Messages

76

Stage Management: Other / Re: Special Skill: Basic Rigging and Automation

« on: Jan 02, 2013, 03:33 am »

In Australia - if I saw "Basic Rigging" - I would assume hanging lights, banners and cloths. If I saw "Basic Rigger" I would the assume they are a card carrying rigger (I like employing SMs who are qualified riggers - they tend to call out people performing dodgey practices).

Basic Automation - I would assume they have operated (but not programed) a show with some level of automation and perhaps know how to perform basic troubleshooting tasks like taking a quick look at limit switches to make sure they have not jammed etc. It is also hard to tell whether they are talking "global" automation - show control systems tying audio, video, lighting, scenic automation etc or whether they are talking solely about scenic automation, where they might recall some presets, manually run some hoists etc.

As Health and Safety will start to see hemp and counterweight lines replaced with hoists, Automation is going to become more and more important. With most hoist control systems being highly proprietary, correctly representing your knowledge will become very important - just like we look at what desks a lighting programmer can use, very soon employers will start looking for a house stage manager who knows and understands "Stage Technologies eChamelion" or "Fischer Technical Navigator" or what ever system they have installed.

I am all for automation - I have done shows using automation that would be impossible to perform using CW or Hemp - and just because it is computerised and will perform the cues the same time after time, any decent automation system has the ability to control how fast cues are executed - most are a bit like the pitch bend wheel on a keyboard - in the middle it runs at normal speed - but the operator can then "bend" it up or down to fit with the show.

77

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: December Madness Finals: Paper vs Laptop

« on: Dec 30, 2012, 12:53 am »

Then remember that it is paper only, not paper + pen (or printer or photocopier or crayon or marker)

78

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier

« on: Dec 16, 2012, 02:43 am »

After allegations of match fixing, the International December Madness Comittee had this to say:
"Well we investigated obviously, and whilst we were highly suspicious of the performances of both Leatherman and Gerber, we found no evidence of match fixing.. I mean they are both - for lack of a better phrase - complete tools - but it has never been mandated that participants not be tools."

79

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: Regional Round 5: Multitool vs Photocopier

« on: Dec 16, 2012, 01:19 am »

I can get 50 x 120 page scripts printed and bound for less than $200 (that's < 3.33 cents AU) by my local printer down the road. Everything else is relatively short runs (50 pages here, 20 pages there) - and generally if it fails "I'll get it to you during the week/tomorrow/month/whatever" - at the end of the day a show is not going to fail because Little Timmy could not sign in at the door because the copier was down...

When I need to do a quick repair on something then I need to do it now - a multitool has saved a show more times than I can count. I have pulled apart and completely reassembled a followspot ballast at 2 minutes to doors (whilst still calling standbys and places) - no leatherman would have meant we did not make doors - because the first cue was a pickup of the "MC" character - and a generic stage wash or something on the fly would not have worked with the opening. Bet your copier couldn't do that.

(that said, I love my multifunction centre - when it works)

80

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: Community, Round 5: Gaff Tape vs Spike Tape

« on: Dec 15, 2012, 03:27 pm »

Especially as spike tape is gaff's anorexic (and slightly less sticky) sister. In a pinch, ripping 1cm into the top of a roll of gaff gives you spike tape... but have you ever tried to secure cables with spike tape? It doesn't work.

81

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: Commercial, Round 4: Highlighter vs Hammer

« on: Dec 12, 2012, 10:44 am »

Wanna bet - big enough hammer and those screws will be seated in beautifully.

82

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: Regional, Round 4: Cell Phone vs Mor-Tite

« on: Dec 12, 2012, 05:12 am »

My phone - aka my left hand... where would I be without it... it is my office in a little black and silver box.

83

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: Commercial, Round 4: Highlighter vs Hammer

« on: Dec 12, 2012, 05:10 am »

There are very few problems in this world that cannot be fixed with a bigger hammer.

84

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: University, Round 1: 3-ring Binder vs. Digital Light Board

« on: Dec 01, 2012, 05:46 pm »

But you don't have to go 3 ring... 4 ring gives you extra support - and for the big shows with far too much paperwork, 2 ring lever arches are awesome.

85

December Madness I: 2012 / Re: December Madness!

