Artistic control during a show

[gabe]

So my highschool is nearing completion of a new $14M "performing arts center," and the time has come that I am starting to meet with all of the various contractors for the mandatory training. So the other day I was with the director of the theater program, my lighting guy and the Strand rep being trained on our new Sub Pallete.

My light guy and I have both had lots of experience on the 300 series so we were just sitting back ocasionally paying attention when he noted the differences between the two, but our director, having never operated a digital console, decided that he needed to know exactly how the cue sheet worked, from programming cues, to looks, to cue parts, to effects etc etc. And at one point my director wanted to know if you could do a manual fade from one cue to another with a slider on the board. The Strand rep said that he had never been asked that question, and I asked why he would want to know because I had never had to do anything like that. Now my director swears that on Broadway cue times aren't the same every night depending on how the scene played out because he had acted on a Broadway stage before (long before digital consoles). The director said that he wanted the board ops to make "judgement calls" about fade times during the show. I said that the whole point of a cue'd show is so that each fade is the same every night, and all of the artistic control is in the SM and when she calls it each night.

So, my question is, when on Broadway or other up-scale professional theater, is this done? Does the board op really have any artistic control in terms of the fade time of blackouts?

[fosstech]

Not that I know of. I've never heard of such a thing. As the lighting rigs for these shows become more and more complicated, people need less variability. Sounds like your director is stuck in the past

[Raktor]

Slightly off-topic:

Being a user of primarily a Strand 300 I'm curious; what do you think of the Palette range now you've been shown through that console?

[icewolf08]

I suppose that there may be times in some live playback settings when you might need to grab control of a fade, but have you ever tried to do that on your 300? You have to hit the manual fade button and then take the X1 (or X2) faders to zero and then run the fade, so unless you have a very long count, the chance of you catching the fade is slim. It is even harder to catch a fade into manual on an Obsession. The only time I can think of that you might need this is if something goes terribly wrong on stage.

In the professional theatre world fade times are set by the designer, and that is that. The show is the designer's vision. a Stage Manager can only change things if the show is suffering before the change and even then, the SM is still supposed to consult the designer before making a change. A Stage Manager has no "Artistic Control" over the show. The stage manager's job is to keep the show running to the specifications of the director and the designers.

[Logos]

I work occasionally (and I love it) with a bunch of insane improv/performance art guys. I have to impro nearly everything, they expect me to as it is part of the mystique that the show is never the same twice. There are key sounds moves or words that are supposed to cue me but as a creative artist not as a go monkey.
It wouldn't work on big shows but d**n it's fun.
I'm hoping to get some movers (simple scans) in my next rig.

[David Ashton]

I'm puzzled, how can you do visual cues on a timed crossfade, for example, actor comes into darkened room and slightly opens a curtain and looks outside then opens up first one curtain then the other and the daylight streams in.Easy with a fader in your hand to follow the actor but extremely tricky with multiple x fades and certain to foul up during a season if actor slips with curtain etc.So I can see why you would want the ability to control manually.

[gafftaper]

I'm puzzled, how can you do visual cues on a timed crossfade, for example, actor comes into darkened room and slightly opens a curtain and looks outside then opens up first one curtain then the other and the daylight streams in.Easy with a fader in your hand to follow the actor but extremely tricky with multiple x fades and certain to foul up during a season if actor slips with curtain etc.So I can see why you would want the ability to control manually.

That's the problem of the actor and the S.M. The designer designs it a set way and that's it. I'm surprised you would ask this question. That's how it's done here by anyone with a decent console and a little training. Again the point being that you set the timing in rehearsal and then it's exactly the same every night. There's far less chance of error pushing a go button on cue from the S.M. than there is in manually running sliders.

As far as I know the only time in the pro world you will see some "artistic control" is in concert lighting. But even then its still working with pre-recorded routines.

[zac850]

Theatrical lighting is based off the idea that every night it will be the same. Period. End of story. The blocking is set, the script is set, the lighting is set, the sound cues are set, and so on.

