untitled Video ("Ampex Quadruplex video tape machine on air"), May 1982

Steve Teague's account says he's 48, so basic math tells that he was about 20 when he shot this video. Maybe he was a student, maybe he was a trainee at the station. He's uploaded a few to YouTube, all of them showing the workings of TV stations in Birmingham, England in the early 1980s.

This one's the simplest and the best. I found it while looking for footage of what a Quadruplex machine actually looked like at work, and he shows not only that but how exactly one operates the machine, the general mood of a regional TV control room at the time, how the machine relates to what is being broadcast and how live footage interacts with pre-recorded segments, as well as fleeting details of the life of the machine's operator (who isn't terribly different from a factory worker), all in a single take and a single framing.

Ceauşescu's Last Tape

There's something astounding to seeing a system of government collapse in the image of a man's face. You don't even need the hissing and yelling of the crowd, just Ceauşescu as he looks out (but doesn't seem to quite see) the crowd at Revolution Square and the way the camera shivers as men begin running behind him, preparing an escape. Four days later he was dead.