the3rdoption

Alright... I pretty much restarted my contact list when I moved to Vegas. To be honest, I came here to move in as a roommate with a woman I met on Ringling Bros. She's also a lighting lady... But let's be honest: I kinda maybe might have had a thing for her. But also respected her professionally.

Either way, she's a good woman to know. Just not THE woman to know. So, I sort of stagnated here for a bit. Until I just really needed something real, and it was time to get moving.

So, first company I liked that gave me an offer, I offered myself at an introductory rate. The bottom end of what I was willing to accept, and just a little too good for them to pass up. I kicked ass and made things happen in the first month to secure the gig. They made the things I needed happen, so I'm still here... But that wasn't honestly part of the plan. The plan was to do whatever it takes to be a full timer, so I could be seen by the clients, and competitors.

I've also bluffed my way onto sets and just started working. Do not do this on union or IATSE sets. Doesn't play out well. But anywhere you know there will be an unfamiliar crew with minimal supervision, you can play. Coil some cables, be seen, then disappear into the woodwork. When you're seen later, you'll be a familiar face.

Also, go out and see concerts at shitty venues. Help the band out after. Even better if it's a shitty venue with a tech crew. They may want the help, and likely know people who are hiring.

Finally, community theatre. It's never anything amazing... But it's an easy way to get your name on paper. And occasionally in a local rag. Proof that you were there is always a good thing.

That's actually pretty circumstantial. A lot of the time I don't get a set list for the artist. So, I pre-program a bunch of looks, and pick & choose through them based on the feel of the song... And wind up building more stuff as the show goes. The automated lighting consoles (the fancy ones) have a "blind" button on them. When that's activated, I can program stuff without the audience seeing it, then introduce the new looks when I think they'll look good (hopefully. Bear in mind,I can't really see it either. Just educated guesses).

Other times, I get a set list AND a full rehearsal. That was the standard on the cruise lines. The MO there was to program the entire show into one cue list, and just press play at the right time.

My preference, though, is just too have a set list, or list of greatest hits the night before. Then, I can YouTube the songs, and build a basic cue list for each song. During the show, I can run through the cue list, and make up stuff to go on top of it on-the-fly.

So far as big budget shows, it's pretty common to time code everything. Like for Madonna, they have an audio track for the music that's linked to a midi signal. It feeds the lighting console the info to automatically trigger cues at exactly the right time.

Nope. Anything to do with fire, or sparks, or sudden pneumatic bursts (some confetti canons, or launchers), and even some water effects generally fall under pyro. It's strongly advisable to hire another technician to handle that. Reason being that before the burst, the pyro tech needs to be 100% certain that everything is clear, and the burst will occur within the guidelines of the law. There's a pretty lengthy set of laws on pyrotechnic displays, involving who can be near it, what safety measures must be in place, how close to the audience it can be (circumstance dependant, as close as 15 feet), etc. So, basically, it's a bad idea to make the guy who's watching the light show also fire the pyro.

Needless to say, pyro is never done on time code. It's always a manual operation. Pyro consoles generally work on a key and a big red button of doom.

Also, fun stuff to know: if you aren't cleared by federal/state gov to transport pyro, you can't do it. So on Ringling Bros, it would be shipped to us ahead of our arrival in the next city. We'd always get a little extra, to cover for damage or visible defects, or... But if we didn't use it for the show, we couldn't take it with us, and we weren't cleared to ship it anywhere, and you can't just throw it away... So, the law says we had to blow stuff up.

I love riggers that take the time to meet before going up. I want to get a feel for who's hanging my shit. I just don't have the same confidence in the guy that's just there to do the gig, and go home. Of course, I understand that 70 something points can be daunting. Particularly in places like the arena in Pittsburgh, where it was done by boom lift to clip bridles to the ceiling. But please, take the 5 minutes to Bullshit with me over how the trip was and how my last load out sucked.

Things I hate: don't try to redo my math and insist that I'm wrong. Odds are, mine was done by an engineer before being checked by load cells and read by a second engineer before leaving rehearsals. If you do see something wrong, please politely ask about it. Don't come up to me as a high school drop out with a harness and insist that I'm wrong. I might be wrong... But I'm not interested in some chump bitching about 2135lbs on a CM 1 ton (seriously. Took me 10 minutes to explain that it's a metric ton).

Also, if you own your own rope and harness, keep your gear in good condition. Self check before you approach me, please. If I catch you off guard, it's generally cool to let me know you're going to check your gear before you climb and ask me to give you a quick moment. Do not let me see that the back of your harness is frayed, or drop a rope to me that's chewed up. Because if my gear falls because your rope fails, I've got to deal with it. And if you die because your harness fails, my show is getting mentioned in the news. I hate having to chew that guy a new one, because I hate being put in a position with a higher than average chance of failure.

Oh, one thing I do love: let me know where the good booze is around the venue. If you know the guy who has substances of interest, let it be known in general that you may have the connect. And yes, yes I would like to meet your neighbor with the huge rack and questionable morals.

Oh, no... since lighting lady, I met my permanent girlfriend and we're training a little lighting lady. Didn't get the one I thought I wanted, but found the life I'm proud of anyway.

And oh yes, did I forget? Make cool business cards. Mine were my basic contact info on the back... But the front was a "hello my name is" with my name done up to look hand written. I'd hand them out with the face up, of course. Most people give it an odd look before turning it over to realize that it's actually a business card. Humor and peculiarity is easily remembered. Use that to your advantage. Feel free to steal that idea, as I've already moved on to another.