Panto. December 2013. Tech Box. Lighting.

During the Panto I worked the whole week doing the lighting in the Tech Box along with Poppy. Kieran and the Tutor worked alongside us, supervising and acting as support.

Monday was presetting the lights and chases. Tuesday was the Tech Run. (See separate blog on cue sheets for more details of this).

Wednesday morning saw the dress rehearsal which had an audience of college students. I operated the chase lights during the rehearsal and poppy operated the lanterns. I followed the cue sheet whilst watching the show and poppy took her cues from the DSM over the 'cans'/'coms' (headphones - communication). Between Poppy and I, we decided we would alternate operating the lights for each show. So on the 1st show, after the dress rehearsal, I operated the lanterns taking my cues from the DSM over the 'cans', whilst Poppy followed the cue sheet, whilst watching the show, operating the chases. The evening show I did the chases again.
My first show of taking my cues from the DSM I accidently operated a light when it should of been a sound cue, oops!! The Tutor rectified this immediately so no big disaster! From then on I listened carefully for LX Q's and Sound Q's. My mistake was that there was a sound Q of the same number as the LX Q which was due next after the Sound Q, easy mistake seeing as I have never experienced working with lights or sound.

When the DSM gave a cue, he would prepare you for the cue by speaking over the 'cans' saying for example: 'LX 22 standby' which I would reply 'standing by' and when it was time to operate that cue the DSM would say 'LX 22 go', on this I would press the 'GO' button for the presets to change from the last cue to the new cue. I would always watch the monitor to make sure the correct preset number was operational and what number was up next. It was important not to hit the 'GO' button until you was given that instruction regardless to if it felt a long wait and it was also important not to hover your finger over the button in preparation as the buttons could be sensitive and operate without necessarily being pushed fully.

 

The above and below pictures shows the half of the lighting desk that is used in getting the channels up and recording the presets and the all important 'GO' button.  :-)

 

 

Below is a picture of the 2 monitors attached to the lighting desk. The top monitor shows the channels, the bottom monitor shows what cue number is operational at that moment and which cue number is coming up next.

 

 

The cue in the gold box is the current cue, the one below in the silver box is the cue waiting to be next. The box below those two, where a white line can be seen criss crossing over each other,will show the top cue fading out and the bottom cue fading in once the 'GO' button is pressed.

 

We did 2 more shows on the Thursday and 1 show on the Friday.

 

The very first, top picture, that has me being seen operating the lighting desk, also shows the other half of the lighting desk that operates the chase light, By pushing the levers up the chases come on, by pushing the levers down the chases go off.