Design Photography Myth

[SHARYNF]

It was a 50 dollar fine in NYC but the law is almost impossible to enforce

NYC Votes to Curb Annoying Use of Cell Phones - Los Angeles Times

it is limited to making or receiving a call, it does NOT cover texting



Sharyn

 

[Peyton]

Flash is especially dangerous to actors or others who have been spinning around.


Try it at home!

Go outside at night with a friend and a flashlight. Pick a spot straight up in the sky to look at, and start spinning. Spin as fast as you can. Have your friend make sure you're not going to run into anything. after about 30 seconds or so, stop spinning and have your friend IMMEDIATELY shine the light in your eyes. You will literally fall over.
I hope you can infer the rest.

 

[shiben]

Or coming out of a blackout. Just go sit in a dark room for a bit, then have a friend take a flash photo of you while your standing up. You will more than likely have a minor sensory overload, and collapse. Same principal is used in personal defense in a tactical flashlight, like some of those made by Surefire. The beam is very concentrated and bright so that your brain shuts down a bit. This is a very real problem on stage.

i had that same thought, although i was going for a mass signal jammer, instead of the copper mesh... mine would take a lot of power to do but it would have a switch only problem is i believe the fcc banned such devices. something about no wireless device may interfere with things... yada yada. (i'm still thinking of building one and just not telling anyone) lol

My idea is legal tho. Actually, we never have phone problems, because our theatre spaces are in bunkers. But we did have camera problems a while back. Escorting the guy out seems to have solved the problem.

 

[Dionysus]

NO CAMERAS OR PHONES PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

I have to agree that it is wrong to allow patrons to photograph a show, that is as mentioned before save things like rock shows and concerts (as they ARE promotion) as long as they aren't going to cause the one taking the photos financial gain.

FLASH is EVIL in the Theatre, and practically useless. Not only does it cause everything to be UGLY, but given the distance the flash falloff is too great. If the camera does not adjust for the falloff it will also drastically underexpose the image actually making it DARKER. Make your camera as fast as possible and pray for the best when you ARE doing it with a point and shoot-ish camera.

I agree that it is RUDE and DANGEROUS... And it really pisses everyone off from audience, performers, lighting people, sound people, stage managers, EVERYONE. I've had a stage manager RIP MY HEAD OFF when a flash strobe went off before, I think she must of thought I was goofing around, or a lamp blew, or some sort of electrical problem happened...

It just puts everyone on high alert, and makes them pissy.

I'd say more, but, well, I think I've said enough.

 

[tyler.martin]

We had one show where there was not a single issue of phones going off or cameras being used. Course, it was about a bunch of terrorists taking over a theatre, and they might have implied that the theatre being taken over was ours, and there may or may not have been people getting shot or blown up in pretty much every scene,

What Show Was This?

 

[shiben]

What Show Was This?

Show is called Cries of Wolves, look for it to be published in the near future. New play by one of our alumni. Based on the Chechen takeover of a Moscow theatre. The show is an exploration of what drives human beings to do things that are usually considered wrong, like taking people hostage, strapping on a suicide vest, shooting people, etc, even though they know they will die in the end. Quite a powerful play, if done right. Tech/stage directions are extremely tough, and in my opinion the scenes are out of order. For the show we rented 3 AK-47 replicas for the gents, 7 M92 replicas for everyone, and built 4 bomb vests for the ladies. Everyone dressed in a hybrid "traditional Chechen" and "Generic Terrorist" look, which worked, but was compicated (part of the reason the tech aspects are hard, the show jumps around). Anyhow, the opening scene is the Prometheus myth, and then there is a blackout, and the lights come up to one of the men charging an AK-47 and all the ladies running out into the audience with bomb triggers and handguns out. Ended similarly to how the real crisis ended. We dummped fog into the theatre for the last 3-5 minutes of the show, and the actors slowly slumped down, as if it was knockout gas. The show was very well recieved, several church groups came and watched it, and a bunch of Russians thought it should be translated into Russian. Seeing as we know that the playwrite already has a FSB file, she is not going to be doing this for a while. Overall, a great show, going to be published soon. Not sure how big its gonna be, but it will have some sort of a presence.

Edit: I might add that they let me run sound for the last 3 runs. Everyone liked the new, increased presence of the explosions and gunfire. People could feel the patio above the theatre shake. (Before anyone jumps on me, the sound designer thought they had been too soft when they went and saw it, and part of the reason the previous noise boy was dismissed is because he had been goofing with the cues to make them "more even" in terms of volume. The changes (and significant boosting of the explosion effects) was with consent.)