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« on: Apr 06, 2011, 08:31 pm »
At the theatre where I currently work, paper tech has become computer tech. It's a bit of a unique situation because I don't have board ops- I run both the lights and the sound in QLab, so instead of a paper tech we (me, the LD, and the SD) sit down with the QLab file the sound designer has created and add the light cues into the file. This actually happens a few days into the tech process when I take over running the boards from the designers, so it doesn't serve the time-saving purpose of a normal paper tech.
Before we link the boards, both designers are still playing with levels and our lighting designer is still writing cues as we go. I have everything in my book already and am calling the cues, but the two boards have not been linked yet via the computer. Basically this meeting is me talking through what I have in my book that we've already been running in tech, and the designers make everything match that in the computer by adding light cues in between the sound cues already written. Once we have a sequence written, we run it to make sure everything works as intended, and then move on to the next cue. I hope that makes sense.
Typically it sounds a little like this:
SM: Ok, so the next sequence is the transition between Scene 2 & 3- Light cue 26 we go to black, then when the actors are clear we bring up the scene change lights in cue 27 and the transition music goes at the same time, so we need to link those cues together. Then the music fades as the scene lights are coming up in cue 28.
LD: That's a 6-second fade in the lights.
SD: I'll match the sound fade to that so that the cues end at the same time.
SM: Let's run that with the computer. Everything look the way you want it?
SD: I'm going to shorten that fade time, it sounded a little funny. 5 seconds should do it.
SM: Let's run it again then. How'd it look? Great. The next cue is SQ G, the doorbell on page 37, then light cue 29 at the bottom of that page, when Beth turns on the lamp.
What I am learning to love about QLab is that because I'm running the shows (and because I'm working with resident designers, so it's the same team on every show) they have given me essentially free reign over the formatting of the computer. They write the cues, but the numbering and description is left up to me. This way, I can write myself notes in the description bar for each cue, like "VISUAL- watch Beth!" and put cues that are linked into a group so that I'm looking at one line that says "LQ 27 / SQ F Transition lights and music" rather than the 3 lines that the cue actually takes up (1 for the LQ, 1 for the music itself, and 1 for the fade up in the music).
Basically they make QLab perform the function of 2 board ops who are REALLY in sync and I make it look like my prompt book.
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