How does the fringe work - e.g. tec set up . quick turnaround for each

[Ben Langfeld]

excellent so you say the hour or so slot in the morning is reallly there to check out and possibly prepare the grid etc for when you actually come in the afternoon

 

I think you mis-understood. We were there all day. We had a 3 hour slot in the morning for our tech. Everyone was there all day. The other company had their 3 hour slot in the afternoon.

[thelightbulb]

sorry yeh I did get that but what I meant was that you prepare in the morning for when you start your show in the afternoon

[Ben Langfeld]

Yeah, although you may get the afternoon slot and be first on, in which case your tech runs right through to your show.

[enbee]

I've done a total of five years at edinburgh (although not last year) and the key is to know the other people you are working with (if possible) and plan lots. we did the whole 5 min performance in the meadows in 2004 where you have 5 mins to set up and 5 mins to perform and then no time to leave!!!!

for this we used a yamaha 02r which we programmed at our venue with an approximate mix, took it down plugged in instead of the normal foh desk and it gave us a reasonable starting point.

avoid in ear monitors if possible and try to go with the fewest mixes you can get away with. the less you have to do the better you can do it.

have a good chat with the performers and directors of the show before hand and make sure you understand what exactly they want rather than have to change things later

and finaly, its the fringe. your show is one of hundreds going on. do the best you can in the time given but do not expect it to be the most technically brilliant thing you have done

theres someone on this forum with the signature

 

"fast, cheap and good, you can only have two out of the three"

 

this applies to all shows and at the fringe, you need to work out the priority

 

hope this is of some use

 

 

nb. this is not meant to be as negative as it sounds but one of the main problems I have found is people turning up to the fringe with unrealistic expectations of what they can do in the time they have

[beware]

... one of the main problems I have found is people turning up to the fringe with unrealistic expectations of what they can do in the time they have

 

hear hear!

[robloxley]

one of the main problems I have found is people turning up to the fringe with unrealistic expectations of what they can do in the time they have

But equally, if you are organised, efficient and have some nouse, you can still push what is able to be done with such limited time & resources; that's one of the challenges IMHO.

[thelightbulb]

well we have done it now was rather an experience in bath alone and one of the main problems really was in my position as DSM in having completely different set of cues whilst having to do your own cueing as I was opping lx and projection whilst cueing others. the slot in the morning was soo tight though as we had a small moon shaped screen to project on to and the original image didn't fit I was having to manually re-ajust every layer of each slide along with lx plotting and trying to keep our director from deviating from the important things! all fun though

[Renny]

Why is there so much macho (sic) talk about the fringe and how many hours people have worked? If you work in a proper venue that is crewed in a vaguely sensible way then nobody works huge hours. And if you do work 100 hours for little financial reward then I have no sympathy for you and less respect. For the record I have done over 20 fringes mainly in multi show venues and apart from week 0 never do over 50 hours per week.

[beware]

You'll find most of these people are the one's who help to run the theatre and care about it - ie the Bedlam technicians. As I'm the only one of two partners who knows technical, and we can't afford to pay any staff, I find myself working very hard.

[Jamtastic3]

I do the fringe in the nightclub I work in so it's a total different ball game when it comes to rehersals, tech runs and get ins and outs! It's all got to get done and then get ready for any live bands and clubnights that are on from 11pm. But we don't get major teched up shows so we are alright with what we show. And because we are a fringe venue, out license for clubnight activities is extended till 5am! It's long days for me

[Renny]

You'll find most of these people are the one's who help to run the theatre and care about it - ie the Bedlam technicians. As I'm the only one of two partners who knows technical, and we can't afford to pay any staff, I find myself working very hard.

 

I think it is a bit naive to suggest that the Bedlam staff "care" about the theatre more than other people. All I am pointing out is that in my experience there is no need to work ludicrous hours. Pefectly normal to work huge amounts of time without days off, but not necessarily massive hours. If people end up doing 100+ hours in a week then very serious questions need to be asked of the planning and organisation at a more managerial level.

[Nick S]

I'm apt to agree. Once everything is up and underway, I may be at the venue for 12-14 hours a day, but for a fair amount of the time I'm just sitting around waiting for something to go wrong. I care about the theatre that's being put on, but I also care about my own health, and working awful hours during the fringe is a quick route to mistakes and accidents (obviously the get ins/outs are another matter).

 

Some Fringe venues are particularly good at managing staff time, and it's generally a "good thing" that many are starting to realise that making tech crew work insane hours during the get-ins and get-outs won't produce the best results.

[thelightbulb]

I do have to say that where I work most of my shifts are at ungodly hours such as 11pm onwards granted I am only a casual thats still pretty late and thats on a regular basis I do have two consecutive sifts which run from midday to 1/2 in the morning and to be honest I do it because I really do care about the quality put out and wouldn't want to leave stuff undone to find that someone has only gone a played with it!

[beware]

I'm apt to agree. Once everything is up and underway, I may be at the venue for 12-14 hours a day, but for a fair amount of the time I'm just sitting around waiting for something to go wrong.

 

Agreed. It's the after hours drinking that does it for me! :) until I fall asleep in bars...

[Tim_C]

Well, I've only got a year of doing the Fringe stuff properly (used to do Club Festival at Teviot before that got stopped - boo-urns! :( ), but I was the exception for the venue rather than the the rule. Generally I pulled a 12-13 hour day, but as the upshot of this I got more money than the rest of the techs. For the shows that I wasn't at the desk for I spent my time in the bar upstairs, either reading or asleep. Then I'd go and do the turnaround for the shows and get the next one up and in. Sometimes it was tight, but by the end of Week 1 the set ups had simplified somewhat and we'd reached necessary artistic compromises with some of the shows in order to fulfil their slots.

 

The main thing I would say about taking a fringe show to this fair wee city is be prepared to reach compromises for some things, particularly regarding sets and props. As has been stated earlier, the turnaround times are tight, so depending upon the space there can be as little as 10mins between one show coming down and the next showing going up, and this includes getting the punters out of the door and the fresh set of punters into their seats (a monumental task in itself).

 

So, although you make like a particular piece of set dressing or a particular effect, ask yourself if it's strictly necessary. If you can achieve the mood of the scene and so on by cutting something or by doing it another, easier, way, then try and do it. Also, speak to the other companies that are performing in your space. If you can both use the same special for a particular scene, see if you can come to some sort of arrangement with them (either buying copious drinks for them, or them buying drinks for you, or money towards hire of equipment). Don't ask the venue tech if you can use another company's special without speaking to the company first. The venue tech will probably refuse, on the grounds that it belongs to someone else. Or they will check with the other company when you're not around, and if it turns out that you didn't ask first, then the venue tech will be less likely to cut you any slack when it comes to asking for something else.

 

And when it does come to rigging specials, you cannot move the house rig or any other company's special to accommodate your own. Well, that's the rule our venue TD has at least. If you also have a specific technical rider that you want to get from the venue, be sure and tell them at least a week before your Get-in/tech slot. That way there's a fighting chance they can get it for you, as most technical hire companies in Edinburgh tend to have clear warehouses come the festival.

 

That's all I can think of for the moment. Undoubtedly I'm repeating a couple of things other people have posted, but if something's worth saying once, it's worth reinforcing twice! :huh:

 

Tim