CALLING: Backstage or Booth? (meta-topic)

[Baz]

The thing is, all new theaters seem to be directed towards the booth calling, and as many of these are in university or large arts complexes...

Ah yes - venues designed by modern 'theatre architects' (or worse, those who 'specialize' in recreation or arts centres) with little/no practical knowledge of the needs or functionality of theatre. And those that do (or seek guidance from those that do) often find its those elements they incorporate are the first things on cutting block when budgetary concerns are discussed with people with even less knowledge than they.

FOH and the House will continue to look swell, but the rest may be a hodge-podge of ill-conceived (but cheap) design by neccessity - regardless of how that may affect the productions mounted, the connection between the audience and performers and the necessary link between the performers, their SM staff and their techs.


Oh, but don't get me started....

[jmc]

Blimey Baz! This could be a topic all of it's own, it might even be the material of a future book for someone?
It never fails to suprise me amount the of theatres that have been cream crackered, with some of the worst design 'Blue' & general cock ups. By so called Archy-teks' &/or thier flunkies. Who are as thick as two short planks & just as dense.
I believe the only prerequisite to to be left alone to design a theatre, is to have actualy seen a show at least once. [Mainly because they snaffled a comp, once upon a time!]
But that may be best left to another 'Scops Moot' on that subject!

[poprocks and coke]

Seeing as the theater I'm SMing at is lacking booth and were short on crew, I don't really have much of a choice but backstage. Since we're doing a relatively simple show, I won't be doing much calling. Therefore, I'm going to move sets in addition to regular SMing.

[Nbayard]

Okay, so I'm SMing Midsummer right now, and the way our space works there is a booth back of house, but with the way the space is set up, I can't see half the stage, so I'm running from a monitor. I've never done that before and a little nervous.  Is there any lag time on the monitor? And how well do you actually see from it?  I'm sure it depends on the quality of the monitor...  Any suggestions, comments would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[smejs]

It really does depend on the quality of the camera and the monitor.  I've had some monitors be of little help, either washing out, or being incredibly blurry, others fairly good.  I haven't ever noticed a lag.  I also have mixed feelings on infrared cameras.  For the most part I love them, being able to see blackouts, etc, but they have a tendency to switch to infrared at inopportune times, especially if you happen to have a DISCO BALL in your show.  That was a pain.

If you have lots of tech available (which is rare), it's great to have several channel choices, so you could have a closeup on something you specifically need, on channel 2, or a shot of the conductor for a musical, etc.

Erin

[avkid]

With an analog system you should have almost no latency.
There would definitely be an advantage to using a split screen system.
IR on one side, conventional on the other side.

[kiwitechgirl]

I almost always call from a monitor, given the nature of my prompt corner!  I've never noticed a lag, and although the quality of our camera and monitor isn't brilliant, it's certainly good enough - I've never had any issues with it.  In terms of infra-red, I think that you're actually better off with two separate cameras, rather than one which switches, because as smejs said, it'll switch at inopportune moments.  If you have two cameras, no problems.

[hbelden]

You can use a grease pencil to mark things on the monitor; for example, calling a light cue when the curtain is at head height, draw a line across the monitor at head height and call the cue when the curtain hits the line.

[shorty]

i just got finished asm-ing a show where the sm called the show based off of the book and a monitor.  we had to use a neutralizer for the monitor since we were using a really old monitor and the lights washed everything onstage. i also had to use a monitor during a show since i couldn't see half of the stage from the booth and there wasn't enough room backstage.  there wasn't any lag and could see perfectly.  you'll do a fantastic job!

[Mac Calder]

I love calling with the aid of a monitor - Provided you get access to a decent amount of equipment, you can see exactly what you want, when you want. Before the great money drought of Christmas 07, I had 12 cameras - 5 IR and 7 normal, 2 monitors, a matrix switcher and a mass of BNC (which all ended up on Ebay, as I rarely needed it in the corporate world)

[Nbayard]

Thanks everyone! I think it's been such a long process being my senior show for college that I'm nervous, and my OCD is kicking in since I have never called from a monitor, and the dark scene is also the most intense with a cue like almost every other word.  But thanks for the advice. I'm going to start using it tomorrow so I will see how it goes.

Natalie

[geridith]

Personally, I am a fan of calling from FOH. I do mostly musicals, so I like seeing things on a larger scale. I feel like if I am backstage, people come to me unneccessarily, which can be distracting, especially if its super cue-heavy, like a lot of my shows have been. I have also been lucky to have really great ASMs though, that I trust.

There has also been one show where the LD got fancy with a SIMTI (sp?) system on the last songs of a show with a track, but something kept going wrong with the firing of the sound and lights (the light board was programmed to fire sound cues as well), so 4 out of 6 shows, my board op and I were on our toes, basically going off of a previous version of the show I had done and what she remembered the LD programming from tech. It was insane and there was no way I could have landed those shows from backstage. I also have not been a fan of SIMTI since...

[Rhynn]

FOH is for me!  I usually have an ASM backstage to handle the problems back there, who is always in contact with me.  If there is a necessity to call a cue from backstage, the ASM is always there to do it, but the FOH position gives me the ability to see the entire stage to catch problems that may happen--OK, will happen--keeps me in better contact with my crew as light and sound booths as well as spot positions are FOH, and it keeps me away from the distractions backstage.

[Katie ~]

Backstage has always appealed to me more than the booth.
If something goes wrong then you're there and can be hands on with the situation.

[jemason]

Just curious...    I'm not sure if this situation is based on the ability to see what is going on backstage as opposed to sitting in the house with only a view of the stage...    what if you were able to sit in the back of the house in the stage manager/tech booth with monitors showing what was going on in both sides of the wings AND a full view of the stage?   

   I prefer sitting in the back of the house with this capability (as I am deaf and can easily communicate through the monitors using sign to my ASMs, and I have a flashlight on hand in order to get anyone's attention if they're not paying attention to the screen).  I have been an ASM sitting on one side of the wings during a show, and I find it would be extremely difficult to call a show (with deaf actors) from backstage.    There have been situations where I would be "shouting" at one of my ASMs to go find a wayward actor who was about to miss his cue, and pulling out my hair, but in the end, always, miraculously the actor would appear, right on time, and the only time an actor was actually visibly late for his cue was when I was acting in a production of Macbeth and couldn't do anything about it  - what I as a stage manager wouldn't give for psychic or telepathic communication ability!   (<"Get on the damn stage NOW!">)