Broadway light ops sit and push the go button just like the rest of us, they are not charged with any artistic jobs. They just push the button when the SM tells them to, and the SM tells them to based on when the actor says whatever line or does whatever physical move the Q is taken off of.

Thats not to say that its not good to be able to be able to override the system. I've grabed faders and run manual fade times when the actors are moving with a ML or two tracking them. In theory, this should be set so the actor moves at the same speed every night though.


In a high school setting this is difficult, because you have the teacher and the student and the director all thinking they know everything, and all wanting to do it there way, and its very difficult to say "No, I'm the lighting designer, I'm looking at the stage and what your telling me to do is dumb and ugly. I want to do it my way and make it pretty and effective".

[David Ashton]

What a boring life you must lead just pressing buttons,now while it is true for ballet, opera and musicals it is absolutely not the case in comedy, I have done about 200 shows with Dame Edna, no 2 shows the same, Spike Milligan and the British actors of that time would delight in tricking me into false cues.The interplay between cast and crew can be part of the show which keeps everyone on their toes and makes every night a challenge."business" and ad libbing are central to many forms of comedy.There is no way I could have endured just pushing a button, so there is another way to do lighting where the operator is very much part of the action, and it sounds soul destroying to me to just be a button pusher, might as well give the SM the go button.Incidentally I think the term Artistic Control is a touch pretentious to describe the operator timing the cues to the stage action, particularly if the op can see the live action while the SM is watching through the video monitor.

[lighttechie5948]

this is true that most of the time you don't want to manually cross between cues. you just used up and down times for them. But, when using MLs to follow a person it is helpful to use the manual crossfade (ETC Expression/Express) because you don't know how fast or slow the person will move.

Plus, do you really think an actor can find a light on his own?

[dj_illusions]

Hmmmm.... I can sort of see the point, but for shows that change every night such as comedy or improv most experienced operators will have all there base scense or looks programmed to subs or groups depending on desk then just wing it from there.

I have never heard of, see, or had to take manual control of a cued show (i work predominatly on strands) if for some reason i felt the need to do a quicker fade id slimply type Cue # Time ? and change it before the cue rather than going through the steps to make the manual fade take effect.

[SerraAva]

First, we are talking high school. No two shows will be the same, they might be close but won't be the same. Its not to say you can't have good shows in high school or good actors, they just aren't seasoned enough yet to keep the show to pace. In college, I still find actors aren't seasoned enough to keep with the pace. So with that in mind, I will change fade times up to the second before a cue happens depending upon the pace. With moving lights, to keep up with actors, I will manually do it or use a combination of 'Hold' and 'Go' buttons.

I am defiantly with allthingstheatre on the fact that comedy is based more on the audience's reaction, and that it will change every night. The Mystery of Edwin Drood is completely based off the audience and the size of it at times, never the same each night. Same thing with concert based lighting, people can change up there set, take breaks when they aren't suppose to, not take breaks when they are, etc. Dance concerts are another one were I will have dance instructors come on headset and ask to change timing of things, and lighting designer or not, its their show, not mine. In an ideal world, none of this happens, the fact is it does.

I am still at the point were I run, design, and program many of the things I do, so I have the liberty of it being my design and changing it. If it wasn't, I would ask first. In high school, I was designer, programmer, and board op, chances are it will be the same for your school.

[icewolf08]

Now, when some of you talk about comedy shows, I assume you mean shows whose script is very loose, and is more along the lines of stand-up than theatre. This certainly requires a different approach. Improv shows often have a running order, so you know what is going to happen when , but sometimes you need to change things up. These are great examples of when subs are really handy, but then end of the scene or sketch, or whatever is usually always the same, and you can just take the cue.

In theatre though, even high school theatre you shouldn't have to change the show too much from night to night. The pace of the show is never going to change so drastically that you need to change your 5 count lights out. Internal cues happen when the actor gets to whatever point the cue comes, if they are going slower, you just wait longer to take the cue. As for moving lights, you just take the cue when you are supposed to, when the actor realizes they are standing in the dark they'll move. Of course the other thing to be aware of, is that some times the actors will skip lines, and then you just need to be able to skip over the cues they jump.

