Messages

106

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: CALLING: Calling a group of stoodby cues

« on: Feb 07, 2016, 11:07 pm »

You may suggest to the LD that some cues be linked together in the console, where possible, so that you're not trying to call 30 cues in 60 seconds or something ridiculous.  If there is truly that much happening artistically in such a tight span, the LD should be able to automate some of it in the console. 

107

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: REPORTS: Report/Notes Language

« on: Jan 12, 2016, 04:32 am »

My reports were filled with "May we please get an extra plate for the dinner scene?" and "Is it possible for Sara to have a purse at her entrance, please?" "It would be great if..." etc. As I have grown as a stage manager I think this approach for all of my notes makes it seem as if they weren't priorities and made me look like I was afraid to say what the productions needs are. 

In addition to the concerns you bring up, this type of language also suggests that it isn't a requirement.  "Is it possible for Sarah to have a purse at her entrance, please" gives people an avenue to say no.  Of course it's possible, it's a purse; you're not asking them to re-design the set.  This is one of the reasons I'm such an advocate of strong, decisive language.  It's natural that most people will seek the path of least resistance when making a decision.  If you give them an easy out, many will take it.

My more general thought on this is that your rehearsal and performance reports are archival notes of the production.  They are formal documents and should contain simple, factual, neutral statements. 

If you're worried about your report language or emails being interpreted as terse, develop a rapport with the related parties ahead of time.  Grab a coffee, grab lunch, or have a phone chat if they're in another city.  If the only way they know you is by your reports, they may think you're a jerk.  If they know you otherwise they'll understand the voice with which you're authoring the language.

108

Stage Management: Other / Re: What to do if the music won't play?

« on: Dec 28, 2015, 07:46 am »

The ability to look back on your work and acknowledge where improvement is needed is a great asset to have in your toolbox.  We all know we're not perfect, but kudos for having the humility to call yourself onto the carpet in a way.

This specific scenario is interesting - when you say "something got messed up in QLAB" -  I assume there was not a live backup running?  Others here have said it's always good to have a CD backup - while I agree that having a backup is necessary, the ideal way to do this is to be running a live backup QLAB machine that is a separate piece of hardware from main show machine.  Both machines should be dedicated QLAB machines (not peoples' personal laptops, and not machines that do other duties).  If (when) a crash occurs, a change is as simple as bringing the levels on the mixer down for the primary and up for the live backup, and pressing a button on the KVM from primary to backup.

A redundant QLAB setup with two MAC Minis, Monitor, KVM, Keyboard, Mouse, and Software License can be had for under $3,000 (if you've got the right audio system to accept it - a touch more, say $5,000 if you need added hardware).  I realize many theatres operate on shoe string budgets, but if this is an insurmountable sum, probably best to find a solution other than relying on QLAB. 

So often we are reactionary and say "what should I do if X situation occurs?".  Look to be proactive during your tech run and say "how do we avoid X, Y, Z situations?".  If your sound designer or audio engineer's answer to a possible failure is "let's hope it doesn't happen!" - that's something to work out way before showtime.

109

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Where to Start...?

« on: Dec 23, 2015, 01:01 am »

There are many ways to skin a cat, and I've been out of the business long enough that any thought I can offer on specific entry-level tactics is not relevant; but, two pieces of advice I'd offer for whichever route you take:

1) Work hard.
2) Don't work for free.

I agree with the above, with the caveat that I think a low-paying internship can be valuable ONCE at the very beginning of your professional career, if it is for a theatre of sufficient stature (think LORT theatres).  These are the kind of places where as an intern you are the lowest on the totem pole of a SM team 3 or 4 deep, and you learn a lot, and make a lot of connections.  I did an internship at a (then) LORT B/D theatre, and it definitely set me on a different course than if I'd just tried to get started doing small stuff.

Completely agree with you.  The one internship I did was a Stage Management internship at an AEA theatre between my senior year of high school and freshmen year of college.  There were two SM internship positions.  I had one as an incoming college freshman and learned a LOT; my counterpart was mid-30s and working essentially for free.  Don't do that.

