Theatre Lighting - Tumblr Posts

I did spotlight for a practice run of Sister Act! Apparently I did amazingly well for my first time ever doing lights!

My studio venue had one - it had been bought because the mainstage operator wanted to slave it to his system for moving lights when my room didn't have shows. He was vetoed because the possibility of rentals. So I had a "moving light" board in a room that just needed scene playback with outdated conventional fixtures. It. Was. THE. WORST.

We didn't even have a monitor so I had to use the tiny pixel display to guess intensity. It's only seven pixels tall? What the hell % is 5 out of 7 pixels?

It's gotten SLIGHTLY better since ten years ago - I was there back in the fall and they'd finally put updates on it and ETC added the ability to designate which Point cue you want to insert a cue as. When I was running it, it would just auto assign a point by splitting the middle of the cue you were in and the next cue. So if you had a Cue 2 and 3 and designer wants to add three cues in between? Be in Cue 2 and build 2.5 - then be in Cue 2 to build 2.3 - then be in Cue 2.5 to build 2.7. Good times.

Anyone I've mentioned that board to has also groaned and rolled their eyes and asked "WHY."

A good anecdote however: I was running a spot light for the Hamilton, Ontario stop of the BTS concert last year, and there were eight of us out on a line of truss suspended at the far end of the arena. Below us was the FoH stage, covered in consoles and controllers and operators, and camera operators for the live feed LED screens.

So I'm peering down at the lighting boards, the backup lighting boards, the lighting board specifically for the spot lights, and so on and so on when something catches my eye.

We were in a lull so I thumb my headset open to ask the American who was in charge of the equipment and standing by in case the Korean operator had any issues... "Is that... An ETC Smartfade...? In the last row of tables?"

"Sure is," he responds in his smooth southern drawl.

"Holy shit," I exclaim. "I've never actually seen one being actually used in a professional lighting rig!" Was my little garbage studio board actually useful after all?

"Oh, no," he responded, chuckling. "It's for the Pyro."

Photos mine, do not reuse without permission, because I probably shouldn't have taken or be sharing them in the first place but c'mon, Smartfade, lawl. It's the redheaded stepchild.

Can someone who actually does lighting/more tech than I do confirm that Smartfade lightboards are terrible

Because I’m stuck working with one in a rented storefront right now and honestly, what the fuck

I am "smol", as the kids these days say. I think. Short, scrawny, underweight, harmless looking. But also really flexible and agile and pretty darn good balance. So being height challenged I too often find myself straining to reach just another inch or two to secure some clamp or loosen some bolt or clip in a safety - and No, Anrita, I can't "just make the lift go higher" because there's gods damned structural steel in the way.

Net result is I'm constantly just jumping up on the kickplate of the bucket, or standing on the apex of an A-Frame, or any number of things that are giving other people heart attacks, and I'm like; "If I feel unsafe, I don't do it. But safety laws are also for the lowest common denominator. 50 year old, overweight white men with bad backs and knees." Just because Gary can't even imagine balancing on one foot with another hooked over a pipe and an elbow braced to the wall, doesn't mean I can't zip up like a squirrel and get it done.

And yah, there're been a few "I've wildly misjudged this" moments.

I may have been in a Genie lift working by myself once, and when asked "why is this taking so long" I pointed out I needed to come in, climb out, move the lift, go back up, repeat. Every five feet. They jokingly teased about an old worker there who would just grab the (wall anchored) pipes, brace his gut on the railing, and pull the lift around, while elevated. And then left.

About ten minutes later, already frustrated at the tediousness of it all, I thought to myself; "Hell. If Ronnie could do it..." So I gripped the pipe, braced, and tugged. The bucket shifted forward smoothly. I'm about 18 feet up, and expected more wobble or resistance, but it was really quiet easy. Surprised, and pleased, I pulled forward a couple more feet then went to let go of the pipe.

And that's when I felt the bucket sway.

Disclaimer: The outriggers may have not been in because FFS it was already taking too long. Always operate elevation devices with all required safety features in place.

So my hands, instead of relaxing, death gripped the pipe as I realized what was happening below me. I wasn't pulling the base of the lift along as I'd believed. I was pulling the bucket, and tipping the lift over. I ccaaareeefully retraced my path until I heard the "thunk" of the rear wheels hitting the floor again, descended, got out of the bucket, and spent about five minutes in a chair contemplating poor life choices.

