Handling annoying crew

[Michael_hunt]

Hi

 

Im a DSM for a college show. Were all studying for a for a BTEC in technical theatre. I work in a local venue, and have different ways of working compared to the group which caused problems in the first year.

 

The second year has been dramatically different, all for the good. I have relaxed and dont get stressed if it takes someone 20 minutes to rig a light, as there learning.

 

But when it comes to cueing the show, im getting stressed. As are the crew. For most, this is the first "large" show which they have worked on, and im a lampy. Im finding cueing multiple departments hard.

 

Does anyone have advice as to get the crew to relax and keep chilled.

 

I have mad extra effort to keep face, and not show how stressed and concerned I am with the show, but im sure the crew have picked up on it, and feel the same way.

 

Im really suck. Ive spent the day running through each of my cues, over and over, so I know exactly what should happen, and when it should. But how to keep the team active and enthusiastic?

 

cheers

[paulears]

I don't think you can keep them active and enthusiastic - that is up to them. Being a DSM for a bigger show is hard. The most important thing is to establish who is in charge - this means that you need the teacher to tell everybody that it is you. You can then decide if they are permitted to take their cues visually. If you find you are not coping well- and practice, practice, practice is the key, then give a cue such as "standby LX 12 to 20 - please take these as visual cues" - if they all have scripts and have made proper notes and seen the show, then this buck passes the responsibility to them. You should try to do it yourself really. Some people just can't read, look, talk and think at the same time - just not them. If this is you DSM'ing is a pain. Make sure the book is really up to date and has ll the cues in it presented clearly - then you should be able to follow it through, giving the cues almost automatically. While you are learning consider marking each cue some way so you know if you are waiting for a verbal cue, as in a line from an actor, a physical cue - like somebody making an entrance, a sound cue, like the MD playing a special chord. Maybe some kind of colour code,or special underlining - you decide, will help you keep track of what is happening.

 

You also need to work out a plan for what to do when things go wrong. If LX miss a cue, can they jump to a new one. Not a silly question. I've been involved in pro shows when the DSM only found out the board op was useless when something happened and she gave this cue" LX standby to jump to cue 43, they have missed a huge chunk of dialogue and we're going into the song in about 15 secs" The LX op answered, I don't know how to do that - they just said press the go button on each cue"

 

One thing make sure they all understand comms discipline when it comes to chat. You might find it difficult to stop chit chat, but insist on silence everytime somebody is on a standby, and it soon sinks in. If you need to keep them to attention. Ask questions that you really don't need to know in the boring gaps. Ask LX what intensity the XYZ is in this cue, ask the sound op how long the next cue is - things that don't affect the show, or their next cue, but give them tings to do. If you have boring bits - then do something. A quiz is good, if you have say 15 mins each performance with nothing to do.

 

Make sure they all understand that if they take the cans off, the tell people so you don't waste time calling people who aren't going to answer!

[GridGirl]

Something that will help everyone is making sure you call things in the same order each time. If people know what to expect, they won't be quite so stressed about whether they heard you stand them by or not - the last big show I DSMed I had lights, sound, flys, 4 followspots, people-flying (aerials was what I called it as), pyros, smoke, stage left crew and stage right crew all being called; the only way I could keep it straight was to make sure that all my standbys and GOs were in that order. Also, if you have a cue-light system then sometimes giving people cue-lights as well as verbal cues can help them feel happier - one flyman I work with insists on both, simply for peace of mind.

[Renny]

The DSM's word is the only word once a show starts. I am a Chief LX but once the show starts I obey what the DSM wants. It is the only proper way to work in my opinion. They call it and if they screw up they have to face the flak. A decent crew will realise this and respect it.

[Michael_hunt]

Cheers for the help, Im looking forward to our first show monday afternoon.

 

Its not my first time cueing a show, but my previous shows were professional and I had silence and they new the score, which made my life a million times easier.

 

I do struggle to DSM being dyslectic, but I refuse to affect the way I cue.

 

With regard to crew backstage, Im trying to get at least one on cans at any given moment, as during the tech, I needed crew to get an actor on stage. He was waiting for a sound cue, which wasnt going to happen due to a problem with sound. Any ideas how? maybe gaffer the cans to there head?

 

Cheers

 

Mic

[GridGirl]

With regard to crew backstage, Im trying to get at least one on cans at any given moment, as during the tech, I needed crew to get an actor on stage. He was waiting for a sound cue, which wasnt going to happen due to a problem with sound. Any ideas how? maybe gaffer the cans to there head?

 

Aside from the option of gaffering/nailing/supergluing/Aralditeing cans to someone's head, if your LX operator is on cans the whole time and has a spare channel and sub, rig up a spare lantern in the wing, pointing offstage with a piece of 119 or some other dark blue gel in it, and if you need to get stage crew on cans get the LX op to bring the light up. Hopefully your crew member will see it and know that you need them on cans. I've done it before and it works pretty well. Easier to see than a cans beltpack signal light....Either that, or if you're in the wing as well, arm yourself with a whole lot of half-used LX tape rolls and practice your aim....

[Neil Frazer]

Aside from the option of gaffering/nailing/supergluing/Aralditeing cans to someone's head, if your LX operator is on cans the whole time and has a spare channel and sub, rig up a spare lantern in the wing, pointing offstage with a piece of 119 or some other dark blue gel in it, and if you need to get stage crew on cans get the LX op to bring the light up. Hopefully your crew member will see it and know that you need them on cans. I've done it before and it works pretty well. Easier to see than a cans beltpack signal light....Either that, or if you're in the wing as well, arm yourself with a whole lot of half-used LX tape rolls and practice your aim....

 

I have just built one of These for our sound department. I modified it to turn on a rope light when the call button on a beltpack is pressed.

 

If you had a blue rope light running the length of the wing it would be very easy to let the crew know to put their cans on!

 

It will work with both techpro and clearcom systems.

[johnkendall]

Cheers for the help, Im looking forward to our first show monday afternoon.

 

Its not my first time cueing a show, but my previous shows were professional and I had silence and they new the score, which made my life a million times easier.

 

I do struggle to DSM being dyslectic, but I refuse to affect the way I cue.

 

With regard to crew backstage, Im trying to get at least one on cans at any given moment, as during the tech, I needed crew to get an actor on stage. He was waiting for a sound cue, which wasnt going to happen due to a problem with sound. Any ideas how? maybe gaffer the cans to there head?

 

Cheers

 

Mic

 

You will be doing both themselves and the industry a favour if you do manage to instill proper comms etiquette in these guys. Something that annoys me intensely is people who don't understand comms.

 

Particularly Chatting through standbys, Leaving mics on when taking off headsets, taking off headsets without telling the rest of us they are off.

 

It's not something I've really had problems with in theatres but in Corporate events it can get very bad.

 

J

[ojc123]

Aside from the option of gaffering/nailing/supergluing/Aralditeing cans to someone's head, if your LX operator is on cans the whole time and has a spare channel and sub, rig up a spare lantern in the wing, pointing offstage with a piece of 119 or some other dark blue gel in it, and if you need to get stage crew on cans get the LX op to bring the light up. Hopefully your crew member will see it and know that you need them on cans.

 

So simple, so effective. It's what I go to the Blue Room for. School shows are dreadful for disappearing technical crew and this will help reduce the problems that causes.