Messages

46

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: COMMUNICATION: Communication with the production team/what do they need from us?

« on: Dec 23, 2014, 06:04 pm »

I got asked yesterday in my catchup with my boss when I called my last "head of department meeting" was - he was shocked when I said it was over 3 weeks ago. The way life had been at our venue, I never had all HoD's in at the same time since - and whilst I could have re-rostered to make it so, life would have suffered for everyone. My manager was shocked that everything was running so smoothly. All I could say was that I took about 10 minutes each day that a HoD was in to shoot the breeze with them. I would forward through information like snippets from SM's reports as they come through, then swing by their offices, stand in the doorway or sit on a box of gaffer tape beside their desk and actually talk to them. Not ask for reports and emails (we still did that of course) but just take an interest in what was going on in their departments. I would email out a draft roster once a week and then make sure I headed over and talked about it with each of them, one on one. Was it more work for me? Sure... but it also yielded superior results to the previous administrations method of 1 meeting a week and a barrage of emails.

I guess what I am trying to say - things come out in conversation that may not seem important when you are writing reports. By talking to them you may find out that "truss three has some scrollers are really starting to lag a little bit - not noticeable to the audience but 'ya know... " or that the scenic artist spent the last 3 days painting the fake books for the bookshelf because they realised they could not go full depth and use real books like they wanted to otherwise the 'secret door' wouldn't open (so that blocking where the actor pulls the book and flicks through idly whilst standing in the study that the director improvised last session won't work).

To some, it is chatting, to a manager, it is information gathering.

47

December Madness 2 / Re: APPS Division FINALS: Clock vs Text Messaging

« on: Dec 23, 2014, 05:50 pm »

Apparently in the olden days there was this thing called a waaa-tchh which one could strap about their wrist. There were two main types of waaa-tchh. One which told the time in the traditional way we are all used to when using "clock" - and another which required interpretation of a circular array of numbers with two or three bars which rotated around the face of the waaa-tchh. This second type of waaa-tchh was misleading however - as the numbers only went to 12 - we can only assume that the ancient waa-tchh users had some form of codex for decoding the time from this device.

(My vote is for SMS - without which I would never manage to complete my daily tasks as I would spend it all on the phone calling people one by one instead of shot-gun sms's)

48

December Madness 2 / Re: WEBSITE, Round 2: Doodle vs. Web Calendar

« on: Dec 07, 2014, 04:55 am »

I am fairly lucky in that where I work we are all on exchange. We can all see each others availability.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Preshow Music Copyright

« on: Dec 03, 2014, 11:42 am »

I don't know about the US, but in Australia many/most venues will have APRA (Australian Performing Rights Association) licenses of some description to cover background music... However it is a legal quagmire and the APRA guys will tell you that if they really want to they will find some way to prove you are not legal in some aspect. Generally when I have spoken to them, their opinion is as long as you are not taking the mickey and are licensing the majority, they don't get tetchy about the minority - for example if you are paying for the grand rights for a production and your foyer area is licensed for the background music, they ignore the fact that the auditorium may not be licensed.

50

December Madness 2 / Re: WEBSITE, Round 1: Webmail vs. AEA Docs

« on: Dec 03, 2014, 05:50 am »

I dunno - I love gmail's interface. it is fast and responsive, it tracks conversations well... there are a few limitations with being in the browser, but as HTML and browsers develop the shortfalls are disappearing quickly and by being solely responsible for the environment, google have been able to innovate features which they could not do if restricted by the email client.

TAGs are a much better alternative to folders in my humble opinion for email. I use outlook for work - as far as email clients go, it is probably one of the best - I have all my filters and I use categories and tasks - but they are not quite up to par with tags.

The main reason I like tags is so often an email will start off about one subject related to some show and then merge into something else.

In outlook, let's say I get an email related to Les Miserables (my current nightmare - it is still 3 weeks until it tours into my venue and it is killing me), in this example, the subject indicates the contents relates to some venue modification projects, however after dealing with the two projects  it then moves on to requirement for an order of water, alterations to crewing  and that the production manager has attached  the risk assessments to be approved.

I have three options with this email - I can either file all Les Mis stuff in one folder which is nearly unmanageable - my current les mis directory has over 1200 emails - if they were all in one folder I would not be able to cope...  I can copy and paste into every sub directory the email deals with (LM2014/Projects/Unistrut, LM2014/Projects/Cement Penetrations, LM2014/Catering, LM2014/Crewing and LM2014/Risk Assessments/Pending) or I can pick the most appropriate folder based on when I think I will need to refer to it. With tags, I would tag it LM2014, Project Unistrut, Project Cement Penetrations, Catering, Crewing, Pending Risk Asssessments. If I needed to find all emails relating to catering for les mis, it is a simple search for +Tag:LM2014 + - outlook, only the second option lets me do that and my outlook data file would quickly be filled as I would have 5 copies of that email (and it's attachments).

3 years down the track when it comes to looking for the engineers certificate for the unistrut, I don't have to remember that it was installed for Les Mis, I just have to search for Tag:Project Unistrut or "Unistrut". I don't have to then click "search all items" and I don't have to wait for outlook to go through every folder searching.

