Author Topic: CALLING: Fly cues  (Read 3869 times)

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SMeustace

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CALLING: Fly cues
« on: Aug 28, 2011, 12:33 pm »
I have confidence and great timing when it comes to calling lights, sound, FX (foggers, hazers etc), follow spot cues (describing what needs to be done to the last detail) calling and "choreographing" scene changes (had to choreograph the movement of set pieces within the scene to keep it safe and quick) but I have difficulty with fly cues. Any suggestions and advice? I don't think it what I need to say but rather the safety involving fly cues and placement of them.

Edit to subject line-Rebbe
« Last Edit: Oct 16, 2011, 09:23 pm by Rebbe »
"On the first day the lord said....Light cue 1, GO! Then there was light".

BayAreaSM

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Re: Fly cues
« Reply #1 on: Aug 28, 2011, 06:40 pm »
It depends on if your rail cues are a vista or during scene shifts. In my experience, when I'm calling a scene shift and we have the opportunity to hide the shift (we bring in a DS Border and do a small scene in front while everything upstage changes) I start the call of the shift, then the Head Carpenter takes over, as he can see everything going on upstage while I focus on the scene downstage. My ASM is more mobile than I am, so she also keeps an eye on things above heads to make sure nothing is about to hit someone or something as it comes in.

Any time a rail is flying in, someone should be watching it - I work with IATSE crews, so we do have 2 head carpenters are either side of the stage that watch as rails come in. They make sure that the drops don't catch any air, keep an eye on the rovers, dancer heads, etc.

My most intense and dangerous rail cues were a vista for the ballets: Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. For Midsummer, my Puck would run under rails as they were speeding towards the deck, to give the idea of traveling - and once he reached his destination and turned around, we flew out the rails in the reverse order so that he would arrive back to where he started. That sequence was very frightening for me, but the dancer put his faith in the crew, was the same every time with his running pattern, and everyone kept eyes on the drops as they came in. The rail crew also has a video monitor with them, so they can see how it's coming in from the FOH perspective. As you mention, the "placement" of the cues - I called the cues based on the music and then the choreography of Puck. Should he be behind the music, I needed to wait until he was in the right spot on stage before I started calling the rails - otherwise we would get a little too close for comfort (should a rail get too close, a hold is called, or asked to slow down, if possible). It's also important to note the desired speed of the rail cues when they are a vista. For the scene mentioned above, they had to be fast - as it was Puck's running sequence. For a scene that involved a giant spider web covering Titania's home at a scene break, that needed to be medium speed - to match Puck's gesture to bring it in. During tech we rehearse and find the desired speed, and if the request is "as soon as Puck's hands reach up to call in the spider web, we want to see it" then you need to find where in your music/blocking/choreography is the best time to call the cue, so that it does appear when requested.

Please let me know if this was helpful - if not, can you rephrase your question?

austingresh

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Re: Fly cues
« Reply #2 on: Sep 04, 2011, 04:51 pm »
While safety is important to everything we do I am particularly attentive to safety with flys.  I work in that academic world so I am often training people who have good theatre experience but sometimes have never run a fly rail before.  I usually explain to them that running a fly rail is one of the most dangerous positions, not because you can hurt yourself like you can doing most things in theatre but that you can really hurt someone else that has no idea or control over what is happening.  As BayAreaSM said, you should always have someone watching in line with the fly.  During a show you can't announce things flying like you can during rehearsals and load in/outs so making sure everyone knows when to expect things to move is critical so that an actor or other crew person doesn't try to run under the pipe at the last moment not knowing that it is coming in fast.  This should all be worked out in detail during rehearsal, especially if the movement of a fly does involve people crossing the line while the particular fly is unlocked and moving.  You should have someone that is very trustworthy and safety conscious running the fly rail and if you have the option of having someone on the other side of the stage also watching than that is great.

When actually calling a fly cue, you would do it much like any other cue.  You may want to give warnings early enough so that the fly operator can review the next move and check for any obstructions on stage, in the air, or in their line of sight.  Then you watch for as much safety as you can making sure people are where they should be during the call from whatever your vantage point is and hopefully you can trust that the fly operator and any other available deck crew are also watching for safety. 

You can't stop a show, turn all the lights on, clear the deck, and slowly bring in each fly to make sure that there is no chance of things going wrong so you have to put good trust worthy people in key positions and rehearse each move to make it as safe as possible.  Keeping everyone informed of everything is important.  You may have wardrobe crew that have nothing to do with set changes standing on the side of the stage or moving to a quick change location in the dark, so you want to make sure that even they know the sequence of movements backstage so that when there is a new crew or cast that doesn't know everything, everyone else can be watching out for people in the wrong place.  Even if things are changed such as cutting a particular drop from a scene due to a tear or something, make sure everyone knows what is going on so that no one is thrown off by the change in sequence and can be paying particular attention to things being different backstage. 
Austin Gresham
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