We just finished a show where we hand an actor who didn't always like to move when he was supposed to. But you know what? When the SM called the cue that changes the light, you better believe that actor started moving. I have also done shows like allthings talked about, where an actor had to go around turning lights on. It was cued in a very specific order, and that order was drilled into the actor's head. The SM told the actor that he wasn't going to take the cues out of sequence, and that nothing would happen if he went out of order. So, there were a couple nights where we skipped a couple cues because the actor had the sequence wrong.

[SerraAva]

That is fine if you would like to do it that way icewolf, but I hate seeing something out of sync because the timing was wrong. Also, at the end of the end of and/or during the show, people are looking at me if something goes wrong time wise, order wise, and/or placement wise, not the actor. The actor in question might be nice about it and say the fault was their's, but the audience's initial thought is still that the 'light guy' messed up. The people on the crew knew it wasn't my fault, the people on stage knew it wasn't my as well, but the audience doesn't have the same luxury of knowing how things are suppose to go. They just see it as it comes. A good friend of mine was singing in a show once, and forgot a verse in the song, so he mouthed it and everyone proceeded to yell at the sound op. Everyone thought it was the tech, it was the actor. Same with lights, during Ragtime I had to move lights every night so the actors would be in their light. The fault appears to fall on me, not them. I would just remind them at the end of the night and it would still happen. Audience still thinks its me though, and I can't stand it. I want the show to be the best it can be, so it reflects better on the show as a whole. If that means moving lights so they are where the actors are or adjusting fade times, so be it.

[soundlight]

This summer, we used i-cues as followspots with great effect. All of the blocking was spiked, and the actors were very professional about being where they were supposed to be at the right time, and getting in to the light if they were out of it. We had one actor who was always in the dead center of his light...it was amazing. Light came up, he was in the dead center, every night. When the light moved, his head always stayed in the center as he walked down the stairs. He knew when to take a beat in order to get the timing of the i-cue move right, and he knew how to catch up to the light without looking stupid. I wish that all actors were like that.

[icewolf08]

That is fine if you would like to do it that way icewolf, but I hate seeing something out of sync because the timing was wrong. Also, at the end of the end of and/or during the show, people are looking at me if something goes wrong time wise, order wise, and/or placement wise, not the actor. The actor in question might be nice about it and say the fault was their's, but the audience's initial thought is still that the 'light guy' messed up. The people on the crew knew it wasn't my fault, the people on stage knew it wasn't my as well, but the audience doesn't have the same luxury of knowing how things are suppose to go. They just see it as it comes. A good friend of mine was singing in a show once, and forgot a verse in the song, so he mouthed it and everyone proceeded to yell at the sound op. Everyone thought it was the tech, it was the actor. Same with lights, during Ragtime I had to move lights every night so the actors would be in their light. The fault appears to fall on me, not them. I would just remind them at the end of the night and it would still happen. Audience still thinks its me though, and I can't stand it. I want the show to be the best it can be, so it reflects better on the show as a whole. If that means moving lights so they are where the actors are or adjusting fade times, so be it.

See, but what I am saying is, it isn't the way I want to do it, it is the way it is done. We are talking about professional union actors and stage managers who get paid far more than I do, that is how the world works. Technically, a theatre can fine or even fire an actor for not maintaining the show the way it was designed/directed. If someone thinks that it's my fault when an actor doesn't stay in their light, I don't care. You take the cue when the SM says GO, and that is that. If the director thought the SM was in the wrong they would say something. If an actor forgets his lines and the sound op gets blamed by the audience, the sound op shouldn't care, there is nothing he could have done.

If an actor can't find their light in the same spot each night, you don't move the light you give them a mark, like soundlight said. Sometimes you ask the actor: "where are you going to be for this moment?" make it their choice, and then give them a mark, and then if they can't hit that, it's their own fault.

There is always going to be an audience member who complains, and there is no reason to feel bad, or to feel like you did something wrong. Unless the SM, LD, director, or other designers tell you that something was wrong, then you keep doing the show as designed. There are so many other elements that depend on the show going as designed, that you can't just make things fit when you feel like it. What happens when the actor, whose light you move every night decides that they are going to stand right in front of the piece of scenery that comes in while they are singing? You can't say, "Sure, we can put your light there."

