Cans

[gareth]

Indeed, I'd be very upset to hear a DSM using SFX along with LX.  Sound is much more useful.  Along with that, I'd rather hear 'pyro' or 'smoke' than FX.

Oh, yes, definitely. I've spent many hundreds of hours on cans over the years, listening to countless professional DSMs calling shows, and not one of them (not even the really bad ones!) have ever used the expressions 'SFX' or 'FX'. It's always (and I mean always) 'LX', 'sound', 'flys', 'spots' and 'pyro'. And sometimes 'video' too, if it's a corporate ...

 

The most important thing, however, is the order.  Anyone who I hear saying "LX 90, Standby" or "Go LX 90" gets no muffins at my house...

Yes, very much so. And the clarity, timing and pace of calling cues is also important for maximum intelligibility and precision. Some of the worst callers of cues are the ones who think it's acceptable to call a cue as "LX cue 6 ..... {pause} ..... LX cue 6 ..... {pause} ..... LX cue 6 .... {long pause} .... GO!". Or those who give a standby way too far in advance, followed by a good two or three minutes of silence, and then a rushed and garbled "Elecscuesixgo!" coming out of left-field. :)

[paulears]

whenever there is a need for 'rarer' cues then the whole crew need to be involved to stop ####-ups - panto this year originally had fly cues - normal stuff mixed in with flying cues - as in some poor devil dangling on a bit of 2mm. Although there were only 8 flying cues as opposed to over 80 fly cues, it really did throw the flymen on standby for, say, cue 43 to hear a standby or a go for flying cue 3 - plenty of discussion, then a change to 'witch cue' 3 and fly cue 43. from that moment, no issues at all.

[Diane]

Palace Theatre, Redditch (now closed for re-fit)... completely sh*te cans system. Example......

 

Hello Dolly..... Prima Donna on stage - first starring role in yonks (for good reason... miaoow...)

 

I've cued up standby's for LX and Flys and get to the "Go".... nothing happens.... so I give the "Go" again... still nothing happens ... Dolly now backing upstage expecting cloth to fly out ..... I can hear flyboys and LX wondering what I'm up to so (in a panic..) I use the lighting cues box...madly flicking the go in the hope they'll take the cloth out - it's not the first night for f*ck's sake they know the cue.... in desperation wiggle the cable... at last! they can hear me and cloth goes out, nearly taking Dolly's hat with it.... blue air returns to musty, dusty Palace norm... this is now 3 year's ago... they're still using the same equipment... however I can turn my mic off whilst still hearing what's going on.... so not sure what's going on with Sam's set!!

[Bewildered]

 

Isn't Lime a bit old-fashioned?  Haven't heard that for ages - normally it's "spot".

 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

OK, but I am getting on a bit, twas how I was taught back in the late 70's early 80's.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I still get 'Lime' cues when im on follow spot

[the kid]

Whats the story behind "lime"?

[gareth]

Whats the story behind "lime"?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

From the Glossary Of Technical Theatre Terms :

LIMELIGHT

An obsolete source of intensely bright light, most recently used in followspots.Derived from a burning jet of oxygen and hydrogen impinging on a rotatable cylinder of lime.

See LIMES.

 

LIMES

Followspots and their operators. This term is still in everyday use, although limelight is not.

[bruce]

Have you never heard of "being in the limelight..."?

 

Calcium oxide luminesces at a high temperature - so imagine an acetylene burner with a lump of lime in the hot bit.....

 

Much more detailed science HERE.

 

Edit: Pah. Beat me to it....

[the kid]

Oh there is a reason reason. I thought it might of been a slightly less technical reason.

[mac.calder]

Indeed, I'd be very upset to hear a DSM using SFX along with LX.  Sound is much more useful.  Along with that, I'd rather hear 'pyro' or 'smoke' than FX.  Why does Electrics get the most efficent call?  Because there's almost always more LX cues than the others, I guess.

 

And I'd prefer Stop, to No. 

 

Isn't Lime a bit old-fashioned?  Haven't heard that for ages - normally it's "spot".

 

The most important thing, however, is the order.  Anyone who I hear saying "LX 90, Standby" or "Go LX 90" gets no muffins at my house...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Spot? In AU (at least, we're wierd compared to the rest of the world anyway) it's dome ;-P

 

When calling, I use LX, SD, fly, dome #, special and pyro. My Q's are also written in my PC as SDQ1 etc, and where I have multiple dome ops, dome1.1, and dome2.1, where the number before the . is the dome's id, numbered clockwise, top to bottom.

[gareth]

Spot? In AU (at least, we're wierd compared to the rest of the world anyway) it's dome

Now there's one I haven't heard before. Calling follow-spot cues as "dome" cues? How strange. What's the origin of that expression, then?

[stormster]

Yes Domes for spots, (same as bio box ) its the position in the old theatres london palladium still has a dome position. Yet the australians do still call it that, dsm on stepping outs an ozzie and trys to call the spots dome q's to much fun and confusion in some venues.

[gareth]

Yes Domes for spots, (same as bio box ) its the position in the old theatres london palladium still has a dome position. Yet the australians do still call it that, dsm on stepping outs an ozzie and trys to call the spots dome q's to much fun and confusion in some venues.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I had a feeling it might be something like that - but I can't say that it makes a huge amount of sense to me. It might have done many years ago, when follow spots were more commonly located in places like that, but not these days. I can't see any advantage to calling cues based on someone's location instead of their function. "Dome cue 1"? Wouldn't that be a little bit like calling "Fly Floor cue 1", or "Control Room cue 1"?

[ChrisD]

I guess no other cue sounds like dome. That might be why. Milton keynes panto this year, their f-spots were called as lx cues. On the odd occasion that an f-spot cue was called that is. Admitidly, I did only hear 2 shows (around the 30 mark) so I guess everyone knew what they were doing by then.