Tristan_da light opp
Member
So, I’m doing fly rails for my musical, I know how to operate them but I know there are calls when you lower and raise them, but what do I yell to make sure I don’t bonk anyone on the head?
I also want to amend at my local theatres, when calling out, like pre-show etc. we call Coming In and Going Out. Then you have 2 words to better understand direction of travel.The main thing to think about when communicating what you're doing with the rail is- what you're moving, which direction it's moving, and where it's moving. I train my ops to call "Lineset X, Moving IN/OUT, DOWNSTAGE/MIDSTAGE/UPSTAGE". Not everyone on stage will understand what you mean when you say "Electric 2 moving in," but most people in a theater will understand the difference between US and DS.
And I agree, your movements during the show should be choreographed with the actors and SM in order to know when things are moving, so no need to announce. Often times I'd spike a "NO" box under pieces so the cast had a visual reference of where a flat might be landing and could avoid it in the changes. It's always good to train your whole crew to watch for collisions and be prepared to call for an immediate stop if necessary. People make mistakes, but that doesn't mean we should drop a house on them.
I made a video for my HS students a few years ago that goes into detail with this stuff.
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