I am well aware that you are more than capable of designing, operating, teching, programming and facilitating every single show that comes through your fine festival grounds. But today, you are my festival lighting designer. I only need a few things from you and I need them done to the best of your ability. I need a patch, a plot and a functional rig. Let’s start with the patch.
- Standard is as standard does. Please patch your fixtures, especially B-Eyes, in standard mode. Extended mode is great for pixel mapping, but I’m not taking the time to pixel-map your albatross in the few hours that I have to clone my 300-fixture show into your 48-fixture rig. I don’t want 8-bit pan and tilt, but I don’t want two fixtures per universe, either.
- Patch in order. Please patch your rig sequentially whenever possible. If I can patch your rig in fewer than one thousand keystrokes, I will be happier than a Chinese product sales rep that just discovered LinkedIn.
- Expect the unexpected. You will make changes to the rig during load-in. I know that. The Sharpys that were drawn on the plot hanging from the non-existent speaker towers had to be moved to the upstage truss. That happens to everyone. It’s up to you to let me know sooner rather than later. If you keep your patch up to date and inform me of changes, then I will come prepared.
—Chris Lose, from “LD-at-Large,” PLSN, Dec. 2016, page 52
