Scenario One: Being Chased Under Pressure
The Setup: You are at your console when the producer, lighting designer, artist and other important people come up and ask to see a specific look right away. They want the entire rig (consisting of a mix of fixture types) to be in deep blue, with random white flashes throughout, to the beat of a specific song. They need to see this in action right away and are all standing behind you, insisting that you show it to them NOW.
The Action: Grabbing all the fixtures and putting them in a deep blue should be the first easy step. Hopefully, you have a palette/preset built already to easily accomplish this task. Next, you need to quickly decide the best route to take to achieve the random white flashes through these fixtures. Take a moment to look around and determine if they are all blue as a result of the same parameter types. You might find that you have some RGB color mixing, some CMY color mixing and some fixed color wheels. Understanding how color is achieved on the mixed rig is the first key to surviving this test.
Once you understand the fixture abilities, then you need to determine the best tool from your desk to achieve the desired look. Does your desk have an effects engine? If so, does the engine allow you to select two different palettes/presets to chase between? If this is the case, then BINGO, you have the easy out to this scenario. You can simply select the blue and white palette/preset and apply a step effect. Now adjust the speed, randomize, and BAM, you have survived, with no scratches.
However, if your effects engine is more basic, you may need to select the different fixture types one at a time and create unique effects for each color parameter type. For instance, some fixtures will require a step wave on the CMY or RGB, while others will require a step wave on the fixed color wheel. Additionally, you may need to enable modes to allow for quick movements and/or shortest path. As you are building these multiple effects, you will likely receive jabs and pokes from the team standing behind you. They won’t understand why you are only building the look with only one group at a time. Once all the fixtures are doing the effects, then you adjust the speed and randomize them all at the same time. If you are good with your desk, you can survive here too, but will likely come out with a bit of pain.
In the worst case, your desk has no effects capabilities, or you selected a different method to achieve the look. As you scramble to build a chase, cuelist or manually flash between the colors, you will hear many disparaging remarks from the production team, and this will probably damage your career. Survival will be difficult as they grow impatient with your slow response and lack of ability to create what they desire. These savages will likely eat you alive!
Scenario Two: The Console is Missing
The Setup: A prominent LD has asked you to take over a gig for him as he needs to be home for the birth of a child. He designed the plot, but now needs you to travel to a Caribbean island to program and operate a large rig of lighting fixtures and media servers for a music awards ceremony. When you arrive, you are told that the console has been stuck in customs and that only the network processor has arrived at FOH. No other consoles are available in the area. The show is in three days, and you must program for the 12 songs and all the awards segments.
The Action: For many, the first response may be to run away as fast as possible. After all, with no console, that means that no work can be done. Under the circumstances, you may be tempted to take a day or two at the beach until they call and say the desk cleared customs. Bad idea — that decision will likely have the production staff hunting you down and feeding you to the sharks!
A better choice is to come up with a solution to keep moving forward during the rehearsals. The best option is to launch the PC version of the console on your laptop and plug into the network processor. Now you will have full control of the rig, but only your keyboard and mouse to work with. Request a monitor and familiarize yourself with the keyboard shortcuts. Then get programming! Although it may be a bit tedious, you should quickly get in the groove and then can program throughout the rehearsal period. In my case, I programmed for several days with the console arriving the morning of the show. It was a quick transfer of my showfile and I was extremely happy to have all the proper buttons, faders, and encoders in front of me instead of just my lonely mouse and keyboard.
Scenario Three: No Sleep Till Brooklyn
The Setup: Two days, 32 songs, 300 moving lights and a crazy schedule come together to task you to program like crazy with no time for sleeping. Due to emergencies beyond your control, you have to put together an entire show in a short period and are expected to exceed expectations despite sleep deprivation.
The Action: With such a massive task list, you need to prepare accordingly. First, get your desk ready with appropriate groups, palettes/presets, and options. Next, build pages for each song and begin attacking them one after the other. Build in all the basic cues such as intro, verse, chorus, break/drop, build and end. Just keep going and try to stay healthy. Working without rest, you will begin to slow down and be less productive after the first 24 hours. Try to take some time for yourself and step away from the console for some good food, then get right back to it.
Although we really should not put ourselves into these situations, it does seem that the lighting crew is often the only ones staying up non-stop to accomplish our tasks. Sleep deprivation will limit your thinking, blur your eyes, and eventually bring your body to a halt. However, as it is a relatively normal condition in our industry, try to prepare for these situations and learn to listen to your body to ensure that you can survive the two or three days without rest.
Survival of the Fittest
Automated lighting programming is an extremely fun and rewarding experience, so the dangers should not scare anyone away from taking part. As you read through the scenarios above, did you imagine yourself in these situations and try to determine if you would have survived? Hopefully you would have made it though, because at the end of the day, we all live by the adage that “the show must go on.” Thankfully we usually don’t really work in dangerous situations or have to program with a gun to our head (although it may feel like it some days!). Surviving the rigors of programming only makes us stronger and more capable for future productions. So take every stressful situation with a grain of salt and always have fun programming.
