Messages

241

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Barrell-Through Tech

« on: Apr 05, 2009, 09:30 am »

Can I suggest then that you not get your mind set on pushing through... Run it once all the way through, if it runs fine, great, if it doesn't, consider a full tech, then try running it through again. Or, use day one to tech, then run ad nausium day 2 and 3. I strongly believe that pushing through actually takes more time to deliver the same level of show, and can often mean that the deck staff will commit to memory the incorrect movements for set etc. and it can confuse the talent.

242

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Barrell-Through Tech

« on: Apr 05, 2009, 02:02 am »

Frequently, and it sucks. The advantage of a C2C is that whilst you can table certain issues to be dealt with later, you work through the show and spend the extra time to get it right from the get go. After I am done with a day of teching (as lx tech), my brain is often full of things I have noticed that I want to fix... Adding the extra workload of having to remember the more complex issues in great details as well just makes my job harder, and it takes longer. The cast also work a lot harder as instead of a full day where they work on and off, they have to do the show time and time again. Whilst SM notes about changes help a lot in these sorts of situations, as do the notes I keep myself, often in a 'barrell-through" (or a push through as I have always called them) I end up fixing issues whilst I am all alone in the theatre... How can I get focuses right without the bodies? How can I get the timing right without repetition etc etc etc.

A properly designed show, 2 tech runs will be fine if your team are worth their salt - one to sort out the bugs and one to prove they have been sorted out and fix any small issues. Push throughs, your team can be playing catch up after 5 or 6 runs of the show.

Do it right at the get go, invest the time and you reap the rewards... Try to push through, and quality takes a back seat...

243

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Headset Etiquette

« on: Apr 04, 2009, 02:05 am »

We have a simple solution to the overhearing problem - especially with 2-ways - a simple, quick call of "Open coms" indicates that you have an open speaker in an area where conversation could be damaging to the person speaking, or when in a room with clients and professionalism is required... You have to look after your people.

We say the same when the topic of a conversation may be walking into an area with a squawk box etc.

Look after your colleagues. For example, when we were doing corporate work, during setups we would often have rather random conversations, quoting movies etc over 2way. When one of us walked into a room, we would call "Open Com" and radio silence and business calls were the only calls that would be made until "Clear coms" was called.

244

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Quick Question

« on: Apr 03, 2009, 10:29 am »

Unibeam is basically a cross between an I-Beam and unistrut - it has unistrut below the I-Beam, so that the standard tabs go into the unistrut, with rollers that roll along the lower plate of the i-beam - good for heavy curtains and also for motorised tabs.

Basically the track type column is there to let you know exactly what is on that lineset, because it is not too difficult to swap tracks for scaff bars, roll drops, truss, the actual set piece etc.

245

Employment / Re: Other duties as assigned

« on: Mar 27, 2009, 10:52 am »

I have one of those in my contract (in fact everyone on cruise ships tends to have one of those in their contract)... The worst "other duty" I have had to bare was when I had to stand on the gangway for 6 hours greeting guests before going to set up a show, then running it... Especially as I felt that the "other duty" negatively impacted on my primary duty.

246

Tools of the Trade / Re: Oops! I didn't mean to send that.

« on: Mar 27, 2009, 10:49 am »

Well... gMail now has a service to help minimise this issue - if you notice within 5 seconds that you made a mistake - there is an "undo send" function (has to be enabled through Google Labs).

That said, I have done it before, never anything really bad... just embarasing, and has resulted in me sending an appology letter, as well as phoning up and groveling before they get a chance to read the email.

I have also accidently sent my resignation notice to the wrong printer - namely the one in my bosses office, and had to run in there and appologise as that is not the method I wanted him to find out about my resignation.

Basically, crawling on the knees tends to work.

247

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Post Mortem

« on: Mar 09, 2009, 04:42 pm »

Set the ground rules at the onset:

Constructive critisism only.
Remember that some people have put a lot of effort into the show, so make comments, but be kind.
Discussion is encouraged, but it has to be orderly. (Establish this from the onset, for example, if there is a comment directed at a department, the department receiving the comment has first response, the director next, etc etc etc, then open the floor)

I love doing post mortems, it helps me to further my craft, and it helps others to do so too.

(A few to add - I had to leave earlier)

Conference table setup (ie not lecture theatre or anything like that)
Make sure there is tea and coffee and maybe something to eat on the table
Start with reviews of your own performance, problems, solutions etc and what you would do better next time etc, then move around. This sets the tone... don't get into 'suggestions and constructive critisism" until after everyone has offloaded their "Problems they have already noted"

248

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Sound cues: turning off actor's mic when they exit

« on: Feb 11, 2009, 01:45 am »

A good sound guy will be self directed as far as live audio. The only SM cue-ed things really tend to be "Canned Audio" - ie SFX, backing tracks etc.

249

Tools of the Trade / Re: Glass breaking

« on: Jan 07, 2009, 07:58 am »

Get a mould made - either professionally, or do it yourself. Then use a standard break-away glass (sugar glass), but increase the amount of sugar slightly - this makes it more  brittle.

