NYT article on Met Spot Op

derekleffew

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/...jobs-at-the-met-opera.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

From his aerie in the gilded ceiling of the vast Metropolitan Opera House, just behind the Sputnik chandeliers and some six stories above the stage, Tim Guscott fixed Anna Netrebko in his sights. Then he cast a beam of light so narrow and precisely aimed that it illuminated only that Russian diva’s head as she sang Puccini far below.

“It’s really hard to follow something no bigger than a basketball that’s 135 feet away,” he said as he kept a slightly pink light tightly on Ms. Netrebko’s face as she moved, subtly offsetting the larger, blue-tinted spotlight a colleague had cast on her whole body. ...
 
Since it's not really related to technical theater I suppose there is no place in the Wiki for Park and Bark.
I'm tempted to get out my swatch books and take a look at some of the gels they are using.
 
Speaking of spot op's in the Met'. I was VERY impressed to see one operator standing between two spots and following two performers simultaneously. Granted, they were following in full body shots and with soft edges but still; one operator between two spots following two performers simultaneously; It impressed me. (I was lead spot op' on a broadway musical in the Shubert at the time. This was in 1990. I guess another consideration is they were following opera soloists, it's not like they were following break dancers or ballerinas.)
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
Since it's not really related to technical theater I suppose there is no place in the Wiki for Park and Bark.
I'm tempted to get out my swatch books and take a look at some of the gels they are using.

Read the article about 10 minutes before coming here. "Park and Bark"! I love it!
Reporters always crack me up, called the gel labels "stickers" and probably had no idea what they were.
 
Lycian 1293"s if memory serves (might be the 2k version though). 7 total.

In conversation with Craig Burkhart, who had been the Local One head of follow spots, he told me they replaced the iris's all the time. Seems that as they are constantly closed in to head shots, the iris's burn out prematurely.

Cannot explain why the op. would have the covers , F and R off on a lit unit. You have to bypass the internal pressure switch to get the lamp on. And I NEVER open a unit without protective gear.
 
Maybe he did it at the photographer's request. Hopefully it isn't standard procedure.
 
I've been watching Met operas for years and have watched a lot of other shows (and arc operators) also. I'd say that the Met's arc operators are without doubt the best in the business. Perfect pickups and follows, with (usually) soft-edge very tight lights, that are about (in camera terms) 1/2 stop hotter than their surroudings (and I'm sure completely unobtrusive and unnoticed by anybody not in the lighting biz) but still drawing the audience's attention where it's wanted. These guys are geniuses!
 
It really helps the people in the upper seating point out who's who...

Just watched Cyrano tonight, and that was the only thing that let me keep track of where the main characters are. That and his nose!
 
This really is an art most people have no appreciation for. Occasionally I work with a director who loves followspots and thinks they should ALWAYS be hard edged. She'll even go so far as to yell out, "SPOT! SPOT!" in the middle of rehearsal when, in fact it's already on the actor but with a soft edge. I like the quote, "The task is almost imperceptible when done correctly, but it can stand out like a sour note when it is off."
 
This really is an art most people have no appreciation for. Occasionally I work with a director who loves followspots and thinks they should ALWAYS be hard edged. [ ... ] I like the quote, "The task is almost imperceptible when done correctly, but it can stand out like a sour note when it is off."

The best complement I ever had as a spot operator was from a director that said they "never even notice that the spots were on most of the time, thank you for the subtlety." This is from a director in a school environment that is used to students going with maximum output and hard edge all the time. I'm just one of many parent ( and educator spouse) who volunteers to work with the children during tech week and performances. I placed this one in the "win" category.
 
I'm firmly in the "enhance, not overwhelm" mindset. Unless the director wants something else, I go for a subtle soft-edge look.
 
I still dont know what the chopper is used for, but I have used the Lycian spreader a few times.

That was an enjoyable article of what may rapidly become another lost art.
https://www.prg.com/technology/products/luminaires/groundcontrol-followspot-system

Oh the times, they are a-changin' :cry:
I found the chopper useful for spotting 3 to 5 performers in a row without having the top and bottom calling undue attention to themselves and / or blinding the musicians in the pit.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
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I still dont know what the chopper is used for, but I have used the Lycian spreader a few times.
Same purpose, but with more control.
It's not chopper, it's horizontal masking control. How else could one "pull back and strip out"? The newest big Lycians have vertical shutters as well.
I'm tempted to get out my swatch books and take a look at some of the gels they are using.
Two odd things:
1. I've never seen handles labeled with the actual color number, and that seems a very bad place to store unused "stickers".
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And why aren't they in some semblance of order? A non-OCD spot op? Preposterus.
2. For all the talk of soft edges, none of the gel references are to frost, that I can tell. Perhaps, like @SteveB, frost only goes in the accessory slot?
 
Yes, the "dipstick" as Lycian calls it is where we stick our diffusion.

You can see the top half of the dipstick in the photo, just next to the color box, looks like R132 written on it

It's a very useful accessory, not having to use a color frame for frost. We keep R132 and what we call "freezer bag frost", which is exactly that and is about 1/2 the diffusion of R132.

Also useful for neutral density.

No clue why they have all the gel numbers stuck on the side of the unit. I would suspect they use a ton of different colors.

The Met, like the other opera I'm familiar with (Santa Fe), uses its follow spots as primary front light on all singing principals. Santa Fe had 5. With good operators you can just light the singers head, so everybody can hear them, let's the LD reduce area front lighting and get great control of the rest of the image without front areas lighting everything. Not naturalistic, but then in opera the audience learns to suspend belief in a lot of things, like the young lovers singing a duet who happen to have combined ages of 120 and weight of maybe 500 lbs.
 
I can see where there's a proper use for a VERY HOT, round, hard-edge spot (e.g., the ringmaster @ Ringling Bros.!) but opera and most light opera ain't it. If the director wants a "Ringling Bros." look, fine, but if the intent is to focus attention and emphasize one person or a part of a group, in my opinion a hot, hard edge arc isn't the way to do it. In situations with no arcs (or no good operators) my preference (on my own designs and when I ran them) was a lot of small acting areas, "played" like moving lights as actors moved around the stage.
 
The typical spot pickup as I've seen it in opera and as used at the Met, is the spots in frost and a color, irised in to a head shot, at about 1/2 intensity. Very subtle and you have to look to see it's a follow spot. Not at all what you are describing Jon.
 

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