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Messages - valence

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1
Tools of the Trade / Re: Software-packing a truck
« on: Sep 04, 2011, 11:01 pm »
In the past, I've used both vectorworks and autoCAD (the free student versions) to plan a truck pack--however, these were mostly useful for communicating the pack to others, not for the actual planning.  It's too hard to think in 3D, especially with odd shaped things, when staring at a monitor.
Road cases (all of ours are a standard size, or are in multiples of each other), I represent with scraps of wood chopped into the appropriate shapes and I've made crude cardstock models of other things (drinking straws are the right size for our pipes).

2
Tools of the Trade / Re: Laptop help
« on: May 21, 2011, 06:46 pm »
One of the first things I'd do is to look at what your college recommends.  If you have any hardware requirements (say, the ability to use autoCAD for a class) you're going to want to make sure that those are met.

I have two laptops, but the one I use for theatre is a Chromebook.  I've found that it's all I need for theatre--internet, long battery life, and light weight.  With the exception of Q Lab, all the programs I use have online equivalents--every thing I do is through the internet.  It's certainly not an option for the technophobic (and I do a lot of things through the command line, which most people are not comfortable with), but my point is that you don't need fancy tech specs for stage management.

When you're looking at battery life, one thing to consider is the weight of your power cord.  Some of them run close to a pound, meaning a fifth of your laptop's battery life.  For college, I'd look to maximise battery life and minimise weight.  I'd get something with a fairly small screen--the majority of school or work related things you'll be doing won't require much screen space--and then get an external monitor for your dorm room, and you can CAD or watch movies on that.

If you're looking at macs (or some pcs) you're going to be seeing a lot of hype about SSDs (if you haven't, it's a type of hard drive).  These claim faster access speeds, but they really aren't worth their price.  In the great majority of laptops, you're not going to notice the difference and they are significantly more expensive.  SSDs are magically with things like ChromeOS (and kinda with the mac book air), but it's not worth the price with most of the laptops you'll be looking at.

3
The Green Room / Re: Is permanent marker okay?
« on: Mar 24, 2011, 12:27 pm »
I've used sharpie to detail sets before.  It's not ideal, paint is generally best, but sometimes paint's not practical.  (Also, permanent markers are not all the same, if you do use one, use a fabric marker)

One thing I would ask is how you are drawing it.  If you have a backdrop suspended from a fly loft, drawing on it with sharpie is going to be hard, because the fabric has a bit of give to it.  Paint will be easier.

(Paint is also less expensive)

4
The Green Room / Re: Sanity is Evasive
« on: Mar 10, 2011, 09:22 am »
Rock climbing is my favourite thing to do, if I have time.  It's mentally and physically challenging, so I find that it takes my mind off of work and I'm exhausts me enough that I go home and sleep afterwards without feeling antsy/stressed.

Minecraft is also oddly soothing.

5
Tools of the Trade / Re: Information access barriers
« on: Mar 08, 2011, 10:21 am »
The student theatre group at my university has an online site that we use to keep track of everything.  It's complex--much more so than any google site could be--but keeps track of shows (including cast lists, crew lists, etc), the calender, and our groups inventory.  It requires a log-on and each user has a profile, which contains some basic info about themselves as well as past shows they've been in.  This system works well, for the most part, but only because we're a student theatre group.  We consistently have the same people involved with productions, so it's practical for everybody to have a profile page.  Another group I work with has a site that requires a log-in to access the calendar.  This is much less personalised (though the site does track who's in SM, LD, etc for an event and info like phone numbers); it's mostly a list of call times, strike times, etc.  The downside to requiring a log-in is that we have no public calendar, leading to requests for us to do an event on a weekend we're completely booked for.  If you log-in, you can see which weekends we're no longer accepting events for, but that doesn't help the client. 
However, we still feel the need to keep it password protected for privacy reasons.  That site has personal information (full names + telephone numbers) as well as sensitive information to the organisation (budget stuff, riders, light plots, etc).  It's the same thing with the first site I mentioned.  We have a google doc where we keep track of the spending for a specific show--it's fine if somebody on carpentry can see how much money was spent on wood, but that's not something we want the public to see.

We find that the main challenge is getting people to sign up, so we usually have a laptop at the first rehearsal to get them to sign up (or an excel spreadsheet, to collect email addresses for dropbox/google docs).  We have found that the less information required, the better.  We tie usernames to school email addresses, then ask for name and phone number.  Once they've created an account, they're able to add more information about themselves, which some people do, and some don't, depending on what they're comfortable sharing.
What I find crucial in terms of alerting people to rehearsals, load-ins, etc is being able to generate an email list.  It's very hard to get people to add your site into their daily routine of Facebook, Twitter, etc, but emailing people are general dates and reminding them to check the site for more info has proved successful.

6
Q lab- or even a power point would probably do what you're looking for~

I wouldn't recommend powerpoint, it's not reliable enough.  We used powerpoint to run video for The Laramie Project and it crashed repeatedly.


I would also second the use of a dowser.  You can still see a projector projecting a black screen, so the cleanest way to end a video is with a douser.  We generally have a stage hand sitting up next to the projector, though I'm sure there's a more high tech solution...

7
Tools of the Trade / Re: Discussing drills
« on: Feb 07, 2011, 01:29 pm »
We had Makita drills in my high school and they were great.  The battery life is good, as is the power (I'm using really old Dewalt drills right now, and the amount of effort it takes to screw something in with those compared to the Makitas is very noticable).  They also have LEDs near the bit, which is helpful when you're working in the dark, since you don't have to juggle a flashlight.
One thing that was very helpful, as avkid mentioned, is the impact driver. 