The shows that have run forever, like Cats and Les Mis can do that because they are machines. They work exactly the same every night. A show like Les Mis, they know that they need the curtain to come down 3 hours after it goes up or they are paying the orchestra overtime. Cameron McIntosh would cut off people's heads if someone said "this fade doesn't look right, I'm gonna do it manually." and didn't ask the designer.

If you are your own LD, then sure, you can change the show, but if you are just a board op or ME, then the only thing you need to do is what the LD and SM tell you.

[gabe]

Thanks for all the responses.

Yes this is high school theater and I probably will be designer, programmer, board op. I'm glad I have some input as to what happens in the real world, my director was so insistent upon us doing it the same way it is done professionally and now I have some hard information to give him.

As to the Palette vs. 300, there are somethings I like and some I dislike. They have changed around the syntax a bit which takes a while to get used to. Also, I don't like how you have to bring up an actual window on the screen and click with the mouse every time a cue or sub is recorded. But there are definately some advantages. It's moving light control package is very very nice considering the price of the console. And there are lots of things that being a windows based OS makes available, such as the SMTPE timecode from an mp3 being used to hit off cues.

[SerraAva]

Glad to help gabe, have fun with your new toys and new home. Professionally, nothing changes. At high school level, stuff is going to change, just the nature of it. I had the director waiting to change stuff a few minutes before house opens. I also did some things that looked absolutely horrible, and voiced that, but didn't change that I still had to do it in high school.

Icewolf, I guess I am getting to use to corporate land, where everything will and must be pretty, no matter what and you have to adjust. You might be at a point where someone looks at your work and doesn't care if there are mistakes here or there because they know the difference between design mistakes and others, I am not. It has happened with my boss/es on a few occasions. This doesn't happen with everyone.

The fact is I am willing to get over the fact that actors mess up and save them. Helps the show, makes me look better. Not ever show also has the ability to just fire actors/techs when something goes wrong. On the other side of the fence, if I had a dollar for every time some big executive walked some where he/she was told not to, I wouldn't need to work anymore by 25. What it really comes down to, my design, my recorded show, I am running it, I am allowed to adjust things. Unless you meet those requirements, ask. And as one professional writer/director I work with puts it, "Any one can hit the go button by what is written in a script. The question is, can they feel it, go beyond the cue in the script, and act with the lights with the actors?"

[icewolf08]

Serra, I certainly agree, that there are times that you have to do whatever it takes to make the product top notch. I certainly had to do that on a regular basis while I was working on cruise ships.

Also, there is a big difference in how I perceive something going wrong, and people making mistakes. Sometimes actors mess up, sometimes I mess up. But none of those times, aside from the mistake itself, have we had to venture out of what the designer or director wanted. If something goes wrong, like a moving light gets off, or a scroller gets jammed, then you do whatever yo need to to get things working again, or at least make it look less ugly until things are fixed. This may mean parking a channel out until you can get to it, or resetting the unit. The trick for us is to be able to integrate that as seamlessly as possible into the designer's vision, and so far we have never had to stop a show or take cues out of time to do that.

[Charc]

Some interesting points here on "people blame the lighting guy".

That happened a fair bit during this last show. Even with tons of notes to actors and spike on the stage, they'd never get it right. I had one guy that would always stand one step too far U.S. Oh he got the note every night, but never stepped down. The same guy also decided to change his blocking from rehearsal. It affected an important I-Cue move, acting area change, and houselight fade out. Much nail-biting waiting for him to take those few crucial steps S.L.. Interestingly enough, the same kid couldn't find his light on this aisle deal I'd rigged up. I had a 6x22, then 6x12 then 6 x9 in order going up the isle, the spots grew in size and intensity, like a snowman. I realized he couldn't make it in rehearsal, so what did I decide to do? Bring up the spot for him before he moved too it. "This is great!" I thought. All he has to do is walk into the circle of light on the ground... He messed it up the worst on the last night, he didn't even step into the 2nd light.

