Default rig in a black box?

[gareth]

Another 'no' to fixed rigs.

 

Rigging and de-rigging, according to the needs of productions (your own, and visiting ones) is part and parcel of running a theatre space. You wouldn't have a 'fixed set', would you? By the same token, a lighting rig which is supposedly one-size-fits-all will end up fitting no-one. I speak from personal experience as a touring production electrician.

[kerry davies]

In your pros arch theatre then a base rig is useful to add to and save time on the daily get-in. In a black box, studio environment it is just silly unless there is going to be a long run of stand-up or something equally predictable.

 

I would love to see the SM's face when they found the stage in darkness and the audience lit creatively when things got reversed. Maybe they want to fix things so that they don't have to do the work involved in flexibility?

[Caldair]

This turned out quite long... :) In summary: Zip-ties bad, refocus and re-gel necessary, basic rig saves work and hassle, even black box has at least some commonly used positions and overlapping needs, venue should prepare stage for visiting production's rig.

 

 

David: If I understood correctly, the point wasn't to _rig_ using zip-ties, but to lock everything in place with them so they won't be moved.

 

I see no reason to zip-tie anything. Instead, I'd suggest a bit of tape or something to mark the standard hang positions, perhaps label the standard patch so you don't have to check lists and so on, and when you re-gel the basic rig keep the gels you remove somewhere handy so it's easy to re-gel. Or, y'know, keep the basic rig ungelled and don't worry about the patch. The time-consumer is the rigging, really.

Zip-ties just limits _your_ options. It prevents external techs from moving things around so you have to rehang them, but this isn't an architectural rig or a pub stage where the bartender flicks a switch and turns on the stage lighting. Assuming nobody will need to gel or refocus is silly.

 

A basic rig, however, may save time and work. That is, really, the whole purpose - to save the venue and tech time and hassle for one-nighters and other instances where you need front lights from the place they usually come from.

It could save time for everyone involved even in a black box, but there it may not mean a full rig. Along the walls are probably logical places to have front lights/back lights/side lighting depending on the orientation of the stage, for example. If you look at where people tend to hang lights, you may find some positions that get used often and there's no point in de-rigging them. I used to work freelance for a venue where they de-rigged everything after a show as a matter of principle - it looked more tidy that way, they figured. It was a black box, but had fixed seating. So every Sunday night they'd take down the front lights, and every Monday they'd cheerfully hang them back up again in the exact same place...

 

Gareth: According to the needs of productions, yes. But a lot of those needs will overlap. And although you wouldn't have a fixed set, you would (perhaps) keep stock scenery so you wouldn't have to build the same walls over and over, and if we let them the noise boys would probably just leave the downstage center microphone stand and a row of monitors on the stage for the same old band configuration night after night. We don't de-rig the multicables, either. So why take down the front lights if I need them up there again in the same place tomorrow?

 

As I mentioned, the point is to save time and hassle - so if the visiting tech has to spend a lot of time de-rigging and re-rigging the basic rig, you're probably doing it wrong.

I do most of my work these days in a venue with a couple of mid-sized (5-600 seats) fixed-seating stages with basic rigs, changed as much as any production needs. It works quite well.

Whether or not a visiting production brings their own lighting tech there'll be one from the venue (usually me), they'll include a lighting plan with their rider (or something like "Good cover front OW, 3 col wash backlight L134 Golden Amber/some sort of salmon/L7b Octarine", tailored to be compatible with basic rigs), if there are any problems with it we'll talk to them before the day, and I'll rig pretty much all of it before they get there, and we just hang whatever they bring themselves and focus. Then I re-rig the basic rig when they leave.

The hassle Genus had with having to spend time getting the basic rig out of the way and then rehanging it is basically that the venue hasn't prepared the stage for the production. It's like they didn't clear the stage, or required you to rig the stage for the next show and iron somebody else's shirt. Find out beforehand what they'll need, send them a plan of your basic rig if you want (basically "This is what's up there right now, is any of it of use to you"), if they need an emptied bar because they're bringing in a row of moving heads and Ikea lamps then you de-rig your basic rig from that bar for the night.

If it turns out you always have to do that, then yes, you may as well have an empty basic rig. But if you look at all those plans and find that "hmm, this plan has a row of fresnels here as front lights... and this one has fresnels as back lights but moved 50cm... and here there's nothing, so they wouldn't be in the way..." and so on, then you might as well leave them up there.

