One of the biggest problems when visualizing is making the transition from the virtual stage to the real rig. Many things may or may not appear as they did on the screen. One of the most common mistakes is related to the fixture orientation. It is essential that you understand which way you have your fixtures placed within your visualizer. If the visualizer thinks that you have all the displays of the units facing downstage and your real rig has them upstage, then all your positions will be way off. Usually when you arrive on site after visualizing, your time is cut extremely short (after all, you did all that visualization beforehand). If you fire up the rig and see all your positions and cues pointing at the upstage wall, you have to quickly update all the positions. In many cases, this can lead to confusion, as you may not remember exactly how the various positions looked and you never expected them to be this far off. This is why I always take a screen shot of every position palette before I finish my visualization programming. Then, when I turn on the real rig, I have actual images on my computer to refer back to when updating my position palettes.
Brad Schiller, from “Feeding the Machines,” PLSN, Aug. 2011
