Messages

16

Self-Promotion / Taught my first class today

« on: Oct 18, 2012, 07:00 pm »

I've been brought in as a Guest Lecturer for an SM Course at Eastern Connecticut State University and will be teaching for 3 days.  Today was my first and involved Blocking Notation. 

I think it went well.  I was nervous since I haven't taught a class of any kind since I was in Boy Scouts about 20 years ago.  I think I may have spoken a little too quickly at times and started running out of things to talk about with about 15-20 min left in the class. But the teacher was happy with it and the students seemed involved.

Next Tuesday I'll be taking the role of director and will be directing a scene from one of my past shows while the students take the blocking notation.  It's a small scene but I should easily be able to fill up the hour and 15 minutes by changing blocking options and working with the actors. 

Then next Thursday I teach a class on Managing Personalities.  That one may be a little trickier.  It's hard to talk about what we do and keep the students involved.  I don't like lecturing the entire time but I've gotten a great article from the professor from which to work off.  I just need to do more planning as far as writing up a guideline for me to follow.

The best part is getting the teaching experience for me.  I'm trying to get into Grad School so I can get my MFA and be able to teach consistently and this is a good chance to see if I really like it.  So far so good!

17

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: REPORTS: Printing A Hard Copy for Management

« on: Oct 09, 2012, 02:24 pm »

I worked with a director that didn't have a smart phone or a computer and so I had to have a hard copy of each report printed for him while he was in town for rehearsals and performances.  The difference for me was that I just asked someone in the office to print it from my emails each morning and I collected it to get it to the director. 

Is it possible you can ask someone in the office to just print it out for him and leave it on the man's desk?  Maybe even his assistant?  You're still responsible for getting it out and making sure the assistant prints it but you shouldn't have to be on location to make sure that it happens.

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Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Blocking help

« on: Sep 23, 2012, 11:51 am »

Maybe it's just me and my total inability to parse visual input. I don't know.

No, it's not just you.  I only use diagrams that I draw if something comes along where a picture will help explain more easily what I'm writing and more often than not, I'm probably doing it for future people to understand my notes.  I also will do it if something is extremely specific.  Otherwise, I don't use mini-ground plans or drawings because I get confused looking at letters and numbers and a bunch of arrows going in various directions. 

19

Tools of the Trade / Re: New Break-Time App: Take 10!

« on: Sep 23, 2012, 11:45 am »

The purchase is a tax deductible expense.

This is one of the main reasons I've bought the app as well.  Do I need it?  No.  I know how to tell time and have a stopwatch on my phone just like everybody else out there.  I also still use Will Pickens Megawatch religiously on my laptop every time I'm in rehearsal and even use it to time my performances. 

But $15 for an app that makes my life easier isn't all that bad in the grand scheme of things.  It's less than 3 cups of Starbucks in NYC and since my current theater provides coffee for free, I can skip the occasional Starbucks for a week or 2 to pay for it.  I haven't played too much with it yet and like David, I won't post a review on it but I'll put something up on my website and review the app on it's app page as well after some more use.

Also as Ruth said, if there was an app or program that made taking blocking notation and writing cues in my script easier, I would easily buy it.  For now, pencil and rulers are still the best method for me that I've found.

BLee also brought up a good point in the word of mouth.  I am constantly telling new ASMs and interns about SMNetwork because of the knowledge base we have here.  I've used the site for almost 10 years now and though I don't contribute often, I try to help out when I can.  I've also made cyber friends with this site and passing it along to other SMs is easiest to do by telling them.  Will Picken's MegaWatch is very popular because SMs tell each other about it and share it around.  Yes it helps that he made it free for anyone but he also doesn't advertise it.

20

Tools of the Trade / Re: Looking for suggestions

« on: Sep 14, 2012, 12:43 pm »

Didn't I recently see that you were planning on relocating between now and the end of the year? Maybe wait and see what the demands of your new job are before changing technology as well? I find that if I've switched to a new system right before I switch to a new job, it makes adapting to both far more complicated than it needs to be. I wind up picking up bad habits on both sides that I would have otherwise ferreted out immediately.

Yes I am relocating but I won't really be learning anything too new.  I've been working on PCs for decades and the iPad isn't much different from the iPhone except for the larger screen size.  The biggest obstacle I'm seeing now is cost.  Ultrabooks (and no I wouldn't get a Netbook) are nice and light but if you want anything that's halfway decent it costs a pretty penny.  And as KMC said - I do create a lot of documents and I don't think that'll be very easy on an iPad.  Even worse would be editing documents created on a computer and then trying to edit it on the tablet I think. 

