C-clamp direction
- Thread starterrenegadeblack
- Start date
MarshallPope
Well-Known Member
epimetheus
Well-Known Member
Whatever way the rest of the clamps on that pipe are...
zuixro
Active Member
I like to have the opening toward the stage/plaster line. Makes life easier, you just lift it up and hook it on, no finagling to get the clamp under the bar and stuff.
GreyWyvern
Well-Known Member
It is extremely annoying when they a randomly facing different directions. Drives me nuts....
- Consistant across the position
- Opening towards whatever side the focusing electrian is on when "typically" and most often focusing the units. This allows easier access to the clamp bolt in the event the unit needs to be moved on the pipe. This logic follows with box boom units and other positions - whatever allows easier access for the electician.
- Opening towards the deck on a flown pipe, if the unit is yoked out. This may require the clamp/unit be reversed if the clamp is facing the other way on the position.
- Opening towards whatever side the focusing electrian is on when "typically" and most often focusing the units. This allows easier access to the clamp bolt in the event the unit needs to be moved on the pipe. This logic follows with box boom units and other positions - whatever allows easier access for the electician.
- Opening towards the deck on a flown pipe, if the unit is yoked out. This may require the clamp/unit be reversed if the clamp is facing the other way on the position.
SweetBennyFenton
Active Member
I do it with the open end of the clamp facing away from plaster line. Like others have said, that's just because I approach instruments from upstage if I am on the deck and from downstage if I am in the front of house.
Yep. Always like the open side facing me when I hang 'em.
BZZZZZ. Wrong Answer !.
And the same to everyone who answered in a similar reply, including No Personal Preference.
This is a "Craft" we practice. The meaning of that is that you "do it right". This means that your personal preference takes a back seat to "the right way to do it".
If you are standing on deck, where it's relatively easy to hang the unit, then you must take into account the person on the bucket, in the dark, focusing the unit. If you happen to be standing downstage of the electric while hanging and find it easier to hang the clamp with the bolt facing you, while the plot - and if done correctly, the hanging sheet/card indicates that the majority of the fixtures are focusing downstage, then you can should know that the Genie/JLG is most likely going to be upstage of the electric and that the electrician is going to have to reach around the unit - in the dark, and find the clamp bolt, so as to loosen it to move the unit a bit. That's a pain and is bad practice on the part of the electrician that hung the unit.
Which is why I indicate on my hang sheets that all my overhead units have clamps opening upstage, 'cause I know that the focusing electrician is 90% of the time placed upstage of the electric when focusing. Ditto my flying ladders, the clamps open offstage and the hang sheet says so.
If you are hanging from a dead hung grid, you should ask the head electrician what way he/she wants it. If they follow good practice they will make some intelligent assumptions as to where the light is focusing and have the clamp open 180 opposite, as that's probably where the electrician will be placed when focusing.
If a catwalk system, then the electrician hanging the unit will almost always be in the same position as the person focusing and that makes it easy, clamps open towards you.
Believe it or not, being proficient at the the "craft" of stagecraft, means thinking about all these little knick-picky details, remembering them and getting it right. Those of you who pay attention will be practicing a time honored Craft. Those that don't are the also-ran's.
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As the Head Electrician of my space, I focus and re-focus my plot nearly everyday, which means I spend a lot of time up in the bucket, and I have never been hindered by the direction in which the fixture is hung, (unless it's hung up-side-down, that is.) If you're going to be slowed down or unable to focus a fixture because of the direction the c-clamp is facing, then you should probably get down out of the bucket and let someone else focus.
That being said, there are instances in which the direction has mattered. The summer stock I worked at this past summer had us hang the down-stage pipe of the 1st bridge with the bolt away from us because the pipe was inches from the show portal, and there was the potential for the bolts to catch. However, it had nothing to do with focusing; the union hand who did all of our focusing could focus anything, regardless of how it was hung.
I think about it this way. If you're making your electricians go back and fix fixtures because you don't like the direction the c-clamp is facing or making them stop and think about the direction in which to hang it then you're wasting hang time. And does that time spent really save you any time in the bucket? If it does, then you need to find someone new to focus.
I have to agree with SteveB. This is a craft we practice and there is a right and a wrong way to do just about everything. When we hang a show, the first thing that I tell my crew is the orientation of the C-Clamps for every batten. Since we do a lot of our focus work using focus chairs, the c-clamps always open towards the nearest track. This means that if we have one track servicing the 1E and the 2E and the track is between them then the clamps on the 1E will open upstage and the clamps on the 2E will open downstage. Every clamp on the pipe will open the same direction. There are no two ways about it and I will make people re-hang units if hung incorrectly.
Why do I do this? For exactly the reasons that SteveB gave. When you are sitting in a harness in a focus chair, the goal is to be able to move as quickly (and safely) as possible. It is a very efficient means of focus when done right, but if my crew people sitting in the chars have to reach around the batten to loosen a c-clamp to shift a fixture it can be a huge PITA. It could mean that they bash other fixtures that have been focused, or it could put them in an unsafe position in the chair, putting them at risk of falling. This is of course besides the fact that when you have a batten packed with fixtures hanging on 18" centers and a bundle of cable tied across the batten it isn't always easy to reach around to the other side and manipulate the clamp.
For fixed positions c-clamps should open in the direction that is easiest for the technician, but whatever that orientation is should be maintained across the entire position. Consistency is very important as it makes working on a fixture easier down the road since you always know what to expect when you come up to a fixture. Also, consistency will speed up your strike as you can maintain a singe orientation between yourself and the lighting position as you walk down it removing fixtures.