TL:DR = Use your outriggers. But also acknowledge some people are just comfortable in possibly risky situations.

some of you never watched your life flash before your eyes while standing one rung higher than recommended on a ladder to hang lights and it shows

On the topic of precarious ladders:

So writing about working at heights hijinks and life-panicing moments got me thinking about an old member of my first local. This guy had been installing wiring for the Big Bang, I garuntee. We were talking one day about ladder adventures. Both being short, small, and overconfident, we had plenty of moments to swap, but his took the cake.

He was on a North American tour of an Opera, back in his day, and they were down in the States, I want to say California but I can't recall precisely.

So this venue they're at, they're doing the load in, and it has this odd grating installed over the last few feet of the stage that allows the actors to walk right above the orchestra, a sort of grid covered pit.

The touring rig has a lighting pipe that needs to be hung right out over the stage edge, so motor lines are dropped in, everything is built and hooked up, and up it goes. But then, the local crew explains to Ronnie, because of the unique floor covering the pit, it wasn't load bearing enough for a scissor lift to be run across it. "But how do we focus those lights?" Ronnie asked, confused.

So that's when the house crew went out into the house, up to the back of the third balcony, and pulled out three segments of an extension ladder, 20 feet each. A quick chat determined that the apron pipe was about 40 feet above the deck, so two chunks of the ladder were passed over the edge of the third balcony to the second; over the second to the main floor, carried out to the edge of the stage, and linked together.

"Now what," Ronnie asks, probably well caught on, but just making sure. The local guys grin, and walk the ladder upright. Then four of them get around the base. "Up you go."

40 feet, straight vertical, no safety, nowhere to anchor to, no wall around, held in place by four crew hugging the bottom.

Up zips Ronnie, straddling the top rung and hooking his feet into lower bars, pulls out his wrench, and gets the first light focused.

"Okay, now, hang on," the guys at the base holler, and proceed to waddle-walk the base of the ladder to get Ronnie to the next fixture.

One foot, pivot-twist - rock onto other foot, pivot twist. Stop, work, repeat.

The whole width of the apron.

I can still see the grin on Ronnie's face retelling it, I bet he was having the time of his life.

And then, the story goes, he was so comfortable up there, and the ground team so competent, they got the pipe done in record time, but halfway along, tragedy struck upstage.

If you've never heard a motor bag dump a full length of chain after everything has been flown out, well, consider yourselves lucky. A collective groan went up from the carpentry team as a bag spilled, the only way to clean it up being bring the set in again.

"Hold up," says Ronnie, "maybe we can help." And his base team waddle-walked his ladder across the stage, where he pulled up the chain and stuffed it back in the bag to the cheers of the other crews below. Lighting was the hero of the show for the rest of the production's stay there.

So... Every now and then, when my leg is cramping because my harness is biting off circulation in my thigh because I'm folded in half trying to adjust some fixture, and my retractable lanyard is trying to choke me to death, or at the very least pull my hair out, and some Technical Director is griping that I "shouldn't be doooiiiing thaaaaat..." Okay fine, then I guess you can't have the effect, because I can't set it up legally; I think back to Ronnie, seated on the top rung of a forty foot ladder, being waddled across a stage, and I wonder if all this safety has dumbed down our skills.

And I wish like hell I could try that.

Simple studio show, he said.

Hardly any tech, he said.

Then why I am at hour five of a solo focus/design session.

Needless to say the lighting area for the last show in here (one woman on an 8'x12' stage at a 1' height) was not sufficient for a three person production, on the floor, with a shipping trunk, 3'x2' slat box, coat rack, and canvas ship sail/projection screen.

So let's turn an 8x12 foot coverage wash into 24x20 playing space.

Hell yes I love this job.

But sometimes, seriously.

San Fransokyo is gonna get overrun with Heartless while I'm stuck here focusing tips.

Theatre Life Tip: Your Business Agent/Technical Director/Designer will always say "it should be easy" to coax you to take the call, because once you walk into the building, your soul is theirs. It's never "that easy".

Local Theatre Productions: Orchestra

Shows up for a one-off concert; Setup, rehearsal, show, tear down all in one day.

Sets up a nice stage wash cue.

Assists with chair set up and music stands and music stand lights and wiring and taping down cables.

Musicians show up.

Conductor "No no no this is wrong! There can't be any light from out there!" -flails towards the audience-.

