No the worst part, which is hilarious, is typically dealing with the destinations Fire
safety laws. You know as well as I do that MANY Chinese products will barely pass
NFPA, or NECA standards , but, damn, I had to document, supplement, verify, notarize and cross-reference Fire retardant, electrical,
etc,
etc nine ways from
Sunday to get stuff into Macau.
@Amiers and
@Van Posting in support of
@Van 's comments regarding certifications
DEMANDED when manufacturing and shipping into China.
For those playing along at home, here's a brief summary of a PM I'd already sent to Van.
In the mid 1990's, a
producer and
scenic designer in Red China were seeking to
build a raked
deck for an opera.
The raked
deck was approximately 120' wide x 40' from DS to US.
I suspect the Red Chinese army would have built it themselves
BUT: High ranking government officials, cabinet ministers, ambassadors (those sorts of high ranking politicos) considered this a fabulous opportunity to promote international cooperation, not to mention the potential for photo op's / '
Grip 'n Greet' photos of smiling Canadians shaking hands with their Red Chinese counterparts.
Bid drawings were sent out and several Canadian scene shops bid to
build the project. Not only was the
deck to be built, several large pieces of integral scenery were to be included including one wide /
TALL piece which had to begin off
stage and (during a brief Black Out) be brought on
stage, stood vertical on the raked
deck and be quickly and magically locked in place. When the wide,
TALL piece was offstage, there were to be NO visible blemishes in their pristine, BLACK, raked
deck (Quickly securing the
TALL piece against the effects of gravity was the big trick.)
Approximately 240 lineal feet of custom designed and manufactured lighting fixtures were to be provided along with detailed drawings and ALL P
Eng Stamped drawings plus documentation attesting to Canadian Provincial & National approvals. Similar approvals were also to be provided attesting to any / all hazardous effects of chemicals and off gassing.
The performers were to perform bare footed and concerns for freedom from cuts, chemicals, off-gassing, etcetera were RIGIDLY specified.
Essentially we were working for the government of Canada who'd taken it upon themselves to PLEASE the government of China; I got the impression our Canadian government was presenting this entire project to China as a gift. Four or five sets of custom colored borders and legs were to be included. A soft
cyc / sky blue
drop approximately 80' wide by 50' tall was part of the package plus one or two painted drops of similar dimensions to totally obscure the
cyc'.
Again, ALL fabrication and stamped approval documentation had to be included for the
velour and its coloring.
Our local automation and scenery shop won the toss.
The Chinese
Production Manager, along with the set and lighting designers were to make two trips to Canada; the first to visit our shop / meet our people / assure themselves we fully understood their specified requirements and the second to inspect the end product(s) fully assembled prior to disassembly, packing and loading into several large ocean going containers.
Bureaucracy: When the three Chinese were coming for their initial look & see / meet and greet tour, the entourage included:
- The 3 Chinese; each accompanied by an interpreter from China.
- One Chinese press photographer for a total of 7.
Plus at least 7 "Body guards"; 1 per each of the 7 Chinese folks.
Of course our Canadian government (in their roles as good hosts) NEEDED to attend; thus another 3 or 4 Canadian politicos materialized along with their accompanying RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) officers [at least they didn't arrive with their horses and horse trailers] plus a battery of press photographers and camera crews from both our national television networks.
Our shop had plenty of floor space in our assembly and finishing area. Dealing with the
TALL drops was a problem, we managed to
roll their bottoms, rig sheaves and hemp, then fly them as high as possible given the constraints of our approximately 30' ceiling height.
(Loadstars were considered but sheaves gained approximately 2' of additional vertical exposure.)
Our owners naively thought they were hosting THREE Chinese guests and were incredulous when a full flotilla arrived plus caterers our governments laid on with an unbelievable selection of beverages, finger foods (et al).
ALL foods and beverages real people from China would recognize and prefer, none of what we North Americans consider to be "Chinese" food.
Our owners were
scrambling to conjure table space for the caterers to spread out their finest table cloths prior to placing their
array of platters, tubs of ice and sealed beverage containers along with heated
flat surfaces for sealed containers of Chinese teas.
The moment the Chinese vacated along with their "body guards", the Canadian politicos were in their limo's and down the
road closely followed by our cadre of Canadian press and TV folks.
In three blinks of an eye the entire flotilla was out the door and gone leaving us with piles of garbage and a huge amount of foods you'd likely not want to taste. Several of our shop-ites grabbed the Chinese alcoholic beverages before they hit the bin but we had a lot of clean up to deal with including items casually strewn about and abandoned on workbenches immediately adjacent to our final assembly area.
@Van is DEFINITELY correct when he posts of the staggering amount of materials and off-gassing certifications DEMANDED by the Chinese with our construction drawings having to be stamped, signed and sealed by several PEngs specializing in structural engineering, materials, finishes, off-gassing, fire proofing, electrical for the 240 lineal feet of custom designed
MR16 incandescent strip lights which needed be below the
deck's finished surface, secured parallel to the slope of the
rake yet produce rows of narrow beams shooting perfectly vertical (even though mounted parallel to the sloping
deck) through six 40' narrow slots the maximum width of which were specified in Metric but roughly 3/4" wide. Designing and manufacturing
incandescent strip-lights in 8' long units with each of their
MR16's canted to compensate for the angle of the
rake was a decent trick in itself. Of course the male and female
tails of the strips had to enter and exit the sides leaving the ends
clear to seamlessly
butt together and the backs (bottoms)
clear to accommodate sliding into their mounts from the US end of the
rake.
This entire project was to tour through six to eight venues in China thus it had to be totally modular, capable of
fitting into trailers and trucks once within China, with weight restrictions on each module permitting each to handled, for packing, loading, trucking, unloading and assembling by an army of typically non-theatrical minions while touring from
venue to
venue. (We all suspected the "army" of non-theatrical minions were likely to be members of the Red Chinese Army)
All in all, an "interesting" project but our owners thanked the deities of their choices for our National and Provincial governments dealing with the acquisition and approving of ALL paperwork required and MANDATED. If our governments' don't know how to kill trees and push paper, WHO DOES
??
The MANDATED paperwork didn't outweigh the
deck but it was getting closer by the day.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard