Messages

226

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: RUNNING: "We have a 45 minute hold for the Obamas."

« on: Jun 09, 2009, 10:45 pm »

Most stressful... Whilst in Asia on a smaller ship, we had an aerial acrobatics artist come on board the morning of their show. They bought on 4 different aparatus, after being told lies by the talent agency - namely that we had a performer flying motor that could be used to hang their apparatus from. Not the case. I spent the morning beg, borrowing and stealing a chain motor (that moved at the break neck speed of 6 meters a minute)  It worked for the 10 hours we spent designing, rehearsing and teching the shows. We go to preset the first apparatus...The motor does not move. We yell out to the bar staff to hold doors, I climb up the ladder, cannot see anything wrong on a cursory inspection - and I cannot take the motor to the floor (as we did a sweet job securing it), we cannot just put in a new point as we had custom-built a stabaliser directly below the motor to prevent sway from destroying my rig. We contemplate putting on a production show instead... Nope, half the cast are drunk... We look to see if we can dead-hang each apparatus - but we don't have clearance and we don't have the time to redesign the lighting. We are now at 2 minutes to show start, and we are at crunch time. We decide to bridle some spansets to a few inches bellow the chain motor and hang the aparatus there through our stabaliser, with stage staff coming out in blackouts to change them with a ladder. We open the doors, seat the audience (950 of them) in 2 1/2 minutes, and start the show 3 minutes late.

Longest I have had though was when an actor borrowed a pair of costume shoes (without permission) and left them at home, remembered at 10 minutes and decided to drive home to get them - forgetting it was peak hour and the traffic was hell, in the hope that he would not get a written warning for taking the shoes. He arived 11 minutes after we were meant to start (and he was critical for the opening number and was wearing the costume, so the understudy could not step in), he left the theatre 11 minutes after the show without a job.

227

Tools of the Trade / Re: Wireless Headset Technology

« on: Jun 05, 2009, 12:15 pm »

CellCom is actually DECT technology (Cellphones residential kissing cousin). For each antenna on the system, you can link up 5 beltpacks - the standard cellcom system comes with 2 antennas - with the splitter box, you can get 8 (or 10, I cannot remember) antennas onto the system. It's a very good system, beautifully clear, and was first designed to integrate into the Clearcom matrix system, so that you could have a remote matrix station, instead of being limited to party line talking. The audio quality is beautiful - and in a corporate environment, they cannot be beaten (imagine, client headset only has access to talk to the technical director and cannot hear any other conversation, camera guys talk directly to the vision switcher, spots to the lighting director.... you can reduce what you hear in your headset to exactly what you need, and no more)

For those without the big budgets, HME make a nice little intercom - it only has 2 limitations 1) you can only have 4 beltpacks talking at once, per base station and 2) it does not use standard headset connectors. It is perfect for theatre though, and I have seen the beltpacks (which are tiny) thrown (with force) down two flights of stairs and survive... the headsets are a weak point though.

RTS and Clearcom both make an analogue wireless system. They are a better quality audio than the HME system... not as cheap though, and they are in the UHF spectrum and can interefere with radio mics. The RTS solution is also (from memory) 1 beltpack per master station, whilst Clearcoms WBS system is 4.

The benefit to all of the above systems is they can plug straight into your existing two wire systems (ClearCom, RTS, TechPro, )

Just some links (now that I have time):

RTS, marketed as Telex RadioCom here
Clearcom Cellcom/Freespeak DECT system here
Clearcom WBS UHF Wireless Coms here
HME's 4 channel 'cheap' solution here

Clearcom also make the Tempest range... never used them, but they opperate on 2.4GHz, which is a crowded area of the spectrum here

228

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Starting a tech

« on: May 31, 2009, 01:19 pm »

Generally, I would start with lights and sound pre-set, no BGM with worklights up, actors to places, take out work lights and give a go.

