I had asked around before I came out to New Mexico what it would be like to go running at a much higher altitude. I kept hearing "pace yourself and drink lots of water".
So about a week ago I decided to take a run. I had been waiting to buy new running shoes, but I'm not gonna have the disposable income to do that for a while now, and the shoes I have aren't completely done for (yet). So I laced up, drank some water beforehand, and set off on a good 3-mile jog. I had no idea it was 3 miles at the time, I just ran a route that followed major roads. I've always been pretty good on my bearings, and knew I would be able to find my way home.
I used to run with an iPod nano and some music, but it got to the point that I was focusing on the music, getting distracted, and couldn't just relax and run. So I ditched the iPod for a while. Now, I need something to focus on instead of my running. Recently, I've been listening to a lot of podcasts, so I loaded some up and went for a run.
(For those who don't know, a podcast is like radio, but on-demand. Some podcasts are video, but most are audio-only. For example, Car Talk on NPR is also released as a podcast, Rachel Maddow's TV show on MSNBC also releases an audio-only version of her daily broadcast. There are also some technology networks who release podcasts on a weekly basis. Cooking podcasts exist, along with exercise, political, social and business broadcasts)
Anyway. The first run I did about a week ago went...okay. About the first mile or so was really clean, and I felt great. My muscles weren't used to the sudden bombardment, so they stayed pretty tight throughout the run. About two miles in, I really started to burn out. I knew that I couldn't do a mile run, or two, that it had to be three. I walked a lot in the second mile, mainly just to get home. It was an extended cool-down, but it felt great to finally get out and run again.
The second run was a good bit easier than the first. I drank more water and made sure it passed through me before I started running. I also picked up an armband from Target for my iPhone, so I don't have to hold it in my hand. The first mile and a half on this run were much easier, but as I started getting into the second mile, my body caught up with me and the air started thinning out. I found it hard to get a nice full intake of air. I was either taking shallow, useless breaths, or big gulps of air over longer periods of time, causing me to get light-headed when my brain didn't get the oxygen it was expecting. About two and a half miles in, I finally gave up and walked the rest of the way home. My iPhone (with RunKeeper GPS) said my average pace was around 11:30/mile, which isn't bad for my second run in 8 months, let along at 7,000 feet. My pace was quick at the start, but obviously slowed down. It did stay consistent once it slowed down, which is surprising, because I'm usually a stop/start runner.
-Matt
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Day 27
The days are starting to blur together; going in around 5pm, and getting home past midnight.
Saturday was a day off for me, and even though I didn't do much, i'm going to tell you about my trip to the southern part of Santa Fe, which I did Thursday or Friday.
There's only so much to do within reasonable walking distance of the Axton Apartments (reasonable for me is a mile and a half / 30 minutes away). I say reasonable because i'm usually carrying something with me to or from, like groceries, and 30 minutes lugging 30 pounds of groceries gets lame after a while. Within walking distance is the Plaza (the 'heart' of Santa Fe, while it's a shopping district, 90% of the stores are tourist traps selling lame little trinkets), a Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and some other chain stores. Most of the big box stores like Target, Best Buy, Bed, Bath & Beyond, etc are in what i'm now classifying as the "Shopping District", which is down by the Santa Fe Airport.
Honestly, when you're not working, there isn't much to do other than shop, go running, read, cook or sleep. Since this was right after payday, I decided to shop a little. I checked the bus maps and timetables, and headed out to the new Whole Foods (formerly Wild Oats Market) where the #2 Bus stopped. The trip to the Shopping District was about 30 minutes, down Cerrillos Rd (which I call Santa Fe's "Broadway", not for any other reason then it's a major road that slashes through Santa Fe, like Broadway in New York). I hopped off the bus just short of Santa Fe Place (the mall) at a Target.
Ah, Target. Home of all the 'normal' stuff that Trader Joe's or Whole Foods won't carry. Like trash bags, and Zip-Loc containers, and everything else. Honestly, I've been spoiled to have so many Target's at home. Hell, i'm spoiled to have a CAR at home. Back in Hershey last summer, two of my bandmates didn't have a car, and they lived on the other side of Hershey from us. They had to borrow a car to do everything, and I totally feel their pain right now.
My original plan for this trip was to get some sunglasses, because the ones I brought with me are MIA. There's apparently a Sunglass Hut in Santa Fe Place, but I figured i'd check Target first. Inside, I just started wandering around, looking for things that I didn't know I needed. I found plenty, but didn't want to splurge yet. I headed for the sunglasses, and found a pair that I liked (polarized, too!). I also headed to the kitchen section to find a potato masher, so I could mash the avocados for guacamole. I also poked through the Electronics section, and found a great iPhone armband for $20 (for running, that's a story for later).
I checked out, and headed down to the Mall. The mall itself was okay, about the size of White Marsh Mall with only one floor. It was kinda empty and quiet, but I also had gone on a weekday during the day. Not a whole lot to see or enjoy in the mall. I left there and stopped by the Harley-Davidson dealership next to the mall. It, too, was kind of barren. I inquired if they did rentals, and they said no, the closest place that does rentals was in Albuquerque.
Lame.
It took a while for me to figure out where the bus stop going BACK was (since I got off the bus early and it looped back in some weird way). It's $2 to ride the bus all day, a great deal!
Next: Running at 7,000 feet
Saturday was a day off for me, and even though I didn't do much, i'm going to tell you about my trip to the southern part of Santa Fe, which I did Thursday or Friday.
There's only so much to do within reasonable walking distance of the Axton Apartments (reasonable for me is a mile and a half / 30 minutes away). I say reasonable because i'm usually carrying something with me to or from, like groceries, and 30 minutes lugging 30 pounds of groceries gets lame after a while. Within walking distance is the Plaza (the 'heart' of Santa Fe, while it's a shopping district, 90% of the stores are tourist traps selling lame little trinkets), a Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and some other chain stores. Most of the big box stores like Target, Best Buy, Bed, Bath & Beyond, etc are in what i'm now classifying as the "Shopping District", which is down by the Santa Fe Airport.
Honestly, when you're not working, there isn't much to do other than shop, go running, read, cook or sleep. Since this was right after payday, I decided to shop a little. I checked the bus maps and timetables, and headed out to the new Whole Foods (formerly Wild Oats Market) where the #2 Bus stopped. The trip to the Shopping District was about 30 minutes, down Cerrillos Rd (which I call Santa Fe's "Broadway", not for any other reason then it's a major road that slashes through Santa Fe, like Broadway in New York). I hopped off the bus just short of Santa Fe Place (the mall) at a Target.
Ah, Target. Home of all the 'normal' stuff that Trader Joe's or Whole Foods won't carry. Like trash bags, and Zip-Loc containers, and everything else. Honestly, I've been spoiled to have so many Target's at home. Hell, i'm spoiled to have a CAR at home. Back in Hershey last summer, two of my bandmates didn't have a car, and they lived on the other side of Hershey from us. They had to borrow a car to do everything, and I totally feel their pain right now.
My original plan for this trip was to get some sunglasses, because the ones I brought with me are MIA. There's apparently a Sunglass Hut in Santa Fe Place, but I figured i'd check Target first. Inside, I just started wandering around, looking for things that I didn't know I needed. I found plenty, but didn't want to splurge yet. I headed for the sunglasses, and found a pair that I liked (polarized, too!). I also headed to the kitchen section to find a potato masher, so I could mash the avocados for guacamole. I also poked through the Electronics section, and found a great iPhone armband for $20 (for running, that's a story for later).
I checked out, and headed down to the Mall. The mall itself was okay, about the size of White Marsh Mall with only one floor. It was kinda empty and quiet, but I also had gone on a weekday during the day. Not a whole lot to see or enjoy in the mall. I left there and stopped by the Harley-Davidson dealership next to the mall. It, too, was kind of barren. I inquired if they did rentals, and they said no, the closest place that does rentals was in Albuquerque.
Lame.
It took a while for me to figure out where the bus stop going BACK was (since I got off the bus early and it looped back in some weird way). It's $2 to ride the bus all day, a great deal!
Next: Running at 7,000 feet
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Day 26 (Friday, for those keeping track)
Today is the first dress rehearsal of "Madama Butterfly", with a piano instead of the full orchestra. Even without an orchestra, the rehearsal is considered a real performance, with makeup and costume calls, places calls, and a strict timeframe for all departments.
My first task was to get wireless intercom up and running, because electrics crew needed to begin focusing. Once that was set up, I went down to Orchestra Services and got my Stieren Walkway monitor up and running. I went around the rest of the theatre and made sure the roving video monitors worked as well. The energy around the stage was very high, everybody focused on bringing this production alive. Shawn (the stage manager) was at the stage manager's desk, making places calls, gathering information and wrangling the whole production together. All of his calls were crisp and clear, and his professionalism renewed my confidence in my own work; it made me want to work harder to deliver my department for this production.
During focus, we hung two flat-screen conductor monitors about chest-high just inside the proscenium, something that was requested during rehearsals and needs to remain throughout every performance. Unfortunately, other shows need that same position for lighting instruments, the flat-screen has to be taken down after every performance of "Butterfly". So we get the monitors hung and working, about two hours before the run starts. However, throughout the pre-show process, we're told repeatedly that the monitors have stopped working. Apparently, as the electrics crew were getting to the lights near the flat screens, cables were getting unplugged. What I need to do in the future is hang the screens, but leave the cables unplugged until focus is complete, so they won't get unplugged or damaged.
We started on-time, but the pre-show work still took too long; focus ran over, which means stage crew started late, and props started late. It's why we do dress rehearsals, and hopefully the next rehearsal will be much tighter.
As for the run itself, when you're in the A/V control room, you're in the center of all the communications for the theatre. You hear all the intercom calls, and the show runs like a well-oiled machine. Several times throughout the run, we stopped so the director could make a few changes, but the run went well. Definitely a learning experience!
My first task was to get wireless intercom up and running, because electrics crew needed to begin focusing. Once that was set up, I went down to Orchestra Services and got my Stieren Walkway monitor up and running. I went around the rest of the theatre and made sure the roving video monitors worked as well. The energy around the stage was very high, everybody focused on bringing this production alive. Shawn (the stage manager) was at the stage manager's desk, making places calls, gathering information and wrangling the whole production together. All of his calls were crisp and clear, and his professionalism renewed my confidence in my own work; it made me want to work harder to deliver my department for this production.
During focus, we hung two flat-screen conductor monitors about chest-high just inside the proscenium, something that was requested during rehearsals and needs to remain throughout every performance. Unfortunately, other shows need that same position for lighting instruments, the flat-screen has to be taken down after every performance of "Butterfly". So we get the monitors hung and working, about two hours before the run starts. However, throughout the pre-show process, we're told repeatedly that the monitors have stopped working. Apparently, as the electrics crew were getting to the lights near the flat screens, cables were getting unplugged. What I need to do in the future is hang the screens, but leave the cables unplugged until focus is complete, so they won't get unplugged or damaged.
We started on-time, but the pre-show work still took too long; focus ran over, which means stage crew started late, and props started late. It's why we do dress rehearsals, and hopefully the next rehearsal will be much tighter.
As for the run itself, when you're in the A/V control room, you're in the center of all the communications for the theatre. You hear all the intercom calls, and the show runs like a well-oiled machine. Several times throughout the run, we stopped so the director could make a few changes, but the run went well. Definitely a learning experience!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Day 25
Thursday was another technical rehearsal, this time it was the first for "The Tales Of Hoffmann". Since the next day was the piano dress rehearsal for "Madama Butterfly", I had a lot of work to get ready ("Butterfly" is the show that i'm the audio-video pointman for). The technical rehearsals are hands-off from an A/V perspective, so it gave me time to finalize things for the piano dress the next day. One project I needed to finish was an audio/video monitor in a walkway to the rehearsal hall. The conductor wanted the effect of a cannon firing in the distance, so he decided to put a bass drum in an unseen corner of the campus, but still nearby to the theatre. Since the performer can't see the conductor or hear the orchestra, they'll need a video feed of the conductor camera and an audio feed of the orchestra.
Of course the conductor picks a place that's the farthest possible from any audio, video, or power connections.
