To take a cue or not take a cue, that is the question

[Unmanedpilot]

Found this really interesting, my experience consists of working at my church for the service, no SM, and the community theater. When I'm doing either I'm responsible for all the cues. If I miss something its my fault. The SM will remind me if I somehow missed a major cue or took too long but I call the shots on when to go.

I don't have the same experience as most of you and a lot of it makes sense (like the prolonged blackout to fix something) but I usually have to control when things go or don't in the show when it comes to light and sound. It certainly depends on where you are working, and going off the original post, I would defiantly wait for the go, its the SM's fault if its wrong, your just doing your job.

 

[gafftaper]

Found this really interesting, my experience consists of working at my church for the service, no SM, and the community theater. When I'm doing either I'm responsible for all the cues. If I miss something its my fault. The SM will remind me if I somehow missed a major cue or took too long but I call the shots on when to go.
I don't have the same experience as most of you and a lot of it makes sense (like the prolonged blackout to fix something) but I usually have to control when things go or don't in the show when it comes to light and sound. It certainly depends on where you are working, and going off the original post, I would defiantly wait for the go, its the SM's fault if its wrong, your just doing your job.

This and bikingtechie's post both bring up the important point of local custom and the question "how professional is the theater you are working in"? In a big budget very professional show you absolutely wait for the SM. However when it comes to "Theater in a Vermont barn"... the rules are different. If you think that the local custom is less than professional then by all means have a polite conversation with the SM and ask if they just want you to take the cue on your own. It won't fly on Broadway, but there are lots of places that play by different house rules.

 

[Grog12]

This and bikingtechie's post both bring up the important point of local custom and the question "how professional is the theater you are working in"? In a big budget very professional show you absolutely wait for the SM. However when it comes to "Theater in a Vermont barn"... the rules are different. If you think that the local custom is less than professional then by all means have a polite conversation with the SM and ask if they just want you to take the cue on your own. It won't fly on Broadway, but there are lots of places that play by different house rules.

I know of at least 2 big budget (multi-million) shows that if you waited for the SM to call a light cue nothing would ever happen because the SM is too busy playing online poker.

 

[gafftaper]

I know of at least 2 big budget (multi-million) shows that if you waited for the SM to call a light cue nothing would ever happen because the SM is too busy playing online poker.

So much for me teaching my students to do it the right way like the pros.

 

[Hughesie]

yeah gaff, i wouldn't tell your students that part........

 

[David Ashton]

We had a similar discussion with regard to manual fades, now on a major choreographed production there is no choice but to follow exactly as called but when running a play or touring a show it is a team effort to give the paying public the best product possible and in most situations I have worked in, the lighting op has the best real view of the action[not video].
I personally watch the entire show, boring or not, in case I lose a light or see a problem and if something goes wrong I will take whatever action to try and ameliorate the problem.
If the actors lose 2 pages and bring on a cue before time or if some catastrophe happens backstage I will carry on doing cues.
The "I'm only following orders" mentality may be all well and good at the Bolshoi Ballet, but on tour I'd rather have someone with a bit of initiative thank you.
In my chequered career I have been truck driver, board op, lighting designer, stage manager and producer and have managed to make mistakes in most of them and I appreciate when someone uses a bit of common sense to salvage a situation.
Actors are not the only ones to ad-lib when things go wrong.
Briefly what some consider to be "professionalism" I consider to be rank amateurism.
Cliche as it is I believe the show should go on and everyone in the team should work together and cover each others problems.

 

[icewolf08]

I have worked some shows where there were points in the show where the SM had too many other cues going on simultaneously that the board OP would take a series of cues on his own. BUT this was only after a hand off from the SM, and control of the show was returned after that sequence.

If the actors lose 2 pages and bring on a cue before time or if some catastrophe happens backstage I will carry on doing cues.
The "I'm only following orders" mentality may be all well and good at the Bolshoi Ballet, but on tour I'd rather have someone with a bit of initiative thank you.

Every SM that I have worked for would rather their board ops and flymen, and deck crew not take initiative. It is one thing if a light cue is misplaced, but if the motion control operator goes "Oh crap they just skipped 4 pages, better take the next cue" people could get seriously injured. It isn't up to the operator to figure out what to do, for all you know the actors could jump back those four pages and fix things, then you are hosed if you have started taking cues.

In a situation where the SM is not sitting in the booth with a full stage view, they usually end up with a fairly comprehensive CCTV setup. Many theatres will provide standard and IR full stage cameras, and often they will provide cameras for danger areas. Even in the booth many SMs have all of these video angles.

Sure, there are situations where someone has to make a decision, and everyone involved in the production of a show should have common sense. But while everyone common sense may lead to a valid solution to a problem, if there is not one unified voice the problem will just be aggravated.

Any scripted show that has been teched, cued, and so forth has a way that it is supposed to run. Live theatre is a hierarchy, and it has to be that way or you run into chaos. Shows would never work if every department operated autonomously.

