Watson

Sadly, and much to Mrs. DrV's disappointment, no.

That's too bad, especially given their prices.

Well I mended all the old followspot PSUs and still repair their sine wave dimmer modules so do I get a sticker too?

Absolutely. And can you get comps?

It is with some pride that I did some of the installation that made those shows possible

Your pride is entirely justified. Congratulations.

I think I prefer the first one.

And you're not alone. Thanks.

Good luck. Post some links to the finished project when it reaches fruition!

Thanks. I shall!

Listening to a really good DSM call a fast sequence of cues during a musical number or other busy sequence can be a very impressive thing to hear if you're not used to that sort of thing!

I wonder if you've seen this? The Royal Opera at Covent Garden's website has a fascinating behind-the-scenes offering, permitting you to choose any one of seventeen camera viewpoints (with sound) during a performance and one available choice is of the DSM. It is, as you say, very impressive. I can't link directly to any one view, but here's the main page: "Our camera cut" gives a nicely chosen overall view, and the DSM's closeup cameras are number 2 for her face and number 3 for an over-the-shoulder shot: Here come the Valkyries!

Probably not consciously.

Your timings (both pre- and post-lunch!) are fascinating, thanks.

When doing shows I used to constantly slide cue markers in the script until the effect came when I wanted it. As you won't have the rehearsal time to do this I would suggest sliding any word cues 1 or 2 words earlier...

That makes excellent sense: I've just been going through the script doing exactly this.

Most of the musical numbers were called by the DSM as something like "standby LX cues 30-127... LX30-127, GO! GO! Go! for every change on the beat for the whole number.

In that sort of case - actually, perhaps it applies to all cases - do DSM's call cues fractionally in advance of the necessary timing, to allow for any possible ears - brain - fingers delay? Or is that period of time so microscopically short that it can be discounted?

I recall the first show I light opped (in fact the very first show I opped in any way at all) the DSM calling "Standby LX Q 65 through to the end followed by LX go ... go ... go ,,, go ...

Now that must have been fun, at least in retrospect...

A few other things to note that PPs have referred to, but not spelled out - the convention is always that the GO is the last thing written/said. Your script has this correct, but in your OP, you have GO Sound Q7, which should never be used.

Yes, I realised this almost as soon as I posted that.

Also, you should always list grouped cues for different departments in the same order... this may make your Operator wonder why - should the Sound Q be taken slightly ahead of LX?

I know that a uniform order is the standard. But what's the best way to indicate if one cue should indeed taken very quickly after another rather than simultaneously? A "Wait one second then..." comment, or similar?

Ah - I've just seen your later remark:

If you've got cues in your show which come very close together, you can draw an arrow down to the next one as a sort of 'keep going' indicator.

OK, thanks for that.

I've put a double page of one of my prompt books https://www.dropbox....164134.jpg?dl=0 here. It's not very tidy, but is the only one I have to hand, and shows you boxes round words and upright line at the end of a word.

That's fascinating, thanks. It's way more complex than anything I'm working with at the moment. As I said, this is a small scale festival-type play which won't be touring with its own staff: most of the time it will be a question of getting in, playing, and getting out on the same day and we expect that a single resident technician will run both sound and lighting, working directly from a cued-up script which he or she will have seen for the first time just a few hours before the show. Simplicity is vital.

Many thanks for your thoughts.

If we end up with a cue at the top of the next page we write e.g. "Q5 OVER ->" at the bottom of the preceding page.

That seems sensible; thanks.

Butterfly or big staple...

OK, makes sense. Thanks.

I don't think there's a need to re-jig the script, as long as it's marked at the bottom of the previous page ****sound cue at top of next page****.

My only rejigging was to avoid having cues right at the top of any page. Doing any more than that would have put the page count right up and also resulted in a lot of oddly distributed blank space.

Or just print it so they are at the top of the right hand page, if it's a book.

Ah, it isn't. I've been wondering about whether or not to put the script into a ring-file-type folder (given my remark earlier about the cramped conditions often encountered) or leave it as simply secured with a single butterfly or bulldog clip so the pages could be separated if that were preferred.

