Just Some Bloke

Looking for a job to go from casual tech to full-time house crew? Live in or near York? Then this might just be for you. Events Technician - York Barbican (asmglobal.com) Salary £23,500

A few years ago, the theatre I worked in at the time had the tour of Joseph. The #1 noise boy mixed very well at an excellent level that was loud enough to be fun but not too loud to hurt in any way. Good EQ, good mix, good overall level. On his day off, the #2 noise boy mixed the show. He clearly had a rock n roll background as suddenly the level went up way too high and everyone came away with their ears buzzing (as they hadn't expected to need ear plugs). Same show, different person mixing. If I'd been a punter I would have thought the show great if I'd gone Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday or Saturday but hated it if I'd gone Thursday. Luckily I as Tech Mgr so was able to walk away!

York Barbican currently have availability for Casual Technicians and Casual Senior Technicians. York Barbican is the largest music and arts venue in York, hosting some of the biggest touring music and comedy acts in the country as well as other events like the UK Snooker Championships. Casual Technicians will be required to move seating and/or staging, operate follow-spots and/or assist with performances. No previous experience is required, but a good knowledge of either theatre or the events industry would be helpful. The role will involve anti-social hours, including overnight work at times. Normally performance shifts will be 18.30 - 22.30 and turnaround shifts from 23.30 - 03.30. Heavy lifting will be involved. Casual Senior Technicians will be required to look after visiting companies and to assist them in setting up, running and taking down their shows. Previous experience is essential and hours are often anti-social. Senior Techs may also be required to lead a turnaround shift and so heavy lifting will be involved. Rates of pay are £8.45 for crew under 23 and £9.00 for crew over 23. Between midnight and 8am this rises to £9.91. For Senior Technicians the rate is £10.41. Contact Technical Manager Eric Lund for further information on eric.lund@yorkbarbican.co.uk or see here ASM Global Careers. For a chat call 07931 524196.

An enjoyable read. Thank you.

I usually try here first: https://freesound.org/ then here if I can't find something for nothing!: https://www.sounddogs.com/ I'm pretty sure both of those should be OK with YouTube.

When I've been using a monitor for view of the stage before, I've always had a backup of some form of sightline, no matter how bad. Marineboy has given an example of when the view was bad but at least a view from the corner of the room existed and I've operated from the wings before where the view was sideways on so I needed a monitor to see from the front, but in all of these cases if the monitor gave up the ghost, then at least I still had the option to see something . Even looking sideways on from the wings, you can still see that when you press the GO button, something happens which is somewhere near the ballpark of what should have happened. If you're in another room and you lose the monitor, you have no idea whatsoever if anything you are doing is achieving anything at all. That would be my worry, to be honest.

I used to work with a Stage Manager whose way of remembering which line to pull was to quote: "He likes it LEFT IN, she likes it RIGHT OUT".

I have, just last week, gone through a major H&S audit by the top H&S company bigwigs looking at 24 different aspects of H&S, all in great depth. The main problem we had, and I think many other venues will be able to empathise with this, is 'providing written proof'. Auditor: Do you train people in x? Me: Yes. We do 'on the job' training where we show them what to do, along with an explanation of why. We show them how to do it, then supervise them doing it, then when they are showing they can do the job properly on their own, we leave them to it. Auditor: Can you prove you have done this? Me: Only in that they all do the job properly now Auditor: Have they signed something to say they have had the training? Me: No Auditor: Then that is not good enough Pre-current H&S policies, 'on-the-job' training was seen as acceptable and the fact that no-one had (yet) been hurt was seen as proof that you were doing something right. Now, you don't need to do any training at all; as long as people sign the correct piece of paper then you are seen as doing a good job. One of my staff told me of a previous employer who once a year would put the Risk Assessment folder down on a table and tell all the staff they had to read it thoroughly and sign to say they had done so. He would then go to the Gents and when he came back everyone would have signed. He never had a 'fail' in his H&S audit! I'm not saying one way was right and the other is wrong as both have their flaws, but when I started as a Technical Manager it was more about making sure your staff did a good job of getting the shows on and now it sometimes feels more about getting the right pieces of paper signed.

