Rane Renshaw graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2015, and since then has become sought after as a freelance lighting director and programmer working in clubs like Zouk, LIV, and OMNIA Nightclubs, and with EDM and Hip-Hop artists. He is the founder of LimeLightWired, presenter of the session.
Rane moderated an occasionally rambunctious panel of programmers who shared stories from the front line of programming for live entertainment. Despite some back and forth, the panel reached consensus on certain topics and shared multiple tips for the audience of programmers.
The wide-ranging conversation covered fixture numbering, calibration and orientation, focusing, and hardware, and incorporated some embarrassing anecdotes from programmers who learned something the hard way.
Panel members included Ruben Laine, chief nerd at Creative Integration Studio, who was sent to theatre club in high school because his mother thought it would keep him away from drugs. Travis Maynard, lighting director & programmer, Mecca Visuals, who was drawn to programming because he likes pushing buttons, both technical and emotional. Sean Beach, who started programming in high school to help out when no one else knew how to do it. Since reading that console manual cover-to-cover he has worked on more than 30 Broadway shows. Erica D. Hayes, is a lighting designer and programmer who began working as a video director with Kem, right out of high school and now works with other artists and in film and TV. Matt Guminski is a lighting designer and programmer, and a production designer working from cruise ships to concerts.
During the course of the session, each of the designers offered different solutions and workflow tips, but there were some aspects of the discipline where everyone was in agreement.
Saving the Show
Paranoia is good. Ruben said, “Jesus saves and so should you!”
Just having the console on autosave every 15 minutes may not be enough. Erica tries to manually save after every couple of cues. She said, “If the console crashes and you lose 15 minutes of the show and the artist is on stage for you for a short time you just can’t go back. Keep your cues!” Using Dropbox or other cloud-based storage is also advisable. Sean estimated he had lost five thumb drives in various arenas, and once left one on the stage, walked out the wrong door and found himself in the lobby, and when he finally got back in to the lighting desk he realized he didn’t have the drive and the artist was already on stage.
Focusing: The Pan First Or Tilt First Question
Erica asked this question of the group and the takeaway was overwhelmingly to be tilt first. Sean advised treating it like focusing a Source 4 and Ruben likened it to ballet, where dancers start in first position so they can move easily through each of the next positions. He said, “Tilt first, so you don’t have to go back to first position after doing everything else.”
Pre-Arrival Planning
Erica had a tip which the other programmers will now adopt: She has a template email with specific questions about the venue/show that she sends out long before arriving on the scene. That way she can prepare for the challenges, especially if they are able to provide a lighting plot of the venue.
Travis and Matt like to get the whole show so they can be familiar with the tone, whether it is circus or a hi-hop artist, so they know the songs and the story. It is also a good indication of how organized the production is if they can get it to you. Sometimes Matt can start working on a color palette but mostly they want to get a feeling for the emotional arc and rhythm.
Communication
Good communication and trust is key. Matt once heard Howell Binkley get on the phone to the lighting desk and say to his programmer, “Sweetie, can you zhuzh this up for me?” and the programmer understood immediately. On the other hand, Sean was once doing a show and the designer called him up with some instructions that were absolute gibberish, he was completely bemused, until the designer hung up the phone but he heard him say, “Did you get the shot?” It turned out that a documentary film crew just wanted a clip of the designer and later his assistant came down to the desk and told him to disregard the instructions.
Matt once worked on a fashion event with a German lighting designer who wanted a cyan wash followed by a magenta chase in and he took too long to get it right. The designer became frustrated and asked if he could take over, and created two cues in a couple of minutes which worked perfectly. He was actually better on the Hog than Matt. It was a teachable moment. He said, “On the Hog, there are about 17 ways to do anything and sometimes you forget that the simplest way is often the best.”
Setting Up Cues Ahead of Time
If you have to busk a show, make a fresh file, don’t rely on cues you have previously programmed. Ruben suggests it will make you a better and faster programmer in the long run. He also said, “If you rely on past show files and macros, you will trigger things you have stopped using and don’t want anymore, you forget and think things will work when they won’t.” You also run the risk of getting rusty and you need to keep your skills sharp. His pro tip for the audience: “I don’t care if you like the music, go to a Phish show. Chris Kuroda busks the show every night and he has crazy macros and groups but he is making it fresh every night.”
Question from the audience: How do you keep track of channels and not let them descend into chaos?
Sean said that on Broadway he breaks it down by location, from the apron in, although he conceded that it is much harder on an arena tour to keep track of things that way so you may have to embrace the chaos. Matt also channels by location, from downstage left to upstage right in theatres, but for rock shows he works by category putting spots in one channel, audience blinders in another, and so on. Rane does not routinely use channels, preferring groups in layout. Ultimately, channeling will depend on the venue and show.
The final revelation from the group came from Erica, who affirmed that whatever you do in pre-viz, the vendor will inevitably do the opposite.