I had another girl who messed this up in EVERY rehearsal and EVERY performance. We had a scenic element (a ramp) U.S.C.. All she had to do was stand at the top of the ramp, and center. She ended up being about Twice as far from one side as to the other. It looked bad, and for her sake I kept meeting with her and going over it. On the opening night I even got her on headset a scene ahead of time and gave her the note, she replied with "at least a half-dozen people have given me that note tonight!". What does she do one scene later? Walks (still out of position) DS on the ramp, completely out of the light.

We had a big problem with actors finding their light in this show. As aforementioned, the one faculty member wouldn't bend-over for the actors, and even instructed me not to add light for them. He said if they were going to continue to act they'd have to learn to find their light one way or another. Unfortunately, that way makes me look bad.

[SerraAva]

Glad to see I am not the only one with actor woes. Another problem with not fixing it is I get questioned when I don't fix something, could you have done this or that, could you have speed that fade up, etc. Its not actors that question, its the director or SM's in my case. So I just fix things as the night goes on, that way I don't have to answer 500 what if questions at the end of the night. I write everything that went wrong on a note pad each night. I then present it to the powers that be at the end of the night, or see the actor/s in question before the next show if its nothing to major. But I defiantly feel your pain charcoaldabs. Just hang in there and kept preserving, when you get to college, you have more freedom and are able to fix things then.

Icewolf, I am by no means talking about removing cues for any reason. Unless something major happens, like a mover goes down, I don't adjust the cues, just the timing. I had a mover go down twice before, and it isn't fun looking at all the cues ahead and trying to cover for a mover. I am talking about timing changing and actors who aren't on spike. During Ragtime, I had a few who hit there spike every night and didn't worry about it, others, like in charcoaldabs case, NEVER did. Still others hit it some times and other times did not. But when you have nothing but a pin spot mover on an actor, speaking, singing, whatever, and they don't land where they need to be, you can bet I moved it. Otherwise they wouldn't have been in the light, and that would have looked very bad on me.

[Van]

I gotta chime in here. We had a similar discussion in a thread quite a while ago, but I think this is a good debate, and one that actually brings a lot of important questions to the table.

It is both fortunate and unfortunate that we work in an extremely diverse amount of fields, as "Technicians". In the theatre world, the designer writes the cues they go into the board. If a consistent issue crops up during the run of the show, then it is the SM's responsibility to contact the Director, who in turn may or may not choose to contact the LD and ask him/her to change the cue due to a dynamic change of staging that seems to work better for the good of the show. In most cases it is the Board Ops job to be a button pusher, and pre-show problem solver, if you don't like that, don't do theatre. In what I call the "Production World" which sort of includes, Improve, comedy concerts, Rock and Roll, Corporate Events, Parties and Dances, the "Board Op" is often the designer, or a very specialized form of operator, and thus is given much more leeway in the operation of the lighting console. When I was working R&R the LD would program several "Looks" and that's what the board op would scroll through, according to "feel". This is a very important difference. In a "Production" setting the action is going to change constantly, Heck a lot of times, such as a "battle of the Bands" as a Board Op you might never have seen what you're getting ready to light.
One of the reasons I find this an interesting debate is that I have been on both sides of it, and currently we are producing a sort of Christmas cabaret show. It drive the SM's crazy that the show changes, slightly, nightly. We have finally developed a good system for setting specific points during the show when things have to be consistent, in between those , anything goes.
As for Board Ops making uni-lateral decisions to change a cue because someone on stage screwed up, one simple answer, NYJ, Not Your Job. Period. If an SM asks a board op to sneak something that is their prerogative. When the Director and Designers walk away after Opening Night, the sole artistic control of a production is in the hands of the SM, and it is their "Sworn Duty" to maintain the Artistic Integrity and Intent, of any production entrusted to them. That's why they're so bitchy all the time. They have a lot of weight on their shoulders.

[Logos]

I straddle these worlds because of what I do. Oh and Van you want to try lightng Improv puppets sometime. Particularly when they pop in and out of *&*^&__* windows.

