Some Days, I'd Rather Be Unimportant.

I apologize for not writing for a while. I had 5 long days of work, followed by, well, just read on. I started writing this on a day off, but chose to just not finish and take the day off... So here it is, I'll finish it today while I sit at a taping and do nothing.

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Here I am, at the end of a stretch of days off, or what was supposed to be a stretch of days off. I finished a stupidly long day on Wednesday at Jingles and have, since Thursday, been go go go. Thursday was supposed to be the first of my days off, but Jingles decided they needed another day of shooting, so I had to get up early and go turn on some lights before picking up my sister in law who's staying with us for 6 weeks. Then Friday came an went in a whirlwind of preparation for yesterdays big yard sale, where we go rid of tons of stuff, including our big couch. So now our living room looks like this:
One big comfy chair and two folding chairs in front of our fancy new TV. And speaking of TV's we still have our old 32" TV if anyone in the L.A. basin needs a new old TV.

Hopefully, I can turn today into some sort of day off, but I can already feel it in my bones, the need to continue to clean up the house.

But that's not what I wanted to write about.

I wanted to talk about one of the big differences I've been noticing about TV lighting and live "rock-n-roll" lighting. In live shows, like rock-n-roll; rephrase; especially rock-n-roll, lighting is the least important element of a show. Yes, lighting is important. It paints a visual picture of the music, it can dance along with the rhythm, it's a key element. But without the guitars and drums, it's not a live musical performance. Without the sound system, it's not a live musical performance.

Without the lighting, it's still a live musical performance, just not as pretty to look at. You can cut a few lights, but you can't cut a few guitars. So lighting is always the first place the budget is cut, the first place people look to save some money or criticize for over spending.

In TV, lighting is the most important element, without the lighting, the camera can't work. Without balancing the levels and the colour, people look blotchy or sickly on TV. Without lighting, we'd be staring at a blank screen.

That makes for high pressure during set up and taping of shows. I find I spend lots of time rolling the dimmer up and down to find the right level. Blending ever so slight amounts of magenta or CTO (Colour Temperature Orange) into the light to get the balance right. Zooming, panning or tilting in millimeters to make it look even on camera. It's high pressure for sure, and very very stressful when you're trying to work fast, but move slow.

That's why, some days, I miss being unimportant. I miss complaining about having my budget cut or not hanging lights because it's going to save money and time. I miss the low stress of an all day load-in, into a show and then sleeping (granted uncomfortably) on a bus. And I miss the ability to laugh when I make a mistake during a live show, can't fix it. Can't say "Cut!" and re-shoot the scene. If the guitarist stands in the dark, there's no running out there with one more light, running a cable to it, patching it, focusing it and then putting in the cue. The guitarist will just stand in the dark.

I complain, but the pros far outweigh the cons. I'm home every night, sleeping next to Nicole. I can watch my TV, and sit at my desk. I can go sporting clays on my days off without having to rent a car (although I still don't own a shotgun). I would say I'm eating better, but that's really toss up with what they serve at the shoots.

Only two things can make life better right now... A couch and a shotgun. Couch first.

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