Problem solving
During the early stages of planning a weekly production meeting was organised with the cast and technical team to discuss ideas, set, props, costumes, lighting, sounds effects and a theme. Originally the dancers wanted a single, whole cast show and the technical team outlined what facilities were available, for example a haze machine, moving fixtures and LED's. The budget of £250 was to be used for hired equipment, props etc. We recorded potential ideas and key information on a mind-map. The original idea was that the show would be based on a dance school and the individual journey of each dancer. The set would involve two large mirrors which would be wheeled on and off stage but we realised this would not work as the down facing lights would reflect off the mirrors and into the audience. The dancers then decided they would prefer a cabaret themed show which would consist of short, individual performances of different genres.
The dancers gave us large paper sheets of technical and music ideas, we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each idea in the weekly production meeting and got a clearer idea of their technical requirements. Vadim and I discussed potential ways to meet their needs and how we would fulfil each one. One of these requirements was a haze machine to give the impression of a smokey atmosphere on stage. The college owns a haze machine but it is complicated to set-up and control with the new lighting console so we looked into hiring a machine. Unfortunately the cost of hire was over our budget so I worked out how to use the current machine with the lighting console, this has proved complicated but we had no choice. We also discussed the floor layout and I did a 3D CAD design which included the floor layout, staging, floor standing fixtures, stage design and scenery. This design was shared with the cast and technical team and helped us all to visualise the proposed design. We went to cast rehearsals and noted down key information, potential lighting states and effects.
During one of the weekly production meetings I decided to use a cue sheet instead of a script. This is because I have dyslexia and following a script is a challenge because I easily loose my place. Each lighting state or effect has an individual number A cue sheet is a list of actions written down, each action is labelled as a cue and during a professional performance the stage manager will call the cues at the allocated times. This suits me because it is clear, quicker to refer to and contains only key, relevant. If the cast or director chose to rehearse a song out of order I could refer to the sheet and quickly find the correct cue.
CUE SHEET
I practised some of effects on the offline version of our lighting console software so I could experiment, build my confidence, problem solve, explore ideas and investigate possible problems that may occur. This was helpful as I could do it in my own time and I did not need access to any physical equipment. This also meant that I did not keep the cast waiting during valuable rehearsal time. I also tried out some step based effects on the haze machine and was unable to control the blower via DMX without there being a huge latency between the command and the action. To try and solve this I made an absolute effect which involved embedding an intensity pallet and a virtual macro. To make the intensity pallet I used the following command [RECORD] [INTENSITY PALLET] [160] @ [0] [ENTER]. To record the macro I used the command [LEARN] [MACRO 1] [ENTER] [160] [@] [BLOWER] [@] [0] [ENTER]. Within the absolute effect I allocated step one of the effect to the intensity pallet and step two to the macro, I set the absolute effect to a two cycle action so it would run through both steps twice. This technique was effective but not always reliable as some of the cues had the [STOP EFFECT] command embedded within them. I recorded this effect as a submaster which meant I could control it with a physical fader. I eventually used the effects and recorded them to an individual sub. This was time consuming as I needed to problem solve using previous knowledge and research associated problem using online forums.
During our production meetings I had to overcome many problems, the most common was lack of people in the technical team. We were a 2 man team and ideally needed a minimum of 4 people, props needed to be moved on and off stage and heavy scenery needed to be rearranged so we aimed to keep everything as simple as possible. This proved effective and meant we both understood each others roles. Vadim and I both knew the performance well and could bounce ideas off each other. We both had different perspectives of the lighting states, each state had a different meaning, specific fixtures and moving light combinations. We had to ensure that each lighting state would make sense to the audience and add to the performance. However, this required planning as we had to understand each others notes, we wrote the cue sheet together and it was a massive help.
I wanted to keep a copy of my show file on a USB in case there was a problem with the lighting console as occasionally show files would go missing or become corrupted, I therefore made sure I regularly backed everything up. I found a way of saving the show file to a specific folder within the show archive on the console and added a command that would also save the file to an external drive. This helped as it was simple and didn't rely on me remembering to back it up.
We had problems with the ETC sum+ dimmers. The large 94 module dimmer was displaying an error code indicating that it wasn't getting any DMX data in port A, this was a huge issue as without the 94 dimmer modules two thirds of the generic fixtures would not work. I tried my best to work out what the route problem was. I researched how to access the internal interface of the dimmers so that I could see the configuration and errors increasing my knowledge of digital dimmers. I tried running a single DMX connection from the console into the DMX controller which had a direct feed into the dimmers controller module. By passing the DMX controller into the dimmers feed I confirmed that the DMX control module was faulty. Then Whitelight ( https://www.whitelight.ltd.uk/ ) visited the college and fixed the problem which was a fault with a DMX controller chip set in the dimmers controller module because of this we had to swap over to saCH - Artnet which is DMX over ethernet. This solved a major problem and was an invaluable learning experience.