This is not to say that there are not some parts of the entertainment industry where different departments do operate more independently, but for live theatre the SM is the law. If the SM isn't doing his or her job then I would take it up with their supervisor, no questions asked. The SM is in charge of making sure the show happens the way the director and designers envisioned it and if they are not doing that then you have big problems.

 

[Diarmuid]

Personally, I work most of the time as a Stage Manager, and I will always prefer an operator to wait, or ask me instead of just second guessing my calls. For example, in the last show I did, during one of the performances we had to call a doctor twice, due to first a crew member and then a cast member having fainted. In those circumstances, you don't always have the time to explain what is going on to the operators, because you are busy trying to check that everything is ok, with the people who have fainted. At the same time you are still there to remain on the book, and thus it is the job of people around you to look after the 'casualty'.
Basically, I would say that if you think you should be standing-by for a cue, then ask the SM, however in emergency circumstances, things do have to change during a show, and that is why you shouldn't take a cue unless its called. Also the key thing to remember is that a designer may have changed the placement of a cue, and there is no obligation to tell you this..

 

[David Ashton]

We don't see "Icewolfs" palaces on tour, the SM is generally in prompt corner with a limited view and at best a single video monitor, now pulling quotes out of context does little to further an argument, the suggestion that I am saying everyone should do their own thing is preposterous, however if a board operator working for me had missed a lamp blowing while playing a game and left an actor in the dark when he could easily have filled in with another circuit, would certainly get a 'go' from me, permanently.
If I couldn't get an operator to take an interest in doing the job right I might as well replace him with a voice recognition device and save the wages.
Students reading this, think for yourselves, if you knowingly stuff up a show when a little common sense could avoid it, most reasonable SM's and directors will appreciate a little intelligent initiative.
As a rule you should always do as the SM says, and rules are made to be broken when the need arises.

 

[soundlight]

however if a board operator working for me had missed a lamp blowing while playing a game and left an actor in the dark when he could easily have filled in with another circuit, would certainly get a 'go' from me, permanently.

All of the places that I work/have worked in college, in summer stock, and on work calls, even these sorts of things are at the discretion of the SM. The SM tells you when or when not fo fix something. Many places that I've been, it's the board op that has the craptastic view, and the SM who is staring out the window from the booth or looking right onstage and at a video monitor from an FOH feed and sitting off stage left or right.

for live theatre the SM is the law. If the SM isn't doing his or her job then I would take it up with their supervisor, no questions asked. The SM is in charge of making sure the show happens the way the director and designers envisioned it and if they are not doing that then you have big problems.

Exactly. The SM is the person that is in control. If the SM is not in control, dozens of things could go wrong. Say that there are a few critical cues in different departments that happen during a line messup on stage. If board ops were to fix the cues on their own, some might take the cue and some might not. This is a huge error. This is why the SM should correct all cues and not the board ops.

 

[David Ashton]

95+% of the touring venues have good control room/Bio boxes, out front centre.
SM is on-stage prompt side and I have SM'd hundreds of shows.
Theatre, especially touring, is high pressure and things go wrong and need to work for the sake of the customer, which why we exist, and playing the blame game is futile, a tech who can only push a go button is a waste of space on a tour

 

[icewolf08]

allthings, it isn't that I don't agree with what you are saying, but I wouldn't even try to fix a cue gone awry without the SM's approval first. Why? Because in the heat of the moment if you key in the fix just a little wrong you can be hosed. I have done it before, where lights came up in the complete wrong color and the SM asked me to fix it, and in the slim seconds I had, I probably had a "fat fingered moment" where something else got captured and then didn't go out in the next blackout. And this was with the blessing of the SM.

I have run hundreds of shows, and I know what I am doing. I am a good programmer, but sometimes mistakes happen, and frankly I would rather have a blown lamp than an extra fixture track through a blackout. Sure, you have to pay attention and you have to know how and when to reset a moving light if it gets stuck such that it will be unobtrusive to the audience, but I would still get an OK from the SM first. Usually (though not always) the cast is smart enough that if they are truly standing in the dark they will take a few steps over into the light. Most plots have three or four different systems focused to each area, so unless the actor is only in a single special, if one lamp goes out you just aren't in that bad shape that you need to be turning on more lights.

 

[derekleffew]

...I'm thinking maybe I should take tracking off. If it confuses me, I'm sure it confuses everyone. Edit: Unless someone wants to explain it... ?

