Two scene presets, love them, made magic only with them in my past. Easy to learn for setting up cues, easy to master in learning timing. Much easier to control and
wing it or just plain learn from one than having to program and set a computer board. I grew up with them, Kliegl Preformers and
ETC Visions. Can still do the
Vision as long as not corrupted but more like at least if I’m both designing the show and at least initially running it to use the two scene
preset.
If the talent don’t make their
mark or things change, you can more easily pull your
magic sheet and adjust. Night to night you can use your
cue as a
base but on an especially magic night if you wish you can tinker and make it pop more at times
etc. This all given a more flexible type of show and less formal
cue list. If all is done and perfect in the design cuing
etc, and not to be changed obviously its easier to pre-program the show and just hit the go
button. If on the other
hand you note say it a
bit different tonight than last night, simply bring up a setting or down one is easy enough to
sneak in without having to go to menu and doing so in the live with or without recording - following how to program the board for the now while still being ready at any moment to press the next
cue and have lost what you just adjusted.
Once did a off broadway type of show with Ertha Kitt (Cat Woman) as Lady Day (Billy
Holiday) in a sort of history
play of her life. Great
play - best I ever worked on. Unfortunately and while Ms. Kitt was a classically trained and great performer, night to night she would skip around in the script and order of the scenes. She would do all of them but at times go onto the next scene with skipping about. Given this was with a Lite
Pallet III light board, bringing up various lights to reflect changes was not much an option or easy to do fast, going back to the previous scene or jumping about in the cues was the only option and if in a
chase or if various fades were programmed in you just kind of had to deal with them. Great
play but the
stage manager and I night to night ripped our hair out in trying to figure out what scene she was in and what scene we should go to
cue to cue in just keeping her lit. This much less the
dimmer controlled neon sign at times was on in the wrong scenes or stayed dark in not getting its warm up at full
cue when than given the dimmed
cue which would not ignight it. Great
play but possibly will have been easier to control were it a two scene
preset board - this given a large one and us more in control of in knowing what lights were doing what thus designing the show about its changes every night. Wouldn’t have changed a thing in the end - too great a preformance to have issues with details with the script. Truely great show.
Anyway, the
point being, on a two scene
preset board, you can adapt and adjust and especially for a changing show with many scenes, while limited in time to adjust between X or Y scene set up and adjustment, on a two scene
preset you can endlessly adjust it in writing cues and or adjusting the cues for the moment. On the other
hand, too many scenes or too much adjustment gets difficult, this much less 24 channels of adjustment gets really limitating really fast this especially if you don’t have a patch bay, against the rules A/B switches or a third Z bank plus various special’s placed on rotery dimmers and switches next to the board. Lots of that type of stuff. Once had a A/B patch bay so as not to have to
plug/unplug circuits plus about eight more special switches and dimmers to expand such a thing but it was all hack and not advisable to do publically.
On the Z bank however, that’s also where I made magic. Wasn’t persay a Z or third row of faders on the light board though some had a third set of faders, more it was my
TTI light board had a
switch above each
dimmer channel that allowed selection between independant, off and master. This allowed me to
switch off a light fast, dim it with the group or place that
dimmer into independent from the group
fader mode in controlling it separately. That was a great option that took a few years to master but once I did I would never give it up.
This beyond the trick also of while fading down a scene or cross fading with one
hand, also say bringing up the
level at the same or even a faster pace to full some light I wanted to linger or get bright or out faster than the group cross
fade would allow for. Could say bring to full a top light at the same rate I brought down all lights on
stage. This would maintain its normal
intensity on
stage as all the rest of the lights faded to black. After some
point in the cross
fade it would also
fade to black, just that it would linger a
bit longer in pointing out some lit concept I wished to pass on as I did the
cue change, or worked as a cross over into the next scene. Endless possibilities in manipulating a X/Y cross
fade that would require a
bit of work on a computer board to do the same with. Gotta master that X/Y board to do so but once you control the board, there is not much you cannot do with it.
