I think I know where the fear stems from, I'm pretty sure it's attached to the first time I got a "last minute gig". I was working in the shop at Light and Sound Design (now PRG) when the touring personnel manager called me into his office and said, "You need to get on a plane tomorrow and fly to Mexico City, our Icon distributor down there has a show and no one to run the console. We'll have the plane ticket for you by the end of the workday."
And that was all the information I got. Not how long I was going to be gone, what the lighting rig consisted of, what the venue was, and best of all, who would meet me at the airport, and what hotel I'd be at. I did ask all these questions and the answer for each was, "I don't know either, someone will meet you."
This is probably the same place my dislike for Mexico City stems from.
This is also the gig that produced a number of great road stories, from the 40' x 40' square lighting grid held by a single one ton motor, to the guy who yelled at me and then took my chair. I guess panic and disorientation can heighten your ability to remember things.
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Back to yesterdays gig. Call comes in. I'm told the start time, I'm told the location, and I'm told the lighting console I'll be running. What I'm not told: what is the show, what kind of lighting fixtures I'll be running, and if I'm programming or just playing back/baby sitting. The guy I was replacing had other commitments at 3PM until the end of the work day, so who knows what he was doing prior to 3PM when I showed up.
Oh, and I'm only getting half a days pay. Which in most situations makes sense, but with union and most other TV shows, there is an understood "minimum" of hours work that I get paid for, whether I work 1 hour or the whole day, I get paid the minimum. All this was discussed with the producers, and I decided to do the job anyway as a "favor". It's always good to scratch some backs.
I prepared for the worst as I drove to the studio. I was straining to remember how to run the Hog 2. How to program chases and effects, store cues, edit cues, label. Everything was darting back and forth. What type of fixtures would I be running? How many moving lights? Will there be LED's? Will I need to chase them. How do I write a chase?
I arrive at the studio and am met by Steve, the guy I'm replacing. He walks me into the studio and shows me what's going on.
"Basically, we've got 78 2.4kw dimmers and 12 6kw dimmers. It's patched one to one and as guys hang lights, they'll yell out the dimmer numbers, you just bring them up, then Serge, the DP (Director of Photography) will set the level and then you just store it in this cue. There's two sets, so we have two cues. Good luck."
That's it? A bunch of lekos and fresnels? No moving lights? No LEDs? No chases? EASY DAY.
Steve introduced me to the gaffer, who I immediately recognized from another studio I've done work at. He pointed at me and said, "Coke Slurpee?" and I nodded and replied, "My brother from another mother!" We laughed and shook hands and got to work. Knowing the gaffer made this day even easier.
I sat behind the Hog 2.
It's been a while since I'd seen one in use. They are no longer supported so you rarely see anyone use them. Just to show how old this console is, it came with the original monitor. 
When was the last time anyone used a CRT monitor on a show? Years I tell ya, years.Turns out the day was going to go longer than expected. One of the producers kept coming into the studio and checking on progress. Producers are the bean counters so this guy didn't want to spend anymore money than he had to. At one point I over heard a loud conversation with him and the gaffer that started with the yell, "Don't look at your watch!"
Soon after, the gaffer came up to me and said, "I figured out this producers trick. He wants us out of here as soon as possible so he keeps asking me different questions to trip me up.
"First he came in and asked, 'will you be done by nine?' And without looking at my watch I replied, 'I think so,' to which he nodded with a sly smile and left the room. Then I looked at my watch and discovered it was 8:50, and there was no way we'd be done in 10 minutes! So I had to chase him down and tell him we'd be here at least until 10:30."
The gaffer continued, "He then came back and this time asked me, 'will you be done in an hour?' But I knew better and started to check my watch when he started yelling, 'Don't look at your watch!' So I replied, 'We've only got 9 more lights to hang, that's how long we'll be.'
"To which the producer replied, 'So an hour?'"
"'Only nine more lights,' I replied with a coy smile. I figured out his trick."
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1 comment:
brilliant
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