As for how it will run - straight through, cue to cue, all through and stop etc is a conversation best had with the technical team in a pre-pro meeting. Everyone has a different working style, so you need to adapt your tech to their style. As for what you can script, after we work on a section, if I see there is a big cue-less vacuume I would ask the team "Are we good to pick up on Page x Line y".

If you are worried about the LD (which seems to be your biggest thing atm), talk to them. Most will know to just ask if they want to re-do a sequence.

Always call the cues you have - because the tech is there for you as well. If you have a lighting cue and you call it late, the LD is there to let you know that the cue is meant to be earlier. Musicals are the same as regular, write timings onto your script (if you are working from track, put the time-code points in for the important sections on your rehearsal script), then you can just say "We will be going from 1:45, which is just before verse two, ____LYRIC SAMPLE HERE___"

229

Tools of the Trade / Re: Twitter.

« on: May 31, 2009, 10:08 am »

TBH, I find this one of those "Annyoing Teen Technologies", and I don't really see it as a social advancement.

There is no guarantee of delivery, and there is very little guarantee it will be seen by the intended recipient (if they are subscribed to a million and one feeds). I think it encourages people to sit down and write meaningless messages for the point of writing a message, instead of sitting down to actually think about what they are going to send (a la email and letter writing of the past), increasing the Signal->Noise ratio.

As such, I don't think you could reliably depend on it as a communications system within a professional framework... Others with more experience of the technology may disagree, and I very much look forward to hearing those points of view.

230

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Care and Feeding of your Crew

« on: May 27, 2009, 10:02 am »

"An Army marches on it's stomach, whilst a theatre runs on morale"

231

SMNetwork Archives / Re: SM: the musical

« on: May 27, 2009, 09:57 am »

Personally, I see SM:The Musical as more of a techie Alice in Wonderland type show... You have your Rabit, the producer, always crying out "I'm Late!" "Too much Money!" etc. The Dutches and Queen are definately lead singers, March Hare and Mad Hatter are your LD and SD, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are props and set masters, the flowers as costumers, the Caterpillar as the vocal coach, the king is the director (completely under the thumb of one of the leads), the guineepigs are the chorus... Not quite sure who doormouse (maybe riggers), griffon, Cheshire Cat (ASM?) and turtle (choreographer?) are.

Alice is of course the fresh out of college SM, who was called last minute to take over a production, because the past SM went mad (The cook maybe... more pepper).

232

Tools of the Trade / Re: Recordings of West Side Story

« on: May 17, 2009, 09:05 am »

You could have a look at these guys - they are just one of a number of places that sell thse sorts "Accent on CD" courses.

233

Tools of the Trade / Re: Google Docs?

« on: May 13, 2009, 08:46 pm »

IMO, you need to look outside the box with google docs - upload documents with basic formatting only - font size, bold, underline, italics etc.

Best used for collaborative works. For example, I can put a simply formatted contact sheet up there and send out an email that people should check their details and update them, then just before first rehearsal I can download it, format it, print off a pretty version for distribution and leave the old (utilitarian) version up there for people to ammend.

When you want to send something pretty, make a PDF and upload it.

So as an example:

Contact information - upload as a spreadsheet
Minutes of meetings - upload as a PDF
Production information - upload as a PDF
Appologies list/unavailability list - upload as a spreadsheet

etc etc etc

The main benefit is that anything uplaoded will look the same on almost any PC out there... The same cannot be said for a .doc file on a public file share.

234

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Drinks on the prop list?

« on: Apr 19, 2009, 10:35 pm »

Personally, I would put a tablecloth as a set piece not a prop, unless it is specifically referenced. A tablecloth is generally not interacted with, forms a part of the general scene asthetic and can be preset (or even built) on the table. I would also say that the number of glasses you write in your props list be the number you will need for rehearsing (ie 7). Your initial props list (in my opinon) should be what you need for rehearsals. As you rehearse and go through production meetings, you will work the quantities and placements out properly.

235

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Cruise Ships questions...for thesis...

« on: Apr 19, 2009, 08:26 pm »

Norwegian is owned by Star... Star cruises are in a rough patch at the moment, with many of their ships just sitting in port doing nothing, so whether Norwegian stays with Star is another question.

