I Should Have Known B.E.T.ter

I knew it. I knew it going in. When ever I agree to a job at less than my normal day rate, I have the worst day(s) ever. This past weekend was not fun. It wasn't Nigeria bad, but funny story about that in a minute.

I took the gig, because, well, because there was nothing else on the books and money coming in is always a good thing, even if it isn't as much as is normal. I was going to work with a new lighting designer and new company, so I thought taking a pay cut would be sort of like auditioning for future gigs. If they like me, they can hire me again at my normal rate. After this weekend, I don't know if they will ever hire me again. Not because I wasn't good to work with, but because when I ask for my normal rate, I'm sure they are going to balk.

B.E.T. Pre Party was this weekend. It was held in a large room above the Drago restaurant in Downtown Los Angeles. I was hired to run the lighting for both the room/dining area, and the musical acts and dance floor. At first it didn't sound like a hard gig, I've lit parties before and we all know I have some knowledge about lighting for music. It was a little bit of back and forth with me, the LD and the company to get things squared away but as I said before, I felt this would be an "audition".

About 5 days out, my email inbox starts getting flooded with forwarded emails from the LD. Normally when someone forwards an email, they put an explanation on it, like, "See below, list of gear," or "Read the thread below, referring to possible fixture placement." All the forwarded emails said nothing of the sort. It was always a cryptic thread talking about something that I had to figure out. This was my first indication this was going to be a bad weekend.

The second indication was the fact that there was no light plot drawn, and if there was one, I didn't need to see it because, "The lights are going to be evenly spaced on the trusses." Fine, where are the trusses hanging? How many lights are there? How many, and what different types of lights do I have?

The day of programming, I'm a little late because there was no instruction as to where to park, so I drove around for about 10 minutes trying to find a public lot. I get to the venue, and of course, they are behind on setting up the rig. Long story short, I showed up at 4PM, and didn't get a fully working rig until about 11:30PM. We had only the night to program, but were kicked out by the salesman from the lighting company at 4AM because he didn't have any money budgeted for overtime. Which was fine because I was tired and deflated at 7PM and wasn't looking forward to sitting in a room programming on the wrong console (I asked for one thing, they gave me 1/2 of what I asked for, i.e. full size Grand MA vs. a Grand MA light) and watching the sun come up.

As an added bonus, the set designer installed a wall right next to my console. I actually had a half heated exchange with the set designer because this silly wall he put up blocked all entry onto the riser where my console was, not to mention it blocked my view of half the room. I don't normally get riled up, but when I ask a simple question like, "How do you expect me to get off the riser now?" and the answer I get back is full of attitude and bile, I'm going to be a little mad (especially when I'm tired). Calmer head prevailed and the wall was cut in half so I could see 3/4 of the room and had to suck my belly in and get on the riser sideways. Not easy to do when the riser is 2 feet tall.

I returned the next day, well rested and with a better outlook on the whole situation. I was given 5 hours (from 3PM until doors at 8PM) to fill the console with a series of room looks to match the video (they had done the walls with huge video projections), and a bunch of looks that I could refer to for the musical acts and speeches. That was about as much direction as I was given by the LD, who, by the way, wasn't even showing up a the venue until 6PM. But when I got up that day, I remembered something a rigger said to me in Indianapolis, "If you don't care, I don't care." That was my attitude (more or less) for that day. It's not that I didn't care, but the fact of the matter was, I had 5 hours and the party was going to happen whether I had a console full of cues and lighting looks or not. Just work work work, and hope it turns out.

By 7:30PM I had 8 pages of looks and 20 effects and chases (for you non-lighty people, think strobes and colour chases) plugged into the console. Then everyone was kicked out of the room so the official photographers could take pictures of the beautiful decor. When the party started, I was able to snap off a few shots of the room with my trusty camera phone.As you can see the opening of the party was very red and pink. They had lots of pink and red roses as center pieces as well as red and grey furnishings. I was told the room had to look "dirty pink" when the crowd entered. I think I did great. I also think the projections of the walls/bay windows was quite nice.As the room began to fill with guests, that was the moment, the LD decided it was time to get involved with the lighting. I would be sitting at my console and I would hear, "Dan! Dan!" and see the LD's eyes looking at me over the wall in front of my console. "There's a dark spot over in that corner, pan a light over there and fill it." So I would and that would cause a dark spot where the light was, and no sooner would the LD come over and say, "Dan! Dan! There's a dark spot over there now, fill that with another light". So the entire walk in (of the guesst) was spent with me chasing my tail moving lights from here to there trying to fill in the "dark spots" or dim out sections that were too bright.

The LD joined me on the riser just as the opening act went on, and then spent the entire set leaning over me and telling me to change or move things. Again, chasing my tail with the lights on stage. Now the room was full of guests and he decided to give me notes about what he wants for lighting on the main act. I told him flatly, "I will do what I can, but you realize I will be swinging lights around and changing colour and effects with people in the room." His reply was, "I understand, do it anyway, because it's not our fault that we weren't given enough time to put this together."

After that response, all I could think was, "Where were you from 11:30PM to 4AM the night before and from 3PM until 6PM today?" It's very frustrating spinning your wheels and creating looks without much direction and then having it all change moments before execution. I hate that.

So I started crunching cues, wiggling lights, changing colour all while famous people (including Morgan Freeman) were trying to enjoy their lamb and lobster. I got most of it done, and no one seemed to notice, or care.

The main entertainment was Chaka Khan. All I have to say is, wow. She's really good in concert and sounds amazing. Of course, the LD was over my shoulder constantly giving me direction. Most of which ignored (also he was dancing).

Then came the fun part of the evening. Chaka Khan finished her set about 11:30 and at 11:35, this happened. Total lighting blackout. All the was left lighting the room was the video and the candles on the tables. Everything else, gone.

The generator had blown up. Not ran out of gas, not over drawn on power, it blew up. Billows of black smoke pouring out of it. It was done. Fried. The LD panicked. The lighting company salesman panicked. The crew chief and all the electricians panicked.

I, ate a sandwich.

There was no reason for me to run around and scream at people. The generator blew up, we have no power, I can't make lights move without power.

The LD was running around moving candles from table to table, the lighting company salesman was on the phone with the generator company yelling at them, the crew chief and electricians ran around trying to reroute cable to the generator that was running the air conditioning for the room.

I, sat at my console and played Bejeweled on my phone.

45 minutes later power was restored. Half the rig was turned on and I wiggled lights over the dance floor, while Micheal Jackson songs filled the air. No one had noticed the lights had gone out. Or if they did, no one cared. Well, except for one person, who asked me what happened and I told her.

I didn't see the LD for a long time after that. I did see him sitting at one of the tables eating desert with some of the guests. At the end, he came up to thank me, said his work was done a while ago and he was out being social. I don't blame him really, I'm beginning to realize that 50% of an LD's job is sucking up and being social with the client, often to make them comfortable.

The night ended promptly at 1:30AM, the DJ stopped spinning, the dance floor was empty, and I stopped wiggling the lights. The bar however was still hopping with the final remnants of the guest. Seems free liquor is quite a draw for some people.

Looking back, I think I'd do it again, the party anyway, perhaps not with this LD or with this lighting company. And if I do, I'm getting my full price or I'm saying no.

If you don't care, I don't care.

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Oh yeah, funny story about Nigeria. The LD I worked with for this BET party was also the LD for the show I did in Nigeria with Shakira. I never saw him in Nigeria. I spoke with his programmer there who, at the time, told me he went back to the hotel because, "There was nothing for him to do." Go figure.

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