Do you remember when bus 'n truck tours used to have a narrow annotated length of canvas that the head carp' would position on your center line then decide which of his items he'd be hanging on your system pipes?
Next recall when the touring head LX would have a 40 to 60 foot length of canvas with a center line marked and annotated with focusing info' which he'd unfurl below his first LX pipe; hang his or your instruments, circuit and flash them, then fly the pipe to five or six feet above the deck and focus all of his instruments per the marks he had on his focusing cloth. If he had additional pipes needing focusing, pipes that weren't X-rays, he may move the same focusing cloth up stage and keep focusing or he may have a second and third cloth. If it was a large enough tour they may have multiple focusing cloths and focus several pipes simultaneously.
Back in 1990 I had the opportunity to spend a few hours in the FOH coves of New York's Lincoln Centre's Metropolitan Opera House and witnessed a similar focusing technique on STEROIDS.
Think about it. The Met' operates in a continuously rotating rep' with alternate casts and many matinees. Some productions are only performed once or twice per season. This leads to extensive changeovers betwixt virtually every performance. Think of the time and crew needs. Normally you'd need to clear one set into storage then pull your next production's scenery and props then assemble and position your scenery and large props prior to being able to refocus for this next production.
Not in the Met' and here's the parts I found most fascinating.
They fly in their unmarked white fire curtain, not quite all the way to deck level but slightly above the deck so their carp's can move and reset their many stage lifts without hitting their fire curtain.
Up in one of their front coves they fire up a Pani that hasn't budged an iota in decades. The Pani projects a glass slide of an annotated grid onto their fire curtain. The grid has a center line, then other parallel lines annotated as 1 Right, 2 Right, 3 Right and so on plus similar marked lines left of centre. The projected grid also has horizontal lines running across.
Behind their fire curtain carps and props go to work striking the previous production, clearing it into sub basement storage, elevating the new scenery and props up from sub basement storage then assembling and positioning the scenery and large props for the next production.
Simultaneously in front of their fire curtain cleaners are cleaning their auditorium in reduced house lighting.
And here's the part that BLEW ME AWAY!
While the previous production is still being struck and stored behind their fire curtain, six or eight LX crew up in their ceiling coves are SIMULTANEOUSLY already re-focusing, gelling, gobo-ing and finessing 1.5 K and 2K ellipsoidals and 2K and 5K Fresnels per copious paper sketches and notes all with reference to the grid projected on their fire curtain. An amazing number of departments and crew all working cooperatively and efficiently SIMULTANEOUSLY! I found this a truly amazing thing to witness, remember and learn from. This would've been 1990 while I was parked in Broadway's Shubert for a few weeks with a Canadian / British / U.S. co-pro' of 'Buddy Holly, The Musical'.
Another interesting memory was seeing four IA brothers each standing between pairs of follow spots operating their lamps simultaneously. Four pairs of Strong carbon Gladiators with each adjacent pair operated by one local one brother. Granted they were basically performing soft-edged flood and cover duties, it wasn't as if they were highlighting petite ballerinas on pointe. Your average opera singer presents an appreciably larger and barely moving target. The entire changeover was a fascinating display of well choreographed cooperative efficiency and an amazing treat to observe. In the IA way, some of those spot operators were operating lamps their fathers had operated before them for decades. 'Some call it nepotism, we call it tradition.' All of this and not a moving light to be seen. Wha d'ya think @BillConnerFASTC Did scaly Bob teach you that at Yale? Once the activity behind their fire curtain was complete, carps would fly out the fire curtain, LX would do a flash through of all relevant FOH fixtures and it was amazing to see how they all found their targets.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard (Retired from IBEW 105, IA 129 and 357.
Next recall when the touring head LX would have a 40 to 60 foot length of canvas with a center line marked and annotated with focusing info' which he'd unfurl below his first LX pipe; hang his or your instruments, circuit and flash them, then fly the pipe to five or six feet above the deck and focus all of his instruments per the marks he had on his focusing cloth. If he had additional pipes needing focusing, pipes that weren't X-rays, he may move the same focusing cloth up stage and keep focusing or he may have a second and third cloth. If it was a large enough tour they may have multiple focusing cloths and focus several pipes simultaneously.
Back in 1990 I had the opportunity to spend a few hours in the FOH coves of New York's Lincoln Centre's Metropolitan Opera House and witnessed a similar focusing technique on STEROIDS.
Think about it. The Met' operates in a continuously rotating rep' with alternate casts and many matinees. Some productions are only performed once or twice per season. This leads to extensive changeovers betwixt virtually every performance. Think of the time and crew needs. Normally you'd need to clear one set into storage then pull your next production's scenery and props then assemble and position your scenery and large props prior to being able to refocus for this next production.
Not in the Met' and here's the parts I found most fascinating.
They fly in their unmarked white fire curtain, not quite all the way to deck level but slightly above the deck so their carp's can move and reset their many stage lifts without hitting their fire curtain.
Up in one of their front coves they fire up a Pani that hasn't budged an iota in decades. The Pani projects a glass slide of an annotated grid onto their fire curtain. The grid has a center line, then other parallel lines annotated as 1 Right, 2 Right, 3 Right and so on plus similar marked lines left of centre. The projected grid also has horizontal lines running across.
Behind their fire curtain carps and props go to work striking the previous production, clearing it into sub basement storage, elevating the new scenery and props up from sub basement storage then assembling and positioning the scenery and large props for the next production.
Simultaneously in front of their fire curtain cleaners are cleaning their auditorium in reduced house lighting.
And here's the part that BLEW ME AWAY!
While the previous production is still being struck and stored behind their fire curtain, six or eight LX crew up in their ceiling coves are SIMULTANEOUSLY already re-focusing, gelling, gobo-ing and finessing 1.5 K and 2K ellipsoidals and 2K and 5K Fresnels per copious paper sketches and notes all with reference to the grid projected on their fire curtain. An amazing number of departments and crew all working cooperatively and efficiently SIMULTANEOUSLY! I found this a truly amazing thing to witness, remember and learn from. This would've been 1990 while I was parked in Broadway's Shubert for a few weeks with a Canadian / British / U.S. co-pro' of 'Buddy Holly, The Musical'.
Another interesting memory was seeing four IA brothers each standing between pairs of follow spots operating their lamps simultaneously. Four pairs of Strong carbon Gladiators with each adjacent pair operated by one local one brother. Granted they were basically performing soft-edged flood and cover duties, it wasn't as if they were highlighting petite ballerinas on pointe. Your average opera singer presents an appreciably larger and barely moving target. The entire changeover was a fascinating display of well choreographed cooperative efficiency and an amazing treat to observe. In the IA way, some of those spot operators were operating lamps their fathers had operated before them for decades. 'Some call it nepotism, we call it tradition.' All of this and not a moving light to be seen. Wha d'ya think @BillConnerFASTC Did scaly Bob teach you that at Yale? Once the activity behind their fire curtain was complete, carps would fly out the fire curtain, LX would do a flash through of all relevant FOH fixtures and it was amazing to see how they all found their targets.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard (Retired from IBEW 105, IA 129 and 357.