Early in my career, I was working at a theatre as one of the house guys. We had a tour come in and use our space for pre-production. It was the first time I really got to watch a touring show prepare for the road. I remember sitting with the LD (I don't remember his name) and watching him program the conventional lights. He also had about six moving mirror fixtures with a dedicated controller. He explained an important principle that he tries to remember as often as possible. "The K.I.S.S. Rule helps me to keep everything in perspective and on track with limited time schedules," he said. "It all pulls me back in to the big picture of the production."
I asked him what this K.I.S.S. rule was, and he told me that it stands for "Keep It Simple, Stupid." His advice was priceless, and since then I have reminded myself of the acronym many times. In countless situations it has helped complete my automated lighting programming in a timely manner.
Keep it in Perspective
The K.I.S.S. rule keeps me focused on the ultimate goal of whatever task I am working on. For instance, if an LD asks me to program a cool stage bally effect for the chorus, I need to determine what is required. I could spend an hour building an intricate combination of chases and effects that blows everyone away. Alternately, I can spend 10 minutes creating a simple effect that moves the fixtures and fades them randomly to the beat of the music. In this situation, I need to think about the amount of time available in our programming session, the work that is left to do and the impact that is required. If this is the top hit of the show and the LD really wants this moment to shine, I will spend the hour to create the WOW moment. However, if this is another chorus of another song and we have lots more to do, then I am going to apply the K.I.S.S. rule and keep it simple.
A Recent Example
A few months ago, I was working on a large corporate event where Duran Duran was performing as the closing act. They were not bringing their own LD, so I was to design and program their lighting for this event. About a month before the gig, I received the set list from the band. I downloaded the songs and began to chart out my cueing. Knowing that I would get limited on-site time to program them, I followed the K.I.S.S. rule to provide each song with unique cueing and looks. As I listened to the music, I notated each song's intros, verses, choruses, dance breaks, etc. I prepared about 20 cues for each song as the verses and choruses would repeat.
When I arrived at the gig, I first programmed the required elements for the corporate event. The K.I.S.S. rule was not applied here, as this was the primary part of the production. Then once this was complete, I started working on my Duran Duran programming. As I dove into this, I noticed that I had "over planned" and could actually reduce some of the cueing I had prepared. Once I was in the thick of programming, I decided I did not need as many cues per song as I previously thought. At this moment, I was working directly within the K.I.S.S. rule. I spent my time making a great punt page on the console's wing so that I could further modify the cues that I did build. I knew that I would have very limited rehearsal time with these cues, so I decided that I did not want to overload myself with complex cue lists. In the end, most songs had cue lists with about seven to 10 cues that I could augment with the buttons on my wing. I still created what I felt was a very interesting and dynamic light show for the concert, but I also did not burden my client and crew with long hours of late night programming and rehearsing.
Two Looks and Four Buttons
One of my favorite achievements at this show was the programming and operation I pulled off for the song, "Wild Boys." This was the first song of the band's encore, so I wanted to achieve something that was visually very different. As a result of applying the K.I.S.S. rule, I ended up with a combination of two looks and four buttons for the entire song. The first cue had the wash lights on the stage in red and the hard edge fixtures in a tight beam moving in random big circles in the audience. The cue had no intensity stored within it. I then used flash keys to turn on/off various combinations of fixtures. The first key turned on/off the red stage wash, the second was for the hard edge fixtures in the air and the last was for the hard edge fixtures on the stage.
During the song I was very busy flashing to the beat of the music between these three buttons to create a very energetic and powerful statement. I also hit the audience mole fixtures during the chorus lines of "Wild Boys," which would leave the stage dark. At the end of the song, I triggered the second cue of the list, which was just an ending look with all the fixtures on but no longer moving.
The K.I.S.S. rule helped me during the programming, keeping it to a minimum and allowing me to move on to the next song. However, during the playback of the song I was extremely busy flashing the correct buttons at the expected moments. The end result was visually stunning and something that I will remember for a long time.
K.I.S.S.ing with Others
I also often apply the K.I.S.S. rule when I am programming a tour for another person to operate. When I am building position palettes (presets) to be used in the show I try to remain aware of the fact that the lighting person on tour will need to update all the positions every day. If I utilize 30 position palettes, then it may take too long to update on a daily basis. I keep it simple and try to utilize only the number of palettes that the show really requires. Besides, how many audience focuses do you really need?
Do More than K.I.S.S.
The K.I.S.S. rule can be extremely freeing and useful when programming any production. However it is important to remember that it is not the only rule to follow. If you were to keep everything simple all the time, you would end up with a single light illuminating the stage for the entirety of a production. The point is to use the K.I.S.S. rule wisely and apply it only when the time savings is a benefit. You should, of course, always work your hardest on every production to achieve the best possible lighting, but sometimes this can only happen with the help of the K.I.S.S. rule. And remember that when you go home to your significant other you can kiss all you want!
