Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Sentences No One Wants To Hear In Production
Live Design: "There are many sentences in our industry that no one wants to hear. “Someone’s been hurt,” for example, sends a chill down my spine. “The client is unhappy,” though much less serious, also summons a bad feeling in the stomach. One sentence, “We’ll figure it out on site,” is often tossed around and seems innocuous. However, every time I hear it, my trepidation grows, and I consider raising my fees."
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6 comments:
I think the most important thing that this article is trying to impress upon all of us is that we need to plan plan plan and prepare prepare prepare. Always in theater things pile up on the end of the production, but the important thing is to utilize all the time that you have so that everything you CAN deal with before load-in, you DO deal with.
Before I had any substantial theatre experience, I didn't know that it took so many people, so many hands and so much effort to complete one production and how much of a collaborative effort theatre really is. even on the creative side, costumes, scenic painters and set designers, among many other members of the creative team have to try to create a cohesive aesthetic and on top of that people dealing with the technical aspects are also contributing to achieve the same goal which is why trying to improvise because of lack of preparation is such a bad idea, because it can affect so many areas of production and this article really brings to light, how essential preparation is
Coming from a facility where design actually meant "we don't actually plan, we just let the creative team dive in and design with saw and screw-gun in hand" to be followed by the technical folks who would then have to find a way to make it work and be safe, hopefully without ripping everything out to start new the idea of figuring out some of the implementation details on site isn't too scary, as long as it's limited to things that are more incidental. Details like how to lay down floor covering (so you can wait to see how things actually line up) or exactly which outlets you'll be plugging in to (there's 3 circuits, but which outlet is on which?) are easier once you're in the facility, but anything related to safety should definitely be settled in advance, leave the "figure it out on site" in those cases to things like "we have 3 100' runs and a 50' run of power cable, we'll figure out on site which ones and how much to use to cover the supposed 200' to the disconnect".
Another problem with "figuring it out on site" is that the quick-and-easy fix for one department's problem creates a larger problem for another department. I've seen this be an issue when the sound department wants to put their speakers at a certain height in a center cluster, but that position blocks the lights from making their shots. If a problem like this is brought up early enough, then sound and electrics could come up with a decision to possibly move a lighting position, but once they're in the venue, that change becomes practically impossible.
In response to Tom's comment about the floor layout etc. I have witnessed first hand what happens when you don't do your research for things like that. If you have to order material in advance (which is usually the case) and when you get there the entire floor you ordered not only doesn't look/fit the way the designer wants but is also unusable in the space/context it is in. Although you can't plan everything from the monetary perspective that unusable floor (which could have been researched more) just cost the production thousands of dollars that could have been used elsewhere or that they just didn't have.
My director in high school was a BIG fan of the "figure it out later" school of thought, and our plays really suffered for it. My senior year, I think I heard her say it a record number of times, and we ended up with sets that creaked, rocked and gave splinters when actors walked on them. (Which they quickly decided they wouldn't do, unless things were fixed.) Working with a person with that procrastination mentality meant a lot of late nights, and frustration.
I completely agree with this article. To me, there is no point in putting it off, you screw yourself--and everyone working with you--up down the road, and frustration becomes as normal an emotion as inspiration.
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