Then use a sound effect - the easiest way is to use your initial item that you made the mould from and record it (if you have a decent sound guy, they should be able to hit it on the money every time).

As for the actor in socks, a piece of cardboard sewn into the sock shaped like his feet is really easy to do and will protect their feet well.

250

Employment / Re: Choosing a Show to SM

« on: Nov 25, 2008, 03:32 pm »

It depends - I think early on in your career, it is less about choice and more about where you can find work. That said, early on in your career is a great way to branch out the resume - do the quirky gigs that don't always pay the best, but prove you are versatile.

Straight plays are great, don't get me wrong, and there is tonnes of valuable experiences you can get from them, but the quirky shows can really bring you out from the crowed during an interview - as well as providing great experience in coping with difficult conditions.

251

Tools of the Trade / Re: foggers gassing actors.

« on: Nov 19, 2008, 04:57 pm »

Fog Fluid is designed so that it will not irritate the throat, and can be used alongside people with very sensitive throats. I would say it is one of two things - it is either psychosomatic (ie someone coughed (may even be for an unrelated reason) which triggered a mental "allergy" to the smoke) or incomplete combustion.

As for "Does fog fluid go bad" - yes it does, but only when exposed to air for a couple of months. So you can keep fog fluid in store rooms in their sealed canisters for years, but once you crack the seal, the clock starts ticking. To get the fluid to the point that you start having really poor combustion (to the point of coughing) should take over a year. More likely it needs distilled water run through the machine to clean the heat exchanger.

My vote is still for "It's all in their heads" or "Totally unrelated issue"

252

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: SM Duties During Vocal portions of Rehearsals for a Musical?

« on: Nov 19, 2008, 12:17 am »

I would suggest you stay. Maintaining artistic integrity is not only about maintaining the blocking, it is also about the vocals. The director or MD may give notes on phrasing etc which the actor may later try and change, and these are the sorts of things you can pick up fairly early on (because they are often the sorts of things the director will have to rehash a few times with the actor).

There is also the fact that as SM, you really should be present at all rehearsals, unless there is a conflict (ie understudy rehearsals at the same time) or you have been doing far too many hours a week (ie they are rehearsing 60+ hrs a week in small groups) - that is when you might need to think about dropping rehearsals

253

Tools of the Trade / Re: Going Green

« on: Nov 10, 2008, 01:16 pm »

recycling bins for cans, bottles, paper, etc

Absolutely.

compact fluorescent light bulbs
motion sensors on dressing room and office lights so that they are only on when in use
dimmers on dressing room and office lights so you can only use the amount of light you need

Hmm - I dislike CFL's - they do have quite a large environmental impact when they are not disposed of properly (they contain Hg). Whilst their overall carbon footprint is lower when used correctly, a lot of places do not properly recycle CFLs (and standard Florries). Dimmers for lights are generally quite wasteful, instead, if you do not need that brightness all the time, downgrade the wattage of the bulb you use - use 40 instead of 60, 60 instead of 100. If you are doing a new installation, more circuits is better, so that you can only turn on lights that you need to use.

unplug anything that can be unplugged when not in use (or turn off at power switch)
donate/ recycle old sets/ costumes/ props
switch to environmentally friendly cleaning products
switch to environmentally friendly paper products

Absolutely - if you don't want to pay inflated prices - look for the products that say "Safe for septic tanks" or something along those lines - they are biodegradable and do not kill the good bacteria that is natures natural garbage disposal system.

buy a bunch of coffee mugs for your coffee station instead of paper or styrofoam cups

Even better - everyone brings their own mug.

The biggest carbon footprint in most of the event industry is transport. Try and talk to the cast about setting up a car pool system if everyone drives, encourage the use of public transport by including train and bus routes that pass near to the venues in your welcome packets, if you are involved in the rehearsal room choosing process, look for proximity to public transport and to shops for lunch etc (so people wont want to drive down to McDonalds etc for lunch).

The other one is to calculate how much it would cost to offset your carbon footprint using carbon credits, and to try and convince the guys with the cash to put a % of each ticket sale aside for that (if they qualify they could put something like on the promos and tickets, and it may be a great publicity thing)

254

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Communication Issues

« on: Oct 28, 2008, 04:05 pm »

gMail does not support Read Receipts. Read Receipts are only supported by certain clients anyway, so if sending to a large number of personal accounts, there is a good chance that a certain percentage won't support them. You could try a service like readnotify.com - but even that is not foolproof.

But this goes far beyond "I didn't get the email" syndrome.

The only words of wisdom I have to offer are as follows: You can lead a mule to water, but you cannot make it drink.

So lay out your expectations, issues and problems, they will either accept them and embrace the solutions, or they will completely ignore them.

255

Students and Novice Stage Managers / Re: I need help with my senior project

« on: Oct 28, 2008, 03:24 pm »

The best bet for homework assistance is to give us your thoughts first. What do you think should be there, why do you think it should be broken down as you have, and so on. That way a) we are not doing your homework for you and b) other members may benefit from the post.

Regards

Mac Calder