One way to get audio and video to a remote location is to modulate it, combining the audio and video together into a single signal. Remember when you had a TV with only a cable/antenna input, but a Nintendo or DVD player with the red/white/yellow jacks? You ran to the store and bought a converter box to go into the antenna jack on channel 3 or 4? That's modulation, you're turning the combined audio and video into a specific frequency which the TV interprets as "Channel 3".
So I grabbed a TV modulator, and ran the archive audio feed and the conductor camera into the box, and pushed a signal down to the rehearsal hall video jacks. I took a TV into the rehearsal hall, plugged in, and got what amounted to a very poor signal. The video was fuzzy and the audio had a really bad buzz. It wasn't a quality that I was happy with, so I ditched the idea. Now I need to run audio AND video separate, and still run power.
I could run audio over the other rehearsal hall video jack, but it was really dirty-sounding. Orchestra Services had a video jack, but only one, and no audio. I would hate to run cables all over the place, so the nearest place that had audio and video nearby was stage right.
So I grab 100' each of audio, video and power, and start taping them together into one cable. Since the walkway is right outside of Orchestra Services, which is right below stage right, I dropped the audio and video through some conduit from stage right to Orchestra Services, then along the conduit, picking up power along the way from a nearby wall outlet. The result was 75' of coiled cable that could be fed out along the entire length of the walkway.
The actual monitor will be a larger TV on a cart, but the 9" monitor was perfect to test video and power, and I used the sniffer to make sure the audio was feeding correctly.
The sun setting over the western hills is gorgeous every night, but since the sky has been mostly clear, there was little to accent the sunset. Tonight there were plenty of clouds in the sky to make an absolutely stunning visual:
The "Tales of Hoffmann" set is one of the few with a closed upstage (not looking over the hills), and since the set was contained within the "stricter" boundaries of the theatre stage, the crossover walkway next to the B-lift was also clear, meaning I don't have to go UNDER the stage to get to stage right. I was out on the back deck enjoying the weather when I saw how neat the stage looked from the back deck.
If you're curious why theatres always use blue lights backstage, i'm pretty sure it has to do with how the eyes respond to blue light (or the ultra-violet portion of the light spectrum). The visible light spectrum goes from red to violet (red, orange, yellow, blah blah), with infrared light being on the fringe of one side of the spectrum, and ultraviolet being on the other side.
Ever notice airplane cockpits have red lights in them? With red light, the pupil doesn't have to dilate as much, so pilots can preserve their night vision and still see outside as well as inside the cockpit. Some headlamps have red LEDs built-in to serve the same purpose: working in low-light situations without having the light blind you.
On the other side of the spectrum, the eye is not as sensitive to blue light, and does not perceive it as easily has red light. I think it also helps because the stage lights are so damn bright, that the transition from a stage light environment to a blue light environment keeps the pupils dilated so the blinding effect is not as intense.
You're welcome.
Of course the conductor picks a place that's the farthest possible from any audio, video, or power connections.
One way to get audio and video to a remote location is to modulate it, combining the audio and video together into a single signal. Remember when you had a TV with only a cable/antenna input, but a Nintendo or DVD player with the red/white/yellow jacks? You ran to the store and bought a converter box to go into the antenna jack on channel 3 or 4? That's modulation, you're turning the combined audio and video into a specific frequency which the TV interprets as "Channel 3".
So I grabbed a TV modulator, and ran the archive audio feed and the conductor camera into the box, and pushed a signal down to the rehearsal hall video jacks. I took a TV into the rehearsal hall, plugged in, and got what amounted to a very poor signal. The video was fuzzy and the audio had a really bad buzz. It wasn't a quality that I was happy with, so I ditched the idea. Now I need to run audio AND video separate, and still run power.
I could run audio over the other rehearsal hall video jack, but it was really dirty-sounding. Orchestra Services had a video jack, but only one, and no audio. I would hate to run cables all over the place, so the nearest place that had audio and video nearby was stage right.
So I grab 100' each of audio, video and power, and start taping them together into one cable. Since the walkway is right outside of Orchestra Services, which is right below stage right, I dropped the audio and video through some conduit from stage right to Orchestra Services, then along the conduit, picking up power along the way from a nearby wall outlet. The result was 75' of coiled cable that could be fed out along the entire length of the walkway.
The actual monitor will be a larger TV on a cart, but the 9" monitor was perfect to test video and power, and I used the sniffer to make sure the audio was feeding correctly.
The sun setting over the western hills is gorgeous every night, but since the sky has been mostly clear, there was little to accent the sunset. Tonight there were plenty of clouds in the sky to make an absolutely stunning visual:
The "Tales of Hoffmann" set is one of the few with a closed upstage (not looking over the hills), and since the set was contained within the "stricter" boundaries of the theatre stage, the crossover walkway next to the B-lift was also clear, meaning I don't have to go UNDER the stage to get to stage right. I was out on the back deck enjoying the weather when I saw how neat the stage looked from the back deck.
If you're curious why theatres always use blue lights backstage, i'm pretty sure it has to do with how the eyes respond to blue light (or the ultra-violet portion of the light spectrum). The visible light spectrum goes from red to violet (red, orange, yellow, blah blah), with infrared light being on the fringe of one side of the spectrum, and ultraviolet being on the other side.
Ever notice airplane cockpits have red lights in them? With red light, the pupil doesn't have to dilate as much, so pilots can preserve their night vision and still see outside as well as inside the cockpit. Some headlamps have red LEDs built-in to serve the same purpose: working in low-light situations without having the light blind you.
On the other side of the spectrum, the eye is not as sensitive to blue light, and does not perceive it as easily has red light. I think it also helps because the stage lights are so damn bright, that the transition from a stage light environment to a blue light environment keeps the pupils dilated so the blinding effect is not as intense.
You're welcome.
Day 25 and 26 are coming!
Lots to write about, both from late nights. Saturday is a day off for me, so i'll write about Thursday (with pics) and Friday's first dress rehearsal of "Madama Butterfly", lots to talk about!
-Matt
-Matt
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Day 23 and 24
Hi everyone.
Two lighting sessions, two shifts from 5pm to 1am.
Yesterday was the lighting session for our fourth show, "Life is a Dream". The set has these cool, mechanical fingers that flip up out of the walls, and do all sorts of neat lighting effects. Here are some photos from the lighting session:
Looking towards the audience from the back of the stage.
Two lighting supervisors discuss the next steps for focus.
I also took some more photos around the Opera campus:
Welcome to the Ranch, an "L"-shaped, single-story building housing the non-production related offices for the Santa Fe Opera
Turning 180 degrees, this is the walkway from the Ranch to the Cantina, the Opera's cafeteria.
For those who will appreciate it, this dust collection system is so large, it has it's own muffler.
The evening went by slow, with focus ending around 1am.
The next morning was a Company Meeting at 9am. Not a lot of turn-around time for sleep :) The meeting talked about future steps for the Opera, where we've come from, where we're going. Informative, definitely. At the end, to promote recycling and reducing waste, we were all given water bottles with Santa Fe Opera printed on them. Pretty neat swag. I was given a break from 12 noon to 6pm, since i had to come back for the lighting session of "Albert Herring". I got a bunch of laundry done, cleaned my room and the apartment a bit. I got back to the Opera around 5pm and tonight is pretty much like last night: Babysitting intercom. I've been problem-solving some video/audio solutions for "Madame Butterfly", but that's pretty much it.
Tomorrow is the first technical rehearsal for "The Tales of Hoffmann". See you then!
-Matt
Two lighting sessions, two shifts from 5pm to 1am.
Yesterday was the lighting session for our fourth show, "Life is a Dream". The set has these cool, mechanical fingers that flip up out of the walls, and do all sorts of neat lighting effects. Here are some photos from the lighting session:
Looking towards the audience from the back of the stage.
Two lighting supervisors discuss the next steps for focus.
I also took some more photos around the Opera campus:
Welcome to the Ranch, an "L"-shaped, single-story building housing the non-production related offices for the Santa Fe Opera
Turning 180 degrees, this is the walkway from the Ranch to the Cantina, the Opera's cafeteria.
For those who will appreciate it, this dust collection system is so large, it has it's own muffler.
The evening went by slow, with focus ending around 1am.
The next morning was a Company Meeting at 9am. Not a lot of turn-around time for sleep :) The meeting talked about future steps for the Opera, where we've come from, where we're going. Informative, definitely. At the end, to promote recycling and reducing waste, we were all given water bottles with Santa Fe Opera printed on them. Pretty neat swag. I was given a break from 12 noon to 6pm, since i had to come back for the lighting session of "Albert Herring". I got a bunch of laundry done, cleaned my room and the apartment a bit. I got back to the Opera around 5pm and tonight is pretty much like last night: Babysitting intercom. I've been problem-solving some video/audio solutions for "Madame Butterfly", but that's pretty much it.
Tomorrow is the first technical rehearsal for "The Tales of Hoffmann". See you then!
-Matt
Monday, June 21, 2010
Day 21 and 22
I haven't forgotten about you all, I promise. Writing every day is hard when there's little to write about.
Yesterday (Sunday) was a "half-day" for me, so before work the A/V team headed to Karl's Mother-in-Law's house for a cook-out. It was nice to get out the Axton, and not some place that I walk to. It was a gorgeous house with some very friendly pets. We pigged out on barbecue ribs, pasta salad, baked beans, etc. It was a great, relaxing time in some nice weather.
I went in a 6:30pm for a Lighting Session. A Lighting Session is where the initial focus for a production is done with the lighting designer present, so they can go over angles, washes, systems, etc. It's where most of the problem-solving takes place. During this time, the Electrics department uses two or more wireless intercom headsets to communicate with the catwalks (via the ICA intercom system) and the light board operator.
My job? Babysit the intercom. From 6:30pm to about Midnight, all we did was make sure the intercom worked well and kept an eye on battery levels of the intercom packs. I did a lot of clean-up work though, of both my own production (Madame Butterfly) and the control room. I crimped a bunch of new video patch cables, put away trap cams and lenses, and cleaned up as best I could. I also tried to vacuum, but the one I borrowed was either clogged or something, because it wasn't picking up anything.
Today was another day off. Sigh. My kingdom for work. I helped Caitlin with apartment shopping, went and got a haircut, and made guacamole. I pulled a recipe from Food Network/Alton Brown and went shopping. The final product was okay, not as good as the guac from Gabriel's or even the guac we had yesterday from Whole Foods. I'll probably drop the cumin out completely, and the cayenne to 1/4 teaspoon. I'll also add another avocado and another lime. It was a little too hot for me, and I really liked the guacamole that was cool and refreshing.
Another half-day tomorrow for another lighting session. Sigh.
-Matt
Yesterday (Sunday) was a "half-day" for me, so before work the A/V team headed to Karl's Mother-in-Law's house for a cook-out. It was nice to get out the Axton, and not some place that I walk to. It was a gorgeous house with some very friendly pets. We pigged out on barbecue ribs, pasta salad, baked beans, etc. It was a great, relaxing time in some nice weather.
I went in a 6:30pm for a Lighting Session. A Lighting Session is where the initial focus for a production is done with the lighting designer present, so they can go over angles, washes, systems, etc. It's where most of the problem-solving takes place. During this time, the Electrics department uses two or more wireless intercom headsets to communicate with the catwalks (via the ICA intercom system) and the light board operator.
My job? Babysit the intercom. From 6:30pm to about Midnight, all we did was make sure the intercom worked well and kept an eye on battery levels of the intercom packs. I did a lot of clean-up work though, of both my own production (Madame Butterfly) and the control room. I crimped a bunch of new video patch cables, put away trap cams and lenses, and cleaned up as best I could. I also tried to vacuum, but the one I borrowed was either clogged or something, because it wasn't picking up anything.
Today was another day off. Sigh. My kingdom for work. I helped Caitlin with apartment shopping, went and got a haircut, and made guacamole. I pulled a recipe from Food Network/Alton Brown and went shopping. The final product was okay, not as good as the guac from Gabriel's or even the guac we had yesterday from Whole Foods. I'll probably drop the cumin out completely, and the cayenne to 1/4 teaspoon. I'll also add another avocado and another lime. It was a little too hot for me, and I really liked the guacamole that was cool and refreshing.
