Followspot Op with Hiccups?

[Serendipity]

Hi CB!

Well, today and yesterday I had pretty drastic cases of hiccups. I'm currently running followspot with a lengthy throw (ie a hiccup could definitely send it completely out of the proscenium and somewhere less favorable than the target). While both cases went away before I even got to work, I wondered what people would do if a followspot op came down with hiccups during a show.

[If this is in the wrong forum, move it. I contemplated WhatWentWrong/SM/General Advice... but FS are lights, and you might find it funny.]

[bdkdesigns]

Nice, I had my little hiccup earlier today. One of our crappy followspots went down last night during the opener for Martina McBride, it kept popping the breaker. So I asked for, and received permission to go over there to fix it since I barely had any cues during the opener. I finally found the problem in that the neutral and ground were switched in one of the connectors.

I just got back to my spot when the LD was going over the opening cues for Martina. Rather than thanking me for saving the show, he cussed me out for missing what he said as if I have the magical art of teleportation to get back to the other side of the venue. It's not like he didn't know what I was doing, after all, he gave me permission to go do it .

[TimMiller]

Originally Posted by bdkdesigns

I just got back to my spot when the LD was going over the opening cues for Martina. Rather than thanking me for saving the show, he cussed me out for missing what he said as if I have the magical art of teleportation to get back to the other side of the venue. It's not like he didn't know what I was doing, after all, he gave me permission to go do it .

Get used to it. Save the show and get cussed about about something stupid. Its happened plenty of times for me.

[Serendipity]

Hahaha.

No, it's not that big of a deal, and I don't think I'll actually get hiccups again for a while but I was really curious about what would happen. :]

[Wolf]

man sucks for you huh. haha

well I have never had the hick ups while running spot but I would imagine that it could be deadly at a long throw distance.

The worse I ever while running spot was almost 2 years ago. It was during Aida (Elton John's, not the opera). It was about three numbers from the end of the show and I start to get numb on my upper body. I thought it was just something odd and would pass in about 30 secs or a minuet but it didnt. At the worst my whole upper body was numb, I asked if there was anyone free to take over for me, and luckly there was. I had to take the next day off, I was very very sick. (I felt horrible that I had to leave my crew but I knew I if I went in I could have made other people sick and could have had been a safety hazard if I got worse)

[hillbillyfunk]

Originally Posted by Serendipity

Hi CB!.............I wondered what people would do if a followspot op came down with hiccups during a show.

hold your breath, if your on a stool step off the stool and use a very delicate touch on the spot.

I once fell asleep in the spot booth between the 5 minuet call and places, I had one of those "falling dreams" and when I woke up I was leaned waaayyy over the edge of my stool. Since the glass in that booth is angled all I saw was people 30' below me and didn't know I wasn't really falling. Needless to say my butt could not clench the stool hard enough and I fell on the floor of the booth. the other spot was on clear com asking "are you OK" but I was sitting on the floor laughing too hard to answer.

Running follow spot is like turkey hunting.

[Ross]

It gets better with a source 4 on a stick. They are far less forgiving if you're shaky.

[Serendipity]

Originally Posted by Ross

It gets better with a source 4 on a stick. They are far less forgiving if you're shaky.

Yup, that's how I learned! My school never had real followspots until last year (now we have one, Lycian M2) and when I was in beginning lighting the only jobs you can technically* qualify for are fs op.

Our Source 4s-on-sticks were made with swivel chair parts too. :D

* I tend to find myself breaking rules often.

[derekleffew]

Imagine mounting your "Source4-on-a-stick" on one of these:

It costs about the same as 20 SourceFours. Some shows in town have Recaro racing seats for their spot ops.

I've always maintained that, for a steady long throw shot, a spotlight needs lots of mass, meaning the weight of a Super Trouper or 1290XLT. Dinky little lightweight spots just don't cut it at long throws, both optically and operationally. No one would ever know if I got the hiccups while running a Trouper, although I don't think it's ever happened to me.

Update: Roommate runs an RJ Heloise, (now discontinued) with a sixty foot throw and lots of head shots, twelve shows per week, and says he has gotten the hiccups, but just isolates his body and keeps his hands off the light as much as possible.

[cdub260]

Originally Posted by derekleffew

I've always maintained that, for a steady long throw shot, a spotlight needs lots of mass, meaning the weight of a Super Trouper or 1290XLT. Dinky little lightweight spots just don't cut it at long throws, both optically and operationally. No one would ever know if I got the hiccups while running a Trouper, although I don't think it's ever happened to me.

Serendipity has a throw of about 200' and is running a Lycian Superarc 400.

I hope that clarifies things a little.