Poll

Which is the better tool?

Multitool
18 (42.9%)
Photocopier
24 (57.1%)

Total Members Voted: 42

Voting closed: Dec 19, 2012, 01:18 am

Author Topic: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier  (Read 33041 times)

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PSMKay

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Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« on: Dec 15, 2012, 01:18 am »
Two tools that are useful both in the rehearsal hall and in the performance venue are going head to head today. Both are the products of an increasingly industrial era where a gadget proves its worth by the ability to perform multiple tasks well. Both have come to be associated with the companies that manufacture them. (Leatherman. Gerber. Xerox.) However, neither one can perform the tasks of the other.

Both of our competitors can be very simple or quite complex. Both are versatile and no stage manager would want to be far from either to get the job done. The question though is which is the better tool.

The multitool vs the photocopier. Good luck to both teams. You have until
Tuesday at noon CST to plead your cases.

On_Headset

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #1 on: Dec 15, 2012, 08:03 am »
Quote
and no stage manager would want to be far from either to get the job done.
...well.

Okay: small venue. Small cast. Production staff of three. (Carpenter-electrician, SM, ASM. SM/ASM will handle all running tasks.) Scripts are rented from the author's agent, and the author's contract forbids alterations. An etext version is provided to stage management. Very few cues: little more than "Act 1, Lights On. Intermission, Lights Off. Act 2, Lights On. [...]"

Under these circumstances, you can just about make do without a photocopier. It might make your life easier, but it's not bare-bones essential.

The multi-tool isn't strictly essential either, but when it's the difference between popping it out and tightening a screw, rather than having to dig out the big keyring, go down the hall, unlock the carpentry shop, unlock the tool storage, find the right screwdriver, sign out the screwdriver, lock the tool storage, lock the carpentry shop, walk back into the venue...
« Last Edit: Dec 15, 2012, 08:16 am by On_Headset »

maximillionx

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #2 on: Dec 15, 2012, 05:11 pm »
Come on multi-tool!

Or as I like to call them, MacGyvers...how could you not vote for them!

MatthewShiner

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #3 on: Dec 15, 2012, 05:56 pm »
I have to admit, I have never owned a multi-tool.

I have owned 2 photo copiers.

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Anything posted here as in my own personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer - whomever they be at a given moment in time.

missliz

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #4 on: Dec 15, 2012, 07:46 pm »
I can keep a multitool in my back pocket and do last-minute fixes and repairs. Can't do that with a photocopier.
I personally would like to bring a tortoise onto the stage, turn it into a racehorse, then into a hat, a song, a dragon and a fountain of water. One can dare anything in the theatre and it is the place where one dares the least. -Ionesco

MatthewShiner

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #5 on: Dec 15, 2012, 08:42 pm »
Can't photo copy 50 scripts by Monday for first rehearsal when Kinko's loses your order with the Multi-tool, huh? 

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Jessie_K

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #6 on: Dec 15, 2012, 09:50 pm »
I love photocopiers.  I love multitools.

Photocopiers often get cranky with me and paper jam/ run out of toner/ whatever.  And then they just stop working and beep at me.  Often at the worst moment.

I love photocopiers.  I think they don't love me back.

My Leatherman Wave loves me back.

nick_tochelli

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #7 on: Dec 15, 2012, 10:46 pm »
This result is kinda ridiculous right now.

Generally speaking 99% of what you're doing at a copier can be accomplished by a printer alone. Especially if you scanned the original item first.

If multi tool loses, I call shenanigans

MatthewShiner

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #8 on: Dec 15, 2012, 11:51 pm »
Yes, but the cost for printing 50 scripts versus copying 50 scripts is so much more.

And I think, the thing is, as you move up the ladder, I am in venues where I couldn't use the multi-tool on anything.

And do I carry a scanner around with me everywhere - no, I use my photocopier to email me a PDF of the document.

BOOYAH!

(I do know the irony that probably a multi-tool could fix a photo copier, but it would be very hard hard to fix a multi-tool with a photo-copier.)

Nick, there is an emotional, emotional battle . . . it will be close.  Tears will be shed, hair will be pulled.

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Anything posted here as in my own personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer - whomever they be at a given moment in time.

dallas10086

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #9 on: Dec 16, 2012, 12:36 am »
Maybe it's because I spent the better part of a week at a copier running off scripts and scores for a cast of 20, plus directors, choreographers and designers - but I can't tell you the last time I picked up a multi-tool.

Bwoodbury

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #10 on: Dec 16, 2012, 12:47 am »
I find it is much easier to find someone with the tools to help me out with a quick repair than to get someone to handle copies for me.

Mac Calder

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #11 on: Dec 16, 2012, 01:19 am »
I can get 50 x 120 page scripts printed and bound for less than $200 (that's < 3.33 cents AU) by my local printer down the road. Everything else is relatively short runs (50 pages here, 20 pages there) - and generally if it fails "I'll get it to you during the week/tomorrow/month/whatever" - at the end of the day a show is not going to fail because Little Timmy could not sign in at the door because the copier was down...

When I need to do a quick repair on something then I need to do it now - a multitool has saved a show more times than I can count. I have pulled apart and completely reassembled a followspot ballast at 2 minutes to doors (whilst still calling standbys and places) - no leatherman would have meant we did not make doors - because the first cue was a pickup of the "MC" character - and a generic stage wash or something on the fly would not have worked with the opening. Bet your copier couldn't do that.

(that said, I love my multifunction centre - when it works)

MatthewShiner

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #12 on: Dec 16, 2012, 02:19 am »
HOW CAN MULTI-TOOL BE PULLING UP?????

This is fixed!!!!  Who is putting money into this race?  Leatherman????
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Mac Calder

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #13 on: Dec 16, 2012, 02:43 am »
After allegations of match fixing, the International December Madness Comittee had this to say:
"Well we investigated obviously, and whilst we were highly suspicious of the performances of both Leatherman and Gerber, we found no evidence of match fixing.. I mean they are both - for lack of a better phrase - complete tools - but it has never been mandated that participants not be tools."

GalFriday

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Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier
« Reply #14 on: Dec 16, 2012, 05:21 am »
Leatherman or photocopier....

My leatherman has a wine corkscrew...very useful.

My photo copier/ scanner...let's me file expense reports...so I can buy wine...

Wine with screw tops it is.

PSATW!
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