51

Tools of the Trade / Re: Flameless sparklers

« on: Nov 01, 2014, 06:53 pm »

No, there is no such thing as a flameless sparkler. They are also (technically) a pyrotechnic effect - which may have some flow on effects for you depending on your local laws (generally they are excepted from legislation except perhaps total amount that can be stored on site). Also, the standard 8-10" sparklers light fairly easily with a standard match, if your director wants the large ones - they need to be lit with something a lot hotter (like another sparkler).

From a safety aspect, the sparklers burn at between 1000^oC (1800^oF) and 1600^oC (3000^oF), eject slag which can seriously mess with your floor over a long run, and produce not inconsiderable amount of smoke (the bad kind, not the food grade suspension of water molecules we use for lighting effects). They are also responsible for 16% of fireworks injuries in the US and have started numerous fire (including devestating bushfires).

Nothing is insurmountable though.

52

Tools of the Trade / Re: Laminators

« on: Aug 20, 2014, 05:22 am »

The best thing about laminators - if you use the high-gloss pouches, you can write on them in whiteboard marker then erase afterwards - so those repetitive check lists etc you can buy OHP dry-erase markers (which are a nice fine line) and fill it in - then when you need to re-write it, give it a wipe and start again. I use them a lot for log sheets on equipment - for example I like to write the projector lamp hours on the case when it is packed down. Same with some of our rigging - I like to do a thorough visual inspection after every 10 uses - so I have a sheet in the rigging locker and we just do a /\ each use - and when it gets to 10, I do a logged visual inspection.

I also use it for durability - any cases that I fill with things I like to laminate a label for detailing contents.

Can I live without it? Sure... but for $20 I bought a really cheap (and small) one - it does come in handy.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Call Times

« on: Jul 28, 2014, 10:04 am »

SMS & Email for me. I use a service called readytosms (I think they may be australia only) which takes an excel spreadsheet and ready 2 columns (number and message) - so I have my call spreadsheet which I email out a PDF copy, also use a formula to "compose" an individual SMS for each cast member with their call times. When I moved to AV I used a similar method to distribute the next 3 days calls each afternoon.

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Tools of the Trade / Re: Dropbox account full

« on: Jul 27, 2014, 06:36 pm »

Not free, however google drive does 100gb for $2 a month.

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Tools of the Trade / Re: SM Kit holder/bag ideas?

« on: Jul 25, 2014, 12:33 pm »

There are a few threads on this question already - please have a read. I have attached the first two I came across.

Post #1
Post #2

56

Tools of the Trade / Re: Scheduling Software

« on: Jul 11, 2014, 05:56 am »

Overkill for your situation, but I use Retain Resource Manager - I have a resource labeled "Uncrewed" and I create all the shifts needed to be filled. It is then a simple matter of drag and drop. It has full reporting features.

I can also fill in not-availabilities, RDO's etc. It is a really nice piece of software, but it does have a price tag attached.

There are a few other wallchart pieces of software which may also fill that same void.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Dear Abby: Sound Board Op vs Stage Manager

« on: Mar 28, 2014, 07:46 am »

I agree with KMC - it is hard without context. Sound guys especially can be a touchy breed. Sound quality is largely subjective, but there are some very clear objective measures too. If your report deals with the objective (called cue & he took too long to go, wasn't paying attention, did not turn down X's mic when he left stage, 7 audience members complained about the sound in the room) - and phrased it objectively, then all's well. If your report mentioned "I thought XYZ had too much kick drum" - then you are going to get bitched about.

Technicians are worse than 14 year old girls when it comes it to gossiping and bitching and moaning (I say that as a technician) - it is largely a coping mechanism. I don't know how far your relationship has deteriorated, but it may help to phrase reports as suggestions more than as comments or commands. It is clear you are dealing with ego - unfortunately that may be something you have to just put up with on this run.

I would try and sit down with the producer however and swing them around - provided your report is accurate and not overly dramatic then facts are facts and he should support you in that matter. He may however be trying to keep the peace - by asking you to tone down your reports. If they are relying on an intern for audio, chances are they are having issues filling the role with the budget they have - so it may not necessarily be that they are on his side, it may just be that you pulling back on the AX reports may keep the show running.

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Tools of the Trade / Re: Social Media and Self Promotion

« on: Mar 25, 2014, 07:48 am »

Be careful with your privacy settings - on Facebook for example, you can set your default privacy settings to exclude a certain group of people on your friends list - ie "Friends except 'colleagues'" - any potential colleagues who request you "friend" them can be added to this group and they won't see potentially embarrassing or incriminating posts. As far as what already exists, it is just a few hours of sitting there re-doing privacy settings and deleting. 

59

Introductions / Re: The American Down Under

« on: Mar 18, 2014, 01:39 pm »

Welcome to the board Terrence.

I was Operations Co-Ordinator for the inhouse AV Company (Staging Connections) at Crown Melbourne for a fair while - and am Ops Manager at Crown Perth - were you PSMing here when the Spiegeltent was over my side of the world?

Nothing made me happier than when my summer marquee was cancelled to make room for EMPIRE. And I believe my colleagues are ecstatic that Studio 3 is pretty much out of commission whilst your tent is on the rooftop.

Look forward to hearing some info about your apps.

-Mac

60

Tools of the Trade / Re: Half-size binders

« on: Feb 22, 2014, 03:23 am »

I've used them for actors scripts on new works (especially ones under development).

I used to do an SM version of the various department's paperwork (cue details etc incase I need to reprogram the show & I usually have a backup call book which is A5 - because A5 fits nicely in the front pocket of my bag.