Another half-day tomorrow for another lighting session. Sigh.
-Matt
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Day 20
Padlocks with designs or initials are locked into a stone divider near the Santa Fe Railyard. An artistic take on vandalism, it's actually quite nice. It's diverse, with every lock having a different design and pattern drawn on it.
I cleaned the apartment for a bit, while chatting with Caitlin. After Caitlin went to work, I decided to do another walk about town, this time having a reason to hit up each place.
The first place I stopped was the Santa Fe Baking Company. I had heard only great things about this place, and I was told I needed to try their breakfast burritos. I've never tried one before, so I was hoping this one would set the standard. I placed my order (scrambled eggs, potatoes, cheddar cheese and green chile) and waited about 10 minutes or so. What I received was a BURRITO. I'm thinking it's gonna be a little wrap, but no, this was almost Chipotle-sized. Great size for the price ($5).
As for the taste? It was pretty good, but it didn't blow me away. I'm not used to eating breakfast, and even then it's usually a quick scrambled egg on toast. This would be a great sit-down breakfast. The tortilla was a little thick, so I mostly unwrapped the burrito and just ate the filling. Green chile is starting to grow on me, it's something you really can't get in Maryland (or at least where I can find it), and in New Mexico it's on everything.
Finishing up the burrito, I started my hike to the Railyard. On my way I found a farmers market-style fruit and veggie stand, seemed like a neat place, with all fresh fruits and veggies, with fair prices. Something to check out another day. I was going to hit up REI and look for a pair of sunglasses, since I can't seem to find the ones I brought with me. Out in Santa Fe, there's rarely a cloud in the sky. It's sunny, ALL the time. No rain, no clouds. Just the high sun beating down on you, mercilessly. But it's not HOT, like in Maryland. Today's high humidity is 8%. I didn't find any sunglasses at REI that I liked (not that there was a big selection to begin with) so I headed to Borders (my next stop) to try and find a new book to keep me busy. That, too, was a swing and a miss. I spent a good two hours in there, finding a book every now and then, but after reading a chapter or two I just couldn't get into it. The last book I read was "The Last Man on the Moon", by Eugene Cernan, a story about his life in the space race. Kept me hooked constantly, and I have yet to find another book that will do the same (that isn't on my bookshelf in Maryland).
My next planned stop was to Whole Foods to grab some groceries, but I decided to hit up the Plaza and see if I could find any sunglasses there. Apparently, In the middle of the Plaza this week was the "Santa Fe Arts and Crafts Show". Walking around to all the booths, I couldn't find anything I liked. Like the rest of the stores in the plaza, it was all fancy art stuff (rugs, sculptures, jewelry, paintings), nothing that I wanted to spend my money on. I guess if you're a tourist it's a great place to get souvenirs, but i'm a practical person, show me something useful and i'll buy it.
The final stop was Whole Foods. I had planned to make several of my chicken recipes from home, and Trader Joe's just doesn't have the stock that I need. This Whole Foods is HUGE, and while I appreciate that most of the stuff is organic/natural, sometimes I just want the cheap stuff. I don't want to pay $6 for a pound of organic butter, I'm happy paying $3 for the crappy stuff, thank you very much. What sucks is there isn't a choice. The next closest grocery store (that's normal) is an Albertson's a mile and a half away. I mean, considering i'm doing five miles of walking on these days off, that's not too bad, but the Trader Joe's is a half-mile away, and the Whole Foods is a little less than a mile. If I do get groceries at Albertson's, I have to carry them back the 1.5 miles. I'm sure one day i'll head up there, but for now, the Whole Foods is fine for me. They have what I want, it's not full of corn syrup, and it's good quality.
It just costs an arm and a leg.
Tomorrow (Sunday): Another half-day, with an A/V barbecue at 3:30pm, and a work shift from 6pm to midnight.
-Matt
Friday, June 18, 2010
Day 19
I jumped into the future in yesterday's post, but I came back around, and corrected "Day 20" to "Day 18". Today is Day 19. You're welcome.
The production schedule listed today as "Butterfly RT", meaning a full run-through of "Madame Butterfly". Although i'm not sure why, Allan and I are the only A/V folk scheduled today. The Boss was also scheduled, but i've learned he likes a hands-off approach, which I am more than happy with, since it forces me to interact and take responsibility for my show.
We arrive around 11am, with a run-through starting at 1pm. Having never done a run-through at the Opera before, I have no idea what to expect. The past two weeks of staging rehearsals has made me aware of the need for a conductor video feed throughout the backstage, as well as a microphone feed of the piano throughout the backstage. The orchestra pit is actually an elevator lift, and while it's been at the stage level for the past few weeks, this time it gets lowered to the actual show height. This is great, because we can finally used the fixed conductor cameras located under the stage, instead of setting up a camera on a tripod like every other rehearsal. I've also learned that the stage manager will be at the stage management desk for the run-through. And the assistant stage managers will need intercom headsets.
Okay, now I get it. This isn't a breezy, let's-stumble-through-the-show run-through, this is a full-blown mock production. At home, we don't get this far until the first dress rehearsal. This is the first time I saw all departments come together, hunker down, and get the job done.
This is what I came here to experience: a professional company getting the job done.
In the 90 minutes or so remaining before the start of the run-through, Allan and I do our best to clean up any A/V messes that have been left from testing or installing over the past two weeks: bundles of cables shoved in wings, organizing coils of cable so they don't trip someone, etc. We also make sure all the video monitors are showing their proper image, and all audio speakers backstage are working.
I also discovered two pieces of paperwork in my mailbox: an A/V plot, and a cue sheet. The A/V plot contains the audio and video requests of the production to the A/V department. It's a detailed cue sheet saying what monitors need to go where, and when. This document is actually a subset of the cue sheet. Actually a cue packet, it lists the entrances and exits of each performer, including props. It also lists scene changes and A/V movements.
Let me take a step back a moment and tell you my observations from my limited stage management perspective. Unlike in theatre, where you have a script, the stage managers (and assistants) have a musical score, with the dialogue/lyrics (for Butterfly, it has the Italian and English words). Throughout the rehearsal process, a stopwatch was running, and every 30 seconds, the time was written into the score. Since nobody except the stage management team has the score handy, the stopwatch times become the gold standard of when cues are executed.
The cue sheet given to us shows the stopwatch time within the Act, as well as the corresponding musical measure. It's wickedly brilliant, something that makes perfect sense, but i've never seen before in the theatre. It let's me know there are other anal-rentative paperwork Nazi's in this place.
At 30 minutes before the run-through, all crews clear the stage as it's handed off to stage management, the director and the performers. There is still activity backstage, as we hand out wireless intercom headsets and make sure everything is running smoothly. Being surrounded by people who are serious about their work but humble enough to explain the process to a rookie really boosts my own confidence in my work. As of now, I am the A/V point person, and it's my responsibility to make sure my systems keep this show going.
The run-through begins, and rarely stops. I head out to upstage left for one of my cues: re-positioning a roving video monitor so an associate conductor can watch the lead conductor, while conducting a group of apprentice singers. I realize we have to do this cue a few times throughout the show, and I start to brainstorm: there's gotta be a better way than moving this back and forth. I can't keep it pulled out, it would only get in the way.
The run-through had a few stops and starts, but finished by late afternoon, and I learned some valuable information on how a show is run, how it's called by stage management, and what's expected of my role as the A/V lead for this production.
Great learning experience. Day off tomorrow!
-Matt
The production schedule listed today as "Butterfly RT", meaning a full run-through of "Madame Butterfly". Although i'm not sure why, Allan and I are the only A/V folk scheduled today. The Boss was also scheduled, but i've learned he likes a hands-off approach, which I am more than happy with, since it forces me to interact and take responsibility for my show.
We arrive around 11am, with a run-through starting at 1pm. Having never done a run-through at the Opera before, I have no idea what to expect. The past two weeks of staging rehearsals has made me aware of the need for a conductor video feed throughout the backstage, as well as a microphone feed of the piano throughout the backstage. The orchestra pit is actually an elevator lift, and while it's been at the stage level for the past few weeks, this time it gets lowered to the actual show height. This is great, because we can finally used the fixed conductor cameras located under the stage, instead of setting up a camera on a tripod like every other rehearsal. I've also learned that the stage manager will be at the stage management desk for the run-through. And the assistant stage managers will need intercom headsets.
Okay, now I get it. This isn't a breezy, let's-stumble-through-the-show run-through, this is a full-blown mock production. At home, we don't get this far until the first dress rehearsal. This is the first time I saw all departments come together, hunker down, and get the job done.
This is what I came here to experience: a professional company getting the job done.
In the 90 minutes or so remaining before the start of the run-through, Allan and I do our best to clean up any A/V messes that have been left from testing or installing over the past two weeks: bundles of cables shoved in wings, organizing coils of cable so they don't trip someone, etc. We also make sure all the video monitors are showing their proper image, and all audio speakers backstage are working.
I also discovered two pieces of paperwork in my mailbox: an A/V plot, and a cue sheet. The A/V plot contains the audio and video requests of the production to the A/V department. It's a detailed cue sheet saying what monitors need to go where, and when. This document is actually a subset of the cue sheet. Actually a cue packet, it lists the entrances and exits of each performer, including props. It also lists scene changes and A/V movements.
Let me take a step back a moment and tell you my observations from my limited stage management perspective. Unlike in theatre, where you have a script, the stage managers (and assistants) have a musical score, with the dialogue/lyrics (for Butterfly, it has the Italian and English words). Throughout the rehearsal process, a stopwatch was running, and every 30 seconds, the time was written into the score. Since nobody except the stage management team has the score handy, the stopwatch times become the gold standard of when cues are executed.
The cue sheet given to us shows the stopwatch time within the Act, as well as the corresponding musical measure. It's wickedly brilliant, something that makes perfect sense, but i've never seen before in the theatre. It let's me know there are other anal-rentative paperwork Nazi's in this place.
At 30 minutes before the run-through, all crews clear the stage as it's handed off to stage management, the director and the performers. There is still activity backstage, as we hand out wireless intercom headsets and make sure everything is running smoothly. Being surrounded by people who are serious about their work but humble enough to explain the process to a rookie really boosts my own confidence in my work. As of now, I am the A/V point person, and it's my responsibility to make sure my systems keep this show going.
The run-through begins, and rarely stops. I head out to upstage left for one of my cues: re-positioning a roving video monitor so an associate conductor can watch the lead conductor, while conducting a group of apprentice singers. I realize we have to do this cue a few times throughout the show, and I start to brainstorm: there's gotta be a better way than moving this back and forth. I can't keep it pulled out, it would only get in the way.
The run-through had a few stops and starts, but finished by late afternoon, and I learned some valuable information on how a show is run, how it's called by stage management, and what's expected of my role as the A/V lead for this production.
Great learning experience. Day off tomorrow!
-Matt
Day 18
All the images are clickable. When you click, don't forget about the "All Sizes" button just above the image on it's Flickr page, to get a larger version
Today is a 5pm-2am shift again, this time it's the third technical rehearsal for "Madame Butterfly", where i'm told all of the technical elements start to come together. Since "Butterfly" is the show i'm in charge of, I need to be here to make sure all the tech requirements are met. For those interested, the tech rehearsal process seems to be:
• Lighting Session (which i'm guessing is show-specific focus with the designer? I'll let you know, i'm doing three of them next week)
• Technical Rehearsal #1 (The lighting designer begins designing for the first act)
• Technical Shift Rehearsal (The stage crew rehearses intermission shifts and scene shifts. My roommate (Juan) said that they timed their first intermission shift, and it was 40 minutes. Since intermission is only 25 minutes long, the rehearsal helps tremendously in knocking down that shift time and becoming more efficient)
• Technical Rehearsal #2 (The lighting designer designs the second act)
• Technical Rehearsal #3 (The lighting designer designs the third act and the show is reviewed)
• A "Run" through (really a stumble-through of the entire show)
• Piano Dress Rehearsal (A full-blown production rehearsal with costumes, but just a piano instead of full orchestra)
• Dress Rehearsal #1
• Dress Rehearsal #2
• Open
Since i've only experienced the first half of this list, I can't say what the stumble-through or dress rehearsals entail, but I will surely let you know.
