Amateur vs Pro

I can imagine that there are many professional techs that started out by working on amateur and school production. And I imagine that a reasonable percentage of them still have some involvement with amateur companies. As they feel like they should offer something back to the group(s) that started them on their career path. but there can be a danger in this, some would see it as selling your skills short. But others think of it as passing on knowledge to those others that are keen to learn.

But there is something that will rear its ugly head, the possibility that you will be taken advantage of. This is very common, I know because it has happened to me. The problem is that you have these wonderful skills that are sometimes more developed than your amateur counterpart. So you keep being asked to do this or that, and you feel obliged to help out. They then assume you have lots of time to give even more help and soon it snowballs. So you need to set some guidelines for you and them. You have to say to them I am willing to undertake this task and spend x number of hours on it. Also remind them occasionally that you do this for a living. They also need to acknowledge what you are doing for them. This is a situation of give and take with the results being mutually beneficial to all concerned.

Do not be afraid to pass on your knowledge. You may occasionally come a cross someone that might resent you being involved. This might be due to the fact that they have been there for ever etc., this person you do need to get on your side, otherwise things will be difficult and there is going to be tension within the group.  The thing to remember is that you are all there to have fun and put on a great show. You need to remember that these people are doing it for the love, there is no paycheck at the end of the week. Just the satisfaction of doing a well done job to the best of their abilities. You can also learn a lot from working with these types of groups. Tolerance for people with less skills than you is one. It will make your job easier when an amateur group comes into to a venue that you work at. You have a better understanding of a community theatres group dynamics and the fact they have less time and money to achieve a professional job.

So if you decide to help out at an amateur theatre group, enjoy yourself. freely pass on skills and enjoy the fun as well.

Philips – benign or not?

Probably most of you have noticed  trend over the last few years, and that trend is Philips buying up loads of companies that are theatrical lighting companies. Just this year they have purchased Selecon and also Dynalite, and that’s just in Australia. Worldwide this company has purchased major players in the theatrical lighting arena. Companies like Strand and Vari-Lite have also been bought up as well.Below you will see a pic of the brand names that Philips owns.  One might say that this is allowing these companies to continue and not go under. But there is a possibility that the company might become to big and own to many lighting brands. And then we lose the competitive edge that keeps the prices at a level that consumers are happy with.  It is not only companies that make equipment for the entertainment industry that Philips are buying but also companies that are involved in domestic and commercial lighting. We as consumers always need to carefully watch these business trends, the bottom line for these companies is profits and their shareholders. So the consumer is not always going to be the winner no matter how much a company says that it there for them. The entertainment industry needs to maintain competitive pricing between manufacturers. This same thing has also happened in the audio market, with LOUD buying multiple audio companies,  some of which are making similar products for similar markets. So we need to keep on the ball and make sure that we are not ripped off, and if we see a problem occuring we stand up and have a say and not bury our heads.

Lighting Design 101 part 2 ” The Usable Properties of Light”

In the first part of Lighting Design 101 we looked at the aims of lighting. In this section we are going to look at the usable properties of stage lighting. These are the controllable properties that light has.

1. Intensity – this is the quantity of light. Dimmers are used to control the intensity of light. The human eye can adjust to a wide range of levels of intensity. Therefore it can be assume that intensity is relative. The eye compares the present lighting intensity with what has happened before. an example of this phenomena is when a theatre’s house lights dim and go out, the eyes adapt to the darkness, then the stage lights come up to an intensity that might not be that much brighter than the house lights previous level. But since the eyes had adjusted to the darkness the light seems to be very bright when compared to what it was before hand. This creates the illusion of bright light, and it is something that a lighting designer can take advantage of. You don’t necessarily need lots of light to create a bright scene you just need to have the skills to use intensity to create that illusion.

2. Colour – colour must be carefully controlled in a theatrical lighting situation. To control the colour of the light you use specially dyed sheets of plastic in front of the light. There is a huge range of colours available. This gives the lighting designer a whole of palette to work with. You can use colour to create moods and evoke locations. Colours like blue and blue tints can give you the feeling of coolness whereas yellow or red can give you the feeling of warmth. But a “cool ” light will only appear cool if there is a “warm” light to compare it with. So it does act a bit like intensity, you need something to compare it with.

