Author Topic: CALLING: Visual Cues--Who's Responsible?  (Read 13592 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

LCSM

  • Permanent Resident
  • *****
  • Posts: 249
  • Gender: Female
  • @LuciaCorak
    • View Profile
  • Experience: Professional
Re: Visual Cues--Who's Responsible?
« Reply #15 on: Jan 26, 2008, 12:18 pm »
Often times, the SM will take off the headset during the performance and ask us to watch the book while he "takes a break."  He missed a standby once because of that.

Definately notify management about that, it's inexcusable. If your SM isn't on top of things to the point where he's leaving the booth during the time there are cues that he should be calling it's gone much too far.

Just out of curiosity, what does he do on his "breaks"?

zayit shachor

  • SM Expert
  • ****
  • Posts: 175
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
    • http://thankyouten.blogspot.com
Re: Visual Cues--Who's Responsible?
« Reply #16 on: Jan 26, 2008, 01:40 pm »
We think management has caught on because the director, technical director, production stage manager, and light/sound designer have been making regular visits to the booth during performances. Often times, the SM will take off the headset during the performance and ask us to watch the book while he "takes a break."

I'm wondering, did any of the people who visited the booth ever witness these "breaks"?

FloodGate

  • New to Town
  • **
  • Posts: 5
    • View Profile
Re: Visual Cues--Who's Responsible?
« Reply #17 on: Jan 26, 2008, 05:15 pm »
The SM never leaves the booth, he just takes off the headset and sits back and watches the show.  It's up to us to let him know when cues are coming up.  And no, management is never around when this happens; he's very careful about that.

HappiTam

  • New to Town
  • **
  • Posts: 7
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: SMA, AACT
Re: Visual Cues--Who's Responsible?
« Reply #18 on: Jan 27, 2008, 02:15 am »
I still call a "ready" for the visual.  The operators that respond they are "standing by" and verify when it has "gone".  So far no problems...but then again I've had really good operators.

kiwitechgirl

  • Permanent Resident
  • *****
  • Posts: 200
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Experience: Professional
Re: Visual Cues--Who's Responsible?
« Reply #19 on: Jan 27, 2008, 02:52 am »
The SM never leaves the booth, he just takes off the headset and sits back and watches the show.  It's up to us to let him know when cues are coming up.  And no, management is never around when this happens; he's very careful about that.

If you have to let him know when cues are coming up, why is he even there?!  I'd definitely be taking this one higher - probably to the PSM.  He's not there to it back and watch the show - if he wants to do that, buy a ticket...

geoffsm

  • Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 68
  • Gender: Male
  • If we could read minds, we wouldn't need headsets.
    • View Profile
  • Affiliations: SMA (Associate), SAFD (Actor-Combatant)
  • Experience: College/Graduate
Re: Visual Cues--Who's Responsible?
« Reply #20 on: Jan 27, 2008, 01:20 pm »
If you have to let him know when cues are coming up, why is he even there?!  I'd definitely be taking this one higher - probably to the PSM.  He's not there to it back and watch the show - if he wants to do that, buy a ticket...

Seriously.  They are in the wrong line of work. That is absolutely something that you should bring in confidence to someone higher up.