Lots of cues and no time to program

Khan1951

Member
Hello. I am a self-taught light technician and my troupe is competing in a one act competition for a festival. The show we are doing requires 40+ light cues. The problem is that once at competition, I only have 10 minutes to program those 40 cues. I need a way to quickly program these cues in under 10min. The competition is using a ion 6144 for their light board. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to efficiently program the cues I need in a short amount of time? If there is a way to download a cues list to the board that would be optimal. Thank you so much.
 
Defenetly get the software and pre program. Either make a few "looks" saved as presets or set yourself up a busking file. If you need the patch the venue should be able to send it to you via email if requested.
Remember 6 "P's! (Pre Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance)
Regards
Geoff
 
I think the real question here is how many distinct looks do you have? If you have under 10 I would likely just set up 10 sub masters and fade between them as needed.

A second question is why only 10 minutes? The festivals I have been involved with typically give you between 60 and 90 minutes to tech a show ( all aspects). If the 10 minute window is driven by how long it will take to set up scenery, get actors comfortable, etc remember you can be setting levels while a lot of that is going on.

If you go the sub master route remember that you can combine subs to create a look. IE if you have a set with three areas ( A, B, C) which are used together or separately, plus a strong down light you can simply creare a sub for each area, and a sub for each down light, and mix and match as needed without using up all your subs.

Finally Simplify, Simplify ,Simplify. You can only do what you can do given the constraints.
 
It's One-Act competition - LESS IS MORE. Go with basic looks. Remember the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid).

Often the day before the actual competition, you should have a time slot where the techs can access the space. Use this time to understand the locations existing light plot. Use their magic sheet. Take a thumb drive with you.

That 10 minute window is the time between performances. Look up your states one-act competition rules. For those of us in GA, the rules can be found at https://www.ghsa.net/one-act-play .

Break a leg.

PS GA's regionals are this weekend.
 
I downloaded that software and it looks like it will work how I want it to. Thank you Almorton, SteveB, and Crispy Image.
I think the real question here is how many distinct looks do you have? If you have under 10 I would likely just set up 10 sub masters and fade between them as needed.

A second question is why only 10 minutes? The festivals I have been involved with typically give you between 60 and 90 minutes to tech a show ( all aspects). If the 10 minute window is driven by how long it will take to set up scenery, get actors comfortable, etc remember you can be setting levels while a lot of that is going on.

If you go the sub master route remember that you can combine subs to create a look. IE if you have a set with three areas ( A, B, C) which are used together or separately, plus a strong down light you can simply creare a sub for each area, and a sub for each down light, and mix and match as needed without using up all your subs.

Finally Simplify, Simplify ,Simplify. You can only do what you can do given the constraints.
The constraints are pretty stupid. I think it is because the competition has so many participants, they have to keep things on a tight schedule. My original plan was to create a handful of sub-masters but if there is a way to work the show at full capacity I think it would be cool and help our chances at the competition.
 
Double check that time line. If this I’d under the auspices of AACTF you have 10 minutes between shows to set up, but you also have a tech period well before that 60 or 90 minutes tht you could use to set cues, etc. Save whatever you have done as a show file and simply load that show file in your 10 minute window.
 
We are competing at the state festival for the International Thespian Society. It is rough but they only give us 10 minutes to get all our lights and sound up and programmed. I'm hoping we can get an advantage by pre-programming everything.
 
This is how our state (high school) one-act festival/competition works too. The idea is that the host venue sets up their board with some sensible submasters and each LD just busks off of those. That 10m window isn't meant for programming, but just enough time to get a sense of what the rep plot looks like and what subs you have to work with.
 
This is how our state (high school) one-act festival/competition works too. The idea is that the host venue sets up their board with some sensible submasters and each LD just busks off of those. That 10m window isn't meant for programming, but just enough time to get a sense of what the rep plot looks like and what subs you have to work with.
Our festival runs exactly the same way.

~Dave
 
@Khan1951 Which state festival were you at? I was the LD for a show at the San Antonio Festival which was a nightmare to program. We had 252 cues for our show but the venue wouldn’t give us their groups/subs/patch beforehand so we ended up with only ~120 in the 3 hours we had.
 
@Khan1951 Which state festival were you at? I was the LD for a show at the San Antonio Festival which was a nightmare to program. We had 252 cues for our show but the venue wouldn’t give us their groups/subs/patch beforehand so we ended up with only ~120 in the 3 hours we had.
We were at the Texas Thespian state festival at grapevine.
 

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