110

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: REPORTS: Report/Notes Language

« on: Dec 23, 2015, 12:48 am »

Ruth, how much of this do you think is SMs early in their career lacking the experience or diction (admittedly two wildly different suggestions)  to speak with confidence on a peer to peer level with other members of the production team? 

As I read this thread I'm torn between that, or our society's newfound fear of offending anyone creeping in to our professional discourse.  A simple factual statement such as "no notes today" conveys all that is needed in as few words as possible; brevity in action.  A lot of folks now add flowery or superfluous language to email communications to convey familiarity or a more casual tone, as emails with simple factual statements can be interpreted by some as coarse.  Perhaps this tendency is creeping in to the archival reporting as well.

111

Tools of the Trade / Re: Casting Form

« on: Dec 21, 2015, 02:21 am »

What software program?

In Excel this is an easy task to accomplish using conditional formatting.  Create a conditional formatting rule to highlight duplicate values.  You'll need to do a duplicate value based on the entire name, not just first or last, as it's possible and likely you'll have cast members with the same first or last name. 

I've attached a sample cast list that has formatting rules based on first and last names.  This is a ridiculous example of Smiths and Jones, but the purpose is to illustrate the formatting rules.  Duplicate first names will not be highlighted, duplicate last names will not be highlighted.  Only duplicate full names.

112

The Green Room / Pet Peeve - Mobile Email Signatures

« on: Dec 04, 2015, 01:33 am »

Curious if anyone else has encountered this line (or something similar) at the bottom of a mobile email signature: "Sent from my mobile device, please excuse typos or brevity".

The typos - appreciate that, all good there.  But why are people asking me to excuse their brevity?  Brevity should be encouraged, not excused!  If you're filling your emails with superfluous statements that are irrelevant to the statements in your email, then you're wasting everyone's time. 

OK, I feel better now.  Thanks for listening!

113

Tools of the Trade / Re: Help shopping for a headset - specifically, help understanding connectors!

« on: Dec 03, 2015, 11:42 pm »

Let us know what you decide and how it turns out!

114

Tools of the Trade / Re: Help shopping for a headset - specifically, help understanding connectors!

« on: Dec 03, 2015, 07:44 am »

If you are mostly using ClearCom you should be good with an XLR4F plug on the headset.  ClearCom beltpacks have a XLR4M jack on the pack. 

115

Employment / Re: The importance of on line presence

« on: Dec 03, 2015, 01:43 am »

The likelihood that I'll get lots of spam is much higher than the likelihood I'll get work.

I can confirm this first-hand.  The first professional website I made in college 10 years ago had my email address in plain text, and it has been inundated with spam and garbage to the point that I've had to abandon that email address and start fresh.  Google's spam filters are not capable of keeping up with it.  At some point I will try to re-claim it... but it is a herculean effort.

That said, I do think it's important for folks to be able to get hold of you either through LinkedIn or some other means.  One alternative to posting your address publicly is to use a "contact me" form on your website.  This option gives users an avenue to contact you without sacrificing your privacy.

For personal websites, Wordpress is a fool-proof setup that most folks who are even slightly tech savvy can figure out.  Once the back-end database is set up (don't let that be intimidating, most hosting companies will do this for you) the actual building of your site is quite simple and intuitive.  If you do use Wordpress, this plugin looks to be pretty good.  Also includes captcha for anti-spam! 

116

Employment / Re: Quotes for SMing Events

« on: Dec 01, 2015, 02:40 am »

In general terms I think it is a good idea for you to establish a fixed day rate that you can use to easily respond to this kind of inquiry.  Settling on the number can be tricky, it requires a somewhat objective judgement of what your skills are, your level of experience, and what your time is worth.  You don't want to price yourself out of gigs, but you don't want to leave money on the table.

In a professional environment, something to consider is what are you overhead/social costs.  A good rule of thumb IMO is to add 25-30% to your determined hourly rate for social costs (taxes, healthcare, etc.), then use that as your fixed day rate.  I also encourage you to base your day rate off of a 10hr/day, as day-rate work is almost never a flat 8 hours.  If you base your rate off of an 8hr day you're likely to wind up working an hour or two for free most days.