In the meantime, I've done jack-squat today. I chatted with Caitlin while she ran errands and got ready for work, and I went to Trader Joe's for a few groceries. Made a sandwich before heading to work at 5pm.
As the sun was setting, the stage crew was putting the final touches on the set pieces for "Madame Butterfly", including some nice telephone poles. The wires between the poles had to be attached first, then raised into the air. Soon after, the sun went down completely, the theatre dropped it's house lights, and the cueing process began.
There's not a whole lot for A/V to do during a technical rehearsal. Tonight, we babysat the intercom system, and made sure that all video monitors continued to work. After a few hours, you go and swap a battery in a wireless intercom pack. We did have a brief bit of fun when a brownout hit and the entire theatre went dark for a few moments. Electrics had to pause while scrollers reset themselves, and they figured out if their HMI's went out and had to be relamped.
At midnight, we have a tradition called "Grey Lady". Nobody is really sure where it came from, but it means at midnight, all work stops, and we dine on a "fourth meal". My first Grey Lady was last week, and we had pizza. I've been told that each Grey Lady gets progressively better and better. Tonight's Grey Lady?
Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, and Mac & Cheese. Booya! And it was made in the Cantina, too. Homemade tastes even better.
Although i'm about to pass out from exhaustion, I promised last week I would try and put to words what it's like when the sun goes down and tech begins. When you arrive at 5pm, the hustle and bustle of the work day is still alive, the sun is still beating down relentlessly. Everybody who has been there since the morning is eager to finish up and go home. You drop off your bag, prep your evening work, and hang out until people come to fetch intercom headsets from you.
The electrics crew begins focus before the sun sets, and it takes about an hour and a half. After that, stage management and props show up and prep what they need for the technical rehearsal. The lighting designer needs to see the final show props and costumes so they know how light looks on them, and the assistant stage managers and props running crew play stand-ins for the actual performers. After the light crew finishes up, the stage crew preps the stage for whenever in the opera the lighting designer needs to begin working. At this point, the sun is very low in the sky, very amber, and very bright. It's almost impossible to look upstage without blinding yourself.
Around 8:15pm, the intensity of the sun abruptly changes. It begins to duck behind the distant mountains and a very rapid pace. What was only a few minutes ago threatening to trip you up is now distant. The heat, the blinding light are gone. The ambient light begins to drop very rapidly, your eyes barely responding quick enough to adapt.
And then it's twilight, and the stage crew is complete. The entire theatre becomes quiet. The feeling is serene. The temperature is crisp, just enough to warrant a hoodie or sweatshirt. When you're working during the day, you can easily forget where you are, and how this is just a regular theatre. It isn't until the sun goes down that you realize how different this place is. The sun still grasping onto the mountains, the utter silence, the coolness of the air. It's immersive. You can't escape it. The environment surrounds you, in the audience, backstage, on the back deck. No matter where you go, the presence of the Opera is with you.
It's not sticky, or humid, or uncomfortable in any way. It's just...perfect. Every night. In Maryland, you cherish evenings like these, because you can count on one hand the number of evenings like this. But in Santa Fe, they are limitless. I had made a comment during my first evening tech rehearsal to Tracy (Assistant to the Production Director) about how unreal this was, and she said after doing this for so many years, she couldn't imagine going back to a dark, indoor theatre for 10-out-of-12 rehearsals.
I can't blame her.
There's a spot on the back deck, to the left of the B-lift behind the Costume Crafts shop that no light travels. Anywhere else on the theatre campus, there's stage light, or work light, or some kind of light pollution. Not behind the Costume Crafts shop. Tread carefully until you're immersed in darkness.
Now look straight up.
Words cannot describe how powerful it is to be immersed in the starry night sky. The longer you stay, the more your eyes adjust, and the more detail you never thought was possible becomes real. In Maryland, you have great night if you can see the Big Dipper. In Santa Fe, the Big Dipper nearly knocks you over. It's just so breath-taking.
Today is a 5pm-2am shift again, this time it's the third technical rehearsal for "Madame Butterfly", where i'm told all of the technical elements start to come together. Since "Butterfly" is the show i'm in charge of, I need to be here to make sure all the tech requirements are met. For those interested, the tech rehearsal process seems to be:
• Lighting Session (which i'm guessing is show-specific focus with the designer? I'll let you know, i'm doing three of them next week)
• Technical Rehearsal #1 (The lighting designer begins designing for the first act)
• Technical Shift Rehearsal (The stage crew rehearses intermission shifts and scene shifts. My roommate (Juan) said that they timed their first intermission shift, and it was 40 minutes. Since intermission is only 25 minutes long, the rehearsal helps tremendously in knocking down that shift time and becoming more efficient)
• Technical Rehearsal #2 (The lighting designer designs the second act)
• Technical Rehearsal #3 (The lighting designer designs the third act and the show is reviewed)
• A "Run" through (really a stumble-through of the entire show)
• Piano Dress Rehearsal (A full-blown production rehearsal with costumes, but just a piano instead of full orchestra)
• Dress Rehearsal #1
• Dress Rehearsal #2
• Open
Since i've only experienced the first half of this list, I can't say what the stumble-through or dress rehearsals entail, but I will surely let you know.
In the meantime, I've done jack-squat today. I chatted with Caitlin while she ran errands and got ready for work, and I went to Trader Joe's for a few groceries. Made a sandwich before heading to work at 5pm.
As the sun was setting, the stage crew was putting the final touches on the set pieces for "Madame Butterfly", including some nice telephone poles. The wires between the poles had to be attached first, then raised into the air. Soon after, the sun went down completely, the theatre dropped it's house lights, and the cueing process began.
There's not a whole lot for A/V to do during a technical rehearsal. Tonight, we babysat the intercom system, and made sure that all video monitors continued to work. After a few hours, you go and swap a battery in a wireless intercom pack. We did have a brief bit of fun when a brownout hit and the entire theatre went dark for a few moments. Electrics had to pause while scrollers reset themselves, and they figured out if their HMI's went out and had to be relamped.
At midnight, we have a tradition called "Grey Lady". Nobody is really sure where it came from, but it means at midnight, all work stops, and we dine on a "fourth meal". My first Grey Lady was last week, and we had pizza. I've been told that each Grey Lady gets progressively better and better. Tonight's Grey Lady?
Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, and Mac & Cheese. Booya! And it was made in the Cantina, too. Homemade tastes even better.
Although i'm about to pass out from exhaustion, I promised last week I would try and put to words what it's like when the sun goes down and tech begins. When you arrive at 5pm, the hustle and bustle of the work day is still alive, the sun is still beating down relentlessly. Everybody who has been there since the morning is eager to finish up and go home. You drop off your bag, prep your evening work, and hang out until people come to fetch intercom headsets from you.
The electrics crew begins focus before the sun sets, and it takes about an hour and a half. After that, stage management and props show up and prep what they need for the technical rehearsal. The lighting designer needs to see the final show props and costumes so they know how light looks on them, and the assistant stage managers and props running crew play stand-ins for the actual performers. After the light crew finishes up, the stage crew preps the stage for whenever in the opera the lighting designer needs to begin working. At this point, the sun is very low in the sky, very amber, and very bright. It's almost impossible to look upstage without blinding yourself.
Around 8:15pm, the intensity of the sun abruptly changes. It begins to duck behind the distant mountains and a very rapid pace. What was only a few minutes ago threatening to trip you up is now distant. The heat, the blinding light are gone. The ambient light begins to drop very rapidly, your eyes barely responding quick enough to adapt.
And then it's twilight, and the stage crew is complete. The entire theatre becomes quiet. The feeling is serene. The temperature is crisp, just enough to warrant a hoodie or sweatshirt. When you're working during the day, you can easily forget where you are, and how this is just a regular theatre. It isn't until the sun goes down that you realize how different this place is. The sun still grasping onto the mountains, the utter silence, the coolness of the air. It's immersive. You can't escape it. The environment surrounds you, in the audience, backstage, on the back deck. No matter where you go, the presence of the Opera is with you.
It's not sticky, or humid, or uncomfortable in any way. It's just...perfect. Every night. In Maryland, you cherish evenings like these, because you can count on one hand the number of evenings like this. But in Santa Fe, they are limitless. I had made a comment during my first evening tech rehearsal to Tracy (Assistant to the Production Director) about how unreal this was, and she said after doing this for so many years, she couldn't imagine going back to a dark, indoor theatre for 10-out-of-12 rehearsals.
I can't blame her.
There's a spot on the back deck, to the left of the B-lift behind the Costume Crafts shop that no light travels. Anywhere else on the theatre campus, there's stage light, or work light, or some kind of light pollution. Not behind the Costume Crafts shop. Tread carefully until you're immersed in darkness.
Now look straight up.
Words cannot describe how powerful it is to be immersed in the starry night sky. The longer you stay, the more your eyes adjust, and the more detail you never thought was possible becomes real. In Maryland, you have great night if you can see the Big Dipper. In Santa Fe, the Big Dipper nearly knocks you over. It's just so breath-taking.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Day 17
I realized I haven't shown you the theatre from this angle. Boring, I know. I'm in at 5pm for tech rehearsal, so i'll try and make up for it!)
Today we kicked butt! We had a worklist ready for us when we walked in, which included a bunch of the roof/catwalk tasks that i've been wanting to finish. We finally relocated the wireless intercom antenna (moving it closer to the audience, so we have better reception in the house during technical rehearsals) and tweaked one of our trap cameras from yesterday. We also moved the B-lift camera farther upstage (closer to the back deck), although i'm not sure why; I guess they just wanted a different angle. Allan worked on the CellCom antenna while I worked on the B-lift camera, and we got both done well before rehearsal began on-stage.
As I was coming down from the catwalks, I got a copy of the rehearsal report for "Madame Butterfly", the show currently rehearsing on-stage and the show that i'm in charge of for this season. There was an A/V request for two torm monitors, one on each side of the stage (I'll try and get a photo soon to visually explain these). As I mentioned before, there are video monitors around the perimeter of the proscenium arch all facing towards the stage. They show a video feed of the conductor, so the performers on-stage can stay on tempo and receive their music cues. When a performer is facing off-stage, they obviously cannot see these monitors or the conductor, so they need a video monitor in their line of sight. We have some small flat-screen monitors that are great for this, so we hung them just inside the first lane/torm.
Unfortunately, these TVs have received a good amount of abuse over the years, and their video input connections are broken. There are some custom-made jacks on them also, but since they're not labeled (surprise!) we couldn't get them to work either. So, instead of giving the rehearsal what it requested, i'm sitting in the control room fighting with a monitor to show a simple image. Through a roundabout set of adapters, we eventually got video on the stage left side. However, I couldn't get video on the right side. I triple-checked my connections, and I knew there was a conductor feed on the stage right side because the rover was getting video, and the rover was plugged into the video amplifier (also called a distribution amplifier, or DA).
Wrong.
What I learned way too late in the morning is that the DA was NOT getting a conductor feed. Why? Well, a week ago we learned that the conductor DA on the stage right side needs to be receiving an amplified signal itself (because it's so far away from the control room). Instead of hard-wiring the stage right conductor DA into the back of a DA in the control room, it got plugged into an unlabeled jack on the patch bay, THEN wired into a DA in the control room. When I went to patch something else the day before and needed a patch cable (because we were out), I assumed since the jack it was plugged into wasn't labeled, then it was left over from last season.
It's funny, I get called anal-retentive because I obsessively label things, but here I am, wasting time fixing broken shit because it ISN'T LABELED, instead of doing actual work.
I fix the DA issue, get signal stage right to the flat-screen, and all is well. I head back to the control room and chill out for a few minutes, cooling off after getting really frustrated with the whole situation. Oh, and the rover that was getting signal? someone had put a "T" splitter on the camera feed going back to the control room, so the feed was feeding the rover as it was heading back to the control room. Unfortunately, "T" splitters are the devil, if the rover gets unplugged, you now have an open, unshielded connection that can disrupt the camera feed, which will throw off every other monitor receiving that feed. Bad news.
