Messages

331

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Tech or Church?

« on: Oct 16, 2007, 01:30 pm »

I think it is childish.

a) I doubt god (if there is one) would mind someone missing ONE session
b) Tech is always a long day, and one should not expect to do anything on tech day, but tech. Even sleeping should not be counted on

That said. I would try and see if it was possible to let the Sound Designer come in slightly late if he refused to budge. Mainly because at that point, you will never manage to get a new Sound Designer.

332

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Being "Written Up"

« on: Oct 14, 2007, 02:57 am »

Sure. I have given written warnings etc. I don't place them inside an every day form, if it is something that needs to be noted, I either fill out a company incident form, or I write a letter/email, which I CC to the parties concerned and the producer/company manager.

My opinon is that even if an issue is being resolved through a process like mediation, it still needs to be documented and forwarded to the appropriate parties.

I would write something along the lines of:

On the 27th of Marchuary, 2007, at 1330, an incident occured during rehearsals resulting in James Smith pushing Jane Doe. This action did not lead to any serious injury, however it has lead to tensions amongst the cast. Both parties have agreed to undertake mediation as a means to resolve this issue. It is my belief that upon sucessful completion of the mediation, no further disciplinary action need to be taken.

Then I would sign it and send a copy to the Producer/Company Manager and James Smith, and I would file it away, just in case an issue between these people arises in the future (even after the show closes)

333

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Jesus Christ Superstar

« on: Oct 12, 2007, 11:05 pm »

Nah! I did JCS with 35 plastic machine guns, no cross, and no crown of thorns. It was a very odd production, everything was slightly abstract, however it got rave reviews.

JCS (and most ALW musicals) have a large degree of interpretation available - although a lot of people tend to go with watching the movie and emulating (I found Really Usefull Group versions of the musical tend to be the most "accepted") - so the joy of it comes from doing the show with a director who has never watched the musical before.

334

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Giving actor notes and "Maintaining the performance as directed."

« on: Oct 11, 2007, 05:11 am »

First step starts very early in the rehearsal phase. I establish how "directorialy acurate" the director wants the show to be kept.

Then, I act accordingly throughout the rehearsal process - taking notes of as much detail as required, marking sections that the director seems to focus on and areas that the director allows more 'freestyling'. Then I sit down with the director before the show goes into tech, and we establish whether my observations match what the director seems to be after. Then I enforce - or rather, I enforce as much as I can whilst I am focusing on making everything else work.

335

Tools of the Trade / Re: Should I become a Mac-er?

« on: Oct 09, 2007, 09:28 pm »

Okay. I have received a couple of complaints about this thread regarding the most recent posts, so I have given the issue some thought. Here's the deal - since the Mac vs PC question gets asked all the time, and I want to keep it all together, this thread will remain open, however any and all inflamatory remarks made after this post will go to the great garbage bin in the sky - and I have also trimmed some of the more inflamatory stuff. Let's keep it nice and clean from here on out.

The OP has been answered, so really, the only sort of posts that should pop up should be the "will X and Y work on a mac?" type questions, and posts answering that Q - ie the Cellular modem question asked earlier.

336

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: How long does it take to create a rehearsal report? (Poll)

« on: Oct 08, 2007, 10:30 am »

5-15 for me - however it depends on how comprehensive I need to be. I write fairly comprehensive notes as I go through the rehearsal, however my actual 'distribution' show report is usually a fairly brief summary that takes me 15 minutes that night to read through my notes and summarise into my rehearsal report form.

Then again, I had an anally retentive producer one year who wanted every naughty word spoken, or uttered in anger, every missed line and every blocking deviation noted and he wanted them signed off by me and the director as "official rehearsal transcripts" (his words not mine). Average time spent writing them up at the end of each day? 2 and a half hours (it was a fully paid 2.5 hrs and not just 'homework', thank god). Thankfully the director just signed off on them, trusting me, otherwise we could have spent another 2 hours arguing on semantics.

337

Uploaded Forms / Risk Assessment

« on: Oct 04, 2007, 05:23 am »

This is a quick risk assessment form I whipped up today for a friend, so I thought I would post it here too.

338

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Calling a warning for a cue

« on: Oct 03, 2007, 04:24 am »

I found a new use for Warn's a few days ago, for a product launch - and that was to actually alert other people that a cue was coming up, as opposed to the operator.

