Ravenbar
Active Member
I work with a HS for their local musical every year. They've used a scanned PDF of the libretto for their planning needs, using Kami for noting comments and cues. As I'm not part of the school, I don't have access to Kami(which only became apparent a week out from production, when I'd already solved the issue for myself). Over the past few years, they've used some ?ProductionPro? software giving a digital script. It's an Apple only software, and I'm anti-Apple((since their complete crap systems in the early 2k's and more recent anti-repairability stance)it's the only OS I don't have installed on a system, I'm on a Linux machine now, and have a Chromebook, Windows 7, Windows 11, and a couple Linux laptops within arms reach).) It seems they've settled on Kami, which is a school only PDF editing software package.
In the past, I've been completely on paper scripts, requesting several over the course of the production, as they become overly confused with note(whilst the school uses mainly digital scripts.) This year, as I'd purchased a laptop with a excellent touch screen(Thinkpad 11e 5th gen), I simply imported the script PDF into OneNote, and did all my editing there; whilst the school students and staff seemed to go predominantly the paper script route. Kind of a role reversal, seeing the director, who I work with, as I'm the entire lighting dept., struggle to figure out a new software. She's the IT coordinator for the school, and usually the one pushing the tech. The laptop I'm using is a retired school Windows laptop I picked up refurbished off Amazon for $150, and given my pay for the show, it paid for itself, although I purchased it to replace the Win7 desktop I use for ham radio programming as I bought a radio who couldn't be programmed with anything older than Win10.
I found Onenote, with the imported PDF of the libretto to be the ideal software for my needs, as it allowed scribbling on the script, typing in notes, easily deleting old notes, inserting pictures of the sets, and also simply scrolling thrugh the text as the show progressed in a completely linear fashion, so I didn't even have to think about turning pages.
In the past, I've been completely on paper scripts, requesting several over the course of the production, as they become overly confused with note(whilst the school uses mainly digital scripts.) This year, as I'd purchased a laptop with a excellent touch screen(Thinkpad 11e 5th gen), I simply imported the script PDF into OneNote, and did all my editing there; whilst the school students and staff seemed to go predominantly the paper script route. Kind of a role reversal, seeing the director, who I work with, as I'm the entire lighting dept., struggle to figure out a new software. She's the IT coordinator for the school, and usually the one pushing the tech. The laptop I'm using is a retired school Windows laptop I picked up refurbished off Amazon for $150, and given my pay for the show, it paid for itself, although I purchased it to replace the Win7 desktop I use for ham radio programming as I bought a radio who couldn't be programmed with anything older than Win10.
I found Onenote, with the imported PDF of the libretto to be the ideal software for my needs, as it allowed scribbling on the script, typing in notes, easily deleting old notes, inserting pictures of the sets, and also simply scrolling thrugh the text as the show progressed in a completely linear fashion, so I didn't even have to think about turning pages.