I had to get out of the theatre, so I took a field trip to the Box Office by the main entrance. I needed to return some batteries for our assisted listening headsets, and the Box Office is the group who distributes the headsets to the hard-of-hearing at the start of the performance. We tested their batteries to make sure they still held a charge, and returned them. I also got to chat with the ladies in the box office, and strike up some new friendships that may come in handy later in the season.
I also ventured over to the Gift Shop, some place I haven't been since I got here. They have a pretty neat selection of trinkets and knick knacks, as well as shirts and posters. All pretty expensive, but we get some discounts throughout the season.
I took lunch during the end of the morning rehearsal, and came back just as rehearsal was finishing up. This was a chance for us to get back into the catwalks and hang some sound effects speakers. just underneath the catwalk position. It's a really creative position, because it's just offstage of the stage itself, and can throw pretty decently into the house. What's tricky is that it clips into a small loop barely sticking out of the catwalk. You need one person to hold the speaker on their shoulder, while another puts a shackle through the hanging point. Tricky enough to do, but even harder when the wind decides to blow 30mph and push you around.
We got both speakers hung, their cables ran, and the amplifier patched, and I was ready to push some test sound through them when rehearsal was called back. Damn. So close.
Next, we took the shelf I built yesterday for the stage management desk, and mounted it on top. You may remember this photo which shows just the TV. Usually, there are a bunch of 9" monitors stacked on the upper right portion for trap cameras, but they're not in easy view. Karl asked me to design and build a shelf to hold three monitors underneath, and then the big TV on top. That was yesterday's project, and here's the final result (upper left).
We finished up the day on the mezzanine level, re-wiring some video and audio monitors used for latecomers. The audio and video runs were very convoluted, so we decided to rip them out and start over.
I'm in at 5pm tomorrow night for tech rehearsal, and I hope to get some great photos to make up for the stuff i've been putting up recently.
Cheers!
-Matt
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Day 16
Sorry, I don't have a picture today. I didn't have time to break out the camera. I also vowed not to take "snapshots", but also compose something. It's getting trickier to find a composition, but I will keep trying.
Another chilly day, and some more long-term project work. Not a big post today, as I keep forgetting to write down what i'm working on so I can come back and write about it.
We set up two "trap" cameras today. A trap camera is a dedicated camera used for a specific purpose (In lighting design/electrics, these are called "specials"). The current show rehearsing on-stage is "Madame Butterfly", and it has a motorized, revolving set piece. The operator does not have a clear view of the stage, and they will not move the set there is an obstruction or person in the way. This is where the "video" part of my job comes in. It's our job to give this operator a clear view of every angle of this set piece and the surrounding stage. Ideally, we would put a camera directly above the piece and shoot straight down. Unfortunately, the piece consumes almost half of the stage, and I would need to be much higher than the catwalks to get such a wide shot.
There's a tremendous amount of logistical creativity that goes into this job, because in this case, it's not just where the camera points. You also need to know:
• How is the camera getting power? where is the nearest outlet? Did you bring an extension cable? Is that outlet already in use?
• How is the video distributed? Is it going into a video jack, or directly to the control room? Is there anything already in the video jack? Can it be re-routed?
• Is the camera going to interfere with any other equipment or departments? When you hang a camera in the catwalks, is it going to interfere with the lighting crew?
So it's not just about "hanging a camera", if you can answer these questions successfully, then you can hang your camera. If you get upstairs and have nowhere to plug into for power or video, then your camera isn't going to do jack squat.
Since we can't hang directly above the set piece, we need to hang farther away and at an angle. I find a fantastic spot immediately outside the spot booth to get a front shot of the set piece. Unfortunately, the handheld monitor I brought with me to focus the camera wouldn't work, so I went into the spot booth to grab another one. That didn't work either. Luckily, the remaining one did. I focused the camera, and ran it's cable along the pipe in the catwalk, and dropped it down to an available video jack.
Except the video jack was ripped apart and didn't work. Great. I had to stop working overhead because rehearsal was beginning on-stage, and all overhead activities are banned for fear of dropping and breaking something (or someone).
As for the front trap camera outside the spot booth, we decided to use a video jack nearby that was used for a conductor monitor inside the spot booth. There are two monitors in the spot booth, both getting the same feed from separate jacks. We tied the two monitors together to get the feed from the same jack, and plugged our camera into the newly freed jack.
We also hung a rear camera, so the operator could see the back of the set piece as well, giving access to all angles and making sure everything is clear before moving the set piece.
If you remember the photo of the stage management desk that I took a while ago, you'll remember a large TV on the top of it. Along with that TV, there are other small, 9" monitors that show trap camera feeds. Those usually sit on the upper right shelf, not within easy sight of the stage manager. Karl asked me to construct a shelf that can hold three 9" monitors, as well as the larger TV on top.
I spent the rest of the day drafting, cutting, gluing, constructing and painting said shelf. I'll put a photo up of the completed project.
It's really difficult to do any moderate to intensive A/V projects when rehearsal is taking place on-stage. the A/V team gets in at 9am, rehearsal starts at 10am, breaks at 1pm, and then works from 2pm to around 4:30pm, and we go home at 5pm. If you schedule your lunch right, you have a fragmented two and a half hours to make noise and work overhead. Some of our projects are fairly intense, and we need several hours to complete start to finish. I don't understand why we don't come in around 7am. Even if we only do it once or twice, we would get lots of undisturbed work time. It frustrates me that we can't work overhead, but I completely understand that the rehearsal on-stage has priority. There's only so much work we can do before we need to make noise.
Goal for tomorrow: Haul ass at clock-in, and push the limit to when I have to leave the roof (I won't stay up there after rehearsal starts, of course. I'm learning, Tracy!)
-Matt
Another chilly day, and some more long-term project work. Not a big post today, as I keep forgetting to write down what i'm working on so I can come back and write about it.
We set up two "trap" cameras today. A trap camera is a dedicated camera used for a specific purpose (In lighting design/electrics, these are called "specials"). The current show rehearsing on-stage is "Madame Butterfly", and it has a motorized, revolving set piece. The operator does not have a clear view of the stage, and they will not move the set there is an obstruction or person in the way. This is where the "video" part of my job comes in. It's our job to give this operator a clear view of every angle of this set piece and the surrounding stage. Ideally, we would put a camera directly above the piece and shoot straight down. Unfortunately, the piece consumes almost half of the stage, and I would need to be much higher than the catwalks to get such a wide shot.
There's a tremendous amount of logistical creativity that goes into this job, because in this case, it's not just where the camera points. You also need to know:
• How is the camera getting power? where is the nearest outlet? Did you bring an extension cable? Is that outlet already in use?
• How is the video distributed? Is it going into a video jack, or directly to the control room? Is there anything already in the video jack? Can it be re-routed?
• Is the camera going to interfere with any other equipment or departments? When you hang a camera in the catwalks, is it going to interfere with the lighting crew?
So it's not just about "hanging a camera", if you can answer these questions successfully, then you can hang your camera. If you get upstairs and have nowhere to plug into for power or video, then your camera isn't going to do jack squat.
Since we can't hang directly above the set piece, we need to hang farther away and at an angle. I find a fantastic spot immediately outside the spot booth to get a front shot of the set piece. Unfortunately, the handheld monitor I brought with me to focus the camera wouldn't work, so I went into the spot booth to grab another one. That didn't work either. Luckily, the remaining one did. I focused the camera, and ran it's cable along the pipe in the catwalk, and dropped it down to an available video jack.
Except the video jack was ripped apart and didn't work. Great. I had to stop working overhead because rehearsal was beginning on-stage, and all overhead activities are banned for fear of dropping and breaking something (or someone).
As for the front trap camera outside the spot booth, we decided to use a video jack nearby that was used for a conductor monitor inside the spot booth. There are two monitors in the spot booth, both getting the same feed from separate jacks. We tied the two monitors together to get the feed from the same jack, and plugged our camera into the newly freed jack.
We also hung a rear camera, so the operator could see the back of the set piece as well, giving access to all angles and making sure everything is clear before moving the set piece.
If you remember the photo of the stage management desk that I took a while ago, you'll remember a large TV on the top of it. Along with that TV, there are other small, 9" monitors that show trap camera feeds. Those usually sit on the upper right shelf, not within easy sight of the stage manager. Karl asked me to construct a shelf that can hold three 9" monitors, as well as the larger TV on top.
I spent the rest of the day drafting, cutting, gluing, constructing and painting said shelf. I'll put a photo up of the completed project.
It's really difficult to do any moderate to intensive A/V projects when rehearsal is taking place on-stage. the A/V team gets in at 9am, rehearsal starts at 10am, breaks at 1pm, and then works from 2pm to around 4:30pm, and we go home at 5pm. If you schedule your lunch right, you have a fragmented two and a half hours to make noise and work overhead. Some of our projects are fairly intense, and we need several hours to complete start to finish. I don't understand why we don't come in around 7am. Even if we only do it once or twice, we would get lots of undisturbed work time. It frustrates me that we can't work overhead, but I completely understand that the rehearsal on-stage has priority. There's only so much work we can do before we need to make noise.
Goal for tomorrow: Haul ass at clock-in, and push the limit to when I have to leave the roof (I won't stay up there after rehearsal starts, of course. I'm learning, Tracy!)
-Matt
Monday, June 14, 2010
Day 15
Some more of the Santa Fe Railyard. There are so many train tracks around, there must have been a huge rail infrastructure here, but it's curious now there's only one regular train passing through. What happened?
It was a chilly morning. More often i'm wearing jeans then shorts, but today it was a jeans plus my UnderArmour fleece. Today was another clean-up, small task day. One project that's been moving lowly is the intercom antenna project. Our wireless intercom has three antennas: One stage-left, one stage-right, and one high in the catwalks center-stage. The antenna is very far up-stage, by the B-lift, which gives us great coverage on the back deck, but horrible reception in the house. Since better reception in the house is more favorable, we need to move the antenna and re-route it's cable. The antenna cable takes a bit to re-run, since we need to keep it nice and clean as it runs along the conduit. I had to stop about half-way through since rehearsal on stage was beginning.
During this project, one of our spotlight booth conductor monitors stopped working. I metered the power outlets and those still worked, so the TV must have a blown fuse. Luckily there was a spare monitor in the spotlight booth, so I swapped those out and rehearsal proceeded as normal.
My anal rentative task for today was to organize and clean up the cable in the control room. There's a bunch of stuff just hanging out, that could easily get hung up or moved to storage. There were also some cable racks that just had cable thrown on it, with no rhyme or reason. I spent the better part of the morning cleaning and organizing cable so when it came time for one, I would know where they were (and so could others). Now the video cable was together, the XLR cables were together, etc.
Just before lunch, the director tripped over our conductor camera, and broke the camera mount off the camera. When I went to re-attach, it appeared to have been broken several times before, with a T-nut epoxyed onto it. The T-nut came loose from the camera, so I went to the carpentry shop for suggestions for a fix. We eventually re-epoxyed the T-nut, and let it work over lunch to set.
Coming back from lunch (and re-attaching the conductor camera), I continued on my quest for a clean control room by sorting patch cables. We seem to have 200+ patch cables, but the nice thing is they have different color designations, so you can patch and trace patches much easier.
After rehearsal was done, Allan and I rushed out to set up the audio for the tech table. We got that done in record time, and went to test the CD playback for rehearsal. I hooked up my iPhone and looped a Beatles song so we could get sound through the front of house. Three of the four speakers worked, but for some reason the house-left main speaker wasn't working. I put on my Troubleshooting hat and went to work.
I sniffed the signal coming out of the patch bay, so I knew the sound board was working right. I went to the stage right wing and sniffed the cable going up to the speaker, and got no signal. I went back to the control room, into the back of the patch bay, and attempted to sniff out the lost signal. I eventually found it in an un-labeled piece of audio cable on the ground behind the patch bay. I re-attached the cable to the output of the sound console, and all sound was well.