In the end I'm going to end up going with a new laptop at some point.  And as Kay pointed out, I'm relocating, so I think I'm going to just try and work my current one to it's eventual death and then be stuck with no choice but to upgrade.  But I shouldn't buy one just yet as I need to save money for the move and expected unemployment.

Thanks all for the suggestions though! 

21

Tools of the Trade / Re: Looking for suggestions

« on: Sep 13, 2012, 01:17 pm »

Yeah I'm leaning more and more toward a laptop - whether I go with an Ultrabook or a regular laptop is still TBD.  I like the lightness when traveling but having the ability to read and burn DVDs without having to carry another piece of equipment is nice.  Then again, the more I work with sound designers, the more they upload files to the cloud and have me download them off of their servers so I'm not actually reading discs too much anymore.  And since most of my movies and tv shows are on hard drives, I don't really need the drive for that either.

Thankfully, I'm a small person and have small hands - so the keyboard size shouldn't be too much of a problem.  I'll have to play around with some in the stores to get a feel though.  The thing I always miss is the number pad and most laptops don't have that anyway.

22

Tools of the Trade / Re: Looking for suggestions

« on: Sep 12, 2012, 04:46 pm »

I run a Windows Desktop at home and would probably use Evernote as my syncing application for notes and what not.  I currently use it on my laptop and phone anyway when typing up performance reports during shows.  I've heard the same thing about the Office Apps though - as far as not being up to snuff.

23

Tools of the Trade / Looking for suggestions

« on: Sep 12, 2012, 03:19 pm »

My current laptop is dying.  In December it'll be 4 years old and it's started overheating and randomly shutting down at the most inopportune times.  Looking inside there are some burns and melted transistors that would be more trouble replacing than it's worth. 

So the question is do I look into another laptop like an ultrabook?  Or do I try going to something like a tablet with a bluetooth keyboard?  I have a main desktop that I keep at home and use the laptop only for work and when traveling.  If I'm going with a laptop it'll be a PC - this isn't meant for a discussion between PC vs Mac.  If it's a tablet - it'd probably be an iPad (only because I already have an iPhone and don't want to add a 3rd OS with Android).  What do some of you use? 

24

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / Re: Time question

« on: Aug 23, 2012, 08:57 pm »

But my default is only minutes, and seconds only if the director or producer is really worried about time.

This is what I do too.  With comedies, if the time runs longer than usual due to laughter, I just make a note about it in my report.

25

Stage Management: Plays & Musicals / REPORTS: Rounding or Exact Times

« on: Aug 23, 2012, 07:41 pm »

Random question: When you're reporting running times on your reports - do you include the seconds or do you round up/down to the nearest minute?

26

Self-Promotion / Re: The Daily Show at Children's Theatre of Charlotte

« on: Aug 23, 2012, 06:54 pm »

I think I need an excuse to come visit and maybe be a 4th ASM in Charlotte.....

I always did like visiting Charlotte... :-)

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Self-Promotion / Re: The Daily Show at Children's Theatre of Charlotte

« on: Aug 22, 2012, 08:00 pm »

Sounds like it should be a lot of fun for you!

28

Employment / Re: Websites

« on: Aug 14, 2012, 08:03 pm »

I've been using Dreamweaver for years now and I've liked it.  It is a little overkill at times but it works really intuitively.

29

The Green Room / Re: Moving on...

« on: Aug 01, 2012, 06:24 pm »

The nice thing about NYC is I can look for work there and if I find it, I have a place to live.  That place is on LI but the commute isn't terrible.  My thoughts currently are to live in the DC area (Germantown, MD specifically) and then look for work in both DC and NYC.  That's the plan anyway.

30

The Green Room / Moving on...

« on: Aug 01, 2012, 04:25 pm »

After 4 years and 3+ seasons at TheaterWorks in Hartford CT, I'll be moving on to new and different things in November.  What those will be, I'm not sure yet.  Current plan is to apply to Grad School for Fall of 2013 entry.  Between November and then, I'll be trying to find work to keep me busy.  Current thoughts are to be based out of either NYC, DC, or Dallas - because those are the cheapest places for me to live for about 9-10 months. 

Anyone need an SM or ASM?