"Spend a day at KÁ"- Special Report from LDI 2008

[What Rigger?]

Hey Gaff!

1. I think I got gipped, and shoulda signed up for this instead!
2. And if you think you and others were close to being seen, maybe you also found out how many guys were actually standing in full view of the audience, invisible due to being dressed in black and not being lit. We used to do that all the time when that room housed that "little" show called EFX.

[gafftaper]

A couple answers to Hughesie's questions about sound effects playback from our friend at KA. He doesn't work with sound so he's going to check and get back about the playback system. However...

"There are recorded effects. The explosions do not sound impressive without them (fancy flash pots really) and have manually triggered effects to go along with them. Also, the thunder is triggered during storm by the operator which sends a signal to projections to create some of the lightning. The FX for the arrows is all recorded on a loop (not tied to individual arrows)."

To Rigger. With the redesign, there really is no "stage" it's a hole with a bunch of lifts. All except one are constantly traveling the 30 vertical feet between stage level and basement 1 and basement 2. The only deck surface that is potentially in view at all times is the one installed way upstage which doesn't move vertically but can move 50' horizontally up and downstage. This deck is hidden by a black curtain when it isn't in use as it is the home of some fairly large set pieces (including the Wheel of Death). So although I doubt anyone would notice you, as you described, with the design of this show there are very few opportunities for a technician to be in view on the deck because the deck doesn't really exist in a normal sense. Most of the crew work during the show seems to take place in one of the sub basements.

Now on the other hand up in the air, there are several scenes where things are wide open all the way to the grid and back wall, exposing multiple catwalks backstage. These wide open scenes also tend to include flight. So when you have up to 16 artists flying at the same time, I'm sure there are a lot of riggers up there using their ninja skills during these scenes as you described. However I only went up there in the pre-show tour so I couldn't tell you how it works during the show.

[Grog12]

Originally Posted by gafftaper

A couple answers to Hughesie's questions about sound effects playback from our friend at KA. He doesn't work with sound so he's going to check and get back about the playback system. However...

"There are recorded effects. The explosions do not sound impressive without them (fancy flash pots really) and have manually triggered effects to go along with them. Also, the thunder is triggered during storm by the operator which sends a signal to projections to create some of the lightning. The FX for the arrows is all recorded on a loop (not tied to individual arrows)."

To Rigger. With the redesign, there really is no "stage" it's a hole with a bunch of lifts. All except one are constantly traveling the 30 vertical feet between stage level and basement 1 and basement 2. The only deck surface that is potentially in view at all times is the one installed way upstage which doesn't move vertically but can move 50' horizontally up and downstage. This deck is hidden by a black curtain when it isn't in use as it is the home of some fairly large set pieces (including the Wheel of Death). So although I doubt anyone would notice you, as you described, with the design of this show there are very few opportunities for a technician to be in view on the deck because the deck doesn't really exist in a normal sense. Most of the crew work during the show seems to take place in one of the sub basements.

Now on the other hand up in the air, there are several scenes where things are wide open all the way to the grid and back wall, exposing multiple catwalks backstage. These wide open scenes also tend to include flight. So when you have up to 16 artists flying at the same time, I'm sure there are a lot of riggers up there using their ninja skills during these scenes as you described. However I only went up there in the pre-show tour so I couldn't tell you how it works during the show.

I've seen rehersals of of those scenes gaff....and all I can really say is that...well it works. Lots of prescise movement, lots of belly crawling. The scene at towards the end with the giant tree/bug things in particular takes 2 or three people a piece if I remember correctly.

You haven't mentioned two of my favorite things about this show.

1) They have a track for the elevator. As mentioned before the space is 9 stories tall. They know where the elevator will be at every minute of that show. Oh...btw its for cast only.

2) You can't get on a plane if you've been up in the grid. They shoot of so much pyro the residue just covers you.


Oh and EFX ROCKED!

Hughsie send me a PM and I'll see if I can't put you in touch with several different people who have been through the internship program and some who still work for Cirque.

[What Rigger?]

So Grog, I take it you've met and/or heard the story about the pyro guy that tested 'hot' for residue at McCarren airport as well, eh?

[gafftaper]

Grog's right. They have one elevator. It's movements are all carefully pre-planned and someone has the job of making sure it's waiting in the right location at the end of every scene. If an actor has to go from the basement to the grid, it would be very bad if they had to wait for the elevator.

They have these big red emergency kill buttons all over the theater. If anyone in the cast or crew sees something dangerous they hit the kill button and the S.M. will order all hydraulics to stop and the show holds where it is until they can figure out what's gone wrong. Kind of scary but a good idea in the long run with so many things moving.

Here's another good one. If something goes wrong and the show has to wait they start a timer. If the timer reaches 20 minutes they call the show and issue refunds. They have a little over an hour between shows, 30 minutes from house close to house open. If show one is 20 minutes late then it's also making it nearly impossible to get the second show reset as well. It's better to cancel one performance and have the time to get things fixed for the second show than it is to make two audiences mad and miss the gate on two shows.

I'm not sure that they would be happy about me saying publicly how much they make on one show... but let's just say the gross for a two show night is probably more than Van and Icewolf's theaters gross in a year combined. On the other hand they have something like 100 technicians, 80 artists, box office staff, a massive training room and medical staff giving rehab work all night long, office staff, ushers... the expenses go on and on. They shoot off a total of 240 pyro shots a night. Any idea what the electric bill is? Then are the many very expensive parts that must be maintained and replaced. The overhead must be insane on this show.

[SlappyJack]

Hey, all.

I completely forgot being shown this thread a year ago and the other day someone at work brought it up, so I thought I'd see if I could find it. I forgot how glowing gaff's review of my typical behavior was.

So, Hi. I'm Tony the Deck Electrician.

On the elevator : Yes, there's only one; but no, it's not artists only. They don't make the riggers run all the way from the basement to the grid during the show, and if you time it right you can hop a ride if you're going where they are.

During reset, however, if you mess up the elevator timing for props while they're moving those big puppets around I personally get to hear about it from my girlfriend.

Feel free to say hi!