On the way home Allan and I stopped by REI. For this kind of work, REI really has lots of great gear to make a technician's life easier. Having only one, I picked up some more Sporks from Light My Fire. These things are strong, dishwasher safe, and infinitely useful, especially if you bring your own food.
On the walk home, I photographed the trains again, this time shooting for HDR (High Dynamic Range imaging). The idea behind HDR is that a normal picture at proper exposure would have shown the shadows as almost black darkness. At the same time, the sky would have been very bright. Not a very appealing photo. What you do is take two (or more photos) all at different exposures:
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As you can see, the photo on the left, the photo is very underexposed. This is great exposure for details in the clouds and the left side of the train. The photo on the right is over-exposed , because the sky is too bright, as well as the left part of the train. However, we can see tremendous detail in the shadow-side of the train that wasn't apparent in the first photograph.
Using a piece of software, you can combine these two photos and the result is the best of both worlds. The photo at the top of the page is an example of that, and actually used five different photos, all of varying exposure levels.
Hope you enjoyed the photo lesson, see you tomorrow!
-Matt
Day 14
The Santa Fe Railyard is a fairly desolate place, I think it's simply a turn-around point for the Rail Runner. There's a pretty neat brewery nearby, though, as well as an REI and a Borders bookstore.
Today was a good day.
I still started off lazily, doing wake-up calls with Caitlin and chatting with her while she started her day, then reading for an hour or so. I've been consistently getting up at 7:30am Mountain Time, which will keep me on schedule (or close to it) when I go back to Eastern Time.
Around 11:30am, Aaron (the subtitles guy) and I headed to the Santa Fe Climbing Center to get our climb on. I haven't climbed in MONTHS (the last time was at Towson with Tony and Brandon, I think) but I brought my gear with me, because i'd either 1) find a climbing gym, or 2) find myself needing some kind of harness for heights. Aaron had climbed before, but always with the rope tied to a carabiner, then clipped to the harness; he was unfamiliar with the actual knots associated with climbing. We got to the climbing gym, signed in, signed our waivers ("If you fall and die, you can't sue us. You should know what you're doing" kind of thing) and got the tour.
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This place is small. Their bouldering area is about the size of Towson's bouldering gym, and about half the size of EarthTrek Timonium's bouldering cave. Their top-rope section was also small, about 10 top ropes to a 23' ceiling. I guess i'm spoiled by EarthTrek's 35'+ walls and dozens and dozens of top ropes. Oh well, I can't be picky. What did suck was Aaron didn't know his knots, so he couldn't belay me. A climber without a belayer is a climber with no fall protection, and that doesn't fly. Luckily, the gym had four or so top ropes with Gri-Gri's attached, so Aaron could belay me "legally". I started with some easy climbs, and quickly worked my way up. I think I completed a few 5.9's with little difficulty, which surprised me. I think the ratings on these climbs is a little weak, i'm used to much more difficult climbs which are rated the same back home (that is, a 5.9 here feels like a 5.8 back home). My forearms definitely got a workout, but I was proud to keep my technique, because I completed about 8 or 9 top-rope problems, and a handful of bouldering problems, and my arms could keep going.
Aaron was burned out though, so we wrapped up our day and headed home around 2pm. I grabbed some lunch and watched a show on TruTV called "All Worked Up", about repo men and process servers. Pretty cool stuff. Unfortunately I stayed glued to that for a few hours. I finally peeled my butt off the couch around 3:45pm, vowing to go to the Plaza. I changed out of my climbing gear, gathered up my camera and backpack, and headed out. I threw on my earbuds and dialed in the latest episode of "Car Talk" as I walked the mile and a half to the plaza.
The plaza is the "downtown" portion of Santa Fe. There are tons of shops and resturaunts, and I had no idea what to expect (or how to get around) once I got there. One of the first places I came across had some neat gift ideas, so I picked something up for Caitlin (i'm not telling, darlin :)) and kept moving, knowing it was Sunday and stores were going to close.
After walking around what I felt was every inch of the plaza, I feel like I can narrow down the Plaza to two words:
Tourist. Trap.
There were jewelry stores, clothing stores and gift shops everywhere. Some stores selling unique things, but most selling Santa Fe shirts, Native American jewelry, etc. I felt like if you saw one store, you saw them all. If you were into jewelry, you would want to check out all the shops, but that's not my thing. In fact, the whole style is not my thing, so I wasn't interested in a lot of what i saw. It's hard to tell the difference between a genuine , hand crafted item, and something that was mass-produced for tourists.
I'm not slamming every store in the plaza, because there were some neat places. On another day off, I want to go back and explore these stores some more. I felt like I came on a tourist-heavy day, also. I think coming back on a day off during the week (fat chance) would give help. There were a few camera places that I was interested in seeing, however two were closed on Sundays. The third camera store I stopped into reinforced the "Tourist Trap" feeling. They advertised "Sensor Cleaning While You Wait!" on the front window. I inquired, and they said it would take about an hour and cost $40.
*choke* what? $40? I can send it into Nikon and they'll do it for free. They also had a Nikon SB-600 for $399 and a Nikon 18-200mm lens for $1,299. If you follow those links, you'll see that the MSRP for those products are HALF of what this place was selling them for. What the F. No thanks. BYE.
There was also a "Five and Dime" General Store which reminded me a lot like the Woolworth's that used to be right by my house (Now a Dollar Tree). There was all kinds of knick-knacks from Santa Fe, and something i'd check back in with. (Yes, I know Woolworth's was one of the original five-and-dime stores).
"Our Lady of Guadalupe" Church, west of the "Plaza" in Santa Fe, NM
After finally giving up on the plaza, I headed in the direction of a Borders and REI. Not authentic Santa Fe, I know, but I needed to get away from the tourist trap. As my phone directed me to the Borders, I passed "Our Lady of Guadalupe" Church. I really got a taste of the region walking past this church. There was a service starting (it was about 5pm) and the doors were wide open. Inside, I could hear what sounded like a mariachi band playing church songs, with everyone singing along. No organ, but lots of stringed instruments. Everyone was singing in Spanish. It was an enlightening experience.
I continued towards the Borders, and passed a "CostPlus World Market". Intrigued, I went in.
Holy crap.
I don't know how to describe this place. One part of the store had bar-ware (shakers, shot glasses, wine glasses, etc), another had kitchen and outdoor furniture, another had kitchen tools and toys and cookware. My favorite section was the food section, which definitely earned it's name "World Market". There were spices I had never heard of here, hand-packed. Salsas from around the world, chocolates and cooking oils and candy from anywhere and everywhere. It was definitely a chef's playground.
AND they have Jones Soda BY THE CASE! HEAVEN IN A BOX!
I needed to get the hell out of there before I spent my summers pay, so I finally headed to the Borders for some reading. I poked around a little, helping to decompress from the day. Didn't really find anything to buy, so I started heading back home. I chatted with Caitlin for a bit, then finished up my "Car Talk" episode as as I snapped photos on the walk.
The map says I walked about five miles today, but that's not including the walks through the stores. The calves hurt, the arms hurt from climbing. Today was a good day.
-Matt
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Day 13
Do you know how lazy today was?
I don't even have a photo.
I'm so ashamed. I slept in today, and Caitlin woke me up with a phone call (i'll never object to that). She was on her way to a baby shower, so I chatted with her while she drove. After that, I watched some Hulu and "Weeds", and grabbed some lunch.
England and the United States in the World Cup! GREENE MISSED THE BALL! U.S. SCORES! After the game, I discovered a Back to the Future marathon, and watched that and chatted with Caitlin on her way back, and we chatted about her apartment situation for the next few months. We researched some apartments and found some misses and one or two hits. She found a place that looks gorgeous, and has a washer/dryer in the unit. Score! and it was fairly inexpensive for a one-bedroom apartment. I put together a spreadsheet and emailed it to her so she can keep all her details together.
Sidenote: I've never considered myself artistically creative, but what do you call it when you consciously design something to be user-friendly? My many years at Apple has instilled in me a sense of design simplicity. It takes a conscious effort to think about how things will be read and interpreted, and you can really control how things are read when you design their environment. Apple's retail efforts are a great example of controlling how a customer experiences Apple products.
Anyway, there was word of board games at another apartment, so I headed over there, and chatted for a few hours with some other department folks.
Not a whole lot going on today, but I promise tomorrow to:
1) Go to the local climbing gym and put in a few hours on the walls
2) Go to the capital area where all the shops are and check out the shops
3) Take photos and share!
-Matt
I don't even have a photo.
I'm so ashamed. I slept in today, and Caitlin woke me up with a phone call (i'll never object to that). She was on her way to a baby shower, so I chatted with her while she drove. After that, I watched some Hulu and "Weeds", and grabbed some lunch.
England and the United States in the World Cup! GREENE MISSED THE BALL! U.S. SCORES! After the game, I discovered a Back to the Future marathon, and watched that and chatted with Caitlin on her way back, and we chatted about her apartment situation for the next few months. We researched some apartments and found some misses and one or two hits. She found a place that looks gorgeous, and has a washer/dryer in the unit. Score! and it was fairly inexpensive for a one-bedroom apartment. I put together a spreadsheet and emailed it to her so she can keep all her details together.
Sidenote: I've never considered myself artistically creative, but what do you call it when you consciously design something to be user-friendly? My many years at Apple has instilled in me a sense of design simplicity. It takes a conscious effort to think about how things will be read and interpreted, and you can really control how things are read when you design their environment. Apple's retail efforts are a great example of controlling how a customer experiences Apple products.
Anyway, there was word of board games at another apartment, so I headed over there, and chatted for a few hours with some other department folks.
Not a whole lot going on today, but I promise tomorrow to:
1) Go to the local climbing gym and put in a few hours on the walls
2) Go to the capital area where all the shops are and check out the shops
3) Take photos and share!
-Matt
Okay, it's really true...
I really did make the Dean's list. How about that? I didn't believe it at first until I received this:
Awesome. Let's see if I can do it again next semester.
-Matt
Awesome. Let's see if I can do it again next semester.
-Matt
Friday, June 11, 2010
Day 12
Lighting instruments patiently wait as rehearsal continues on-stage for the remainder of the week. Tonight, more than half a dozen lighting technicians will re-focus every instrument in the space for technical rehearsals.
Today was a moderately-productive day. Most of our big projects are either completed, or can only be complete when there's no activity on stage. Since we're neck-deep in rehearsals for "The Magic Flute", our work time is limited to immediately before or after those rehearsals. I went through the mundane tasks such as re-labeling the sound console's board tape (The heavily-modified tape from last season was still there) and worked on creating some permanent CellCom profiles for technical rehearsals, focus, etc.
Just before lunch break, the stage manager for "Magic Flute" asked if we could look at one of the over-stage conductor monitors; it either wasn't turned on or needed to be adjusted. I had noticed similar issues with the same monitor relier, and Allan and I hiked up to the half-roof after lunch and pull the monitor down. We took it to the control room where we plugged it straight into the DA's there, and it worked fine. We took it back to the stage right wing and plugged it into it's DA (the stage-right DA is fed from the control room) and it worked fine there. However, we notice that if we remove the video terminator from the DA, the signal improves. So we run the monitor back up to the half-deck and re-attach it, noticing we have a slightly better, but still pretty terrible signal. With rehearsal on-stage starting back up again, we save the project for another day.
The view of the theatre from the half-deck as Allan and I return to another project.
However, when we return to the stage, we notice the other conductor monitors are now having a slight video quality issue. We return to the control room to try and figure it out, only to be stumped by our combined lack of knowledge regarding video theory. We assume it has to do with a lack of termination somewhere, but in the way that video was explained to us, we weren't sure whether we needed to terminate the DA, or the TV itself.
With Allan futzing with that, I went on a mission of efficiency. Remember yesterday, when I hung the B-lift camera? Well, we have a TV-on-a-stand that can be pushed around for show purposes, and we were going to dedicate one to the B-lift operator position. The problem is, the roving monitor is not compact or efficient. But it is mounted on a lighting-type frame, and I realize that, with a little disassembly and modification, this monitor could hang right near the operator position, be completely out of the way, AND functional.