:You mean the Front Lights?:

"Yes. Can't have any of those. Gets in the musicians eyes and they can't see me or their music."

:Buuuuttt.... They'll. Look. REALLY wierd. Maybe just at like. 40%?:

"No front light! None!"

:Are you certain. With just top lights, the shadows will fill in their eye sockets and chins and they'll look like skeletons... It'll be pretty ugly.:

"NONE."

Kills FoH fixtures. Looks like shit.

Orchestra rehearses. Conductor eventually wanders into house to admire everything.

"Why do they look like shitty skeletons?"

-.-

"Oh. Maybe just... Just a little front light..."

So that's a true story from years ago, but also an important lesson learned by me for future concert rentals. Fronts and tips can, with the right angle, make looking at their music or over at the conductor problematic. Musicians having little dancing burned retina dots while they read their sheets is not beneficial.

Another thing I learned was certain gel colours can cause havoc with any pencil markings they've made on their music, especially if the notations themselves are coloured. Trying to blend in a blue gobo wash for artistic effect maybe not such a great idea. I'll generally check that everyone's happy during a lull in rehearsing. (Or happy enough. They're never happy.)

Sconce Troubles

Practical wall fixture doesn't come on in lamp check.

Step one: Check plugged in to right circuit.

Step two: Unplug and replug.

Step three: Track along power cord for damage.

Step four: Jiggle it.

Step five: Jiggle it more.

It works!

Nope, now it's off again.

And crackling?

That's usually not good.

Give it a tentative poke.

Now it's on again and there's an interesting smell...

-Kills power-.

Alert Technical Director standing nearby.

Notify construction electrics.

Pry the thing apart in case it's an easy fix.

Oh look! It was on fire! Awesome.

This is now sufficiently a safety hazard and beyond my skillset.

Show it to Lighting Designer, stick it back on the wall, but not plugged in, for Aesthetics.

Lift skills.

So apparently my driving has two extremes:

FOuR whEeLs HOow???!!?!

And

Drives into place.

Start going up.

Smirk at ground crew freaking out.

Less than one inch gap clearance.

Hell yeah.

It's Liiiiiivvve Theatre!

So I'm doing an understudy track for Glass Menagerie, everything's good, preshow went fine, up in the booth behind the board operator, half paying attention since it's just a "Go" show.

When suddenly...

"Console has lost control of the system..."

Thankfully we run a parallel backup.

Except.

It's not advancing the cues?

And now it's "searching for master console..."

And the lights still aren't changing.

And I know it's terrible. But there's a part of me that's like. "For once... This happened to someone else..." Because I've been dealing with system glitches like this in here for years.

So we announce to the audience. Please stand by. Technical difficulties. We will resume shortly.

Turn on the works. Except we can't access the Paradigm system. So we pop on the emergency lights. And reset the boards. They look good! Except still not controlling the lights.

So we reset the dimmers!

Which does nothing.

So we reset the network!

Which does nothing.

So now we're waiting for intermission.

Thankfully the dimmers locked on in the last cue, and it's a bright stage look, so THE SHOW GOES ON.

Liiivvvveeee theaaatrreeee.

When you been running the lamps at full for so long, the burning gel makes it look like we're running a hazer.

Press F for those poor colour frames.

First show of the week.

Let's boot up the ETC system, head on down to the stage, weird, the remote won't connect, back up to the booth, weird, backup won't connect, weird, 1 Thru 30 @ Full. Nope.

Cue: Unplug, power cycle, replug, power down, unplug, replug, call department head, call other venue lighting operator, unplug, replug, deep clean, power cycle.

But did you unplug that one part?

But did you power cycle that part?

But did you power cycle and unplug this part?

Okay so the board is talking to the lights!

But. Not the DMX. But some of the DMX? Universe 2 is down! But we've already held the house going ten minutes.

Park Universe 2 off! The show must go on!

Ppppprrrrrroogggramin'

Happy Openings to Sex, The Russian Play, Ladykillers, and The Glass Menagerie!!

Up next: Cyrano de Bergerac, Man and Superman +, and Victory!

As a lightning technician, I appreciate the first one.

ROSCO VS APOLLO.

so i tried photo translator feature in google translate on my god of war disc and

Yeeaahh I love old remotes. Here's one from the Studio at Hamilton Place, Hamilton, Ontario.

My Associate Production Manager found this old dinosaur in his office as he was cleaning it out.