Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1469942
Summer 2022 – LOCAL695.ORG 41 I'd often call him up to discuss QTAKE jobs. He had helped train most of the video assist people in the union on both coasts, including my mentor, Lee Hopp of LH Video in New York City. I was profoundly flattered by his recommendation and appreciation of my technical know-how but I never expected how that call was about to change my entire world. We discussed my workflows on previous projects like King Richard and Space Jam: A New Legacy, and I told him a little bit about what I'd been dealing with. COVID-19 changed video assist work on a profound level. No longer could executives and Producers huddle behind a single monitor at video village. On King Richard, I had three Apple TVs that needed to be set up and broken down every day in the trailers. There were about five Executive Producers on iPads that could stream footage from wherever they were working in the world. We had about thirty-five iPads with a local stream for the crew, which I had to charge, disinfect, and maintain every day. Everyone was streaming the live and playback feed from the main QTAKE Pro computer system. Getting all these systems to work seamlessly required a lot of trial and error but we pulled it off and it was a big hit. However, if one screen ever went black, I'd get a text from almost every Executive Producer asking why they can't see picture. From that experience and from working with the beta test version of the QTAKE Pro Stream on Space Jam: A New Legacy, I had added some new tricks to my bag to get it all to work. Jeb was impressed with what he heard and began to tell me a little bit more about the show he wanted to put me on. I was told I'd have basics like my cart, cables, gear, etc., and that I'd be moving around different stages and locations. Everything would need to be streamed live. Production required a very complex workflow. The scope of it was almost overwhelming. He said that there would be between one hundred and one hundred fifty clients on the stream, including the executive team and those working remotely in Canada. We would be on six to eight different stages in addition to doing on-location work in downtown LA. The art department, production Local 695 Representatives on the set of Star Trek: Picard