So I disassemble the monitor and stand, run to the scene shop for some bolts and a drill, and return to find I had the wrong size bolts. Damn. Another trip to the shop. Te right sizes this time, I hang the frame and slide the monitor in. It looks and works great, and i'll have to get you a photo!
I head back to the control room right about quitting time, when The Boss shows up, and gives Allan and I a great lesson video theory. He shows us a video scope (a small monitor with calibration displays) and how to read such a scope. He shows us what the high and low limits should be, what an over-powered signal looks like, and what no termination, proper termination, and double termination look like. A very good lesson right at the end of the day.
Slowly, Santa Fe is starting to grow on me. There's a very big part of me that's still screaming "You're too far away from home! It's not going to be the same when you get back!", but I know that's not true. I will still have my girlfriend and my car and my bike and my family and friends. It's rough being away from everything, and the only thing you have here are clothes, some books, a laptop and a phone. But i'm making friends in my department, and a few in other departments too. I'm good friends with the ladies in the office, although I don't know if it's a good thing they know me by name (Hi Tracy!) Do you remember in grade school when the secretaries in the front office knew you by name? Kinda like that... but I know i'm not in trouble when I see them.
Two days off in a row? What am I gonna do? Adventures!
-Matt
Day 11
The "roof" of the Santa Fe Opera: The catwalk system contains 8 or 9 catwalks (this is looking down the access walkway, with the catwalk entrances along the right side.
Today continues to be a day of small projects, since very little can be done while there is a rehearsal on-stage. My first project was to install a B-lift camera in the catwalks. The B-lift can rise above the stage level by about four feet, which, in the case of "The Magic Flute" creates a longer playing area, since "Magic Flute" has a raked stage. The B-lift operator is upstage-right, and needs to see where the lift is. The camera is in the catwalks, pointing almost straight down at the lift (is at a slight angle to give some perspective for the monitor). I also hung an IR emitter, which puts out light the camera can see, but the human eye cannot (so the camera can see in the dark). After that, I set up a monitor on the stage manager's desk, and rolled a roving monitor over to the lift operator position, and patched them both into the newly hung camera.
Last night during tech, we were having some trouble with our wireless intercom, in that the assistant stage managers couldn't hear some of the calls made from elsewhere on the intercom system. In our attempts to figure out what was causing it, we inadvertently broke the wireless intercom some more (Oops.) After about an hour of futzing with it, Karl (one of our supervisors) waved his hands over it, deduced a loose cable was causing our new issue, and we were back up and running again. When we went to test our original issue, that was resolved too.
Weird.
The morning went pretty fast, and in the afternoon I vowed to fix an issue that also cropped up last night during technical rehearsals. For some reason, the ICA channel wasn't working from the tech table (Remember, the ICA channel is a special intercom channel that's connected to loudspeakers in the catwalks; If you talk over the ICA channel, you can talk to those in the catwalks who are working with overhead scenery, or focusing lights. Without it, you'd have to shout constantly up to the catwalks. There's a phone connected to the tech table that's tied to the ICA, and it wasn't working. A work-around for the rehearsal was to put out a wireless intercom connected to the ICA, but then there are reception issues, battery issues, etc.
So I break out the tech table roadcase (which has the intercoms, cue light and house light control, etc) and hook it up. I then attach the tone generator to the ICA channel, and trace the tone back down the cables to the trap door which runs back to the dimmer room; all sounds good. I head down to the dimmer room to the junction panel, and begin sniffing cables. The downside to sniffing the cable (as opposed to the exposed end) is that most cables are shielded to prevent interference from other cables. While the shielding does a great job of preventing other signals from getting in, it also prevents my tone generated signal from coming out, so when I sniff a cable, I can barely hear the tone. I wasn't getting any conclusive results until I sniffed over the actual junction bar that all of the intercom channels connect to, and realized that the ICA *was* connected to the intercom, it just wasn't making it's way back to the control room (and the ICA amplifier).
So I did the reverse: I moved the tone generator to the ICA amplifier and went back to the junction room. I found the wire leading to the ICA amplifier, and it WAS connected to the junction bar, but the connector itself was faulty. A new spade connector, and everything works! Problem solving at it's best. While it only takes you a few minutes to read this, rest assured it took me all afternoon to fix it. You're welcome.
We locked up and headed home. There was a department dinner scheduled for tonight and I had to work quickly. I got home and immediately grabbed my letter and CD for Caitlin, and hauled it to the "Mail Call" down the street, trying to beat their closing time. I got in with a minute to spare, and got my package sent off.
Running at 7,000 feet SUCKS when you haven't run in a while. Just a note.
I got back to my apartment and showered and re-dressed in khaki's and a polo, and the carpool re-arrived to pick us up. I had no idea where we were going, but I you have to dress up for it, then i'm game. We parked outside of Gabriel's and headed inside. It's half-indoor and half-outdoor and in this weather, the outdoor is much preferred to the indoor.
A note on the weather in Santa Fe. You know (for those on the east coast) those days after big storms, when the sky is blue, the humidity is way low, and the sun is out? And it's the perfect temperature? and the wind is blowing? That's what it's like here. Every day. Some days it's hotter, but only in the direct sun. The highs are usually in the mid 80's, and the lows are in the low 60's. It's perfect, every day.
So we head inside (boo) and grab a seat. It's the A/V team (Myself, Allan, Jared (the apprentices), Geoff and Karl (the supervisors) and Dave (the Boss). Also joining us are Geoff and Karl's girlfriends. Fresh tortilla chips and red salsa are placed in the center of our table, and we start chatting and snacking.
NOTE: if you're on the fence on coming to New Mexico, DO IT. At the very least, come to Gabriel's. Here's why:
The red salsa at the table was not the jar crap at the grocery store. It was fresh. And slightly hot. A gentleman who I first mistook for a busboy came by with a cart, and started making guacamole. Table-side.
He cuts open the avocados with precision, carves out the best part, then adds the onion, tomatoes, and everything else, and drops two bowls on our table. I've never been a fan of guac, but this was absolutely amazing guacamole. As the server was going around for drink orders, everyone was getting margaritas. Obviously they knew something about this place that I didn't. I also ordered a margarita (which I never do, although Caitlin loves them) to see what the fuss was about. The server ended up bringing two pitchers full of margaritas, and they were AWESOME. There was no taste of tequila, and they were sweet and refreshing. I knew there was tequila in them because halfway through my first, it started to hit me.
Another discover at 7,000 feet: Beer hits you like liquor, and liquor hits you like grain alcohol. One margarita in and I was pretty loose.
(insert jokes about me being a lightweight.)
I ordered the "Puerto Vallarta", which the menu describes as "a rich combination of crab, tiger prawns and chicken breast, sauteed in a fresh tomato and white wine sauce and topped with melted cheese". It too, was excellent. We ended the night with Sopapillas, which were explained to me as a deep-fried tortilla. Not being a fan of deep-fried foods, I was turned off initially, but when 15 of them came out on a platter (with honey in squirt bottles), I had to try it.
Maybe it was the margaritas, but these were amazing! They tasted like a light, fluffy funnel cake. These came right out of the fryer, and with some honey on top, they were unbelievable. I tried another about 15 minutes later, and it wasn't the same. They have to be fresh.
This dinner and the one the first Monday i was here are phenomenal team builders, I never would have expected it but it definitely brings the team closer together.
See you tomorrow!
-Matt
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Day 11 Postponed
Hi all,
There's a lot I want to write about today, unfortunately the 3 hours of sleep i got last night have caught up with me, and i'm headed to bed early.
I'll do my best to get today's post up by lunch tomorrow.
-Matt
There's a lot I want to write about today, unfortunately the 3 hours of sleep i got last night have caught up with me, and i'm headed to bed early.
I'll do my best to get today's post up by lunch tomorrow.
-Matt
More on Tech Rehearsal to come...
I don't nearly have enough energy to talk about the technical rehearsal process, or how the entire environment of the theatre changes when the sun goes down. But I promise I will elaborate more in a future post. It's definitely something to write about.
-Matt
-Matt
Day 10
Still in Day 10, it's currently 1:53am. We're in technical rehearsals for "The Magic Flute". But here's how the day began...
I got a text from Mom talking about some mail I had received, and one was from Towson University. Thinking she could take care of whatever it was from home, she opened it. It said I made the Dean's List last semester.
Someone at Towson made a mistake. I'll have to call them and rectify the situation.
First thing today was a production meeting for "Madama Butterfly", the show that i'm the A/V point person for. They went over the model design, the scenic changes, and the needs from props, A/V, etc. It was a quick meeting (15-20 minutes), and I was back to the theatre in no-time. The next A/V need was for a video camera pointed at the conductor. Apparently in Opera, the conductor makes many of the entrance cues, and the maestro needs to be seen at all times backstage. There are also monitors in the catwalks for the actors on-stage to see him as well.
The initial position of the camera was too far away, creating an obstruction during rehearsal. We moved it closer and zoomed out, making a nice, tight focus. We also needed to move the video connection to the stage left wing due to my futzing with stage right for the past few days.
Next around 11am was time for our respirator fit test. Every employee needs to do a fit test, due to the amount of chemicals and particulates around the campus. Everyone doesn't have to wear a respirator, but you get fitted for one just in case. The first thing we did was put on a hood (like a bomb squad hood) and a dilluted chemical known as Bitrex was sprayed into the hood. It was done for a future reference, so we knew what it tasted like when it was time to really test the respirator.
For the record, it tastes like you put coins in your mouth, but it's a subtle (yet overwhelming) taste in your cheeks. Not pleasant.
Next we put on the respirator mask itself, and did a vacuum test. It's where you hold your hands against the filters and suck in, and if the seal around your face is correct, no air should make it's way in, sealing the mask against your face. Mine took a little adjustment, but I got it to work. The final test is the hood goes back on with the respirator on this time, and full, 100% Bitrex is sprayed into the hood. If you can't taste it, then your respirator is working! The cool thing about this process is that all apprentices receive a free respirator mask AND free filter cartridges. The Opera only buys one type of cartridge, which is the one that filters the most types of particulates and dust, etc.
So cool.
The rest of the day was cleaning up, dressing cable, and re-organizing. Around 5pm we set up the tech table, setting up intercoms, etc. One discovery we made was the ICA system wasn't working from the tech table. The ICA is a broadcast system hooked up to an intercom channel. It's tied into loudspeakers in the catwalks, and allows someone on-stage (or anywhere with an intercom) to talk to those in the catwalks without having to shout. Pretty cool idea, actually. We did a little bit of troubleshooting, but it was time for me to go to dinner and everyone else to go home.
On my break, I took a few photos to help everyone get their bearings (and because Mom asked):
Above is a shot from behind the orchestra seating, just underneath the balcony.
Here is a photo from the top of the balcony, house right. There are about 2100 seats in this theatre.
Another view of the balcony, you can see on the right side the "wind walls" from my early blog posts.
In front of every seat is a screen which can show the subtitles of the show, in real time, in English or Spanish.
Coming back from dinner, the electrics crew started light focus. Now is what we call "Hurry up and Wait", where you're on standby in case something breaks, but you don't really have a task to do. So you keep busy, like writing blog posts. We had another intercom box that was just sitting on the table, which would have been much more efficient and easier to use if it was mounted in our audio rack, so with the Boss's permission, in it went.
At midnight, there's a tradition called "Grey Lady"; nobody's explained it to me yet, but it consists of a late night meal, as a thank you to everyone who stuck around since 5pm (or earlier, like many of us) for the late technical rehearsal. There was pizza, soda, candy, chips, everything a body needs at midnight (yeah, right).
But now, it's 3:37am, and I have to be back at work in a little more than five hours. So good night.
-Matt
P.S. - Sorry to make you wait for this one, Jay, but my day wasn't over until just now. :)
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Day 9
The stage manager's console, my work for the past few days. The video screens all feed back to the control room. The stage manager also has full intercom, paging, cue light and house light control.
Today was a continuation of yesterday's cable pull. As a recap, we needed to get a bunch of video cables from the stage left wing (the control room) to the stage right wing (the stage manager's desk). Since we can't run cables across the stage, we need to use existing conduit. For this run, we drop below the control room into the electrics shop, then up to the dimmer room. We then travel all the way under the audience to the Orchestra Services department (under stage right). Then we go up to the stage right wing.
