Comms Procedure

[gareth]

Confirmation from operator to DSM that a particular cue has been executed is entirely superfluous in pretty much all circumstances. It only serves to clutter things up. On the other hand, it's not uncommon for a DSM to ask an LX op to give them a 'complete' on a particular cue if the calling of a subsequent cue sequence hangs on the completion of a cue that isn't visibly obvious to the DSM. But even that doesn't happen often.

 

And as for a "3, 2, 1" countdown to a "go" - that hardly ever happens in theatre. The only time I've ever known something like that to happen is if a cue has to execute precisely on a musical beat. I can only think of a couple of shows in my recent memory which have featured this - the last one was a dance show a couple of years ago which had a pyro cue and a lighting cue that had to happen bang on the last beat of a piece of music, so the four beats of the previous bar were counted down.

[Ynot]

Confirmation from operator to DSM that a particular cue has been executed is entirely superfluous in pretty much all circumstances.

The only cues (as I think has already been commented) that I'd expect a 'going' response would be on cues that the DSM can't necessarily see.

EG at the top of the show, if you have a 'house to half' cue that's not always obvious from the DSM backstage even if they have a show relay VT screen to watch. And there are often specials which may be out of the DSM's sightlines.

 

BUT the key is - and again this has been mentioned - there must be a trust between the departments. If the DSM gives a 'standby' and that is acknowledged by the relevant operator, then the DSM should be able to trust that those operators are doing just that and standing by to receive the next communication for them to GO.

 

Barring any disastrous breakdown in comms then the cure should be executed as planned every time with no need to further acknowledge that it's gone UNLESS there is a specific need for linked cues to go as a result of the first completing.

 

And no - never seen a 3-2-1 GO either.

 

Oh - another point - it's not common to use names when calling cues, especially in long running shows where there may be different people staffing the same positions on different nights. So 'proper' etiquette would be to use the departments - LX, sound, spot 1/spot 2, etc.

[Bobbsy]

Agreed on both counts, but with the usual exceptions to prove the rule.

 

I once worked on a show that started with a fade in for sound and fade out for lights that lasted something like four minutes. (Sound was music--mainly a long synth chord at first--that started at a subliminal level and LX was a slow fade of house lights, transitioning to hundreds of LED stars on the ceiling of the theatre.) For at least 30 seconds the fade in/out was so subtle that it was hard to notice so we agreed on a "running" from both departments as a confidence booster.

 

Similarly, the "3-2-1" is rare but, as already said, where the cue is on a specific beat of music, the count makes precision easier.

 

As usual, common sense is more important than "we always/we never do it that way".

 

Bob

[CharlieH]

Great, thankyou very much! I will implement all of these in the next production we do. Also thanks to Paul for that recording - very interesting to listen to and I was surprised at how calm the SM was when the pyros failed! I wouldn't have been :P !

[Andrew C]

Pyro failures happen quite a lot. Often operator error, or those damned stupid Bulgin plugs coming out. So he probably wasn't at all surprised. "Is it still safe?" "Carry on."

[Ynot]

Pyro failures happen quite a lot. Often operator error, or those damned stupid Bulgin plugs coming out. So he probably wasn't at all surprised. "Is it still safe?" "Carry on."

Yup.

ANYTHING can go wrong in a show situation. Some of it you can put right the next time the lights are down, other stuff has to wait til the tabs are in for the half. Still more can't be even contemplated til the audience is out the doors.

 

Lamps blow, (usually where you only have one lighting a crucial location), scenery may not get moved on precisely to where it should be, Fly bars may knock a lantern or other set piece out of position on the way up, and that's before the talent even open their mouths to miss out 3 pages (and 12 cues) of script...!

 

Anyone who panics or loses their temper at any of it really shouldn't be anywhere near a stage, to be honest. That applies to am dram or pro shows.

[CharlieH]

Yup.

ANYTHING can go wrong in a show situation. Some of it you can put right the next time the lights are down, other stuff has to wait til the tabs are in for the half. Still more can't be even contemplated til the audience is out the doors.

 

Lamps blow, (usually where you only have one lighting a crucial location), scenery may not get moved on precisely to where it should be, Fly bars may knock a lantern or other set piece out of position on the way up, and that's before the talent even open their mouths to miss out 3 pages (and 12 cues) of script...!

 

Anyone who panics or loses their temper at any of it really shouldn't be anywhere near a stage, to be honest. That applies to am dram or pro shows.

Yea, I can see that and 99% of the time I am calm about it. It's just when our movers all died (or at least I thought they did....see my other thread) I was starting to get really worried, but I have had lamps blow and curtains getting knocked out of position, and trucks getting caught on curtains many a time and stayed reasonably calm :D And of course I have had performers missing out huge pages of script :P Having said that, if it all went smoothly a) there would be no fun and b) there would be even less jobs in the industry :)

[JazzAV]

Coming from the corporate side of things, where we tend not to have rehearsals, nothing beats having the bosses secretary cueing a live show for first time. Luckily we don't usually have to deal with 100s of cues but we do get told to 'do the flashy thing' and 'get ready to play boaty video'

[dbuckley]

GG makes a point here I think was widely missed:

 

[the sound] effects are always run by the lighting operator

Most folks have the sound op with his hand on the computer playback machine, and I've long been of the opionion that GGs way is far better, as the Lx op is with cans, and ready to accept cues from SM, and often in a seperate room that is sound-resistant, whereas the sound op is usually mid-audience, without cans most of the time, and flying by script and memory.

