Messages

181

Stage Management: Other / Re: Re: Risk Assessment

« on: Jun 13, 2010, 09:57 pm »

It has a full backing in law - Just the other day, we had Work Safe do a walk through our venue, and I was doing some cable soldering and was asked to produce a JSA for the task I was undertaking. Work Safe is empowered to close businesses and work sites until they are satisfied that everything is safe - generally they will just provide a list of things that require fixing, and will come back and do a follow up inspection, but it is also not uncommon for them to issue fines and or even post a cease work notice as well as a list of things to fix.

Obviously, repairing a few cables would not be JSA'ed specifically (doing 15 minutes of JSA for 5 minutes of soldering would be ridiculous), I had to pull out our Safe Work Practice document on soldering, and demonstrate that our guidelines had been followed (Fire extinguisher within 5m of the work surface, RCD on the socket etc etc etc)

These are of course RA's for safety sake, as opposed to business risk assessments. The general premise of all Risk Assessment is the same though - for each risk, you assign it a Hazard Level (low danger -> high danger) and a Probability Level (low probability -> high probability) and if you do it numerically, Hazard x Probability gives you a risk rating. Based on the figures you use (your scoring scale etc) you can create thresholds to allow you to decide whether or not you are going to go ahead with it and what you need to add control measures to

182

Stage Management: Other / Re: Re: Risk Assessment

« on: May 30, 2010, 06:49 pm »

In Australia and the UK at least, you are required to assess what dangers may exist in the work place and also provide solutions to make the task more safe. They are generally called Risk Assessments and Job Safety Analysis.

A Risk Assessment is generally considered more global - ie the general risks in the venue like objects suspended over head, objects flying, sharp edges etc.

A JSA is task oriented - ie you are flying a performer in Peter Pan, how are you going to do that safely, what risks exist etc.

The key point with RA's and JSA's is they should be site and time specific. So you don't just have a "single point verticle rigging, person flying" JSA that covers you for all jobs, but instead you have a "Peter Pan at the Royal Albert Hall, between the dates of 12/12/09 - 31/12/09" JSA.

All of this then ties in to SWP's - Safe Work Practice documents... which you can refer to in your JSA's and RA's and are a global document  - things like correct use of ladders - maintain three points of contact, fibre-glass supports if dealing with power etc...

Usually the realm of the Technical Director... but not always. The major problem with the entire thing is that even for someone who is experienced, a full RA of a job can take 10+ hours of work, and then there are the JSA's on top of it, so generally what happens is companies will make a boiler plate RA and tailor it to the job . Mine is a 26 page document with a bunch of yes/no combo boxes which I then attach a number of floor plans and weight loading charts to submit to the OH&S committee at the venue I work. It takes about an hour per RA, and basically it gets filed in a filing cabinet and never seen again.

If there is an injury, that RA combined with our SWP folders will be our primary defence - we need to prove that all crew had easy access to the SWP's and for jobs that have RA's (anything not using just installed infrastructure and a few leads and AV equipment on a desk basically) crew know where to find the RA's and are encouraged to read them. If the RA is not deemed sufficient, then a full OH&S audit is done... After one of those, generally you are walking a little funny and have a list of "concerns" to be rectified immediately... if they let you stay open. That is why boiler plate RA's and internal SWP's are often considered company secrets - as it is known for companies to spend 100's of thousands on developing them.

183

The Green Room / Re: THOUGHT OF THE DAY: What's your day job?

« on: May 20, 2010, 12:52 am »

Lighting Tech, Technical Director, Operations, Crewing, General Dogs Body at my venue... Official Title "Operations Assistant"




-Edit for SPaG - damn natural keyboards - I have never seen a keyboard that shape in the wild

184

The Green Room / Re: Should SMNetwork ban all classroom assignments?

« on: May 12, 2010, 06:09 pm »

It is not a ban on starting threads or replying though - you reply to a thread or start a topic, the post is submitted but hidden... once a mod has once overed the post, they approve it, it is "un hidden" - (12 hours at the most I would guess).

There are multiple ways it can be handled, and over in Mod Land, we are also having a simultainious discussion about the pro's and con's of all alternatives and the nitty gritty of the implementation - and by extension how we can limit the inconvenience to new members whilst knocking the posts we don't want on the head. What ever solution is decided on over there will have been very thoroughly thought through before implementation.

-Mac

185

The Green Room / Re: Should SMNetwork ban all classroom assignments?

« on: May 03, 2010, 06:56 pm »

Either that, or some form of premod system - ie until you have 5 posts, all of your posts will require moderator approval, and maybe leave it up to the specific board moderator to decide when a post is too "Do my homework for me" for the board?

186

Tools of the Trade / Re: iPad: What do you think?

« on: May 03, 2010, 02:44 am »

True, but the same could be said of any market leader - they will pick technologies that they consider GOOD, and they will promote the hell out of these features on their units, they will limit access to those they don't agree with (ie remove a floppy disk). Other manufacturers look to the market leaders to see what they are doing, see that the market leader is encouraging the move from floppy disk, and see that they can save money by following that example. So they do it too. It is called trend setting.

Hi, My name is Mac, and I own a computer with a floppy drive and I have 2 USB floppy drives. 

Look at any market leader in any industry, and see how they shape the products of their competitors.

187

The Green Room / Re: Should SMNetwork ban all classroom assignments?

« on: May 02, 2010, 03:16 am »

Suprisingly, my vote is not to ban student homework posts carte blanche. Provided the rules are followed and an attempt to research the answer has occured, I am fine with them. What I am not fine with is "I need to interview a stage manger, can someone reply to this post with answers to these questions" then a list of questions that are most likely copied from an assignment, or anything else that has had no effort applied to it (and is generally posted by someone who has logged in for the first time 10 minutes ago because we showed up on google.

