While I haven't been around the industry for very long, Footer's comments seem to echo what I've heard about how the concepts of moving light
tracking have changed over the last few years. In the old days, an Associate or Assistant LD would write down every time a ML gets turned on, with detailed information such as a mini focus chart, a detailed description of the purpose, and the colors/gobos/shutters/
iris in the light. How much information was recorded would depend on the
level and length of run of the show, but the focus chart and purpose were almost universal. Nowadays, with moving lights being used as complete systems in rigs instead of independent specials, this simply isn't
practical, and modern consoles and skilled programmers have made it unnecessary. However, if you're not using a modern ML
console, I can definitely see the desire for a complete ML
track. On the two major tours I've programmed, and this seems to match what I've heard from other
programmer friends, the
programmer is pretty much left to fend for himself when it comes to MLs. Many designers won't even
channel the MLs, preferring to let the
programmer channel them however makes sense to him/her. On my last show, the designer would usually just ask for "one of the spots from SL on the couple" or "a low sidelight on the girl at center" instead of calling for specific fixtures. Then it's up to me to find a light that isn't currently being used for something else. If I don't have anything that I can use, I use a different light and ask the designer if that's okay, and if it absolutely doesn't work, I program in a dump and
restore as unobtrusively as possible. In some cases, particularly with designers not accustomed to working with large ML rigs, they'll often try to treat them as conventionals, calling everything by
channel and giving specific instruction rather than letting the
programmer make it work. However, this usually ends up taking far too long and puts a ton of extra burden on the LD team to make sure their paperwork matches the
console.
Filemaker is an extremely popular program for this, and pretty much all of the great broadway Associates I've had to pleasure to meet all have their own highly customized and intricately detailed filemaker file that can do pretty much everything, right down to keeping
track of everyone's lunch and coffee preferences. Most of these have, at a minimum, a detailed
cue list with tons of checkboxes and text fields,
followspot tracking, a notes database that can pull from the Lightwright show file, a detailed log of every light in the rig, and perhaps moving light
tracking abilities. Unfortunately, I don't have any examples that I can
send that would help you with this. FocusTrack is an amazingly powerful program, although it is quite expensive. I can say from experience that it's an incredibly powerful program - I worked on the 1st Natl Tour of a show that had just closed on broadway, and having all the
focus track data from the original allowed the PE to work with the designer for more two-fering, cutting units, and moving the rig to just three different models of ML, and it even allowed us to do a ton of pre-programming in the shop. Though I've never toured, I can see focustrack being especially useful there, as you can easily
bounce through the photos of different focuses to update presets quickly and accurately.
I don't think this really answered your questions. My first piece of advice would be to find out exactly what you're doing. Are you also serving as an Associate/Assistant, with ML
tracking being one of your key jobs, or are you there JUST to
track MLs? What does the designer (and perhaps the Head Electrician for the tour) want on that paperwork? Are you mostly serving the electricians as they tour the show, or will the LD be working directly from your work during tech? Unfortunately, I don't really believe there's a well-established standard for this type of work, so the only way to make sure you're doing what the rest of the team needs is to ask them.
Hope that helps.
