# HI Everyone



## zac850 (Nov 21, 2003)

Um, well, lets see, who am i...
Im in 10th grade, at a school with NO money for ANYTHING tech. We have 12 lights, and we are FINALLY going to get a lighting and sound booth, so were not sitting in the back of the gym on a pice of stage trying to see whats going on, running extention cords from the bord to the lights!!! we also don't have a theater, we share the gym....

anyway, i mainly do lighting, but i am the "technical mananger" for the plays that are going up in 2 weeks at my school (ahhhhh!)

Hi everyone!!!


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## ship (Nov 21, 2003)

In my opinion, art is art no matter where it is. Don't be jealous of what the big boys have because their challenge is still the same, just with more toys. You have the greater obstacle in your path but also have the greater accomplishment to it. If you accomplish it, and say one or more scenes are just how you thought it should be, gives you that warm squishy feeling as it were, than you mastered your goal in making art. If the audience can see the actors - especially their eyes, than beyond that gets drawn into the scene with the help of the lighting, it’s all the better. If more than one perfect moment, it’s all good if not great. If you can get one moment that’s great but have the entire show lit without much in the way of dark spots, I would call that overcoming your challenge. 12 lights, a gymn, not easy but can be done, what a challenge! It’s a challenge that will give you greater respect for what you have when you do have it. Instead of thinking about “My Kindom for three more Lekos” later when you do designs with 50 or 150 lights, you can think back to a time when you did the job with 12 fixtures period. This is what your lack of equipment will teach you. Remember the magic of the moment and the design concept, but only after the stage is lit. That’s the primary goal. Hope it’s good inspiration.

It’s hard to be a student and concentrate on learning stuff while still being the head of it. In some ways you learn by necessity and are at the top of your world. Plus you understand what’s important to study further later. On the other hand, you can’t draw upon others past ideas even if too easily found. Good and bad, while in the situation make the best of it and perhaps try new things. That’s something others with more supervision can’t enable you to do.

As for your end quote or thought, it’s very inciteful and timely in every conclusion it raises. What’s a 10th grader studying these days that they come up with such things? You might review back to the general discussions on the subject of “the war” to see what I and others think. Perhaps it might be of interest to revisit the subject. I would like to see what all of ya think of such worldly things now that the glamor of war has faded. I have my opinions, but I’m old now. You 10th and 16th graders will be the ones on the lines and running the country in a few years.

Anyway, as customary, welcome to the forum. Takes all kinds to be part of a crew, and no one person is right where art is concerned. Don’t be intimidated. Post your ideas frequently and often on any thoughts you have. Don’t for a minute think they are not of value because it is art.


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## cruiser (Nov 22, 2003)

Woah.. Let's go ship, them are some nice... writings lol

I totally agree with you though, everyone has to start somewhere even if it is only with 12 lights, as you said so long as the audience can see people on stage and everyone was satisfied with the lighting, yourwell on your way to been a good member of the lighting team!

Everyone remembers their first show.... stressed about missing cues, stressed something isnt right, stressed people arnt gonna be happy with what you ahve done...
Just remember, they know its your first time and no one will loose sleep over a missed cue, 99.5% if the audience wont even notice!
Get out there, do what you can and as best as you can and people will congratulate you on a good job =)


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## zac850 (Nov 22, 2003)

Missing cues!!!
last year some kids put on, the name escapes me, but it is With Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink...I forget what the show is called.
I was doing sounds, and i missed almost all of the sound cues because my laptop was slow...The gunshots were heard after the shot was fired...

WOOPS!!!


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## dvsDave (Nov 22, 2003)

I've messed up more cues in my career than I would care to recount... 

It's a part of the job to minimizes such occurances, but we do recognize that they do happen and we hope that they aren't reactive cues(such as a gunshot) that the audience _will_ notice. 

anyway, welcome aboard!! I am your webmaster, dvsDave, and just wanted to welcome you on behalf of ControlBooth.com!! 

We try to be a big, global tech family and help each other out with whatever questions we may have! And the best part is, no one is going to ever get on you about asking a question, regardless of how simple or obvious it may be.  
So, enjoy the site and I hope to see you around the forums often!!


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## wemeck (Nov 24, 2003)

Welcome!!! Feel Free to roam the forums and ask questions.


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## ship (Nov 24, 2003)

I never missed a cue in my entire career. That is as long as the stage manager had his wake up cues properly timed before the warning. You are not allowed to sleep if it's going to cause you to miss cues thus I never missed them. LOL


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## zac850 (Nov 24, 2003)

ship said:


> I never missed a cue in my entire career. That is as long as the stage manager had his wake up cues properly timed before the warning. You are not allowed to sleep if it's going to cause you to miss cues thus I never missed them. LOL



NEVER!!!!

what is your secreat!!!!

teach me!!!


