Poll

Which is the better tool?

Paper
24 (51.1%)
Laptop
23 (48.9%)

Total Members Voted: 47

Voting closed: Jan 05, 2013, 10:23 pm

Author Topic: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop  (Read 46549 times)

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PSMKay

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December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« on: Dec 29, 2012, 01:28 am »
Ladies and gentlemen, children of ages 13 and up, welcome for the last time to Gadget Stadium. We have here competing tonight two triumphant teams who have fought long and hard to reach this crowning moment. Other matches have been exciting - some even exhilarating. We've seen some true tests of skill and versatility on the way to the arena tonight. However, this... is... the FINALS!

This week our two remaining teams will battle to find out who takes it all home. These devices are coming onstage from their lives behind the scenes and hitting their marks perfectly at center court. This is not only a match that will end December Madness, but it may settle a longstanding debate in the stage management community. Without further ado, allow me to introduce....

*lights dim* *soft drum roll*

Hailing from the forests of the Pacific Northwest is a team that was written off at the start of this match, but one which has spent most of its existence being written on. Raised by its parents from saplings, it developed from a blank page through beating itself to a pulp. Now fully grown, weighing in at 20 lb and 97 brightness, this troupe brings reams of experience to the playing field. While it may have been accused of folding under pressure and recycling its strategies, it's still a winner and we're proud to have it with us in the stadium tonight. Cheered on by the hot and bothersome Confetti Girls (fresh from the three hole punch...) taking the floor for the very last time, let's have a hand for....

PAPER!!!!!

*cheery organ music!* *lights up* *Team Paper, with cheerleaders, enters stage right!* *3 min music vamp for cheering!*
*lights back down.* *drum roll resumes*

Opposing, we've got a team that couldn't have had a more different upbringing. Created in Silicon Valley by expert handlers who had practiced on prior season MVP the desktop, this group strives to prove that better stage management through science is not only possible, but the best way to charge forward. This team knows the keys to success - all 80 of them. Although some fans have scorned the team for bringing in Japanese ringers, one cannot deny that this relative newcomer has honed its skills and broadened its technique so that it can cash in all of its chips here for you tonight. Does it have the touch(pad) to make it through this battle? Has it honed its operating system enough to rise to the challenge? Will its fans bother to look up long enough to pay attention to the game? We certainly hope so, for it has fought a long battle to get here tonight.

Cheered on by the lovely and talented Flash Drives, it's....

LAPTOP!!!!

*more organ music!* *lights up!* *Team Laptop enters with cheerleaders!* *Music vamp as both teams shake ... hands?... and take their starting positions.*

Paper. Laptop. You each have a week to prove your worth. Keep the play fair and clean. Rally your fans and bring everything you've got. The winner here takes the trophy, the title, and the trip to Disneyland.

Stage managers, you've also got one week to settle this dilemma (although probably not for the last time. Sigh.). This is the finals so we'll be running twice as long to make sure everyone gets a chance to vote. Voting will run through Friday at midnight CST.

*blows whistle* GAME ON!

dallas10086

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #1 on: Dec 29, 2012, 01:10 pm »
This reminds me of the movie The Good Son, where the mom is holding on to Elijah Wood and Macaulay Culkin over the cliff, and she has to choose which one she has to let die because she can't hold on to both of them.

In this case, Elijah Wood is paper. I'm gonna let paper live.

Thespi620

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #2 on: Dec 29, 2012, 01:17 pm »
Paperless processes are tough, and I have yet to successfully finish a production without a hard copy of a blocking script......but snail-mailing rehearsal schedules is simply not an option. Laptop, you're mine.
[The SM is] a very gifted, slightly eccentric master mechanic [keeping] a cantankerous, highly complex machine running at top efficiency by talking to it, soothing it, & lovingly fixing whatever is broken. 
-J. Michael Gillette

Maribeth

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #3 on: Dec 29, 2012, 01:22 pm »
You can use a rehearsal hotline for schedules. I love my laptop but I'd rather do a production without it than give up paper.

dallas10086

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #4 on: Dec 29, 2012, 03:13 pm »
Paperless processes are tough, and I have yet to successfully finish a production without a hard copy of a blocking script......but snail-mailing rehearsal schedules is simply not an option. Laptop, you're mine.

Remember we're just talking laptops. No convenience of portability, but you can still take your notes, go to your desktop PC and email your reports and schedules.

nick_tochelli

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #5 on: Dec 29, 2012, 05:28 pm »
You can't make the assumption that someone has a pc vs a laptop. The question is which sm tool is superior: paper or laptop. Desktops do not factor in. Laptops are clearly the winner here.

GalFriday

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #6 on: Dec 29, 2012, 06:17 pm »
This is a difficult decision. I can not imagine doing a production without paper....but....no one said complete deprivation was necessary. So, If I assume I do not have to do without. Then, this becomes a contest of that which is most useful. Well, I am using my laptop now to talk to all of you. SMetwork is a very useful tool...as is Google...and Wikipedia...and Excel...and Word...and email...and Skype...and iTunes...and YouTube...and....

So, I shall choose my laptop.

I shall stand by its side...

And although Paper is still important to me. It is not truly my lifeline.

Laptop it is.

PSATW!!!!!!!
"Now the best way to learn the theater, always, is to be a stage manager" - Stephen Sondheim

RuthNY

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #7 on: Dec 29, 2012, 06:32 pm »
This job can be done without a laptop. And, although I would never want to do another show without one, I did many shows sans laptop, in my youth, and I've never done one without paper.  In fact, I challenge everyone who has never done a show without a computer to try it.  Paper, wins for me.
"Be fair with others, but then keep after them until they're fair with you."
--Alan Alda

nmno

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #8 on: Dec 29, 2012, 07:01 pm »
Kay, I've really enjoyed the color commentary on each match-up.  :)

GalFriday

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #9 on: Dec 29, 2012, 07:17 pm »
Just remember...

Ask not what paper can do for you....but what a laptop can do for the country!

We are not anti-paper. We like paper. We love paper....we use a lot of paper.

But the laptop is our guy...we can have a beer with our laptop....who would you rather hang out at a bar with? or a tech rehearsal....laptop is the clear leader, the future, the shining beacon in the night (unless you know how to dim it).

The answer is clear!

PSATW!

"Now the best way to learn the theater, always, is to be a stage manager" - Stephen Sondheim

nick_tochelli

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #10 on: Dec 29, 2012, 08:34 pm »
When was the last time you got a laptop cut? Exactly.

amandaackovitz

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #11 on: Dec 29, 2012, 10:02 pm »
Aye, but when is the last time paper died on you?

BARussell

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #12 on: Dec 29, 2012, 10:26 pm »
I was originally gunning for paper but then I really thought about it, yes I could do a show(with some difficulty) without either one, but if someone said you can only choose one, which is the best most useful tool for you, I would have to say laptop, anything I would need to work around because i did not have paper would be worth it for the convenience of emails, and excel, and dictionaries, and word processors, and internet, and Dropbox, and everything. Yes even now I can think of things that would be very hard to do, but not impossible. It's not about whether people have done it without a laptop in the past, it's about whether laptops have changed the world of stage managers, whether they have taken the throne as a the king of tools for our kind.
"We don't negotiate with weirdos!"

PSMKay

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #13 on: Dec 29, 2012, 11:54 pm »
Remember that the team is Laptop, not Laptop + internet.

Mac Calder

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Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop
« Reply #14 on: Dec 30, 2012, 12:53 am »
Then remember that it is paper only, not paper + pen (or printer or photocopier or crayon or marker)

 

riotous