Still there was the independent mode on the board also. Flip the
switch while at full or out and that
dimmer channel was no longer controlled other than by way of the Master.
Dimmer not controlled by way of cross
fade also is adjustable during the scene or cross
fade indeptant of the rest in making it not persay a third cross
fader bank but still something on a third
cue level for control. Tricky at times to control a few of them in independent mode as it were in the live while also doing the rest of the channels but once done, brilliant.
Most boards of the era also will have had various
chase and or timer modes if not even sub-masters as options. Dependant on what you have, you master it, even if the most basic of board, you can still make magic. Granted 24 channels is limited but limitation is inspiration and not an excuse for not doing ones job in making magic. Are you up to the challenge and can you master the light board should be more the question over if it will be sufficient given the memory board norm these days it would seem.
Believe your light board might also have a few pre-set cues you can do for it if needed which might be good say for a rock and
roll fast pase scene
shift. Read the
manual and get as much time behind it as possible and even 24 channels should be ok. Get an assistant to help
re-patch during
intermission or during scenes while that
dimmer/
channel is dark if necessary so as to expand the flexibilty.
Than of course there are those scenes from heck where scenes cannot help but get fast and furious especially towards the end and or at the end where the talent takes their
bows that a memory board would be deliverance from as it were PC heck. At times like that your pencil if not even a ruler next to the light board will be the only way to get light on the
stage at times. Than during the scene you kind of learn the
roll of finger tip sneaking up and down the faders to get them to the appropriate levels during the scene. Yea, that's rough but it teaches you a lot about sneaking in a
cue and timing for doing so. Got no problems with learning the two scene
preset, in my opinion one should master that board before attempting to do a memory board. Back in college we had like a 48
channel Leprecon board that was linked into the
Vision for doing our programming. Much easier to fine tune the cues for a scene with a two scene
preset fader than with a computer. Overall, look at it as a challenge both in scaling back and learning design and as a new thing to master. Master it and you get far in learning new stuff you can take back to the memory board in concepts.
In addition to the
magic sheet which is basically a very simple
plot with
fixture and
channel number and perhaps colored markers representing the
gel colors of the various fixtures,
mark the board either with pencil that erases or artists tape/
board tape and group stuff on the board so it makes sense either by way of ABC's of
stage layout A say front right, left and rear or say all the Blues
in one area starting in acting area a, ambers in another
etc. with the specials at the opposing side of the light board. What ever works best for the show and works given the option of re-patching and changing while practicing. Lots of practice also. Good idea on the leaving a blank space on the
cue area so as to change cues on the fly but I used to cut a cardboard or foam board strip to the width of the light board and draw out a
grid. (This when given time and I was not running the show.) Place the sheet atop the board, lean it up against the booth window and you now have a
grid to follow with what levels each
channel should be at for the cues in the various scenes.
Lay it out X/Y, perhaps darken in the Y part to make it easier, but overall the concept is touch a
fader (as advised lots of practice in knowing by feel what
level a
fader is at without looking at it) get it to approximately the
level it should be at while quickly adjusting all, than refine those settings in the last moments before the scene change. Otherwise if out of time, you are right in the area of that
level set and can
sneak that in to the specific
level or leave it there. Kind of a thing to by touch without looking get a
fader to its proper setting - lots of practice but really kind of also required.
As said, not as easy or barbaric as it might seem. Kind of in mastering it, the difference between mom playing the piano for relaxation and a grand master playing it for an audience. Are you up to the challenge in mastering this type of light board? Not just about setting up your cues by the
fader, more about mastering the light board and making art with it. Say on the cross
fade, there is two levers after all, do both have to cross
fade at the same time? What would happen if you even left one at full while the other got to full, than started to dim it out? Completely different concept in cross
fade amongst endless options for control based on the light board operators talent for using the board as opposed to talent in programming it to do the same at best but as less flexable for changes.
.
