superuser2 Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 It may be futile in middle school, but at the beginning of my next show I want to make a quick announcement to the performers as far as how to make sure they're heard properly. Does anyone else do this? Does it help? And what does your little speech consist of? Stuff I've thought of: "I'm going to make this as quick as possible. I'd suggest you listen and follow these rules or the audience won't hear you, or they'll hear something you'd rather they didn't. 1. Your voice needs to powerful and clear. I can only turn you up so far before we get a big obnoxious feedback ring, and the human ear doesn't like it when the volume and power of someone's voice disagree (a really loud whisper is hard to listen to). 2. Don't ever mute or turn off any of the microphones. That's my job. When your microphone is muted, it's as good as unplugged. 3. When you're out on stage, your mic will be on. Don't make any sounds you don't want the audience hearing. When you exit, treat your mic as if it's on until you count to five. It gets very busy up in the booth, and if I'm fighting some other fire you don't want the audience hearing you chattering backstage. 4. If you know of a problem with your microphone or sound in general, I want to know about it. Tell the nearest person wearing a headset immediately. If there's a problem while you're onstage, keep going, and we'll try and fix it (if we need to do something with your mic, someone backstage will signal you to come off when it's appropriate)."
paulears Posted February 24, 2009 Posted February 24, 2009 First thing is to consider how well they will respond to being TOLD by you. My experience is that the response will be bad. Your comments are fine - get the teacher to do the speak up and shut up bit. I wouldn't even tell them about possible problems, it will spook them even more. Keep technical issues private, don't share them. If you use the word MUTE you then have to explain. Simply cover the switches with tape so they cannot touch anything, because no matter what you say, they will! So speak up, shut up when off and don't touch. The technical side is up to you. You will know if something is wrong, they won't. They will not have a clue what they sound like, and asking them to report things will just cause chaos. Accept the fact that the pale pink voices will not be heard, and the bellowers will, even with the fader pulled down. Expect that people will blow into the mics 'to check' them, and don't let the wind you up. If they mess up, it will be your fault, if they get it right, it's theirs. Make sure that you do NOT miss entrances and exits - that is the most obvious error. Plan and practice all mass entrances and exits if your mixer doesn't have mute groups. If there are any swaps, make sure somebody good on stage is doing them. Actors ignore technicians. Students ignore technician students. Trying to give a talk before the show is pointless - especially with younger kids with poor discipline. A waste of sweat! Good Luck!
Bobbsy Posted February 24, 2009 Posted February 24, 2009 What Paulears said. This sort of thing MUST come from the teacher/director to have any meaning at all. I would add one thing though. For any show where you're having radio mics, have one named person back stage whose job it is to hand out the mics, help with putting them on, check that they ARE on (and in the same location every day), handle swaps and problems during the show, then get all the microphones back at the end of each performance. Get the teacher to introduce THIS person to the cast and reinforce that they need to find "Joe" for any issues and questions during the show. A single point of contact for all things mic related can really help. Bob
heinz57 Posted February 24, 2009 Posted February 24, 2009 In my experience it has allways been the teacher/directors job to give out those notes. In my experience the technician would only tell the actors of the problems when they arrive. For example - 'can so and so move closer to the mic', 'could so and so please move the mic up the collor a bit? I can't pick he/her up'. And so on. I agree with Bobbsy about finding someone to give out the correct mics to the correct person, check them etc. Theres nothing worse than faffing about before a show giving out the mics yourself when you have fiftey thousand other jobs that need doing. Or even worse putting the mics on a table and telling the actors to get them, then they just pick up any old thing and you have to mess about trying to find out who's wearing what mic. Heinz EDIT - Fixed typo's
superuser2 Posted February 24, 2009 Author Posted February 24, 2009 Excellent, thanks everyone. Paulears - That's a good point - it should definitely come from the director. I could probably give him/her these talking points and it'd be much more meaningful. We will certainly tape the mute switches if possible. I'm not totally sure what a mute group is, but our Mackie SR24 mixer has one mute button per channel. Bobbsy - I'm definitely going to have a mic wrangler backstage - there's no way we'd survive without one. Our director likes to have big casts and resources are finite - swaps will be very frequent. Also that's a good idea to use this person as the point of contact. heinz57 - It has also been my experience that problems are typically only brought up when they arise, but I'd like to see if we can minimize them and let performers know how to handle them properly so if they pop up on opening night, they don't derail the show completely.
HobitLight Posted February 24, 2009 Posted February 24, 2009 I'm not totally sure what a mute group is, but our Mackie SR24 mixer has one mute button per channel.See Here
Jonathan Mellor Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 I was responsible for the technical for shows for my last 3 years at school, and kids don't listen to other kids telling them what to do or not to do, however much older the tech students are, its irrelevant, Kids just won't listen to a word you say. I ended up doing alot of shouting in tech rehearsals and soundchecks, when I was at school. A roll of Gaffa tape, is always useful when dealing with the really annoying kids...
smalljoshua Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 I have never done this myself, I have however been at a rehearsal where it has been done. A long, loud high pitched sound played through the PA. It generally silences the entire room to allow someone to talk. Josh
Bobbsy Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Old git alert... With respect to Jonathan and Joshua.... I suspect (hope?) you're both joking but this sort of attitude is one of the reasons students don't listen to other students. If the technical crew are discussing things like gaffer taping the cast or playing loud noises, it sets an unprofessional tone that ensures nobody will take you as seriously as you try to demand. Just to partially contradict myself here, pranks like the ones you mention are not unexpected in youth theatre...and can even be fun. However, they are also a good example of why our student members aren't always taken seriously when they try to tell us old fogies how much they know and how thoroughly professional they are! Bob
David Lee Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Completely off topic but can somebody change the title of the thread :) ...beginning of Tech Wee Moderation: I tried when the topic was "fresh" but it's at the maximum number of characters you can use...so the edit would have to be more substantial than just adding a "k". If the OP wants to suggest a change of wording he'd accept (maybe changing "beginning" to "start"?) I'm sure we can arrange something.
smalljoshua Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 I suspect (hope?) you're both jokingI wasn't joking, I have been an actor in shows where this has been done by Technicians/Directors. I have also been asked to "make a loud noise to get their attention" by teachers in the school. I haven't done it, partially because the PA belonged to me, partially because I managed to persuade them it wouldn't work. I have never done it myself though. Josh
adamharman Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 What, if anything, do you tell the actors at the beginning of Tech Week I tend to tell it how it is........ "Right, you lot have had 3 months of rehearsals to get this together. I've got tonight and tommorow night. Stuff takes as long as it takes, and the more you co-operate, the less time it will take. So can we just keep quiet and get on with it?" A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on. As for loud noises to get attention, I don't need a P.A. to achieve that :)
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