[SML] Good article on board-opping Shout-Out

[e-mail frank.wood95]

Dorian.

Your 1975 aticle was very interesting. At that time, I was wrestling
with a Strand 'Duet', an early computer board of theirs. It had the
usual A-B crossfader pair, which I always preferred for cues, and a
timed crossfade facility, which was very good for long, slow cues. The
trouble was when you tried to mix the two. The A, B, and T stores
worked together on the highest-takes-preference system. This led to a
lot of purely 'operational' states existing, whhich had no visible
effect on the lighting, but which needed to be followed in exact
detail. To go from manual operation to timed operation, and back, the
sequence was:

Load the current state into the T-store
Call it up
Load blank state into the current store (A or B)
Call it up
Execute the timed cue(s) as appropriate
Load the final state into A or B
Call it up
Load a blank state into the T-store.
Call it up.

As you can see, with assorted DBO states around it was quite easy to
do the one thing you can never get away with; an unwanted DBO. That
was when I learnt to write very exact lighting scripts, which included
information on what the CRT display should read. This provided the
information the opertor needed to get out of a mess, or not to get
into one.

Believe me, I was very glad when we threw it away in favour of an ETC
Expression, I think.

I agree wholeheartedly that the operator should always be looking out
of the control room window at the stage, but with a complicated script
such as this, it is not always possible. Even so, with a reasonable
amount of rehearsal, a detailed and accurate lighting script, and the
words of the play, with all the cuts marked before them, a competent
operator should not get it wrong. Modern practice seems to be to have
the show called by the SM, and, as you know, I dislike this, at least
for simple, straightforward productions of straight plays. For major
West End or Broadway musicals with elaborate sets, I am prepared to
concede the need for central control.

Myself, I have neither designed nor operated a show for some years
now. A mobility problem means that I find it hard to set the detailed
focus myself, and a foolish and autocratic decision by the then TD
means that I may neither smoke nor drink while operating a show. As an
amateur, I do what I do for fun, and do it well for my own honour.
Pull the fun element out, and I am less willing to spend my spare time
doing things I do not enjoy. In the past, my wife and I have got up at
five in the morning, gone to the theatre and painted the stage, gone
home, changed, breakfasted, gone to our day jobs, returned home for a
sketchy meal, returned to the theatre and run a full dress rehearsal,
and got home at about midnight, to face another day's work.We did it
for the satisfaction of doing a good job, in pursuant of the maxim
"the show must go on", and for no pay.

We wouldn't do it now. Admittedly, we are both in our mid-seventies,
and our theatre suffers from health and safety regulations recently
imposed. But, a lot of the fun has gone away.

On 6 November 2014 16:11, Dorian Kelly via Stagecraft
<stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
> Excellent - should be required  reading. By a strange coincidence there is an article in the Stage ( UK newspaper) today  by Rob Halliday about board operators and how their job has changed over the lat few years and become a profession in its own right.
>
> Having read that I dug out an article that I wrote in 1975 or so about the art of the board operator and re-read it, It makes a good contrast. If anyone is feeling particularly masochistic, here it is... http://www.theatrearts.biz/Board%20operators.pdf
>
>
> Dorian
>
>> Subject: [SML] Good article on board-opping Shout-Out
>>
>> Hi all,
>> Anne Valentino (from ETC) has a great article in November's Stage Directions about preparing yourself (and your console) for programming.
>> http://www.stage-directions.com/current-issue.html
>> I highly recommend at as a 10 minute read for any young board-ops out there.
>>
>> Ford Sellers
>> Senior Product Development Manager
>
>
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-- 
Frank Wood