If you are going with $25/hr (arbitrary, taken from SMMeade's post - you will need to determine where to benchmark your hourly rate) then I'd say something like:

$25/hr * 10hr = $250
*30% Social = $75
Flat 10 hr rate = $325/hr

I'd recommend including these lines on your quote as well:
After 10hr mark, hourly rate of XXX applies (you need to determine that as well).
Travel expenses at cost + 10% administrative (save your receipts).

Also think about your payment terms, suggest those on your quote. 

If you trust them, maybe you do 100% NET 10 (100% of payment is due within 10 days of invoice following event).
If you don't trust them, don't think they have the money, etc.. maybe you suggest 50% deposit, 50% NET 10 (50% of payment due before event, 50% within 10 days from invoice) - most companies won't agree to this but it is something to consider if they seem less than reputable.

117

Tools of the Trade / Re: Help shopping for a headset - specifically, help understanding connectors!

« on: Nov 30, 2015, 11:44 pm »

Funny, that as I read this I am in the midst of ordering a huge amount of gear from HME/Clearcom.  Most of the time you will need to go through a dealer for stuff if you are ordering from the big manufacturers.  Some do sell on B&H, which is a distributor that does direct to consumer sales on their website.  Speaking as someone who has knowledge of what dealers and distributors pay for the equipment and in turn sell it for, B&H's prices are extremely tough to beat.  So if you see something you like on there, that price is probably the best you will get.

A bit about connectors.  Don't let that intimidate you too much.  Most headsets can be ordered with different types of connectors.  Looking at the spec sheets of the RTS PH-88, Eartec Cyber and Eartec Fusion, these can all be ordered with XLR4F plugs.   As an aside, I'd probably recommend staying away from the Eartec models you mentioned - those are specifically listed as "PTT" (push to talk), which means you will actively need to hold down a button on the cable whip of the headset to talk.  So the option of leaving your mic open during long calling sequences goes out the window.  To me, at least, that'd be annoying.

The big thing is that you need to specify the correct connector for the type of beltpack you intend to connect with.  If the beltpack has a 4-pin XLRM, you need a 4-pin XLRF.

What type of comms are you using most frequently?  That will determine the best connector to buy. 

118

The Hardline / Re: Equity Report for Limited Media Appearances

« on: Nov 30, 2015, 03:41 am »

I am by no means an AEA expert, however do have considerable experience dealing with contracts.  General rule of thumb is the language is to be taken literally.

In this case, "utilized" - the "ed" suffix indicates past tense.  A strict reading of the language would dictate that a report is to be filed after the time has been spent.  Also, a "report" by definition is the formal account of activities that have already taken place.  So it is not logically congruous to file a report for events that have yet to take place.

If it were intended as a projection or estimate, a more logical statement would read (ish): "(b) The Producer shall file an estimate with Equity projecting the time to be utilized for Recording sessions;"

If you have typed the clause verbatim the "R" in recording is capitalized, which means it's a defined term somewhere else in the contract.  Check there to reference the definition of a "Recording session" and what permissions/prerequisites are required to conduct a Recording session.  There may be clauses under that definition that require sending advance notification or projections to, or receiving permissions from AEA, etc... with the report to be filed after the time has been "utilized" as a closure of the process.

But that is a strict reading of the language only, also without context of the full agreement - the seasoned AEA folks around here may have a different reading or working understanding of the clause.

119

Introductions / Re: New Enough

« on: Nov 29, 2015, 11:55 pm »

Hi!

My name's Lydia and I'm a senior in college, hoping to and I will pursue stage managing as my career post-graduation.

Don't "hope", "do".  Use definitive, forceful words to chart your course.  Hope implies it's out of your control.  It's not - once you decide what you want, go get it. 

Welcome, welcome.  Hoping you find the forum as a helpful resource.

Did you mean, "Going the extra mile to make sure the forum is a helpful resource for you"?

I suppose I earned that one, hah!

120

Tools of the Trade / Re: Spiking astroturf/fake grass

« on: Nov 29, 2015, 11:51 pm »

Fantastic!  Doubly so that the scenic designer likes it.  This is one we will file for future use should anyone have this challenge in the future.