I wanted to use a single Socapex connection to rig the low hanging Uni-Bar and various fixtures with different colours because Socapex is a single socket multi-core. This means when lowering the bar only a single power cable needs to be unplugged. This is really helpful as it saves on 16a cable and is easier to use when rigging a lot of equipment, when running Socapex onto a bar you have to use a minimum of one Socapex to 6 x16amp plugs so each individual fixture can be connected.
The dancers gave us large paper sheets of technical and music ideas, we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each idea in the weekly production meeting and got a clearer idea of their technical requirements. Vadim and I discussed potential ways to meet their needs and how we would fulfil each one. One of these requirements was a haze machine to give the impression of a smokey atmosphere on stage. The college owns a haze machine but it is complicated to set-up and control with the new lighting console so we looked into hiring a machine. Unfortunately the cost of hire was over our budget so I worked out how to use the current machine with the lighting console, this has proved complicated but we had no choice. We also discussed the floor layout and I did a 3D CAD design which included the floor layout, staging, floor standing fixtures, stage design and scenery. This design was shared with the cast and technical team and helped us all to visualise the proposed design. We went to cast rehearsals and noted down key information, potential lighting states and effects.
During one of the weekly production meetings I decided to use a cue sheet instead of a script. This is because I have dyslexia and following a script is a challenge because I easily loose my place. Each lighting state or effect has an individual number A cue sheet is a list of actions written down, each action is labelled as a cue and during a professional performance the stage manager will call the cues at the allocated times. This suits me because it is clear, quicker to refer to and contains only key, relevant. If the cast or director chose to rehearse a song out of order I could refer to the sheet and quickly find the correct cue.
CUE SHEET
I practised some of effects on the offline version of our lighting console software so I could experiment, build my confidence, problem solve, explore ideas and investigate possible problems that may occur. This was helpful as I could do it in my own time and I did not need access to any physical equipment. This also meant that I did not keep the cast waiting during valuable rehearsal time. I also tried out some step based effects on the haze machine and was unable to control the blower via DMX without there being a huge latency between the command and the action. To try and solve this I made an absolute effect which involved embedding an intensity pallet and a virtual macro. To make the intensity pallet I used the following command [RECORD] [INTENSITY PALLET] [160] @ [0] [ENTER]. To record the macro I used the command [LEARN] [MACRO 1] [ENTER] [160] [@] [BLOWER] [@] [0] [ENTER]. Within the absolute effect I allocated step one of the effect to the intensity pallet and step two to the macro, I set the absolute effect to a two cycle action so it would run through both steps twice. This technique was effective but not always reliable as some of the cues had the [STOP EFFECT] command embedded within them. I recorded this effect as a submaster which meant I could control it with a physical fader. I eventually used the effects and recorded them to an individual sub. This was time consuming as I needed to problem solve using previous knowledge and research associated problem using online forums.
During our production meetings I had to overcome many problems, the most common was lack of people in the technical team. We were a 2 man team and ideally needed a minimum of 4 people, props needed to be moved on and off stage and heavy scenery needed to be rearranged so we aimed to keep everything as simple as possible. This proved effective and meant we both understood each others roles. Vadim and I both knew the performance well and could bounce ideas off each other. We both had different perspectives of the lighting states, each state had a different meaning, specific fixtures and moving light combinations. We had to ensure that each lighting state would make sense to the audience and add to the performance. However, this required planning as we had to understand each others notes, we wrote the cue sheet together and it was a massive help.
I wanted to keep a copy of my show file on a USB in case there was a problem with the lighting console as occasionally show files would go missing or become corrupted, I therefore made sure I regularly backed everything up. I found a way of saving the show file to a specific folder within the show archive on the console and added a command that would also save the file to an external drive. This helped as it was simple and didn't rely on me remembering to back it up.
We had problems with the ETC sum+ dimmers. The large 94 module dimmer was displaying an error code indicating that it wasn't getting any DMX data in port A, this was a huge issue as without the 94 dimmer modules two thirds of the generic fixtures would not work. I tried my best to work out what the route problem was. I researched how to access the internal interface of the dimmers so that I could see the configuration and errors increasing my knowledge of digital dimmers. I tried running a single DMX connection from the console into the DMX controller which had a direct feed into the dimmers controller module. By passing the DMX controller into the dimmers feed I confirmed that the DMX control module was faulty. Then Whitelight ( https://www.whitelight.ltd.uk/ ) visited the college and fixed the problem which was a fault with a DMX controller chip set in the dimmers controller module because of this we had to swap over to saCH - Artnet which is DMX over ethernet. This solved a major problem and was an invaluable learning experience.
I wanted to use a single Socapex connection to rig the low hanging Uni-Bar and various fixtures with different colours because Socapex is a single socket multi-core. This means when lowering the bar only a single power cable needs to be unplugged. This is really helpful as it saves on 16a cable and is easier to use when rigging a lot of equipment, when running Socapex onto a bar you have to use a minimum of one Socapex to 6 x16amp plugs so each individual fixture can be connected.
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