This page is intended to preserve and back up the interview that is currently on YouTube. Links and information on the web are depreciating at record pace these days, and I wanted to make sure this got saved, as there is a TON of great info in this nearly 2 hour video.
Below the video you’ll see a backup of the video description and comments section. After, for quick reference there are timecodes for all of the questions listed in the video. If you want to back this video up yourself, you can click here to download it. (You might have to right click and “Save Link As” to download it to your local storage)
Here is a link to the current YouTube video. If you’re just now discovering this interview on this webpage and the video is still up on YouTube then go and give it likes and thumbs and whatnot, I have no intention to steal views, only preserve PXL history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfSxLFKJcgg
Note: James repeatedly says the resolution is “60×90”, this is a misstatement. PXL Resolution is in fact 120×90, I sat down and counted just to be sure. Also Fun fact: the discussion about replacement IR Filter options is one of the things that inspired me to go out and actually make that happen. Even though this interview was more than 20 years old, nobody had done it to my knowledge.
Here is a backup of everything from the YouTube description and comments section, all information captured on 2024-03-14
213 views Aug 30, 2021
Boston, MA 2002
Toy camcorder Fisher-Price PXL-2000 Inventor James Wickstead interview
by Gerry Fialka http://laughtears.com/
and
Doug Ing
PXL THIS Film Festival http://laughtears.com/PXL-THIS-30.html
celebrating 31st year in 2021
Thanks to Bruno Kohfield-Galeano, MX Farina & Ed Engel
Question Timecodes:
06:56 Interview Start
Personal questions:
07:05 What first attraced you to pursue inventing?
08:15 Where were you born, what year were you born, and what did you study in college?
09:01 Do you feel what you learned in college prepared you for inventing? Or was it more tinkering?
09:58 Who were your role models growing up?
Company background:
11:33 Can you discuss the origins of the PXL-2000?
14:19 What do you think attracted you to Black & White graininess?
16:06 Can you talk about when you started your company
23:38 Why didn’t you insist immediately that you could design it?
Technical questions:
24:25 Is it basically security camera technology?
27:21 PXL has 2000 dots, the tv we usually watch has 200,000 dots, can you talk about that?
28:38 Are we seeing approximately 2000 dots and that’s why it’s PXL-2000?
29:06 Was this development in ’86-ish?
29:12 If I say it’s like security cam technology is that still wrong?
29:51 Is it indeed an infinity focus camera?
30:25 Is infinity focus not available on professional bought cameras?
31:05 Can you “pop the glue off” and focus it? (the lens)
31:55 So it is possible to pop the glue and focus?
32:00 Why does it beep when you get to the end of the cassette?
32:55 How did you get a random “rip page” effect at the end of a cassette?
36:19 There’s no video camera that starts immediately…
37:20 Why the pause button on the handle?
38:12 Do you call the blue chip the blue chip?
40:22 About cleaning and removing the blue chip…
43:09 Do you think that putting a piece of unused film in front is serving the same purpose as the blue chip?
43:28 Is there anything you can use to replace the infrared filter (the blue chip)
44:36 Infrared filter / blue chip technical breakdown
45:12 What do you think of the purists that don’t want to take the blue chip out?
47:15 Did you anticipate the offgassing would fog up the IR filter?
48:41 Does the A/C override batteries?
49:00 What is the lens size?
49:52 Can you adapt other lenses on it?
50:41 Can you adapt a regular camera to do infinity focus?
52:06 What does the PXL camera do that no other camera can do?
52:35 Why would you ever modify a camera, why wouldn’t you just get a camera that can do these things?
54:58 New tape
Production & Marketing
55:04 How much did Fisher Price talk to you during the inventing?
56:42 Who came up with the color scheme?
57:14 You went to a toy fair with 10 prototypes, how much do they resemble what we have as PXL cameras?
58:00 Tell us about the fair
59:38 Why do you think it failed? Why do other people think it failed?
1:00:45 And so why did PXL-2000 fail?
1:07:19 One thing you said was there were 400,000 sold, do you think that’s how many were made?
1:08:00 How many cameras do you think exist today?
1:08:37 Can you discuss marketing vs. kids accepting it (the PXL-2000)?
1:11:21 What do you think of that commercial?
1:14:09 How about print ads? Magazines, newspapers? Do you have any of those?
1:16:09 What priority was making it portable?
More Technical
1:17:19 Any things we missed? – Auto Irising
1:23:02 When did the Sanpix come out?
1:24:58 In Village Voice Dec 7 1993 you said you’re planning upgrades…Can you talk about those and how color prototype came in?
1:28:02 Why would you not just put out the black & white PXL as it is again?
Artistic Use
1:28:56 Can you talk about the life of PXL after? What you’ve seen happen to Pixelvision.
1:31:22 Besides the inexpensive price of the tool, what do you think is the attraction for artists to use PXL?
1:33:32 Did you see Hamlet on the big screen? How did it make you feel to see a feature film utilizing PXL?
Philosophical Questions
1:35:26 What do you think is more important, conviction or compromise?
1:35:44 Do you think ambition is based more on fear or joy?
1:37:13 If there was a large statue built in your honor, what would it be made of and where would you like it displayed?
Misc
1:37:58 How did you come up with the black box? (the borders around the image)
1:38:51 Is it really black or is it deep grey?
1:40:16 Prompt: Introduction
1:43:31 Prompt: Double Duty Interrobang & The Blue Chip
More Philosophical
1:45:11 Jim if you met yourself, as a 12 year old today, what would you say to yourself?
1:45:43 What elements of your inventing have remained constant over the years?
1:46:55 What’s your favorite form of information
1:47:03 What’s the most overratted idea in the western world?
1:48:46 McCluen(sp?) said that we invent things and they are actually extensions of our sensory…What do you think PXL is an extension of?
1:49:54 What’s the most significant difference between men and women?
1:50:58 What is your earliest memory?
1:52:08 What role do dreams play in an inventors life?
1:52:58 Is loyalty based on reason?
1:53:46 If you were in a vat of vomit up to your neck and someone threw a bag of shit at your head, what would you do?