To Watch, Or Not.

To watch, or not.

I'm trying to figure out how to come to terms with wanting to watch a movie because it has several talented, not hugely lucrative actors in it that I very much like; but one very big name actor in it who is a bland overhyped hack who basically plays himself playing a part and can't even learn his damn lines like a professional.

Boycotting it WAS a no brainer but now I keep finding minor characters are talent I enjoy, so I'm not sure which is the lesser of two evils - Ignoring the film and missing out on their performances; or watching it and giving Mr DrunkDumbass another tick on his 'number of views'. In the long run my viewership means nothing, but it's the principal of the thing.

Steve: Wears helmet into battle.

Me: Amazing! Responsible!

Steve: Gets on motorcycle and rides off with no helmet at end of Avengers.

Me: Steve NO!

Let Superheros wear helmets 2018

Look at this

These assholes are completely human

Look at this dumb fucking toaster. I know you can be stabbed, Vision! Put on a helmet! You have a useless cape, but no helmet!

You were a neurosurgeon, Stephen! You know how serious head injuries are!

YOU HAD A HELMET IN THE PREVIOUS MOVIES, STEVE! Did T’Challa seriously give this dumb fuck two shields but no helmet, or is he just that reckless?

WHAT THE HELL, T’CHALLA! WHY DOESN’T ANYONE IN YOUR COUNTRY HAVE A HELMET!

T’Challa, wHY ARE YOU THE ONLY ONE WITH A HELMET?! WHAT’S YOUR GAME, T’CHALLA? WHY WON’T YOU GIVE THEM HELMETS?!

ANSWER ME, GODDAMIT!

I love this. Wholeheartedly embrace this mentality. Stopping to check on people at the side of the road, changing their tires, it's something I embrace as a Honda rider (You meet the nicest people on one!).

Three years back in a Toys R Us, me and Garwik have a holiday tradition of 'build Lego all day'. We don't have kids, but we are kids, so it's a nice day together. I'm standing in line with a cart of Star Wars sets, bundled to the nines in my cold weather riding gear, and there's a young man and I presume his mother in line ahead of me. This was the rougher end of town, and the haggard appearance and visible tattoos were enough for a snap judgement that the dude had a less than perfect life. So he's got a basket of toddler toys and they're ringing it up and it's about $130. The guy and what I presumed to be the kids grandmother count out their cash. Then count it again. Then start removing things from the order, one item at a time. Out comes the Paw Patrol toy. Out comes the carpet playmat town for driving toy cars on. Out comes the off brand duplo. Finally they get their total under $100. And that's when I had enough. "Ring up the stuff they pulled," I told the teen on cash. Everyone looked at me like I was bonkers. "It's Christmas," I said. "Kids don't understand that Santa has a budget. Or why the rich kids get the best toys. Do you mind if I get you your things, and you guys have yourself a good holiday?" The guy behind me in line was irritated at the delay. Fuck 'im. Young man and his mom couldn't thank me enough. "Hey, don't worry about it. Maybe some day when you're doing good, just pay it forward." I don't care if that was foolish of me, or reckless, or if "they probably wasted all their money on crack". Ugh. Y'gotta trust in people, look out for each other, because we're all stuck in this mess together.

I was in line at Aldi and this girl with two toddlers in front of me had her card declined and she looked so fucking sad and said “let me call my husband real quick” and it was only 18 dollars, so I just paid for it, and she was very sweet and then as she walked off, the lady behind me said `”You know that was probably a scam, right?” and like, even if it was, like what a sad fucking scam, right? 18 dollars at the Aldi. If you’re “scamming” me for some Tyson chicken and apple juice and cauliflower, then just take my fucking money. 

“A scam” people are fucking wild.  

You mentioned being a spot op for a concert. Can you talk a little about how that works? I work in theater so I know a little about concerts but I’ve always wondered how the locals know which person to hit (especially if you’re not familiar with the band), how much practice you get ect ect. Thank you!

Yah sure, uhm. So how it goes for me is, I'm a member of the union IATSE. We handle everything from theatres to TV shows to movies to concerts to live events and more. Basically if it's entertainment and it needs someone technical, we can do it. So for things like concerts? Generally the venue hosting the concert will have a contract with the local IATSE chapter, and when a tour gets booked in, they send ahead a list of how many local crew they need to put everything together. That list gets passed on to the Union Business Agent, who then phones and texts members until enough people agree to take the jobs that are needed.

In most locals how the BA prioritizes is Seniority based; the member who's been a member the longest gets first dibs, then the second longest, and so on. This system has a lot of flaws, needless to say. The other typical method to fill the jobs is Meritocracy; What you know gets you work. So for example, I may be "Member 102" on the seniority based list, but I'm also one of only 5 people who can operate a lighting board. So if they need a Board Op, the BA skips all the people without the proper skillsets and just calls those five directly.

Does that mean the properly skilled people are always in the right jobs? No, sadly. There were guys who'd said "yes" to operating spot on that same concert, and they'd never touched one before in their lives. Sometimes you learn trial by fire. Some of them did just fine, picked it up and did their best. One guy was outright incompetent to the point that the designer just turned his lamp off. You hope your fellow members who "know things" are nice and share their information. You do what the road crew says.