Really big product launch, we had 6 bays of the Melbourne exhibition center (just for reference for any aussies on the board), and we had a small area draped off, making it seem like the event was taking place in part of one bay, and inside that it was set as a conference. Basically, the aim was to make it seem like a small product launch, as opposed to the rather huge, underwraps launch that it was. The drapes were on chain hoists, and we had a whole pyro/drape rising/blinders/dancers/theatrical thing, where this new product was being revealed. I needed the five floating techs to undertake certain safety checks, before the cue went underway, so it was a perfect time for Warn.

ie: "Warn Mech, talent in" was a warning to the floaters to ensure that the landing sites for our talent drops were clear. They had 60 seconds to raise any issues over comms before the cue was executed. "Warn Pyro, Flames on" was a warning to the floaters to check that the gas jets were clear and past the safety points. "Warn Mech, drape out" was a warning to the floaters to check that outside the drape line, no one was standing on the drapes, etc.

So warnings: not just for the departments. Also a good way to cue safety checks by spotters etc.

339

Tools of the Trade / Re: Should I become a Mac-er?

« on: Oct 02, 2007, 10:44 am »

Most 'new' broadband 'modems' (new as in last 4 years, modems being rather flexible, as a lot are more likely to be routers than modems... anyway) use ethernet (either over cat5 cable, or over wireless), so just like a PC, your Mac will plug straight in.

340

Tools of the Trade / Re: Pre-Show Music

« on: Sep 30, 2007, 07:50 pm »

Look in your CD collection. Find songs that are appropriate for the evening, then create your playlist. Then fill in all the lovely paperwork (I am not in the US, so don't ask me who you have to get permission from) for the rights to play the songs as preshow music at your event.

341

Tools of the Trade / Re: SM Software

« on: Sep 29, 2007, 08:53 pm »

Okay, before this turns into a debate on the relative usefulness of telecommunication devices in the event of a crisis, I am going to ask that this thread return to the topic at hand (SM Software).

Thankyou

342

Articles from the Old Site / Re: Stage Management Desktop

« on: Sep 27, 2007, 08:44 am »

I had a few boring hours last year, and decided to play with some autocue software being manufactured by a friend, and he showed me a really cool feature that would be great for SMing.

Basically, you have a USB jog wheel, which you use to speed up or slow down the scrolling of the text on the screen. This autocue software highlighted words as it went, and by using the softkeys on the jog wheel, you could insert flags into the autocue sheet. Now if that is not nifty, I don't know what is. Imagine combining that with a tablet PC, so that you have a floorplan on the tablet, and by using the hot keys to indicate the actor, you could use the stylus to tap out locations, and viola, blocking.

Then, same deal for calling the show, jog wheel to control speed, acting as an autoprompt. Extra facilities like house lighting control could sit below the prompting window.

Line notes, as the script scrolls, push down on the jog wheel when they go off book, and release at the end of the line, auto generated line notes.

Jogwheels start from about $40 Linky, going up to the hundreds - however something middle of the road like this would be cool... it would really be a great interface for an SM application.

I have spent a fair bit of time thinking about it, as you may guess.

As for what I would be willing to pay? It depends. A product that was an all round productivity suite, capable of multitasking etc, anywhere up to $1600. A basic database style application, $120ish.

343

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: The Most Qs Ever

« on: Sep 25, 2007, 12:18 pm »

I had a show a couple of years back, new australian work, with far too much "technical" stuff (IMO it was overcompensating for the poor acting, the cast made up of dancers, acrobats and gymnasts). It averaged 2 CALLS a minute, the average call containing 4 cues and from memory it was a 90 minute show. I was sucking down throat losengers every day for that run (of thankfully only 7 shows). There were 2 LX ops (generics and movers), 3 follow spots, a sound op, 2 vision ops, 2 camera ops for imag, flys, deck crew, automation crew, pyrotechnician and an aerial acrobatics crew. The talent also needed to be called, as they could not enter on time if their life depended on it.

Great fun! Show was crap though.

344

Employment / Re: Conductors on an opera resume

« on: Sep 17, 2007, 12:25 pm »

Tailor your resume to the task. If it is purely a "Hey, I am out here" resume mailout, then sure, drop them, and put the Maestros in the cover letter (you are expected to name drop in that sort of application). If you are applying for a specific position, where you think listing the Maestro would be handy, but you don't want to appear to name drop, then format it into your resume.

345

Employment / Re: indicating new plays on a resume

« on: Sep 17, 2007, 09:38 am »

I find "World Premier" etc to be tacky lines. New Work, or New Play etc are sufficient.

There seems to be a sense of grandure in the word "Premier", which I suppose could be considered a good thing for making a show stand out to the prospective employer, but I believe it could also be interpretted the other way, portraying you as someone who likes to embelish or enhance the truth of the matter (often with new works, the truth of the matter is they are mounted with minimal funding and without much noise - at least that is how it tends to be in Australia, then after being mounted in a small house, some big name producer comes along, buys up the rights, and it has a large premier with a major company - and no, I'm not that bitter)