3.Distribution – where does the light come from? Where does it go? These are questions that relate to the distribution of light. For everyone to see, special lighting conditions are needed. You can change the distribution of light to highlight an actor within a group of performers, or you could have strong yellowish light streaming through a window on stage while the rest of the stage is bathed in a low level cool wash. These are examples of distribution of light.

4.Movement – intensity, colour and distribution are not static properties of light. They are subject to change and this change is called movement. Movement is used to shift emphasis, show a break in time or underline a climax. Too many changes can be a distraction and to few could lead to boredom due to not aiding the production.

As you can see from this post and the previous post that stage lighting design can be quite complex when you take all these factors into consideration. But once you have a basic understanding of these it starts to make sense and then becomes easy. But not only do you need to know the properties of light but you also need to know about the various type of lights that you have at your disposal. So the next Lighting Design 101 will cover a variety of lantern types.

NEWS May 2009

Audix Mics rock with AC/DC

AC/DC are undertaking their first in seven years and Audix mics are included in the tour.

Paul Boothroyd is one of Britains leading audio guys and is also the FOH audio engineers for the current tour by AC/DC. He has also mixed for the likes of Paul McCatney and Dire Straits. He has worked for AC/DC since their BallBreaker Tour in 1996.

He has picked Audix mics for this tour after the success he had with the drum mics on the Paul McCartney tour. On the McCartney tour he added some Micro-D beneath the cymbals, which gave a great sound keep the stage bleed down to a minimum. A D6 was used on the kick, i5 on the snare, D4 on the toms and an SCX1-HC for the high hat. A very impressive kit of mics for a drum kit.

A new Element in Lighting

Jands are now supplying the new ETC Elements lighting console which is based on the Eos® control system but with a simplified feature set in a stand-alone console.This console is directed at smaller venues like schools and houses of worship who depend on single console operators or volunteer staffers. It is designed to handle rigs outfitted predominantly with conventional fixtures (spotlights, PARs, fresnels, and their accessories – scrollers, mirror heads, gobo rotators, etc.), while also accommodating some LED fixtures and/or a small number of simple moving lights.

ETC has addressed a number of special requirements in this new console

• 1. Channel Faders: ETC engineered Element with true LTP channel faders for handling simple shows directly or for building up looks for use as submasters or cues, or for editing levels live.
• 2. Submasters: By turning a switch, Element’s channel faders become 40 submasters for simple playback of live shows. When submasters are needed all the time, the Element 60 console provides 20 additional dedicated submaster faders.
• 3. Cue Stacks: Element records cues and fade times into a single cue list for simple playback of more complex shows using a GO button just like full blown professional theatre consoles and, when you are ready to move up, you can access more complex timing functions like cue parts and follows to create more intricate lighting transitions.
• 4. Effects: Element also opens the realm of special effects to basic operators by recording effects directly into cues or loading them into submasters for more dynamic lighting looks.
• 5. Non conventional fixture Control: Element even navigates basic accessory, LED and moving-light control. At the press of a button, the console’s On Demand ML Controls appear on screen with tools designed to control smaller numbers of non-intensity equipment like scrollers, gobo rotators and mirror heads for conventional fixtures. Element’s colour and gel-picker tools simplify the control process further, applying appropriate colours to LEDs and colour-mixing accessories and fixtures.

Powersoft powers Peter Gabriel

At Peter Gabriel’s recent concert in Buenos Aires this year, a variety of Powersoft amps were used for the JBL PA. The amps used were the Powersoft K10, K8 and the K6. This would have sounded huge.

Production Manager – What do they do?

This is a question that I am often asked. The Production Manager is a major part of a theatre company, and in professional companies this role is often pivotal to the success of the company. An in-effective Production Manager can break a company quickly if they do not keep on top of things. They need to spend hours planning to the last detail what is going to happen. They need an intimate knowledge of all of the various departments and what they do. They also need a head for paperwork. They have to understand the artistic mindset but also be practical. Below is a list of some of the tasks that they need to undertake.