I totally agree with Tony that the show was great but lacked a live audience. After a showstopper of a performance to have just silence must have been such a come down for the performers and felt very much like an anti-climax to the viewer. Of course, the opposite is to do what sunray speaks of and to add too much canned applause. I'm not sure there is a right way to do it!

Luckily we're doing this during Covid so we are only allowed 6 patrons at a time and all from the same family. This should mean we can put them wherever we want them! (It's a 20 minute piece that will be performed half a dozen times per day). Thanks for the help.

Has anyone ever tried or seen the idea of running video (on a monitor or rear projection) behind a painted gauze? I'm thinking of trying a Jacob Marley scene with the door painted on gauze and the face appearing in the door, saying its lines. Do we think this will work or should I go back to the drawing board?

I'd usually describe it as either the 'setting lline' in theatre or DSE (downstage edge) in concerts and events. Personally I've not heard of 'Plaster Libe' before but if you used the term I'd certainly know what you mean!

Update: And now they are saying that this week's clap for NHS should be the last. 10 weeks is enough. Personally I agree. Better to go out with a bang than a whimper and if we go on any longer it would start to gradually tail off, which would be a shame.

Two tips from me. 1. It's very easy to try to run things on a basis of everyone being equal and each person chucking in ideas and the team as a whole making things happen. This will work really well assuming you have twice the time you will actually have. Every show needs a Production Manager to bring things together and to move things along. Find someone who is well-liked by all the team and who has a knowledge of all aspects of the industry (even if it's just basic knowledge in some areas) and give them the role of PM and you'll be surprised how much better things just move along and how few deadlines get missed. 2. When you are doing a schedule, always give yourself more time than you first thought you would need. For everything. Oh, and never let the talent start earlier than scheduled! It's your stage until it's their stage. That should be a good start!

Oo. I didn't know that. Most stereo amps I have worked with have a "bridging" function to allow you to link the two channels.

It should be pointed out that the most common use of bridging in an amp (generally, as opposed to bass amps) is when a stereo amp (i.e. 2 amps in one box to give you left and right) is bridged to send the same signal to all outputs. If you were using 4 front fills along the downstage edge of a stage and wanted to send them all the same mono feed running from a matrix output on the desk, then you could use a bridged stereo amp to feed 2 fills each per channel but all getting the same signal.

As a Lighting Designer who may well end up lighting either of these shows in reality (and, indeed, I have lit Mother Courage before), it's impossible to say, I'm afraid. I would need to see rehearsals, look at the set design, chat to the director to see what (s)he wants to achieve, find out about the venue and what they have available/what hanging positions they can offer and speak to the Producer about what sort of budget we're looking at. There is no point coming up with a design that won't work and is unaffordable. Nevertheless, I can say that most venues of around 500 would have fresnels on stage and profiles FOH with the option of adding Par 64s and birdies if required. Many would also have some LED units and maybe some movers, but others would need to hire these in. In smaller venues of around 100, you would have a small selection of fresnels and the odd profile, but you'd be looking, for dance, at putting in some tank traps (or other form of side light) with maybe Parnels or Source Four Juniors on, preferably at shins, mids and tops heights. Maybe 3 of these per side? Hope that helps.

Something that hasn't been mentioned much when discussing the best course to take environmentally, is that everyone who knows about this says that you should, wherever possible, use up your old stock first before changing to new. Throwing away a perfectly good piece of kit is often worse for the environment that continuing to use it. When something stops working then that's the time to replace it with a more environmentally sound alternative. We shouldn't, for instance, throw away all the CFC lamps we have at home and replace them with LED; we should use up the CFCs and buy new LEDs for when the old stock runs out. It seems a shame, then, that we are having to throw away perfectly good Par 123s and, soon, Thomas Par64s just because we can't get the lamps. I suppose the best thing to do is to spray paint them, refit them with LEDs and sell them to yuppies.