On a related note, when hanging fixtures one should always make sure to leave focus slack. The only appropriate amount of focus slack is the length of the pig-tail of the fixture. This means that the connector of the fixture should always live tied off next to the c-clamp. However, you never tie the pigtail itself, you only tie the female end of the cable, pigtail, or twofer. This allows a technician you easily swap out a fixture if the need arises without having to hunt for the connector in a bundle of cable and without having to untie any cable ties.
Once you get in the groove of orienting your c-clamps, it doesn't take up any extra time and it does save you time down the road. Most of my crew has been working for me for multiple seasons, so when I give them a clamp orientation at the top of the call no one thinks twice about it, it just happens. Just because no one will see most of your lighting battens doesn't mean that you shouldn't hang them cleanly. Having a consistent c-clamp orientation is just as important as dressing your cables nicely. I would rather take the time to hang my shows in a nice, organized, uniform, and clean manner than come in for a focus call and have my crew fighting with the fixtures and the positions. I have plenty of time to hang a show, but I hate wasting an LDs time during focus trying to shuffle a fixture this way or that because the clamp was hard to reach or the cable was dressed poorly.
Why do I do this? For exactly the reasons that SteveB gave. When you are sitting in a harness in a focus chair, the goal is to be able to move as quickly (and safely) as possible. It is a very efficient means of focus when done right, but if my crew people sitting in the chars have to reach around the batten to loosen a c-clamp to shift a fixture it can be a huge PITA. It could mean that they bash other fixtures that have been focused, or it could put them in an unsafe position in the chair, putting them at risk of falling. This is of course besides the fact that when you have a batten packed with fixtures hanging on 18" centers and a bundle of cable tied across the batten it isn't always easy to reach around to the other side and manipulate the clamp.
For fixed positions c-clamps should open in the direction that is easiest for the technician, but whatever that orientation is should be maintained across the entire position. Consistency is very important as it makes working on a fixture easier down the road since you always know what to expect when you come up to a fixture. Also, consistency will speed up your strike as you can maintain a singe orientation between yourself and the lighting position as you walk down it removing fixtures.
On a related note, when hanging fixtures one should always make sure to leave focus slack. The only appropriate amount of focus slack is the length of the pig-tail of the fixture. This means that the connector of the fixture should always live tied off next to the c-clamp. However, you never tie the pigtail itself, you only tie the female end of the cable, pigtail, or twofer. This allows a technician you easily swap out a fixture if the need arises without having to hunt for the connector in a bundle of cable and without having to untie any cable ties.
Once you get in the groove of orienting your c-clamps, it doesn't take up any extra time and it does save you time down the road. Most of my crew has been working for me for multiple seasons, so when I give them a clamp orientation at the top of the call no one thinks twice about it, it just happens. Just because no one will see most of your lighting battens doesn't mean that you shouldn't hang them cleanly. Having a consistent c-clamp orientation is just as important as dressing your cables nicely. I would rather take the time to hang my shows in a nice, organized, uniform, and clean manner than come in for a focus call and have my crew fighting with the fixtures and the positions. I have plenty of time to hang a show, but I hate wasting an LDs time during focus trying to shuffle a fixture this way or that because the clamp was hard to reach or the cable was dressed poorly.
I hang it on with the open side of the clamp facing whichever side of the pipe the stickers on that designate the circuit numbers. The side of the connector strips that the circuit numbers are labeled on is the side I'll always approach from when hanging or performing any work with the lights on the ground, and usually the same side I'll be on when focusing. Upstage, downstage, who cares? To me it's about hanging the light where I see the circuit number labels.
I would never be affixing a c-clamp from the other side of the pipe because it would never make sense to hang the lights from the side of the pipe that you can't see the circuit numbers from. That is partially because I use the circuit plot to judge distances, so instead of saying I need a fixture 15' off of center towards stage right on the third electric, I'd just say this fixture needs to be between circ. 135 and 136. So on my plots I have both the circuit labels for each light to designate which circuits they plug into, regardless of the physical location of the light, as well as the circuit plot so that roughing the locations of fixtures is easy.
As a result, the tendency in most venues is that most c-clamps on stage have their open sides facing the upstage wall, whereas our FOH positions are the exact opposite. Booms, if the clamp is facing way or the other, I don't mind, given that the booms are hung consistently so if someone is on a ladder to focus, they can access all of the things they to without having to move the ladder a lot more.
I would never be affixing a c-clamp from the other side of the pipe because it would never make sense to hang the lights from the side of the pipe that you can't see the circuit numbers from. That is partially because I use the circuit plot to judge distances, so instead of saying I need a fixture 15' off of center towards stage right on the third electric, I'd just say this fixture needs to be between circ. 135 and 136. So on my plots I have both the circuit labels for each light to designate which circuits they plug into, regardless of the physical location of the light, as well as the circuit plot so that roughing the locations of fixtures is easy.
As a result, the tendency in most venues is that most c-clamps on stage have their open sides facing the upstage wall, whereas our FOH positions are the exact opposite. Booms, if the clamp is facing way or the other, I don't mind, given that the booms are hung consistently so if someone is on a ladder to focus, they can access all of the things they to without having to move the ladder a lot more.
The focus track thing does have a point. Its on a per position basis, not on a per fixture basis. There is a huge distinction there. Alternating the clamp direction per light depending on if the light is to focus US/DS/SR/SL/USL/USR/DSR/DSL adds additional complexity to the hang. There is no saying that I won't have a backlight and a frontlight next to each other on the same electric.
.....my 2 c's.... on to more interesting topics....
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