In an amateur theatre company this is the same. The one key difference is that they are not being paid to do this task. But they still need to do all of the same tasks. But do we have people in amateur theatre that are capable of this undertaking. Do they have the time to learn all the skills and then apply them. There are some people that can do this, but they are extremely rare and usually need a lot of training. Some companies have a production committee and this to me seems a good way to go. If the committee members have all the correct skills then they can cover the list below. But a lot of companies don’t have a fully skilled person, so how do the shows make it on stage? Sometimes pure luck. This one area that some companies could spend some time training people from the crew to be effective production managers. But how does someone get training in technical theatre without doing a “pro” course that takes a few years. We do need shorts courses that are available and accessible to amateur crews.

Responsibilities:

1. Oversee and coordinate all aspects of physical production and the production process.
2. Supervise and oversee all production staff and crew.
3. Organize and manage production design and scheduling and set rentals.
4. Provide cost estimates on designs submitted and account for commitments and expenditures in budgets for materials and labor in scenic, stage, lighting, sound and special effects, capital equipment and other special projects.
5. Establish technical schedules and coordinate all activities related to theater productions including scenery construction, property construction, painting, maintenance and improvements.
6. Organising rehearsal props, sets and costumes.
7. Preparation of all show paperwork.
8. Video and music management and production for rehearsals and performances.
9. Develop equipment and procedures for stage effects and changeovers.
10. Coordinate and oversee the installation, maintenance and inventory of technical equipment and facilities.
11. Assist in contracting dancers, choreographers and designers.
12. Facilitate communication between designers, directors and staff.
13. Maintain supervision of theatre use.
14. Manage carpentry, electrical and property staff.

Lighting Design 101 part 1 “The Aims of Stage Lighting”

Lighting is an integral part of a stage production.  Without light the performers cannot be seen. But once there are visible what next can you do with lighting? Well there are several key factors that you need to take into consideration for an effective lighting design.  The first key factor is to read the script several times to get the mood of the piece. Some scripts will have very obvious info about the lighting, with others the key will be in the text. but just because the information is in the script does not mean that you need to follow this. You also need to chat with the director about their vision for the show. Your lighting design needs to complement the directors vision. You need to be working of the the same page.

There are some basic ideas that you need to think about when you re designing theatre. Some of these ideas I have got from the Legendary Francis Reid, and I have used them myself when I am designing lights for a show. Another great source of ideas about stage lighting is Richard Pilbrow. You could sort of think of them as rules but remember rules are meant to be broken occasionally especially if you get the result that you are after. Remember to think outside the square.

So the basic principals are:

Visibility – this is really the first basic requirement of lighting. Audiences need to see the actor as well as hear them. If you cannot see the actor they are usually difficult to hear. So visibilty of the performers and the stage is important, but we can also use selective visiblity to emphasise various key elements within the show. Also the level of illumination can also give the audience clues about the show. The brightness of a scene is only relative to what has gone before.

Indication of Setting – this is were you use the lighting to indicate whether the scene is indoors or outdoors, day or night and weather conditions. This is rather simplistic but as you experiment with light you will find more ideas for the indication of the setting.

Creation of Mood – here you are attempting to use the lighting to sway the audiences feeling. You are trying to make them happy or sad, maybe a romantic mood. You can create moods by the careful use of colour or lighting angles. Also could be referred to as atmosphere. This is very important if you want the audience to feel anything towards the play

Element of Composition – here you are relying on the use of colour, light and shade.  You can use the distribution of light to affect what the audiences sees. A production viewed from the front can look a little flat. Therefore the role of the lighting designer is to bring back that 3rd dimension. This can be achieved by lighting from the sides or the back. generally light in theatre does not come from the front. In fact lighting from different angles can lend a certain solidness to the production. It can make it more “real” or make it more surreal. The best way to find out more is to experiement with lights from different angles and observe what happens. And then you can add the use of colour.

Using these basic aims you should be able to create on stage something that is going to look good. Finding the right balance is going to take time and practise. But good lighting is the art of complementing what is happening on stage without distracting from it. When you achieve this you have done a great job.