« on: Nov 26, 2012, 04:37 am »

Provided Nashua 357 is in the starting lineup, my money is behind Gaff all the way.

86

Tools of the Trade / Re: HELP: Static Electricity?

« on: Nov 17, 2012, 12:16 pm »

Antistatic mats and wrist bands are available on e-bay for very little money.

Avoid polyester - and moisturise - Dry skin builds up lots of static electricity where as moist skin tends to allow charges to dissipate more readily...

Try to wear 100% cotton, or 100% wool, avoiding poly blends - poly blends generate their own static just by the fibres rubbing together within the garment.

87

Tools of the Trade / Re: Ladies and Gentleman.... the convertable laptop!

« on: Nov 06, 2012, 04:10 am »

I am firmly in the camp of phones, tablets, laptops and desktops having completely separate and valid markets - and I don't think you can make a hybrid device that will fill the any two categories well.

They tried it with laptops - making really grunty laptops as "desktop replacements" - supposedly so that those people who actually required desktops (for processing power etc) could use a laptop instead of a desktop - however these "desktop replacements" suffered from being ridiculously heavy, large and cumbersome, had poor battery life and generally were still not as powerful as the desktop machines. Most were a monumental flop.

Same with the hybrid laptop and tablet - you have to compromise - maybe the compromise will work for you - but I tend to find that the above form factors evolved for a reason.

Instead I would rather see an improvement in application development - where if I search for a restaurant for example, I should get the option to send the address to my GPS app on my phone. When I use my NFC enabled phone to pay for dinner - and flag it as a business expense the transaction should be automatically filed inside my accounting software etc etc etc. I keep most of my stuff in google drive and my work email - because every device I have can open and search those two services - they don't care what OS I am running or anything like that - that is what the "cloud" is about - whilst the buzz word is new, it is how many of us nerds have been living our life for many a year.

In the end, I should pick up the device that works best for where I am going to be - ie I grab my tablet if I am going to a coffee meeting, my laptop if I am going to a long production meeting, my phone if I am just out on the street - and no matter what my data is there.

88

Tools of the Trade / Re: stopwatches?

« on: Oct 09, 2012, 07:09 am »

I would say that it uses the phones clock and then calculates the difference between now and the saved time (more accurate than writing your own counter) - so when you start the timer, it takes the clocks time and saves it to memory - every time you open the app it probably checks to see if there was a running timer and what time it was started and just continues running.

89

Employment / Re: Resumes and Cover Letters......The Nitty Gritty Part of Stage Managing

« on: Oct 01, 2012, 10:28 am »

If you are applying for a specific position - I cannot stress how important it is to read the position description. Most employers now list "required" and "desired" skills - your cover letter is the perfect place to check all of those off for the employer - some are implied with past experience, but others should be specifically mentioned. First Aid, Health and Safety training, managerial training etc. If you don't have a "required" skill, make sure you deal with that issue as well - either with your willingness to obtain the skill or additional skills which may make the point moot.

Try not to make your cover letter read like a high school essay - there are no prizes for length - in fact a letter that is too long may just find its way into the no pile without being read. 2/3rds of a page of regular sized text is about as long as you want to go in my experience - and you want to keep it concise and to the point.

My basic format is as follows:

Dear <Insert Name Here>

I am writing to apply for the position of .... as advertised in .... on the ... of ..... <Insert short professional bio here>

<Answer the position description (<2 paragraphs)>

<What I bring to the table that I think sets me apart (1 Paragraph)>

<What I hope to gain from the position, blow a little bit of smoke up their rear ends etc (short paragraph) but don't tell them what they already know>

Thank you for taking the time to read my application and I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards

...

90

Tools of the Trade / Re: Rehearsal Reports Strange Request

« on: Aug 31, 2012, 09:25 pm »

So you are after a rehearsal report that has a "reply" button for each section which then quotes what was in that section and allows them to respond...

Only way I can think of doing it is web based and with a fair bit of programming involved. You MIGHT be able to do it using the full adobe acrobat and some clever programming there, but either way, it is not an easy task - instead I would enforce the format you want replies in via policy - IE inform everyone that the director would like responses to rehearsal reports to be provided by copying their section of the report into a reply to the email and then typing their response.