How do I handle this?

[w3st0n21]

ya i am in the booth and they arn't, but occansionally i will go out and sit in differnent seats to see what it looks like. and yes occasionally an actor will step into a dark spot and i see it 90% of the time and then i fix it. ok and just FYI on this show, its not a BIG show its our schools MR MG pageant, and they gave me like 2 days to hang and focus, and 2 dress rehearsals to get used to the script and what i have to do. and no, we dont have a TD for this show. and I do try to be polite but she seems to be very impatient and just wants her way right then and no inturuptions. idk if they realize that we get stressed too. (ok background story, the first show i designed and programed and ran by myself was a disaster, so maybe im just trying to bring up my rep so people dont think i suck) but thats hard to do with only 10 lekos that work, we have like 20 of them that are like 30 years old and just plain out suck.

again thanks for your help guys

 

[LightingPenguin]

but thats hard to do with only 10 lekos that work, we have like 20 of them that are like 30 years old and just plain out suck.

again thanks for your help guys

While old fixtures are indeed old, they dont necessarily suck. Try them, use them, see if you like them. Check the lamps, maybe they're bad lamps, who knows. Don't just put them in a dusty corner to collect dust.

Second, it was your first design. Cut yourself a break, you can't be expected to be amazing the first time.

3rd, about being stressed. Yes, as a lighting technician you are stressed, you have little time to put up a plot and cue it, but the director is also stressed. Don't just look at this as "They're being really insensitive and stupid". No. They are probably stressed to, dont forget that. While they may seem like a hard-ass, the director might just be trying to get their vision in with 2 dress rehearsals, which seems like a challenge with the limited amount of time you described

This isnt a black and white situation, you both have design ideas. But go about compromising in a professional way.

Good luck

 

[lightman02]

While old fixtures are indeed old, they dont necessarily suck. Try them, use them, see if you like them. Check the lamps, maybe they're bad lamps, who knows. Don't just put them in a dusty corner to collect dust.

Second, it was your first design. Cut yourself a break, you can't be expected to be amazing the first time.

3rd, about being stressed. Yes, as a lighting technician you are stressed, you have little time to put up a plot and cue it, but the director is also stressed. Don't just look at this as "They're being really insensitive and stupid". No. They are probably stressed to, dont forget that. While they may seem like a hard-ass, the director might just be trying to get their vision in with 2 dress rehearsals, which seems like a challenge with the limited amount of time you described

This isnt a black and white situation, you both have design ideas. But go about compromising in a professional way.

Good luck

I agree, old fixtures don't suck just because they are old. I graduated high school over 10yrs ago and when I did lighting there we had alot of centurys, and really old altman's. In fact we had very little new, the only new stuff was a few altman 360's and some 6" fresnels. However we had an EDI dimmer system and though not as cool as a sensor rack it did work well and we had about 110 working dimmers. However even with old stuff we put on shows that looked 10 times better then the other high school in my town (yes there are two) and they had a brand new theatre. It's not always the equipment, it's how you use it. Plus I bet all your lights have never been bench focused!!! You'd be amazed of how much usuable light your loosing by not doing this. I am alittle upset my original sugestion didn't work but in this situation if it really is to dark try to make some of your lights do double the work as I believe someone already stated. If you have lights for certain areas try to use them to hit more then one area, you may not have the isolation your looking for but if the director wants more light then thats the only way to get it with limited resources.

 

[w3st0n21]

ya now im just like "whatever heres your light" i mean there is other stuff to do than just that, but the sucky part is now i have to go refocus everything for when the curtian is closed. anyway about the old stuff, i mean i still use it cause i really dont have anything else to use, but we cant get lamp relplacements because they are so old. and what is bench focusing? i would like to try it...

 

[LightingPenguin]

what is bench focusing? i would like to try it...

"Bench focusing is done to re-align the lamp and socket to center and even out the focus of the light thru the reflector/lenses"(Wolf). It removes "hotspots" (ie. brighter in the middle where your light its than on the outside of the circle), or dark spots (reverse of hotspots), can boost light output, and provides a more even field of light. I highly suggest trying it out.

I suggest reading Wolf's and Ship's posts on this page (Its a heavy read, but Ship and Wolf are GREAT sources of knowledge):

http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting/257-technique-bench-focusing-360qs.html

Everything I would say is covered in it, and it provides you the generals. I also suggest doing a general search for it on CB, considering CB has just about everything you could ever want