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## ship (Nov 25, 2003)

You do of course realize that it was tongue and cheek don't you? In reality, I never slept, yea I was leaning back on the back two legs of my chair with eyes closed during a two or three cue show but there was a large difference between that and sleep. It was more of a com line joke.

As for cues, I'm sure I must have missed one or two out of mistake, but to be honest, I don't remember having any. Given an appropriate warning cue that you reply back to before given the "go", there is no reason that you should miss a cue. Thus one of the functions of an efficient stage manager, not only calling the cues but ensuring that everyone is ready. If there is a large amount of time between cues such as the above me sleeping, than the wakeup cue would be well before the warning or go cue just to make sure you are ready and have your game face back on. Given them, you missing cues should not be part anything far outside of normal unless perhaps it's a complex set of cues that for some reason say you drop a tape or there just is not enough time to get it all done. Perhaps the first time but that should all get straightened out during rehersal if there is one.


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## cruiser (Nov 25, 2003)

LOL 3 cue shows are great for com entertainment!!
I like to walk off completely (we have wireless cans at work) and go to the foyer and reply on here and whatever else.

I tend to find by the third night of a seasoned show I am able to cue inmyself without even listening to the stage manager, it just seems to happen! Which is good, cuz often stage managers 1) dont have a sense of humor quite like accountants and 2) dont like meaningless chatter between sound, lighting and flies!


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## ship (Nov 25, 2003)

LOL! , stage manager's sense of humor to that of accountants, nowe there is the joke in it.


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## wemeck (Nov 26, 2003)

cruiser said:


> I tend to find by the third night of a seasoned show I am able to cue inmyself without even listening to the stage manager, it just seems to happen! Which is good, cuz often stage managers 1) dont have a sense of humor quite like accountants and 2) dont like meaningless chatter between sound, lighting and flies!




SM's really do over freak about chatter on the head sets. During a "ready," I can see the importance. But when we are in a hold for blocking or other director's notes, Some SM's need to settle.

I have also see the breed of SM that flips out everytime some hits the call button on the clear-com system.


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## zac850 (Nov 26, 2003)

Yea, my school dosen't have a headset system. I bring walkie-talkies and headphones, and we set it up like that....

We really need a theater...


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## cruiser (Nov 26, 2003)

bawhahaha... so true!

I have met both extremes of stage managers, ones like you said who will freak out when you press the call button and others who are sooo busy talking to you that they forget to cue stuff!

I did a show this year, where i designed the whole lighting rig, but only operated the moving lights and had another tech on statics. It was for a company but the theatre it was in was the one I work at.
In our Bio Box we have 3 cans, one for LX op and 2 for the 2 spots. so i whent and put another comm unit in the Bio Box for myself and put an extra one on the fly lines so the fly operator could be on, as the ASM was using the ones from the fly.
The stage manager absolutely cracked the sads that I had gone and done this without her permission and she removed the comm boxes that I had put in.
Try cueing in lights or a blackout when you have no contact with anyone, the static op wasnt much help.
I got the box back on the second night, got one from the other theatre next door =)
That was quite memorable...


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## wemeck (Dec 1, 2003)

cruiser said:


> In our Bio Box we have 3 cans, one for LX op and 2 for the 2 spots. so i whent and put another comm unit in the Bio Box for myself and put an extra one on the fly lines so the fly operator could be on, as the ASM was using the ones from the fly.
> The stage manager absolutely cracked the sads that I had gone and done this without her permission and she removed the comm boxes that I had put in.Try cueing in lights or a blackout when you have no contact with anyone, the static op wasnt much help.
> I got the box back on the second night, got one from the other theatre next door =)
> That was quite memorable...



You will always get in to turf war unless areas and duties are spelled out. The sad thing is it does not matter at what level you are working your always going to have some sort of turf war.


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## cruiser (Dec 1, 2003)

Yeah, your so right!

That thing tends to happen alot more on the actors side of things, they all wanna be incharge and whatever...


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## wemeck (Dec 3, 2003)

zac850 said:


> Yea, my school dosen't have a headset system. I bring walkie-talkies and headphones, and we set it up like that....
> 
> We really need a theater...



Our larger scale productions have gotten so large we use two independant systems for commuications.
HeadSet & Locations
Flies
SM
Curtain
Sound Board
Light Board
Automated Light Board
Spots 1
Spots 2
Talkabouts
SM
ASM
Flies
Back Stage sound
Sound Board


We love the Motorola Talkabouts with the subchannels and head sets. The SM only uses it in emergencies. Flies has both to fly out the legs on black-outs and needs the talkabouts so the ASM can tell them when the set crew are clear. The Sound crew and Set crew use separate channels.


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