There is a lot of valuable knowledge contained in this foum, and sharing it with up-and-comings is great, but it is a community, and communities rely on give and take. I am not saying that a person needs to have an arbitary post count or have been a member for x months, but rather that they have demonstrated that they want to be a member of the community. And of course "I need to interview an SM, answer these questions" posts belong in the bin. Interviews are not just a list of questions, they rely on the interviewer asking a question, getting answers, then using these answers to create more questions, etc etc etc, until the interviewer has a thorough understanding of the topic. IE effort needs to be put in by the interviewer.

188

Tools of the Trade / Re: Set Changes Software

« on: May 01, 2010, 08:01 pm »

Look at Filemaker - you would have to build it yourself, but filemaker is not THAT difficult to use. I have not made any SM apps in it, but I use it to track crew times (as a timeclock), I use it to create Job Safety Analasys' for jobs, and I use it to create a number of other reports. The JSA application is far more complex than I would imagine a set tracking application would be, and I created it after about a week of playing with Filemaker.

189

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: sharing rehearsal room- and props??

« on: May 01, 2010, 10:05 am »

Professional etiquette says that the other SM definitely should have asked... especially as to find that you had the props probably required looking through your gear.

Sadly, I have dealt with enough people from different walks of life to know that many people now days would not even see why it could be considered an issue.

Just the other week, when I found someone had borrowed a microphone from bottom draw of my desk (I keep a small ammount of gear I have personally amassed over the years at work in case of emergency), they said to me "What's the issue, I returned it and it wasn't damanged? It is a really nice voice over mic, and I knew you would let me borrow it". Had they had given me a quick call, absolutely, I would have said yes... but now I keep that drawer locked, and if I am not in there when they want to borrow something... tough. Maybe I am old fashioned, but it seems basic etiquette escapes many people now.


-Mac

190

The Green Room / Re: GREENROOM: Patron Saint of Stage Managers?

« on: Apr 27, 2010, 07:37 am »

Saint Venerius of Milan - the patron saint of Lighthouse Keepers... We help guide the ship in the dark, keep it away from the rocks, and it can be a lonely existance

Saint Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne - the patron saint against neck stiffness and pain... Self evident I believe.

191

Stage Management: Other / Re: Award Ceremonies

« on: Mar 08, 2010, 01:59 pm »

Having had various levels of involvement in a number of award shows in Aus - the logies, brownlow medal and a number of other sporting ones.... Once TV becomes involved, your traditional theatre running methods take a back seat, and you enter TV land. They tend to liase directly with the end client, and then the venue and AV supplier liases directly with the TV company.

On the night, the show call is done by the floor manager of the company, or the director. Everything is basically an order of magnitude larger - instead of an in room vision mixer, you have an in room mixer for imag + an OB van. Instead of 2 audio consoles (FOH + FB) you have 3 (a broadcast split is added). Lighting design is a collaboration between the LD, the director and the engineers in the OB van who invariably say "It's too dark. We need more light".

As far as the venue goes, the most important thing to do is before the first truck arrives in the loading dock, take a digital camera and a representative of the station with you and walk through the venue, taking photographs of the state the venue is in - note down what is damaged, and take photos. At the end of the show, do the same thing. Then get ready to write out a bill. I have seen awards shows that take 5 days to install come out in 6 hours. They only come out in that time frame because the guys who rip it all out don't care about the venue. We average an $8k repair bill after each TV company comes through.

If there is no TV involvement, awards shows are simple, boring and repetitive. Show caller/SM is optional - most AV techs can do an awards show in their sleep. With these smaller awards shows and the like tend to follow the corporate AV mindset, in that a "show caller" is more likely than an SM, and the technicians are expected to know how to do their jobs with minimal to no prompting.

192

Tools of the Trade / Re: Help Needed With Stand Lighting Console

« on: Mar 08, 2010, 01:20 pm »

I gather you mean Strand, and I also gather you mean monitor not modem.

First off, is it a 300/500 series console, or one of the new Strand Palletts. (does it look like something on this site or more like the 300 or the 500

It sounds like the harddrive has corrupted. If it is an older strand (3 or 500) you are going to need to find someone who really knows strand to reformat the desk or at the worst, replace the hard drive. Success rates vary.

If it is a newer strand, contact strand lighting (aka phillips theatrical) and get a service tech to look at it.

193

The Green Room / Re: How do you "play?"

« on: Mar 07, 2010, 07:40 pm »

I dive. Although it is a hobby that seems to suprise everyone who I tell - cos I don't look like the diving type. I also live about 1/2 a km from the beach, in a town well know for it's street festivals, markets and events with a huge cafe culture, so walking through town with a few friends can be quite entertaining.

194

Tools of the Trade / Re: Prop Drinks : Port

« on: Feb 27, 2010, 07:40 am »

I have a herbal, berry tea which is the correct colour (it is made in by a tea house in the mountains of victoria, but I am sure there is some american equivalent), which when boiled down a bit looks remarkably like port. Augmented with a dash of blackberry syrup creates a nice, dark fortified wine look.

195

Tools of the Trade / Re: New Printer Recommendations, Please!

« on: Feb 26, 2010, 05:52 pm »

I have a Brother MFC-5890CN - It can print up to A3 in size (handy for floorplans etc), and plugs into your network, so all the functions of the scanner are easily shared. It is not that expensive either, and uses cartridges that are standardised across the range.