{"id":3545,"date":"2018-01-30T06:26:55","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T06:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesica.in\/?p=3545"},"modified":"2018-02-02T14:00:53","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T14:00:53","slug":"monitor-to-monitor-mahesh-muthuswami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesica.in\/ta\/monitor-to-monitor-mahesh-muthuswami\/","title":{"rendered":"Monitor to Monitor : Mahesh Muthuswami"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Alexa SXT goes wireless. Its\u2026 Alexa SXT-W .<\/p>\n

Basically the monitor output has gone wireless.<\/p>\n

No more cumbersome , time taking process of connecting the monitor through a physical cord or wire.<\/p>\n

The director can be given a handy portable monitor , with which he can , monitor the shot or frame, from wherever he is on the set. No messy cables to connect to. He is free to move. The wirefree monitor out is so convenient.<\/p>\n

Though this feature was available , since few years , in cameras like GoPro and the Drone Cameras , the fact that this feature has made it to the high end , image capturing workhorses like Alexa ,\u00a0 underlines the great convenience of this feature.<\/p>\n

This set me into thinking about the time , when there was no monitor or video assist available on the set. The director has to totally rely on the cinematographer\u2019s assurance,\u00a0 if a take was ok or not.<\/p>\n

Immediately after the director says cut , the whole set would look , unabatedly towards the Cinematographer, for him to\u00a0 pronounce that the take was ok.<\/p>\n

Just\u00a0 thinkhow much responsibility was there on the cinematographer then. So, does the presence of\u00a0 a monitor\u00a0 in a set ,\u00a0 have robbed of some of that central responsibility from the cinematographer. It\u2019s a Definite Yes.<\/p>\n

But then the medium has changed a lot too. With the advent of\u00a0 computer graphics , being integral to so many films, it becomes imperative for the frame to be seen by not just the director , also by the special effects supervisor too.\u00a0 Lot of times , even for the art director, it helps , \u00a0to fine tune the placement of set props.<\/p>\n

\"\" No one can doubt or question the central place a monitor holds in a typical shoot set today. Its so vital and intrinsic .
\nPersonally , I feel , monitoring a shot through the monitor is primarily , a director\u2019s personal space. Its uptohim , to share this space , with anyone who can contribute more to that particular shot. The director uses the monitor to smooth action cues , entries , crosses etc;\u00a0 And also to see the effect of panning or tracking.
\nThere have been instances with some actors , when they couldn\u2019t deliver the performance as required by the director, will get lot of clarity and perform well , after being shown the playback in a monitor.
\nLike all the tools , video assist , could be over used or misused.So its better , it remains as a personal,\u00a0 helping tool for the director alone.
\nIt\u2019s a pity that some actors , take it for granted\u00a0 that viewing a monitor once the shot is over , as their right.\u00a0 Without realising that they are stepping into the director\u2019s personal space. And that sometimes it could ruin their performance rhythm too.
\nJerry Lewis , was one of the first , \u00a0to have used Video Assist .For his film Bellboy ( 1960 ),\u00a0\u00a0 which he\u00a0 wrote , directed ,produced and acted too. It was the first film he had to direct and act. So , he wanted to see what he was doing infront of the camera , after the shot was over. So he devised the video assist , with help from Paramount\u2019s technical team and Sony\u2019s Morita Junior.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It was basically , a separate video capturing device , mounted just above the optical viewfinder of the BNC Mitchell camera.Its a closed circuit industrial type RCA Vidiconcamera , fitted with a variable focal length zoom lens .<\/p>\n

The video assist helped him tremendously\u00a0 and hence it became a permanent feature , in all his future productions.<\/p>\n

Director Blake Edwards was the first to use the beam-splitter single-camera system invented by engineer Jim Songer in the 1968 film The Party.<\/p>\n

The first generation of mainstream video assists were \u2013 a kind of add-on to the side door of the film cameras. They will drastically reduce the amount of light , coming to the optical viewfinder. Arri III with a custom made add on video assist door is one such example.<\/p>\n

Then came the cameras , like Arri 435 , in which the video assist was integral to the design\u00a0 ( IVS ) and hence there was absolutely no loss of light in the optical viewfinder path.<\/p>\n

Ofcourse with the onslaught of the digital cameras, montiors became ubiquitous , sometimes as the natural and only way of even operating the camera , with a small on board monitor on the camera .<\/p>\n

There were certain cinematographers of yester years, who havewalked out ofcertain feature film sets, because they were asked to shoot with a video assist.<\/p>\n

They felt , it took the trust off them. At that time , may be they were right\u00a0 in doing so.<\/p>\n

But now, one can\u2019t even think about , shooting without a monitor in a set.So much so , that in some industries , even going for a rehersal is called as : okay \u2026 lets go for a monitor.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n

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Alexa SXT goes wireless. Its\u2026 Alexa SXT-W .
\nBasically the monitor output has gone wireless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.1","language":"ta","enabled_languages":["en","ta"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":true},"ta":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesica.in\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesica.in\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesica.in\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesica.in\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesica.in\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3545"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesica.in\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3610,"href":"https:\/\/thesica.in\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3545\/revisions\/3610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesica.in\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesica.in\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesica.in\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesica.in\/ta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}