[SML] Airtable as inventory and reference resource

[Keith Newman]

 I have been using Airtable for a while to help keep track of our inventory
and share info with our design teams. It is great to have the major data I
need on size, photos, loan/rental status, and more. Airtable does offer
barcode integration but I have not played with it. My big problem is
finding the time to make updates and add items. I set up fields for
different types of props as well as other tables for lighting, sound, and
costumes but I don't have enough help to fully make it as effective a tool
as I would like. My staff for everything outside of our musical is me and
my high school students and finding time on the schedule for maintenance
and organization is tough.

Keith Newman
Cleveland Heights High School

On Thu, Nov 14, 2024 at 2:30 PM John McAfee via Stagecraft <
stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

> The Backstage Handbook is a great resource I keep reference copies in the
> shop for the students (and my office for me), but, especially with the
> student productions, the ones involved are primarily non-majors who might
> not take a class with us and are just interested, so making it easy and
> accessible to laypeople is important.
>
> Similarly, when it’s student productions cutting gel, even with a marked
> paper cutter, results are spotty, so making the gel cuts match the frame
> size leads to more reliable and useable cuts that offsets the cost savings
> (though I like the note for my non-student space).
>
> Of course, the solution is to be more hands-on with student productions.
> But I’m of the mind that the pedagogical benefit of these is in the
> students trying things out, learning to plan, and navigating the
> collaboration and interpersonal side of staging a show themselves.  I’m
> available for all of their calls, and tell them that I’m a resource for
> their questions at any point in the process.  So the reference is aiming to
> be a low friction way to make sure (for instance) that my small cache of
> 750’s aren’t used for regular front light.
>
> Many of the students involved are not planning to be theatre
> professionals, so my goal with the student productions is to help them
> become curious, problem-solving, self-directed humans.
>
> On Nov 14, 2024, at 12:17 PM, Matthew Breton <theatricalmatt at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> I understand wanting to make a reference just for your own space — I often
> do — but a lot of this information is also covered in the Backstage
> Handbook.  Depending on how your students enjoy rabbit-holes, you might
> cite original sources (lamp manufacturers and so on).
>
> FWIW, I usually cut Source Four leko gel to 6" x 6" square -- you eke out
> an additional three cuts per sheet of gel, which adds up over time!
>
>
> Matthew Breton  |   he, him, his
> Design for Theater and Dance
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Stagecraft <stagecraft-bounces at theatrical.net> on behalf of John
> McAfee via Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 13, 2024 10:54 PM
> *To:* Stagecraft Mailing List <stagecraft at theatrical.net>
> *Cc:* John McAfee <jrpmcafee at gmail.com>
> *Subject:* [SML] Airtable as inventory and reference resource
>
> Hi all,
>
> At the end of last academic year my institution sold their satellite
> campus which meant that I needed to clear out our large props storage, but
> the new (significantly smaller) storage is still not ready so all of that
> stuff has been languishing in the shop.  Luckily, our main fall show was in
> a found space, so there wasn’t much to build.
>
> So I spent the semester having students take pictures of all of our props
> and furniture and costumes and everything and my ATD and I have put them
> all in an Airtable database.  We’re slowly working on making order out of
> the chaos (adding time periods, use, condition, etc.), but here are some
> things that I think are going to be immensely useful:
> 1)  I’ve created a publicly accessible form that I can give to the props
> team so that they can input the data and pictures when they buy new props
> to help keep the digital inventory up to date.  This form can be useable by
> anyone but you can also put a password on it to guard against weirdies.
>
> 2) We do two student produced shows a year and there’s a pretty good
> amount of interest in lighting design for these shows.  But these lighting
> designers and electricians are, for some reason, absent during the
> skill-building period of faculty-directed shows.  So to cover the common
> questions and help with self-directed learning, I was able to easily make a
> bunch of reference sites to cover the common issues that come up.
>
> Examples:
> Lamp information: https://airtable.com/app4i7nUIzfAkKL9B/shrwzvJrZnn4BCGgc
> Color cut sizes: https://airtable.com/app4i7nUIzfAkKL9B/shr56tLgzpW4R90Sf
> Gobo sizes: https://airtable.com/app4i7nUIzfAkKL9B/shro2jfRvHoIAKhhq
> Lighting reference by instrument type:
> https://airtable.com/app4i7nUIzfAkKL9B/shrWgaaTW8prs0cPY
>
> 3) It’s also felt easier to send lighting and stock scenery inventories to
> guest designers versus the excel sheets I was using.  (Google sheets has
> always felt clunky to me, so I don’t use it extensively and the institution
> is a Microsoft school).
>
> I may be really behind on this, and people have probably been using this
> forever.  I’d been using it as a glorified spreadsheet for the past two
> years, but now with all the props and costumes in there I’ve been digging
> in on what it can do.
>
> If anyone else is on this train and has some clever uses, I’d love to see
> them
>
> John
>
>
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