Just to widen the discussion further, don't forget that if you use a large screen that is fairly close to the audience, then the first few rows may not be able to see all the picture at once. The human eye usually has around a 60 degree field of vision with the centre 30 degrees being in focus. If the screen needs more than 60 degrees for the front few rows then this can get quite annoying, even if the picture quality is good.

I think as soon as you replace the portrait of the Queen with another image, you are breaching their conditions. So possibly all would not be well. From the Bank of England's guidance: "You must not produce novelty versions of our notes, for example ones that feature a celebrity. This is because some notes that have been altered in this way have been mistakenly accepted as genuine." I would imagine that if it is double size and panto'd up, then no-one is going to mistake it as genuine!

It seems that the Bank of England have their own page on flickr with digital versions of their notes here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bankofengland/albums/72157662787666013 I guess if you downloaded one of these and went from there all should be well.

All true, but if someone dies because they, or someone else in the crew, was too tired to function properly, all the above are going to happen anyway, some people will never work again, some may go to jail & some companies & individuals will be hit with eye-watering fines.Would it all have been worth it? Completely agree, but would you want to be the one to pull a show on the basis that the crew (who had all turned up) were a bit tired (especially if they themselves were saying that they were fine)? If you did, do you think you would ever find work again?

My point entirely. On a building site, if the crane operator comes to the end of his permitted hours when the work is not yet complete he has a choice: do I stay on and finish the job, ignoring the fact that I was supposed to clock off now, or do I make that point that my hours have come to an end and they will have to pick up again tomorrow? Whichever decision he makes will be accepted. If he decides to stay on then the Project Manager will be delighted and probably buy him a beer after the shift, but if he calls time then everyone will understand that there is nothing they can do about it and they will just have to do the right thing and pick up the next day. It's not the same in Theatre and Events. If the show is at 19.30 then we can't just stop and pick up the next day! If the show doesn't happen the consequences are massive: hundreds or thousands of people will be disappointed; communications with these people will be a nightmare; there will be queues around the block; complaints will come in from all angles; the cost will be enormous; the kit that has gone in already will now have to come out, and if there is no crew any more then who is going to do that?; the venue will get a bad name; the crewing company will get a bad name; the promoter will get a bad name; the band will get a bad name; the whole thing is unthinkable. No-one is going to want to go through all this and so we will, like Pete has outlined above, continue to work in an unsafe manner. I include myself in this. If it were the building trade we wouldn't get away with it. If it were the driving trade we simply couldn't do it. Because it's theatre or Rock and Roll then it happens.

Re-reading this thread, another couple of points have come into my mind. A few times, I've noticed on riders that promoters will specify that any local crew hired in by the venue need to have had a minimum of x hours rest since any previous work. Obviously, that could mean that the crew boss warns his team that if anyone asks when they last worked they should say "I just did a morning shift yesterday and haven't worked since", regardless of the truth. But even if they really do stick to this rule (and our guys would always do just that, if required by the rider) then it's entirely possible that the artiste's own team are not sticking to the same rules. The other point is that EU WTD rules insist on an 11-hour break between shifts and I know that some venues do enforce this rule. This would mean that if you finished the load-out at midnight then you couldn't start the next day until 11am. Many of the shows we get in probably could make this work, but choose not to do so in order to not wipe out their margin of error in case there are problems they weren't expecting. We get some shows that load in at 9 and then plan on having a couple of hours off in the afternoon. Starting instead at 11 may well work, but the added stress of not having any time should a problem occur, could actually be worse for their heath than getting up 2 hours earlier! I'm not sure what the right answer is, I'm just not sure that having one rule for house crew and another for freelancers can be justified in the long term.

Hi David. Firstly, thanks for everything you've done with the software up to now. Secondly, can I request an added feature? On Playlist cues (and I totally agree that these could easily be merged with Audio cues), is there a possibility of being able to set a crossfade time between tracks so, for example, if you set the time to 3 secs, then the last 3 secs of the previous track would crossfade with the first 3 secs of the next track. This would be perfect for walk-in music to ensure the auditorium never goes silent. It would be ideal if you were given the choice of either setting a global time or choosing instead individual times per track, but even if it were globally set only that would still be a really useful addition. Hopefully others will agree that this is useful!