[Van]

I straddle these worlds because of what I do. Oh and Van you want to try lightng Improv puppets sometime. Particularly when they pop in and out of *&*^&__* windows.

Puppets? Sir, I only do Legitimate Theatre !

[Capi]

When the Director and Designers walk away after Opening Night, the sole artistic control of a production is in the hands of the SM, and it is their "Sworn Duty" to maintain the Artistic Integrity and Intent, of any production entrusted to them. That's why they're so bitchy all the time. They have a lot of weight on their shoulders.

I don't want to hijack this thread by any means, but I feel this is relevant, and I would like the opinion of the board. I am part of a University theater company and we just closed a musical in a black box theater. The LD decided to use haze (water-based) to give beam effect during all the songs. We had several patrons complain that the haze bothered them (asthma, etc). Therefore, the SM decided to not use any haze except for the two songs which she thought it was necessary. I was board op/ME, so I really didn't have much say in the matter. However, I feel that she was in the wrong here, as I think the haze was important in many of the looks, as did the LD. What are your opinions? What is more important: the patrons or the concept? Poorly worded question- but you get the idea.

[Raktor]

I don't want to hijack this thread by any means, but I feel this is relevant, and I would like the opinion of the board. I am part of a University theater company and we just closed a musical in a black box theater. The LD decided to use haze (water-based) to give beam effect during all the songs. We had several patrons complain that the haze bothered them (asthma, etc). Therefore, the SM decided to not use any haze except for the two songs which she thought it was necessary. I was board op/ME, so I really didn't have much say in the matter. However, I feel that she was in the wrong here, as I think the haze was important in many of the looks, as did the LD. What are your opinions? What is more important: the patrons or the concept? Poorly worded question- but you get the idea.

Patrons and concept.

I think it's a debatable issue whether she was right or wrong here. I know in the last event I did, the stage manager tried to stop me using a smoke machine for the actor's sake; she was told no. But when it becomes an issue with the patrons, I think the haze/smoke has to be rethought. Obviously a water based haze isn't going to affect their asthma one bit... but the patrons don't know that and they'll still complain. It is not the stage manager's decision whether to cut the haze or not because of this though - it should still go through someone higher.

[icewolf08]

This is a tricky situation. Often when using fog and haze, people see it, and their subconscious thinks smoke and natural instincts kick in. People feel like they can't breath because of fight or flight instincts. There are also people who are genuinely affected by the fog or haze (hence why AEA has fog and haze guidelines).

When using fog and haze in shows the patrons should be made aware that it is being used, same with strobe effects. This is usually done with a sign in the lobby or a note in the program. Often, warning people that you are going to use an effect reduces the complaints because they are prepared for it.

If your show was receiving a constant complaints about the haze, the the SM probably had to do something. The SM may have had other options rather than just cutting the effect, perhaps first lowering the output would have been a better first choice. On the other hand, if the SM's decision was based on an isolated complaint it may not have been the correct choice.

In the academic world, an issue like the one you had may be something where you can just go to the department head and ask what they think. In school it is often more about the show, but you also don't want to loose your audience, so it is a tough balance.

[SerraAva]

As Icewolf stated above, whenever using fog, hog, pyro, and/or strobes, it should be noted with signs and/or in the pre-show announcement. That covers any and all legalities, and places the problem on the patron, not the house, techs or SM. Haze is a very important thing that can completely change the look of the show. If the design calls for it, and you made your announcements and signs, it shouldn't be taken out for any reason. Any problems with the actors and fire safety would have been addressed during rehearsals with the designers, director, and, in the case of pyro, fire marshal present.

[Logos]

I think that attention always has to be paid to complaints from the public. After all they pay our wages.
I recently (well last year sometime) did a show in which I used both haze (water based) and strobes during the finale dance number. The strobes were used in short bursts triggered from the lighting box manually because the dancers got pretty close to the pit doing some pretty wild things and I didn't want one to be blinded at the wrong moment. It was all pretty tame really. Just used the haze in the air not great banks of smoke. Anyway on the third night I turned round to find a complete stranger standing behind me in the booth. I was surprised until he handed me a piece of paper then I was stunned. He was the local council's environment officer handing me a cease and desist order.
The Producer followed it up talked to lawyers because we all felt that inside a theatre was not the purview of the environment officer, OH&S yes but environment? In the end we gave up it was only a short run. The order related to both the strobe and the haze.
I still don't think it was his business.