236

Tools of the Trade / Re: drug use onstage

« on: Apr 19, 2009, 08:24 pm »

If you are Equity, go with their approved substance... Otherwise, I would suggest you still go with it, until someone has issue, because Equity generally don't approve substances without a fair bit of consultation with doctors etc. That is purely from a "Cover our own backside" point of view - as I doubt you would be able to do the same amount of research as reliably as Equity.

237

Tools of the Trade / Re: drug use onstage

« on: Apr 19, 2009, 09:09 am »

Too many vitamins can be bad for your system. I would suggest asking your pharmacist if they are able to get in placebo pills (sugar pills) for the show. You can also get a hard candy (tastes like chalk) which looks like a pill from a distance.

As for snorting - any powder will irritate the nose - The nose is not designed for snorting powder

238

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: Cruise Ships questions...for thesis...

« on: Apr 18, 2009, 06:56 pm »

Basic answers about RCCL from an LX tech:

A) No fixed background - could be trained on board, could be hired from another SM or PM position etc.
B) http://www.royalcaribbeanproductions.com
C) Interesting
D) Either or - recruiters try and recruit to Stage Staff (they get a bonus for each promotion made to someone they recruit)
E) 4 months on, 2 off, full vacation pay
F) 0. You will come on board and be taught the show
G) Manage the theatre, technicians, dancers and singers, as well as oversee guest entertainers and entertainment venues
GII) Voyage reports, show reports, schedules, anything else that may be required.
H) Not really - I am a light tech, not a PM
I) Here? 3 production shows, 1 guest entertainer, welcome aboard and farewell shows + other "small" events
J) 8 years
K) Yes and Yes
L) Depends... positions are limited. Generally you will start off floating between ships, then maybe manage to get your own ship to "keep" with a PM doing vacation fills for you
M) They are many and varied...

239

Employment / Re: How much to charge?

« on: Apr 10, 2009, 05:57 pm »

How much you can charge depends largely on experiance and the company... You say the past SM was a dancers mother... Based on that comment, they may not be able to afford equity rates.

Also - by community, are we talking amdram-esq community theatre? If so, are professional rates really the correct entry point - no matter how much experiance, on paper, work in an amdram theatre is probably not able to justify full rates...

And another point - will it be stage managing as in typical stage managing, or will it be "Back stage manager/calling cues/doing tech without the rehearsal process"

Best bet - ask what they think is a reasonable pay - see what they have been paying. Before you go to the meeting though, make sure you know how much you need to make to keep the job from costing you money - so that includes transport, meals, time lost from primary place of employment, time lost from personal time etc. Then work out how much you want to be ahead... That gives you a base figure and an acceptance level.

Three things can happen, they can give you a figure greater than your acceptance figure. Accept the job. They can give you a figure between the base figure and the acceptance figure, consider it, try and get perks etc. They can give you a figure bellow your base figure. Don't accept... A job that costs you is not worth it.

240

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Headset Etiquette

« on: Apr 05, 2009, 09:41 am »

It largely depends on the quality of your coms and the headsets and how much noise there is around you.

If you are hearing breathing, there is something wrong with how you have possitioned your mic, or your beltpack has the microphone over-gained. I delibrately ask my followspot operators to leave their coms open - why? Because I am in a booth with 1/4" glass and a heap of fans, and a monitor that is not correctly delayed to the house. The followspot operators microphones pick up a certain amount of the area noise because of the nature of where they sit. I never hear breathing, and if there is an issue, they don't have to fumble arround for their beltpacks (I should mention that from my control possition, I cannot see the appron of the stage without standing up and leaning over my console). I leave my microphone open too - I am in a relatively quiet environment, my headset is a light weight headset, correctly gained on my user station. When I am silent, then my coms are silent.

There are certain people who keep their headsets off - deck crew mainly, because they work in high ambient noise areas...

In a correctly designed coms system, there is no reason why the SM, LX etc etc cannot leave their coms open.