We ended yesterday outside of Orchestra Services, and pulled the video cables up to the Stage Right wing. From there, it was a struggle to get it through the ductwork, down a cable trap to the stage management desk. But it happened. :)
Towards the end of the day, I decided to figure out why one of the existing cables Stage Right SAID it was going back to the control room, but in fact was not sending or receiving any signal. It was labeled the same as a cable in the control room, but all testing indicated that there was a break somewhere. I grabbed the sniffer and started poking.
A sniffer has two parts: A tone generator, which you attach to one end of the wire/cable, and a sniffer, which has a metal probe and a speaker. The tone generator sends an alternating tone (high, low, high low, think of a police siren) and the sniffer "listens" as you hold it's metal probe to the cable you're sending tone to. It's great to find a cable in a stack of other cables (like finding a needle in a stack of needles).
I knew this line worked in the control room previously, there was paperwork that referenced it in years past. So, it's time for the grunt phase. I grab a flashlight and a hardhat, and FOLLOW the conduit down into Orchestra Services, through the orchestra pit (with lots of other conduit, too), through the percussion storage room, into the dimmer room, up to the control room junction box. Every chance I can break the conduit and get to the cable, I jam the sniffer in, and I'm getting a tone. This means that the cable is still good, all the way from the stage right wing to the entrance of the control room. This also means I don't have to pull new cable. I continue following the cable through the conduit to the patch bay, and I get tone all the way to the end of a cable. A different cable.
To recap: I have a cable labeled the same in both the control room and the stage right wing. The ACTUAL end of the cable in the control room is labeled something differently. So then what's the original cable's (in the control room) real purpose? I'll have to find that out another day. Needless to say, my original project is done.
I had purchased a bunch of groceries yesterday, and resolved to cook it all for meals for the next few days. By 11pm, I had six meals done, with some other frozen meals for when I get home (the cooked meals will mainly be lunch at work).
See you tomorrow!
-Matt
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Day 8 is coming!
I was exhausted coming home day, and spent the night cooking meals.
I'll get it up soon!
I'll get it up soon!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Day 8
Underneath the stage lives a room that the high New Mexico heat never reaches. The dimmer room serves power to all lighting fixtures throughout the theatre, its nine racks (holding 600+ dimmers) feed an array of lighting instruments in every nook and cranny surrounding the stage (and sometimes on it, too).
Today was a day of frustration. I'll get to that, but first…
Today was the first day of on-stage rehearsal! The stage is set for "The Magic Flute", and first thing in the morning comes the "Step Chat", where the big cheese comes out and thanks us all for our hard work now and during the season. It continues with going through the common sense theatre and Opera etiquette which we all know, but is still great reinforcement (Don't be loud, we're rehearsing today, be polite, don't forget about the SIGHTLINE mark on the back deck, smoke in designated places, etc). It was good to hear these things, because it lets me know this company takes itself seriously. Anyone who has worked professional theatre before knows these "rules", but it's always good to hear them again.
Next, we moved and re-arranged for the "family photo", which will be published in the program for the Opera. I'm sure the photographer had great lighting exposure, because the sun was behind us, throwing light onto the dunes and the bright white concrete of the back deck, essentially blinding us. I kept my sunglasses on, not to look cool, but because without them, I couldn't open my eyes. It was bright.
Now it was time to work. Karl (one of my supervisors) gave myself and Jared (another apprentice) the task of running additional video lines from the patch room to the Stage Right wing. No sweat.
Wrong.
We had five spools of cable, and it was recommended that, because the conduit was large enough, to run all five cables at once. This works great, until you pull 80% of the way through the conduit and the cable jams. It jams so hard that your pull-line breaks.
Sigh. Re-run the pull-line.
When you pull cable, you make sure you have enough slack at each main pull-point to make it to the next. If you come across a 90-degree angle in your conduit, you pull a bunch of cable from your source to that 90, then pull it through the 90. The idea being the cable would kink if you tried to pull it past the 90 without any slack.
So we have about 60 feet of video cable, neatly taped every foot or so. We have to undo all the tape. If you have ever played with video cable, you know it doesn't like to be wrangled. Now we have to wrangle five cables to re-feed one at a time. Bummer.
All is not lost! We got the cables run individually in less than an hour, and in reality we only spent about an hour and a half fighting the bundled cable. The remaining time was tracking the conduit, and getting it to the half-way point where we experienced the trouble.
Today was productive, just not as productive as I would have liked. This will get finished tomorrow! Karl also had the idea of adding a video patch bay to the Stage Right wing, which I totally agree with. If you've seen my previous comments, you'll know that this area seems to have the most video activity, and having intelligibility and ease of patching will go a LONG way to faster set-ups and tear-downs. I almost forgot it was quitting time when we finally got all the lines pulled, I was ready to keep going.
We drove home, racing away from the rain-clouds threatening Espanola and Los Alamos. I got to chat with Caitlin for a good while on her drive back from her parents house, and I decided it was time for laundry and grocery shopping. I'm so glad to be near a Trader Joe's, I never seem to waste money on useless food i'll never eat, and most of the food there is GOOD for you.
Example: I like snacks with my lunch, healthier the better. Carrots, yogurt, etc. I found some apple sauce, and checked the ingredients: It had four items in it. No high-fructose corn syrup, no added sugar. 80 calories. 4 cups, $2. C'mon! You can't beat that!
I end up buying a lot at Trader Joe's, but i'm okay with that. I spent $80 on groceries, but it's all food i'm sure to eat (because I like it) and i'm less likely to eat crap fast food, and since I don't have cash, I can't buy food from the Cantina (I hear they only take cash, no credit cards. Inconvenient for some, savior to me)
See you all tomorrow!
-Matt
P.S - While updating to the new version of Safari (on Mac), I started using Firefox. Seems as though the Axton wireless network behaves MUCH better on Firefox than Safari. Let's see if this holds true through the week...
Day 7
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Today was my first day off, and let me say, I don't like days off. When I leave my girlfriend, my car, and my family, jump two time zones, i'm ready to work. Let's work!
It stems from my need to be productive. I don't feel productive on days off; maybe it's the unfamiliar territory. When I would do gigs for Atmosphere in DC, the urgency of unloading, setting up, focusing and dressing cable was palpable. The sooner I set up and finished, the sooner I could go home.
Okay, okay. Yes, i'm a little bitter; i'm homesick. Moving on.
Lazy day, got up late (10am or so), finally shaved (first time since I arrived), and it took FOREVER because I was so grizzled. I didn't go out much today, seeing as I did some exploring last night near the train tracks, and it's hard for me to go out and explore and not spend money (Ooh, Trader Joe's! Ooh, running store!). I flipped back and forth today from TV, laptop and reading. I did read a good bit of my book ("Last Man on the Moon" by Eugene Cernan).
Tonight was the first of many parties at the Opera. I can't remember what it was officially advertised as, but it seemed like a "get to know everyone/say hi to people from last year" mixer. There was a vague dress code, I heard everything from t-shirt and jeans (no holes) to full up suit and tie. I classed it up in my Towson polo and American Eagle jeans (my size-32 pair) and headed for the gauntlet.
The party was starting at the Cantina when I arrived; everyone was grabbing a bite to eat and some drinks (open bar!). Some of us A/V kids chatted up some of the other departments, and I hung out with Mallory (Towson grad working her fourth year here in Costumes) for a few minutes.
As the night was winding down, I experienced one of the most amazing sights.
The Opera is located on somewhat of a hill, with the audience facing the west. There's a embankment directly west, then it goes on for miles into the distance. Directly east of the Opera is Hwy 285 running north and south, followed further east by a set of hills which go up a few thousand feet (they had snow on them).
As the sun was setting in the west, storm clouds began to form over the hills to the east. An occasional thunder clap could be heard, but it was drowned out by the crowd at the Cantina. It was hard to say who recognized the storm clouds, but they hung over the hills for a while. A large group of people walked up to the back deck to watch the sun set, and were surprised to turn around and see a double rainbow over the eastern hills. The contrast from the deep amber light from the sunset into the dark, grey-green storm clouds was something I had only seen once before at home. Even though they were a mile away, the bands of rain were clearly visible on the hills. The sun continued to set, throwing orange highlights into the wispy clouds still clinging above Los Alamos further west.
Check out a video from my iPhone of the panorama -> Video from Balcony
I could get used to this.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Day 6
Santa Fe and ABQ's commuter train, the Rail Runner. The station is about 1/3 mile from my apartment, giving easy access to the much larger city of Albuquerqe Abquerque Albuquerque
Today was the second half of Safety Day, with a lecture from Monona Rossol. Her four hour lecture covered LOTS of interesting material, safety with chemicals, toxicity, hazardous materials, and so on. She openly admitted that her boring material wouldn't survive without a creative and fun delivery, and she definitely was creative and fun with her work. One of the things I took away from her lesson was "Just because the chemical says non-toxic, doesn't mean it's not toxic. It simply means that it hasn't been tested for toxicity. They can put whatever they want on the label." If a chemical has been proven toxic, then the company can simply replace that chemical with an equally toxic, but un-tested chemical, and continue to call it "non-toxic".
Ended up coming home around 2pm and had a late lunch. I picked up some stir-fry veggies from Whole Foods the other day, and some chicken from Trader Joe's. Having no idea how I was going to cook them, I diced up the veggies some more, and threw them into a pan with some olive oil and Jane's. I let them cook for a few minutes while I chopped some chicken thighs into smaller pieces. I realized I needed flavor, so I grabbed some Gyoza sauce I had in the fridge and added it to the veggies. I dumped the veggies into a bowl, and added a little more oil and the chicken to the pan, with two cloves of minced garlic (fresh, none of that powder crap) and some more Jane's. After a minute, I added some more Gyoza sauce and let the whole thing simmer. Just before the chicken finished, I added the veggies back in and stirred the whole thing.
It came out awesome. Freakin' great. Didn't expect that at all.
The sun was starting to set when I wanted to make another run to Whole Foods (I ran out of strawberry sorbet. If you can, get some. Check the ingredients for High Fructose Corn Syrup and don't buy it if it has it. It should only have 5 or 6 ingredients if it's done right). I was going to walk the mile or so, but Juan let me borrow his car, which also let me get some more groceries. On my way back I realized I hadn't shot any photos today, and the golden hour was almost gone. I quickly grabbed my camera to find something to shoot while I still had light.
For those who haven't visited Santa Fe, here's my one-week appraisal of the city itself: It feels like there was a big boom in the 1970's, and Santa Fe exploded in growth, where lots of buildings were constructed or updated. Then everything stopped. From a photographic standpoint, there's lot of pollution: Street lamps, power lines, buildings close together. Santa Fe itself is also, in relative terms, not on a "mountain", rather it's surrounded by mountains. There are no cliffs to go to and get a good shot (not within walking distance) so I had to hike, burning my golden hour to find something to photograph.
Near Whole Foods is a park about the size of two acres. There are railroad tracks that pass nearby, which I thought would be cool to photograph. I also knew they ran south towards my apartment, so I walked down Marquez and found the tracks. With no ambient light to find things to photograph, I decided to frame the Rail Runner sign on the setting horizon. The shutter was set to 5 seconds to try and soak up as much remaining ambient light as possible. It was in the last minutes of the golden hour, and I was rapidly coming up on blue hour. Still wanting some of that stray amber, I cranked my white balance and was fairly happy with the result.
The Rail Runner seems really cool, a great and cheap way to get into ABQ. They have a student discount which gets me to and from downtown ABQ for $3, and the trip is about an hour. It reminds me a lot of the MARC service back in MD, and my trips to and from DC for lighting work. The Rail Runner runs about half as often as the MARC, but it does run on weekends.
Tomorrow is a day off, with a party in the Cantina at 6. See you then!
-Matt
P.S. - As a treat for reading this far, have a look at my first timelapse of the season, shot off the back deck. It's three hours of timelapse in about 20 seconds. Yes, it really is that nice. All day. I think my next one will be of the back deck itself, showing the hustle and bustle of a normal day. Click Here -> June 3rd, Back Deck
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