Moving Light Rig

[sam.hunt]

Hey everyone

 

I've been lurking on the Blue Room forums for quite some time, and I've finally decided to stick my head in

 

As part of my course at uni, I am chiefing a moving light exercise in the main theatre (pretty standard pros arch theatre, counterweight and hemp system, two FOH bridges, FOH perches, FOH towers). That role involves taking the design and producing all the required paperwork and ensuring that it gets up into the air and working.

 

The paperwork I currently have in mind is:

 

- Rigging plans, with mover DMX and desk channel, socket and hard power line information

- Patch sheets, with mover DMX and desk channel, and dimmer channel if required

- Labelling for all the movers with DMX, desk channel, hard power line, approximate position, and socket and dimmer if required

- Cable call, for DMX, hard power lines, socapex lines, spot lines

- Crew pack (with most of the above information in)

 

Also, nearer the time I will be producing a job list and schedule, as well as H+S paperwork.

 

For those of you with more experience in moving light rigs, are there any advice or tips you can give me which would help?

 

Many thanks!

 

 

Sam

[johnkendall]

- Rigging plans, with mover DMX and desk channel, socket and hard power line information

- Patch sheets, with mover DMX and desk channel, and dimmer channel if required

- Labelling for all the movers with DMX, desk channel, hard power line, approximate position, and socket and dimmer if required

- Cable call, for DMX, hard power lines, socapex lines, spot lines

- Crew pack (with most of the above information in)

 

 

Make sure that when you do your rigging plans, you specify which way round the units are to be hung (I.e where are the displays, or where are the cables on the unit).

 

You may also want to list the colours/gobos that are/will be fitted into each unit. (This is especially important if there are custom gobos in any of the units)

 

HTH

 

John

[gyro_gearloose]

Well, the first piece of advice I'll give is that you should bear in mind that we won't do your coursework for you. Other people more knowledgeable than I will point you in the right direction, but you are at uni to learn for yourself! And use the search function here as well...

 

Now you don't say whether you are producing this paperwork for your own use while rigging, or if it is for other people to work from. I'll assume the latter for now. The problem people can fall into when producing any type of plan is that because the plans make sense to the designer then then will make sense to everyone else. Get someone to go over your plans (fellow student, lecturer, etc) to see if they understand them. Don't be afraid to add a text description to your plans as well, if you think it would make them clearer.

 

With your rigging plan I'm not sure that you'll need to include which desk channel each mover is patched to, only its position, DMX address/universe, and power information. And I'm not sure if you'll need to label each mover with its desk channel either unless its a requirement of your course to do so, as you may want to patch your desk differently after everything is rigged. It is a good idea though to give a brief description on your patch sheet of what you want each mover to do.

 

Does your uni have its own stock of movers or is part of your brief to come up with a list of equipment to be hired in? And are you designing your rig to be 'tourable'? If your rig isn't designed to be toured, and if uni already has all the equipment you'll need then I'm not sure there is much point in doing a cable call. If you need more cable, just go to where its stored and get another bit. If your rig is to be toured, or if you need to hire everything in then you can never have too much cable!

[JimWebber]

Something else you may need or want to document may be how much it is all going to weigh? Your average mover is heavier then a generic lantern. You don't want to overload anything, either electrically, or mechanically...

 

Jim.

[Seano]

I'll second that about the weight. Very useful for counterweight bars, essential if you're thinking of putting any on hemp bars.

 

If you're thinking of going down the truss/motors route (I guess not) you should also produce a rigging plot to show truss layout, positions of rigging points and ideally a reasonable approximation of point loadings.

[mattwright15]

Well, the first piece of advice I'll give is that you should bear in mind that we won't do your coursework for you. Other people more knowledgeable than I will point you in the right direction, but you are at uni to learn for yourself!

 

I dont think this would be considered as doing the coursework for Sam, I believe the question is more regarding advice on how the "professional" industry does these task. Isnt the whole point of this forum to share technical information; whether it be knowledge or practise. A student will all ways learn more from someone showing them then from a class room situation.

 

 

With your rigging plan I'm not sure that you'll need to include which desk channel each mover is patched to, only its position, DMX address/universe, and power information. And I'm not sure if you'll need to label each mover with its desk channel either unless its a requirement of your course to do so, as you may want to patch your desk differently after everything is rigged.

 

I completely disagree with this one. Although to much information sometimes makes things more complicated all plans should have desk channel numbers on them. Think of fault finding, you call to the desk op "way 337" and they say "thats nice, what channel number would that be then...." I believe that desk channel numbers should always be printed, as should DMX address's but Way numbers should be written on with pencil because the desk channel should Never change once its got to the rigging stage unless there has been a Major over-site in paper work which wouldn't be very good for the LD or the Production LX. (of course in some situations this can just be one person, as above get some one else to read the plan with you).

 

 

I'm not sure there is much point in doing a cable call. If you need more cable, just go to where its stored and get another bit. If your rig is to be toured, or if you need to hire everything in then you can never have too much cable!

 

No, No, No.

A very bad working practise to teach someone who is trying to learn these things. Learn how to specify the exact amount of cable you will need. Make Excel charts with each bars requirements. Then do a list of all spare cable. You should always have plenty of spares. But the more production paperwork you do the more idiot proof you make it.

 

Because at the end of the day if you let one of your production crew rig a bar, they use all 10 meter TRS when they only needed 5's because that was closer at the time then you may not have enough 10s for another area.

AT the end of the day the Rig has your name to it, That means that others basic mistakes can all add up to giving you a bad name, and everyone hear can tell you how quick a bad name gets around in this industry.

Planning isn't about just planning, its about producing something everyone can work from and solving problems before you arrive on site.

 

Perfect Preparation Potentially Prevents Pi*s Poor Performance.

 

But with all the above said I have just finished rigging some booms on a new fairly big show were everyone was working off 2 plan versions. Each showing different basic things like rigging positions in different places! Some plans to scale others not....!

 

Just shows that how ever much planing you do, If you work with the countries top productions teams, somethings will always get overlooked. Its just Sods Law

 

 

Matt----------- Good Night

[paulears]

Hang on people.

 

Assuming the idea is to produce a plan for a college course assessment - which appears to be the task in hand - this is getting far, far, far above the kind of deatil needed for some of them. It could be a level 2, 3 or 4 programme - we don't know whuich one. For level 3 (as in A level/National Diploma) the it is VERY unlikely that you need to go this far (unless you really want to). The top grade specs will want a detailed, easy to understand drawing. The 'spoil' factors are basic level stuff - neatness, appropriate symbols, clear labels, accurate scale. Get these right and you're on a winner. The people at the just pasing level will have quite bad drawings - scruffy, poorly set out, odd scales (if scaled at all), huge symbols on tiny bars, random spacing, and aplan that overall looks dreadful and wouldn't work.

 

The comments here seem to be very over the top for a college project. Real world is quite different. What does the OP actually have to submit? What are the rules? In this case, I don't think he's asking us to do the work for him,just asking us for things that should be on the plan - BUT I fear we have innundated him with small detail that may not be needed, or if done poorly, could actually wreck his grade. after all, the more things on the plan, the more chance of a cockup.

[sam.hunt]

Hey everyone, sorry for being so late in replying, work took over my life, as it so often does.

 

Thanks for the responses. Just to clarify a few things, I'm at university, and the work I should be doing should be at professional level, so nothing is "too complicated" to consider.

 

So yes, I'm looking for information on how the professional industry does moving light paperwork. Of course, if something isn't applicable, then I won't include it, but I'm looking for little tips or advice which I may not have considered before, such as the suggestion of labelling which way round the movers are hung.