I once worked with a band that had a full week of rehearsals with a lighting rig hanging in a building. It took a full day for us to iron out the rigging and make the whole light rig work. Then for three days we sat around twiddling thumbs while the LD tinkered around and didn't program a single song. Finally, the band showed up and wanted to see some looks. "Uh oh," we thought. The designer brought up a few looks and played some video back while the band played on the sound stage. As we sat off to the side and watched the band tell the LD they "just weren't feeling it," we realized we were in trouble. We had seen this picture before. When a hack designer is in hot water, they try to deflect the blame. They chose to say that they had no programming time because the lighting gear kept breaking and the crew couldn't make it work long enough to program anything. Sure, moving lights sometimes break and need to be roped down and replaced after being fixed, but that never stops any design team from doing their gig. All I could do was sit there and feel the tire tracks as I was thrown under the bus so someone could protect their job. This designer lost all respect from the crew.
Nook Schoenfeld, LD-at-Large, PLSN, Nov. 2010.