This might be tough for you to grasp, having never worked with Piano Boards, but I bet you're up to it. Tracking, when used and understood, makes a world of sense, particularly for moving lights. In 1975, when Tharon Musser and others were consulting with Century-Strand on the development of the Light Palette, they said they wanted a console that thinks like a Lighting Designer thinks. On a Piano Board, when you put a dimmer at say 50% in a cue, the handle stays there until a different cue says to change it, regardless of how many cues there are between. So if in Q1 you bring the blue cyc up to 50% and it says that way until intermission, Q99. Cues2-98 do other things, but never affect the cyc. Then the director tells you he/she wants the cyc red during the first act. So in Q1 you record the "blue cyc" at zero and the "red cyc" at 50%. Make sure that Q99 takes the "red cyc" to 0%. No need to change anything about cues 2-98. Almost all console displays use colors to differentiate between a channel that has tracked from a previous cue and a channel that moves in the current cue. (I don't know Strand's code). Also, for blackouts and other major cues, it's a good idea to insert a "blocking" cue (Colortran used to call this a "clean-up" cue, Express(ion) calls this an "AllFade). This is a cue that inserts a "hard value" for every channel, and thus stops all tracking. A similar outcome, for one time use, can be achieved using "record Q-only."

The best explanation of tracking, especially for moving lights, I have found is in The Automated Lighting Programmer's Handbook, Brad Schiller. Focal Press, 2004. One more thing: don't get tracking confused with HTP and LTP, they are similar, but different concepts.

 

[OnTheRock]

That killed me on this last show... killed me. I've learned my lesson though... record things as subs, then start with new fresh cues, and use the subs to record the new cues... with how many changes the dept head wanted... in the middle of the shows, everything got messed up. Not to mention the number of "impossible" things she wanted done. Impossible in that I had to do like 30 keystrokes in 5 seconds, record, and GO next cue. She doesn't follow that once the cue is recorded, using the master and channel faders isn't gonna help. I'm thinking maybe I should take tracking off. If it confuses me, I'm sure it confuses everyone. Edit: Unless someone wants to explain it... ?

On some lighting software, you can record various effects and store them with a name (like an oscillating light pattern). The same can be done with groups of lights (typically run with submasters), but saved with an easily remembered name.

I do a lot of pre-show prep to put together these various patterns. The lighting software I use has the ability to record a list of light channels, a list of effects, and a list of light groups, or any combination of these in each cue. Cues are then very easy to create, simply by adding in named washes, named effects, and named groups. Then during techs, and even during shows, it becomes a no brainer to add these elements to a cue or remove certain of these elements from a cue, depending upon the whim of the director, SM, or me, the LD.

By default, the software has tracking off. Which kind of makes sense in my scenario because cues are so easy to create, and can even be created off line, which I did for one show, while sitting in the bar one night filling my stomach with beer and the cues with pre-designed special effects. Try and take a lighting board into a bar and create a light show! (I run my shows off a laptop).

 

[David Ashton]

Of course in complex shows you can be helpless to do much in a tricky situation, my comments have been exaggerated for dramatic effect but my original concerns about the mentality of "I just push the go button, even though I know its in the wrong place", remain
In your average pros arch play you can generally find a light to fill in a space, if you spot the problem quickly and not at the end of your game.
Of course you talk to your SM assuming they are available.
If you don't want to be replaced with voice recognition software it is in your interest to assist your SM in a crisis with strategies to get around problems, for example what do you do when the intercom breaks down?
Rules like "do nothing unless told by the SM" are all well and good for 99.9% of the time but don't let it paralyze you in either a life threatening situation or a show spoiling situation if you are competent to act.

 

[Grog12]

That killed me on this last show... killed me. I've learned my lesson though... record things as subs, then start with new fresh cues, and use the subs to record the new cues... with how many changes the dept head wanted... in the middle of the shows, everything got messed up. Not to mention the number of "impossible" things she wanted done. Impossible in that I had to do like 30 keystrokes in 5 seconds, record, and GO next cue. She doesn't follow that once the cue is recorded, using the master and channel faders isn't gonna help. I'm thinking maybe I should take tracking off. If it confuses me, I'm sure it confuses everyone. Edit: Unless someone wants to explain it... ?

Record Q only is your friend...and derricks right...tracking is a god send.

 

[icewolf08]

If you don't want to be replaced with voice recognition software it is in your interest to assist your SM in a crisis with strategies to get around problems, for example what do you do when the intercom breaks down?

I have actually had this happen, and it is for that exact reason that our SM has told all the ASMs and board ops to keep their cell phones on so that in the event of a comms failure the show doesn't come to a halt. We of course would not rely on phones for shows with automation, but many of the simpler shows we do it can work for while someone tries to fix comms. We actually had to do it once, thankfully only on invited audience night, but it worked quite smoothly.

 

[avkid]

To anyone who has considered using this: This should be a last resort. GMRs/FRS (whatever the acronyms are) is pretty bad. The Board Op couldn't hear what I said when I cued him, other than the radio made noise, so he better GO cue.

Absolutely not, our regular means of communication is 10 Uniden GMRS handheld units.
You must use sub codes!!!!!

 

[Sparkinium]

The problem with GMRS is that it requires a license to operate. If you can get the license, it's not as much of a problem. The advantage, of course, is that GMRS uses (I believe) a higher output power, so your signal will be clearer. Not to mention that less radios use GMRS, so you're less likely to get people on your frequencies.

 

[gafftaper]

I thought the discussion of Tracking was an important topic that should have it's own thread so I started one here with a link to a great article from PLSN.