And not all venues have IATSE contracts. They might staff their concerts from a temp agency, or have regular people they call, or something else... but. Ehn. Unions protect their members and also hold them accountable. If you skip a call you get fined. If rando from Generic Temp Agency skips a call, so what. He doesn't care. And the show gets short staffed.

So I guess the best way to find out what method your local venues use is go ask 'em? See if they hire off the street, or if they're affiliated with an agency or union, and then figure out if you want to sign up for that sort of thing.

We'll have members who 'went to school for this', members who have a family member already in the Local, members who just enjoy the job, members who just earn some spare cash now and then. It's a mixed bag, but -generally- you used to find out by knowing someone in IA already. Back before all this social media info sharing.

And unless you're in like, New York, Toronto, or Hollywood? Or land a job as a permanent venue technician? This is NOT a job that will keep you alive. Hamilton members who aren't in the top 50 are lucky if they get one call a month, because the main concert venue has decided it can't be bothered to actually book any tours in. It's -great- cash when you can get it, but unless you have a main job, or a spouse willing to shoulder the primary income; it's just like being an actor. Sometimes you work, sometimes you don't. I've only had six days of calls so far this year? 21 days into January. It's a lot of "hopefully the phone will ring this week".

As for "practise"? At the BTS concert the spot ops met the Korean Operator Designer - not sure her exact title, but the lady who would be directing us who to pick up. Through a translator, she assigned us lamps, talked us through each song, and showed us some footage to try and explain more complicated pickups and swaps. This is not what usually happens, in my experiance.

For a concert that rolls in one morning, unloads, sets up, performs, tears down, packs up, and drives away, all in one day, you generally get told "You'll be on spot six. Follow the guitar guy with the white shirt. I'll tell you on headset what number spots are going to be on for each song. Have a good show." And then you hope like heck there aren't two guys with guitars and white shirts.

I had a coworker who did an Irish Riverdance style concert and the touring tech came on comm and said "quick, pick up the girl with red hair and the green dress." Hot tip. That's every girl in a show like that. Ouch.

For something like a theatre play that runs for weeks or months, you'll be rehearsing spot during the tech weeks, what character, what color, how fast or slow, how big, going along with them as they practise running the show to hopefully create a smooth and fluid experiance. In a rock concert there's so much lighting and flashing and video and pyro that if you miss a pick up, it's not the end of the show. It might look sloppy but no one will even remember. Since plays have more intimate designs, less intentional "blind the audience", if you're cutting the actors head out of the beam, it's going to look a lot worse. So the rehersals help tidy that up.

Not sure if that answered what you were wondering!

My studio venue had one - it had been bought because the mainstage operator wanted to slave it to his system for moving lights when my room didn't have shows. He was vetoed because the possibility of rentals. So I had a "moving light" board in a room that just needed scene playback with outdated conventional fixtures. It. Was. THE. WORST.

We didn't even have a monitor so I had to use the tiny pixel display to guess intensity. It's only seven pixels tall? What the hell % is 5 out of 7 pixels?

It's gotten SLIGHTLY better since ten years ago - I was there back in the fall and they'd finally put updates on it and ETC added the ability to designate which Point cue you want to insert a cue as. When I was running it, it would just auto assign a point by splitting the middle of the cue you were in and the next cue. So if you had a Cue 2 and 3 and designer wants to add three cues in between? Be in Cue 2 and build 2.5 - then be in Cue 2 to build 2.3 - then be in Cue 2.5 to build 2.7. Good times.

Anyone I've mentioned that board to has also groaned and rolled their eyes and asked "WHY."

A good anecdote however: I was running a spot light for the Hamilton, Ontario stop of the BTS concert last year, and there were eight of us out on a line of truss suspended at the far end of the arena. Below us was the FoH stage, covered in consoles and controllers and operators, and camera operators for the live feed LED screens.

So I'm peering down at the lighting boards, the backup lighting boards, the lighting board specifically for the spot lights, and so on and so on when something catches my eye.

We were in a lull so I thumb my headset open to ask the American who was in charge of the equipment and standing by in case the Korean operator had any issues... "Is that... An ETC Smartfade...? In the last row of tables?"

"Sure is," he responds in his smooth southern drawl.

"Holy shit," I exclaim. "I've never actually seen one being actually used in a professional lighting rig!" Was my little garbage studio board actually useful after all?

"Oh, no," he responded, chuckling. "It's for the Pyro."

Photos mine, do not reuse without permission, because I probably shouldn't have taken or be sharing them in the first place but c'mon, Smartfade, lawl. It's the redheaded stepchild.

Can someone who actually does lighting/more tech than I do confirm that Smartfade lightboards are terrible

Because I’m stuck working with one in a rented storefront right now and honestly, what the fuck

Simple studio show, he said.

Hardly any tech, he said.

Then why I am at hour five of a solo focus/design session.

Needless to say the lighting area for the last show in here (one woman on an 8'x12' stage at a 1' height) was not sufficient for a three person production, on the floor, with a shipping trunk, 3'x2' slat box, coat rack, and canvas ship sail/projection screen.

So let's turn an 8x12 foot coverage wash into 24x20 playing space.

Hell yes I love this job.

But sometimes, seriously.

San Fransokyo is gonna get overrun with Heartless while I'm stuck here focusing tips.

Theatre Life Tip: Your Business Agent/Technical Director/Designer will always say "it should be easy" to coax you to take the call, because once you walk into the building, your soul is theirs. It's never "that easy".