We also have the corresponding flashlights, which are convenient.  One of my ASMs liked to borrow it to keep at the prop table during the run.

8
Tools of the Trade / Re: Holiday SM Gifts
« on: Dec 16, 2010, 06:45 pm »
Like a lot of you, I suppose, I love office supplies, especially clipboards, and I am known among my theatre/non-theatre friends for using a clipboard for everything.  Always having a clipboard means that I've used them as frisbees or baseball bases in the summer and, in the winter....as a shield in a snowball fight.  Which led to one of my friends sending me this: http://www.ballisticsystemsco.com/products, a bulletproof clipboard.


...if I had $30 to kill, I'd buy that as a joke for one of my SM friends, but alas, I do not...

9
Tools of the Trade / Re: Gifts!
« on: Dec 09, 2010, 09:18 pm »
I was pleased to discover that after mentioning my intention to get myself an ipad over the summer that my family has decided to jump the gun for me. Although I am still contributing massively to the endeavor, my military grandfather used his base to get a tax free 64 wifi-3G ipad. Just in time to start my next gig. :-)

Let us know how that works out. I'm getting an iPad as a wedding gift, and I still haven't figured out exactly how it's going to be useful in my professional life. I just know I want the pretty, sparkly, shiny, whirring, electronic toy despite it's usefull/uselessness. It'd be nice to actually need it for something instead of just having a large iPod touch.

Slightly off topic, but I recently worked with someone who used an iPad a lot.  He was TD of my last show, and took notes on an iPad with a keyboard accessory--basically using it like a netbook.    He also LDed a show recently and would keep his magic sheet open on it.

On topic: I'm not sure what the proper name for this is (I saw it a lot in China, and I'm asking my mom to buy it while she's back there for Christmas), but it's essentially a thermos with two parts, one for hot water and the other for tea leaves.  I'm working in new facilities this year which are a great temperature everywhere except the tech table, where it is freezing, so having good tea this winter would be nice.

10
The Green Room / Re: Favorite brown bag lunch?
« on: Oct 12, 2010, 09:24 pm »
One of my favourite foods is a nutella sandwich on whole wheat bread.  Failing that, I second the turkey and hummus--you can usually find enough varieties of hummus to keep entertained.  In the winter, I'll put congee (Chinese rice porridge with chunks of fish) or leftover pasta in a thermos.  If I'm working a show where I don't have somewhere to keep a lunch from getting squished (thinking hectic 24hr theatre festivals) then I like egg bagels with pepperjack and chunks of salami.
As far as snacks go, I find dried mangos to be very good (I get them from Costco).  They're flavourful and not too dry, either.

11
Tools of the Trade / Re: Excel tips
« on: Aug 26, 2010, 07:25 am »
Do you know how to do this in earlier versions than Excel 2003?

I've never personally done on older versions of Excel, but http://www.techonthenet.com/excel/questions/cond_format2.php looks like a way to do it, though it's not the simplest of methods.

12
The Green Room / Re: Your ideal kit bag/box/portable hole
« on: Aug 24, 2010, 05:24 pm »
I'm currently using my old art supplies bin (mini-toolbox) which is probably 12" x 6" x 6".  It fits well in my large backpack, meaning I can go straight from classes to the theatre, but also functions on its own.  My only two issues are the hard sides, which limits the amount I can stuff in it and it only stores well in the horizontal configuration, if I stick it into my backpack vertically (the way it fits better) then things slide around.  Soft (removable?) dividers would be extremely helpful.  I'd probably also want separate compartments for pencils/batteries/post-it notes/etc (I've got a few Asian pencil cases that I use for school and theatre, and they are amazing in terms of organisation) and an external loop to hold tape.  I currently have rolls of gaff/spike/whatever tape tied together, but kept loose, because they take up too much space.

I've been eying the bags the campus EMS carry, they look like the right match of structure/softness. (something like this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/frontsquare/bfc0_timmys_tactical_attache.jpg except wider and not from think geek)

13
The Green Room / Re: Best showing of appreciation from a cast?
« on: May 25, 2010, 07:17 am »
Hope nobody minds me performing a bit of thread necromancy, but the TD just sent me this picture and I wanted to share it.  Last fall I stage managed my high school's production of Into the Woods.  My birthday was right before we opened and the cast knew I'd be spending my 18th birthday playing master electrician instead of having a big party.  So they brought the party to me!  One of my ASMs aunt runs a bakery and they made this cake:

I appreciate the 'thank you's from my cast as much as anyone else, but homemade carrot cake during tech week takes the cake is the best

The image on there is based off of the poster(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a269/buffo_shelty/June%2011/2.jpg), which the director bullied/blackmailed talked me into making.

14
Tools of the Trade / Re: Excel tips
« on: May 05, 2010, 07:08 am »
You probably already know at least some of this, but the features in excel I find most helpful are:
-the merge and centre button: for creating pretty titles, mostly
-the orientation options (under alignment): generally use for making attendance sheets
-formatting things as tables, with headers: aside from the automatic colour coding, when you have headers you automatically get a little box next to the header that allows you to sort the table by that column very quickly
-freeze panes (under view): allows you to scroll one part of your document without having the other parts scroll.  Helpful if you've got a really long list and start forgetting which column hold which information (thinking of things like costume sizing charts)

15
Chopsticks!  I always take the extra chopsticks from take out and I keep a nicer pair of my own in my bag.  Aside from being an extremely versatile utensil, I've used my scored metal chopsticks (which are really thin) to retrieve objects that have slipped into cracks or the cheap wooden ones (which I keep in their plastic wrappers, so they're still clean) to mix paints or stage drinks that have settled. 

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