29/10/2006
As of about half an hour ago, Oliver is over for me... we've done more or less all the de-rigging, and about all there is left from a lighting point of view is taking a few bits back to the companies they were hired from (which Greg, the bloke that designed and put together the whole lighting system but couldn't make it to the performances, is going to do tomorrow). So essentially my involvement in it lasted about 8 and a half days... I shouldn't have got so attached really, tho I suppose I did spend the majority of my waking hours during those 8 1/2 days working on it.
That intensive process has meant I've learnt a hell of a lot [e.g. the correct spelling is "Fresnell" ;-)], tho there's still plenty I wouldn't be happy doing - perhaps the biggest such thing being designing how to light a show, and working out from that (without of course having seen how my ideas look) what lights to put where. Once they're there I can patch and operate generic lights (that's the ones that aren't controlled digitally) til the proverbial cows return from whatever it is they get up to when not at home. I wouldn't want to use the digital ones anyway, cos as far as I could see they're still a few stages of development away from being as good (I couldn't coax decent fades out of them, for one thing).
But as much as I've learnt, the main reason I look back over the last week with as much glee as I do is that lighting is just damn good fun :-) You get to play with electrics that make you look like a Real Man™, wander around during the interval with a radio earpiece in so you look important, use the same radio to laugh at the stage manager when he wanders on in the middle of a scene looking like Dracula, and (when you get it right) make really impressive things happen at the slide of a fader. As an added bonus everyone seemed to be unneccessarily appreciative of me - despite the fact that I turned up at the last minute and did all the fun stuff without the months of work beforehand, the rest of the production team (who'd done all that work) still seemed grateful. Strange people. I really haven't done anything that special... tho I guess it's probably best if no-one tells them that: after all, I'd quite like them to think they need me back for the next show :-D
26/10/2006
One performance down, and it was as much fun as I expected, but with the added bonus of not being as catastrophic as predicted. In fact people congratulated me... although that may have been going a bit far, and there are certainly points of improvement I can attempt tonight (like not leaving Oliver's mic on when he starts talking backstage in the middle of the interval...), still a Good Night. And now. I'd best be off and see if I can avoid slipping this time ;-)
24/10/2006
I feel I'd probably better admit in this public venue that I know absolutely nothing about stage lighting - I've played around on a couple of very small productions without killing anyone, but that's it. I've no idea what the difference is between a parcan and a franell. I don't even know if I've spelt those right. On that basis you'd think that the local drama group would want someone a bit more qualified to be in sole charge of lighting and sound on the nights of their fairly major production of Oliver, wouldn't you? Ah well, sometimes people don't match up to our expectations - I shall indeed be in control of that little lot, so when it all goes horribly wrong, no-one will be there to catch me...
...and yet I'm not particularly worried - this may just be a sort of egomania that tells me I can do anything I feel like (at the same time as I make some sort of progress through the mountains of half-term homework?), or it may be that things aren't as bleak as I describe above. Whatever the truth, I'm certainly having fun, and probably will be right up to the moment when a mis-wired patch box catches fire and the whole hall is engulfed in flame. When I'm in prison for 240 counts of manslaughter, do please some of you come and visit me. :-)
14/10/2006
What a week... I can now finally say that I've finished my UCAS application - no more than 2 days before the final deadline for Cambridge applications... yeah, I know I should be being joyful about being in a position where I can apply to Cambridge and feel like I'm not "wholly" wasting my time, but their early application date has made the process very tricky, tho I suppose it wasn't helped by missing the week of the Italy tour, which was indeed my own fault, and was easily good enough to make up for the difficulty caused. As I say, it was all pulled together at the 11th hour, and I'm not even certain that my form will get to Cambridge in time: although I was just about ready by lunch time on thursday, I needed to enclose the reference from my head of 6th form, and that wasn't finished til well after Post Offices had closed for the day. So it wasn't until the morning of Friday (13th) that it got into the post. The deadline is the 15th, every year, and this year that falls on a sunday of course.There's no post delivered on sunday, and I'm not sure about Saturday. It certainly wouldn't have arrived on Friday. So It may well not be until the morning of the 16th that it arrives (tho we did send it top super-special delivery plus ;-) so we can but hope).
Wish me luck, if you're so inclined.
3/10/2006
Tomorrow's transport arrangements are a work of engineering to be marvelled at (bus numbers changed to protect the innocent, or at least the not-very-guilty):
- 08:00 - To "Small Town of my school" half way between "Town of my Home" and "Large Town of flute choir", in dad's car (easy)
- 16:06 - Bus 640 from "Small Town of my school" to town centre of "Large Town of flute choir"
- 17:01 - Bus R5 from town centre of "Large Town of flute choir" to "suburb of flute choir"
- 17:23 - Walk from bus stop in "suburb of flute choir" to place of making music
- Wait an hour and a half before the second rehearsal of flute choir (as mentioned in the last post)
- (Here begins the really interesting bit)
21:00 - Take car of parent of one of the flute choiristers (who I've therefore met once - demmanding, me?) to "Medium Sized Town" between "Large Town of flute choir" and "Small Town of my school" - 21:42 - Bus 17K from "Medium Sized Town" to "Small Town #2", near "Small Town of my school."
- 22:02 - Walk from bus stop in "Small Town #2" to house of friend I've known for many years, but the address of whom I don't yet know.
- C23:30 - Dad returns from far-flung parts to retrieve me from "Small Town #2"
- C00:00 - Return to "Town of my home"
I feel better for having that all down, really I do ;-) Wish me luck...