Sunray & Sandall, thanks for those points. I've been rejigging the layout of the script to avoid having cues right at the top of a page, but a "Q.n next" (or perhaps "Standby Q.n" if it's still soon) at the foot of each page is clearly a good idea.

Sunray, your reference to "the first tech rehearsal" served as a salient reminder that with this production we're likely to get only one, and that with a crew (probably of just one person) who was concentrating on a completely different show yesterday and is possibly already thinking ahead to another one tomorrow. Another reason to make everything as plain and simple as possible.

I would suggest using highlighter pens rather than printing Word highlight colours, & experiment under coloured light.

That's something that hadn't occurred to me; thanks.

Black text with a coloured highlight is definitely the way forward.

Right, thanks.

Gareth, thanks for reinforcing the single-line-for-simultaneous-cues point.

The colour-coding seemed like a good idea, the only possible practical drawback being that some of Word's highlight colours print far more opaquely than they look on the screen: yellow and green are the best I've so far found. I rather like your use of coloured text.

Thanks for that, Gareth.

Called as Sound, written as either SND or SQ.

Thanks.

Two small notes;If they go together as a snap, you can write them together.

SFX 4 & LX 4 GO. (Wind cuts, lights fade to general wash).

That's obviously better; thanks.

How is the lighting controlled? Is it also pre-programmed or manual op?

This is a touring show which is intended to play for either single nights or very short runs at different venues, where we will have to use lighting rigs which cannot be re hung - doesn't that make preprogrammed lighting impractical? But having said that, I don't know the details of how QLab handles lighting cues.

LX6 - if it's to be fired after the 2nd shot, write the cue first before the detail.

 

LX6 GO immediately after the second gunshot (Slowly fade to black, matching SFX fade).

 

Write the important stuff first - as it sounds like quite a fast sequence put anything you don't really need to read if you didn't have time later in the line.

That's great advice, thanks.

I'll be more blunt. The only place I've heard "SFX" is amdram. In pro theatre I've only heard "Sound".

I welcome your bluntness. I just found this example online: it uses "Sound Q" and "LX Q" which is clearly completely unambiguous: Script page

Never seen/heard SND used for sound effects.

This is the "roomful of experts" effect again. I think the fact that I used SFX must mean I've encountered it enough in the past to make it instinctive. I don't doubt that SND is out there but as I said, I've never encountered it. No offence, Gerry.

...not quite in the sere and yellow to recall marking a groove on a Conroy or Paxton and dropping the needle on cue!

I missed the 78 era but worked with people who'd used them - and on live broadcasts too, which must have been nerve-wracking. "You don't know you've been born with your 45rpm EPs and your slipmats," one of them said to me...

Grams/Spot etc would still for me!

I'm very familiar with those terms, having done both jobs at the BBC's radio drama department. Do you have the same background?

I always preferred to have the cues on the right hand page page opposite the script and linked with lines as it meant there was plenty of room to make notes where needed.

Yes, I saw something similar when I was searching round, though those examples were on a single page using a two-column layout. My admittedly limited experience of control booths in small venues has been that space is at a premium and and working from an A4 script opened so two pages were visible could be tricky,

I tried to reproduce that single page idea but the result seemed to me to be rather messy and unsatisfactory. Your point about giving the operator space to add notes is a very good one though, thanks.

Looks good.

Thanks very much. Does placing a sound cue and a lighting cue on separate lines make it sufficiently clear that they're to happen simultaneously?

Personally I would use "SND" rather than "SFX", reserving "SFX" for any Special Fx, like smoke or pyros.

That's interesting; is it the industry standard? When I was searching around online for examples of how to script cues, I found SFX for sound in almost every instance. I don't recall ever seeing SND, but differentiating sound and Special Effects does make good sense..

Gareth, thanks; clearly, that's excellent advice: you confirm what others have said.

I just tried to upload an image of the first page of my script to ask for comments. But unfortunately, though I tried with both a JPG and a PNG scan, I'm getting an error message: You are not allowed to use that image extension on this board.

Ah: I just found a thread on this very problem. Trying again...

If this works, any and all comments, criticisms or whatever will be very welcome. Thanks.