[OllieH]

From my experience of cans in schools, you tend to find that they're used more as a toy than a valuable device which synchronises every department. It relates to the view most kids (and their schools) take towards performance. If a stage hand appears before the blackout, it doesn't - usually - matter. The stage hand doesn't feel humiliated, the light op isn't particularly bothered and it might give the audience a laugh. In professional theatre, this is not the case.

[TomHoward]

GG makes a point here I think was widely missed:

[the sound] effects are always run by the lighting operator

Most folks have the sound op with his hand on the computer playback machine, and I've long been of the opionion that GGs way is far better..

Likewise, our last show (around 2h30) had five sound cues, so the LX op fired them - as he's on a script, whereas sound op is in the auditorium and is not on a script - has a cut down version with a synopsis and cue lines leading into numbers.

 

He did however confirm before each cue that it was coming, as the show wasn't called.

[jonic222]

Cans Procedures:

 

Standby LX 12

Standing By

LX 12 GO

Gone (on subtle changes only)

 

Always announce yourself when you go on cans

Always say "LX going off cans" when you leave (or sound/flies/DSM etc)

NEVER say anything like "fire", "emergency" (or any code words - some theatres use "Mr Sands" for fire) unless there actually is a fire/emergency.

Turn off your mic when you don't have anything to say

Never talk in a standby

Never talk if anyone says "silence on cans"

If you've been off cans for a while and have to go on cans (e.g. a sound op who needs to talk to someone backstage about a broken radio mic), ask whether you're in a standby first, or "free to speak?"

If I'm TD, I confirm with my crew and DSM whether there are any scenes which have an enforced cans silence, due to a high number of cues

Keep your voice down

 

 

In terms of actually giving cues, for lights it's always "standby LX 10" "LX 10 go". If for any reason I'm doing anything by submaster, I always ask to have these cues as "LX submaster 1".

When I sound op, I always ask for my fade out/cut cues to be given as a point 5, and usually ask to not have a standby for the fade out cue, as I'll stand by for it anyway.

This is the same for when I followspot, except I ask for a fade out standby.

Flying varies by fly op and DSM - in smaller theatres it's sometimes done by "standby fly bar 3 flying in" or "standby fly bar 6 flying out", but usually it's "standby fly cue 2", with a seperate cue for flying in and out

For scene changes, the ASM or head of stage crew will be on cans, and will follow a script, and have a list or diagram of what's going on or off at each scene change. The DSM will cue the start of the scene change, and the ASM will confirm that the scene change is complete, by saying either "scene change complete" or "stage clear"

[paulears]

The one thing that is certain, is that there are many very wrong ways to do it, and a multitude of variations to the right way. If you have visiting stage management, or you go to there venues, it's far simpler to change to any local system that works well.

 

So if they automatically give cue complete responses to your calls, fine. If they insist on Go - cue 12, rather than cue 12 - go, live with it. Trying to change people's long standing habits is pointless and a stress inducer. Our stage manager at my normal venue is universally ignored, because he's very deaf, and cannot hear cues anyway, so it's very common for the asm to really be in charge, and call up cues if he has dozed off, or as usual, taken his cans off because he cannot hear the show and the comms at the same time! It's quite simple to brief the incoming companies and we can make it work. It's quite common to have a fly cue be called, happen, music starting and then a loud clunk (as he never turns the mic off) as he puts them on and says "sound go" - forgetting the fly cue and not hearing the music is already playing.

 

He doesn't wish to retire, and is a fixture. He now doesn't arrive before about the half, so has no idea what goes on. Having a system that doesn't work is the real problem. All the things talked about in this topic are designed to make the show as tight and repeatable as possible - All processes that are critical and need coordination need systems. Have a listen to a professional air traffic controller - they can communicate with pilots in amazingly speedy ways when both parties are up to it. Add in an amateur pilot who finds comms difficult and they have their own version of bedlam!

 

For anybody who likes organised bedlam and aircraft - I've had this recording for years, and it shows how fast air traffic controllers have to innovate when things get silly. It's from a famous aviation show in the US - Oshkosh, back in 1974. If you want to have a listen, air traffic control

[CharlieH]

For anybody who likes organised bedlam and aircraft - I've had this recording for years, and it shows how fast air traffic controllers have to innovate when things get silly. It's from a famous aviation show in the US - Oshkosh, back in 1974. If you want to have a listen, air traffic control

That's impressive! Thanks for all the posts, I think I have the basic idea of how to do it now, and I will brief the entire tech team next time we use comms.

 

The only down side is that we only have 4 beltpacks that work, leaving us with a SM, SL, SR and FOH packs. It's not ideal, as to cue the trucks (an example form our most recent play), the SM had to cue the correct side of the stage, and then that cue was passed on to the truck movement team. Also as the SM had no view of the stage (I will rig up a video feed next time), it came down to me to give him 'Stage Clear' and other visual cues, which were then relayed to the correct team.

 

As I said, its not ideal but hopefully next year we will be able to run them much more professionally. Thank you! :** laughs out loud **:

[Just Some Bloke]

One other thing to add is that with the advent of digital lighting boards (which happened in my lifetime but then I am over 40!) LDs have realised that you can have lots of snap cues in a very short time if you want, so for something like a musical or pantomime you could have "stab cues" running with every beat of the music for a short while to punctuate a particularly percussive section. When this happes there isn't time to say "LX Q[n] GO" between each one so the usual proceedurre would be to call as follows:

 

DSM: Standby LX cues 30 - 38. These cues happen very quickly so I will just be giving the G O's.

LX Op: Standing by 30 - 38

DSM: Lx GO, GO, GO, GO, GO, GO, GO ,GO