Why You Pesky Kids....

[Thirdtap]

'Lo

Topic comes from watching a few sound people having to take most of a large sound desk apart to get to one threaded or broken bolt.

 

So the topic is what is the smallest or oddest thing that has caused you trouble on a production?

 

Answers of a short odd director may not be suitable. Thank you.

 

 

My thing or one of....

Answer : An extra long bolt.

Story:

The job was equipment and prop collection. Picked up the van in London and had my first collection in Reading. It was here that I found out that the tail lift wouldn't lower. Managed to cram the equipment into the cab and drove back into London. Next pickup was at a props hire place for LOTS of stuff for the event.

Felt like giving up so gave a friend a call for any ideas and he said he was free to help me that afternoon. So went and picked him up and also borrowed an A frame ladder so the rest of the kit could get put into the back of the lorry.

At the end of the day managed to phone the van hire company and they sent somebody out to look at the lorry. The lift had been serviced and parts replaced but the bolt had not been trimmed down so once raised got stuck.

 

Picture final scene:

Tech: Well it was going to an easy days work for me, and I would have got away with too if it wasn't for that pesky bolt!!!! Ggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhh.

 

A non trademarked brown dog barks: Scroooby Dooo. Teeeeeee Heeeeeeeee

[Guest lightnix]

Back in 1998, I was a V*L tech on the Potsdamer Platz reopening gala in Berlin, probably the largest gig I've ever worked on to this day.

 

The system was complete and "all" that remained to do was debug it and sort out all those annoying little faults which any huge system (V*L or otherwise) inevitably throws up.

 

At around 11pm one night and after over 14 hours on site (which was a building site, BTW), I was called upon to investigate a VL2Câ„¢ up the top of a scaff tower, which had gone out.

 

After checking through all the "usual" things, I eventually traced the fault to a bad lamp holder. "Luckily" there was another bad 2C in the corner, awaiting collection and repair. "Right", thought I, "I'll just have the lamp holder out of that one then".

 

I removed it and introduced it to the light I was fixing. It wouldn't fit.

 

"What ???" I tried again. It wouldn't fit.

 

"No way !" Three or four attempts later, I remembered something...

 

Back when the final batch of 2Bs had been converted to 2Cs, there was a shortage of about half a dozen new lamp holder assemblies, so we tried fitting the new bulb holders to the old assemblies and found that they worked OK. The incomplete lights were supposed to have gone into the demo room for use as floorlights until the parts arrived, but somehow wound up being sent out on shows instead. We would have known which ones they were, had they gone to the demo room and so hadn't put any kind of marking on them. Now they were lost...

 

...and I'd just found one of them.

 

My cry of "OH FOR F :D CKS SAKES" could be heard at each end of the street and elicited a couple of calls on the radio, asking if I was OK.

 

I can't remember how I fixed it in the end, I think I trudged back to the V*L hospital two streets away to get another one, having managed (just) to resist the urge to hoik the bloody thing over the side of the tower and gain some small satisfaction from listening to the crunch from below.

 

Needless to say it all worked in the end (as usual) and the client was overjoyed.

 

Also, on the same gig, we were promised a late call (11am) one morning after a particularly long day. At 6.45am the 'phone rang in my hotel room...

 

"Erm... Hello ?"

"Ah, hello Nick, it's Joerg. I'm really sorry to disturb you so early, but we have a little problem. Can you come in please, as quickly as possible ?"

"Give me 20 minutes"

"OK, thanks. Sorry."

"No problem", I lied.

 

The generators supplying the main stage had gone out of sync, causing the voltage to fluctuate (or something like that). The gennie man hadn't noticed until it was too late. The voltage had dropped to the point where the V*L "smart" power supplies had clicked over to 110 volt mode. Unfortunately, when it rose again they didn't click back. The result was that every single Series 200 luminaire and all the Smart Repeaters over the main stage needed a fuse replacing.

 

The immediate question was whether to try to fix them in the air or drop them in and fix them on the floor. It turned out to be academic, as each method took just as long to do. Fortunately for the gennie man we were to knackered to lynch him afterwards and we just had to make do with hurling a few insults.

 

Needless to say it all worked blah blah blah and the client was etc. etc. etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's been nearly nine months, since I ran away in terror from that kind of thing and when I look back now, it almost seems like a dream sometimes. Honestly, I can't believe some of the things I've seen and done over the years to make it all happen. I hope I never have to do them again, but sometimes I still shed a tear in memory of those mad, bad days and the dear friends I made, but will probably never see again.

 

Often at night, I hear a strange crying sound, coming from just below my nose.

[peter]

Nick: Have you ever considered writing a book? A few more like that and you'd be on to a winner.... very entertaining. Just glad it wasnt me.