Question for Programmers (Festival gig programming preference)

[controlremoto]

Hi Programmers,

I have a gig coming up that I will be the resident stage programmer for a 2 day festival. I will program for any band that doesn't have a Programmer/LD as well as providing a show file for any band that has a programmer/ld so they can jump on and hack away on the fly.

So my question is what would you like to see in a show file if you were one of these visiting programmers? IE how would you like your pallets, movement etc laid out on your board? How would you set up your faders? How many of what and where etc

I know what I would want but i thought it would be cool to hear what others would have to say about this.

Thanks

 

[rochem]

First, a couple questions for you:

What kinds of bands are these - amateur bands doing their first public performance, well-known regional bands, something else?

What console are you using?

What is the venue like - large outdoor stage I assume? Something else?

What is the rig like - 120K rig(s), other conventionals, what kinds of automated fixtures, effects gear, and so on.

 

[Footer]

.....and added to that, is there any major headliners that are going to be expecting a rider to be fulfilled? Many guys who see a festival on the schedule pretty much expect to punt on the day of the gig. However, if you have a large headliner, that might not exactly be true and that could change how everything goes. It also never hurts to reach out to the few "big" bands and see what their LDs wants. Odds are the guys who are bringing an LD will have an opinion... the ones who don't bring an LD will be happy they have lights at all.

Biggest thing is this... focus points/pallets for everything you can think off. The more, the better. DS/mid/US lines, points, crowd, crosses, 5/6 band areas, etc. Typical color pallets. Movement, color, beam, etc on playbacks. Several chases in your conventionals. Etc. Just be sure everything is well labeled. Also, be aware you might have an LD or two who have never touched your type of console, so there might be some hand holding.

 

[controlremoto]

I believe its about 30+ vl3000 spot & wash. And a few blinders, strobes and a hand full of specials. Acts rang from hip hop to electro. Not much if any rock and definitely no ballads or slow stuff. Flash and trash.

This was more of a general question of beyond the normal pos col move pallets. more about how people like it laid out on the board and the settings/personality for each fader and bumps etc. This will be on a full boar hog more than likely

 

[Pie4Weebl]

This should help you out:
PLSN | The Ultimate Punt Page | Fader, Faders, These, One, Lights

 

[jxgriffi]

I learned to busk from Nook (see above post)...and have to say, his layout is SOOOO useful. I can push through almost anything with about an hour to 90 minutes of programming using his tools.

As far as what people want to see, if you have 7 different LD's, they'll want 12 different layouts. If they want something specific, they'll definitely ask for it.

 

[Esoteric]

After being on both sides of this, basically what footer said.

Program anything and everything you can think of. As a resident designer in a festival type situation for three years my initial setup was a handful of palettes, positions, etc. By the time I was done 3 years later I was running out of room on the console for any more. Think of it in permutations. You want every light to be able to back light every position as a straight back and a cross back, they all need a flyout position, a straight line back light position, an audience position, and a stage wash position, you want to program slow, medium, fast strobes, random fast, medium, and slow strobes, iris bumps in at least 3 speeds. The list goes on and on and on (what I posted above it probably 1% of what should be preprogrammed).

As a traveling LD I was thrilled when I sat in front of a board full of programmed looks. It meant that all I had to do was figure out what was there, and I would be good to go. But I also loved to be contacted before hand about any special needs (I traveled with a band which one song had a very complicated cueing sequence that they insisted be done the same way every time, so it was nice to have palettes built that would facilitate the sequence).