[paulears]

Pretty well it's down to cost. If a venue have to rig and de-rig at their cost, they won't want to do this. Half an hour moving things is better than four hours removing kit, and then 4 hours re-installing it. It is very common and is in the contracts. You can move whatever you like, but putting it back is your problem - OR we will contra the cost of venue staff doing it. Getting it wrong can be bad and costly.

 

My own venue booked Morrisey (I won't go into the details that it's rumoured the powers that be thought he was a stand up comedian) It took a day to strip everything out, and two days to re-install it. So I can understand why some venues do run with a stock rig as default. Other venues who do more major shows with far more specific lighting requirements tend to run empty, and will rig their own kit when they need it, from scratch. Each venue does what suits it best, depending on staffing and programming.

[torch1972]

A default rig is a good thing in the right sort of venue - one who does a lot of one-nighters, low->no budget shows and tight turn arrounds - cable tying it in place is completely daft no matter what circumstances)

 

 

+1

[paulears]

Just a thought. I wonder if the cable tie bit was meant to be about cable management. My venue have a few bars where there could be over half a dozen bits of TRS that aren't actually doing anything because things get added, and the cables secured with more tape. Using my own semi-permanent rig as an example, releasable cable ties would actually be better - opening them to slip in, or remove the extra cables put in for the extra kit. I may even give this a go next time we do a major change.

[Bryson]

Almost everywhere here that does one-nighters operates a "house hang" - that you may change or redo entirely as is your wish, but you must return to. Yes, this isn't ideal for people who have an LD who wants a full rehang, but it is ideal for those shows that just want the show lit without having to spend hours hanging from scratch when they walk through the door - and that is the vast majority of the shows in many venues.

 

In short, it depends on your venue. Which will be the path of least resistance? Decide based on that.

 

(In your case, where the whole stage moves (!) then I suspect a clear rig policy would be best. But a fixed rig does make sense for many, despite the protestations of the people above who claim it's always bad...)

 

 

If you do choose a fixed rig: Instead of cable-tying, consider a coloured tape or even tieline solution. ie: Semi-permanent house hang cables that should be struck are on with brown PVC, temporary runs are done with black PVC. At the end of the show, strike everything with black PVC, leave anything with brown.

 

(We actually use Black PVC for the house hang, tieline for temporary, but tieline is less common right-pond so that might not work for you.)

[fazJ]

I'm a lampy in a receiving house mostly bringing in one night shows, we have a standard house rig however if it needs changing or completely stripping then it gets changed or stripped, we do however put it into out contracts with company's that if this is the case then time spent re-rigging (if over the allotted get out time) will be contra back to the company.

 

We do try to operate a fixed front of house rig however, which is not always possible but wherever we can we try. I would like to know what peoples opinions are on fixed front of house rigs however?

[Ynot]

Speaking also from a venue operator's position - a 250 seater mainly am-dram repertoire - we have a flexible fixed rig, similar to those already mentioned.

 

the official policy is indeed that the fixed rig can be used, but any changes must be reversed before their contract ends (which could be a post-Saturday night getout or by arrangement soon after).

 

Our fixed assets are however quite wide in comparison with some venues - we can therefore cater easily for the multitude of one/two/three nighters we get in, many of whom have little clue as to what they actually want (MANY dance schools - nuff said...), whilst also being a good base for those shows we have in who in fact have better ideas and plans of how to re-jig or add to what's hung.

 

In short, it's really a case of going with what the main users want/need etc, but being flexible enough to cater for those who do have the time/budget to do more.

 

Speaking also from a venue operator's position - a 250 seater mainly am-dram repertoire - we have a flexible fixed rig, similar to those already mentioned. the official policy is indeed that the fixed rig can be used, but any changes must be reversed before their contract ends (which could be a post-Saturday night getout or by arrangement soon after). Our fixed assets are however quite wide in comparison with some venues - we can therefore cater easily for the multitude of one/two/three nighters we get in, many of whom have little clue as to what they actually want (MANY dance schools - nuff said...), whilst also being a good base for those shows we have in who in fact have better ideas and plans of how to re-jig or add to what's hung. In short, it's really a case of going with what the main users want/need etc, but being flexible enough to cater for those who do have the time/budget to do more.

[back_ache]

Just to let you all know the story so far.

 

We had *the* meeting and the default will there will be no lanterns hung before the show arrives and there should be no lanterns afterwards, the only thing we are going to leave fixed in place is six four channel dimmers, they'll be around the the perimeter of the rig, one in each corner and two in the middle.

 

We are also going to ask that the cables also only follow the bars, not take any short-cuts through the air.

 

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out over the months, but hopefully it's a simple enough idea that the LD's will buy into it.