[gafftaper]

As far as the Haze question. The problem with what happened wasn't that you disregarded a designers intentions it was that your S.M. made the decision. In the academic world there is some sort of teacher who should have made that decision. In the professional/community theater world if there was something that was getting massive complaints there would be a discussion had by the T.D., Artistic Director, Board... some authority figure would have a meeting and discuss what if anything is the appropriate action. If a S.M. made that decision professionally they might be fired, even if there were good intentions... it's not your job. There is a chain of command to follow.

Going back a long way I have to disagree with comments made about high school students not being able to get timing right and that being a problem for cues. My first year teaching I had a nightmare of a show with several actors I wanted to kill. There were a couple times actors were late getting to the stage. My well trained stage manager/music op just held the audience in set changing light with music on until the time was right. Having manual control of fade times isn't going to help that situation. The console isn't important it's the Op and the S.M. Even Highschool and DEFINITELY college productions should be able to have precisely timed cues.

Allthingstheater... you made a comment about it being really boring to be a board op. That's really the idea. Over here board op is not something you aspire to become, it's just an entry level position. A theater pays lots of money to top people to design, hang, and program a console. But for the month of the run you don't have to pay top dollar for your board op... heck in a half hour you can train a volunteer to press go and have time left over to teach them how to backup if they mess up. I know several small operations where the S.M. often runs the light board if it's a show with limited cues. Heck a S.M. friend of mine once worked on a show that she did lights and sound.

Yeah I see the point of wanting a little creative artistic control. But the point is the designer has a vision and every audience will see that exact same vision come to life every night.

[len]

I can see a tech driving an improv show. I did an improv based on the court tv shows, and the beginning of each segment of the show was all driven by my decisions. No com between backstage and the "booth" so it had to be done that way. On a regular scripted play, however, I can't see where the timing would change. Only reason I would think to slow a cue down would be if the actor was moving on/off stage at a different pace than normal.

[soundlight]

For some consoles, if timing absolutely needs to change, you can just hit the rate button and slow it down with the rate wheel on the desk.

[Van]

In the case of the SM cutting the haze. In an emergency situation, it would be well within his/her purview to cut an effect, in the moment, to make a decision to cut an effect permanently is not. This should have been discussed with the designer, the house staff, and TD, and an equitable solution could have been reached. As other have stated, warning signs do a lot to alleviate an audiences' issues with effects that potentially affect them. It can also help to have information available in the Box Office that describes the effects, and their potential affects on people.

[David Ashton]

Going back to the original point, and after thinking about many situations over the years, it is my view that the ability to contour a fade in some situations just cannot be achieved with timed crossfades as against the sensitivity of a manual fade.I would, therefore not buy a desk where I could not do this.Those who only use timed crossfades may be missing out on some subtlety which is not present with timed fades, and in the same way that an orchestra follows the singers in an opera the lighting can change to follow the action.Timing is everything to get a response from an audience and I cannot accept the mechanistic method of timed crossfades are as good in many situations.

[icewolf08]

This is why points that need dramatic effect are broken into separate calls so that the SM can feel the action on stage and the reaction of the audience and call the cues accordingly. This is also why we have part cues and auto follows.

It is going to be increasingly hard to find a console that has an easy way to take manual control of your fades, so you best hold on to your Expressions, Obsessions, and Strand 300/500s. With the advent of all the new intelligent technology, console designers are catering to those things that generally handle better under computer control.

[David Ashton]

I'm currently looking for an upgrade for our Innovator and the front runner is the GrandMa which with all its hi-tech wizardry has manual crossfade as a standard option.In my case much of my work is touring and the long amount of time for intricate plotting is simply not available and there is no option to the lighting operator having some autonomy.Big venue, long seasons are different and fortunately I don't do those anymore.