Article by Lee Hopp
Back in the day when film was used, the only person on a movie set who could view the action through the lens was the camera operator. He was so important that he would tell the Director if they had the shot, other than the acting. They would then have to send the film to the lab and see what the shot looked like a day after the scene was shot.
One day the actor Jerry Lewis was Directing and Acting in a movie and he needed to see what the scene looked like after he shot it as the actor. So they came up with a system that ran off a video camera that was independent of the film camera and would video this at the same time that they filmed and hence “Video Assist” was born.
At some point the technicians who fixed cameras figured out a way to attach the video camera to the film camera and see exactly what the film camera saw while they were shooting. It became a tool that grew and grew in popularity. TV Commercials wanted it all the time, Movies started using it and TV shows.
It has grown from using basic video tape recording devices (VTR) to where it is today where we record digitally directly from the Digital Cameras at High Definition Quality onto computer based recording systems.
I was involved in helping to develop and bring to market in 2009 a software program that has revolutionized the video assist position. It’s called QTake HD and has been the go to system the last 10 years. It enables us to record multiple cameras at a time and keep track of each shot and be able to recall them in a fraction of a second. There are many features that Qtake has that are amazing.
1- The ability to create Visual Effects Shot (VFX) live on set. Basically shooting someone on a Green Screen and putting in a background that is not there as if it was there.
2- We can also provide images wirelessly to iPads via wifi. Pretty amazing stuff!
3- In addition we can create a local server that all the shots are stored on and who ever we give access to can actually look at anything we previously shot on their iPad at will. Big time Movie Directors love this feature that enables them to review what ever they want at anytime for them selves and no one else at that time.
4- We can also set this up so that people can view the images remotely any where there is internet access via the cloud.
There are so many other features to mention but Qtake has put video assist to a new level. We are masters of Qtake and know and understand what our clients might need to enable them to get their job done as easily as possible.
If you need any more information or need to understand what we do please feel free to contact me and ask away.
Lee Hopp
Owner / VTR Operator, QTake Specialist – Local 52
Lee’s years of experience in the business and his optimistic attitude enable him to be an asset and resource on and off the set. Lee loves the interaction on set and the challenges that are asked of him to perform on the job.