Saturday, January 30, 2010
New iPhone App for Stage Managers
iSquint.net: "I just heard from Daniel Murfin, the Lighting iPhone app developer that brought us ShowTool LD, that he has just released a new iPhone app, ShowTool SM. If you are a Stage manager, you might be interested to hear about this one. The app includes a timer that you can time and label events during the course of a show. It also features a mark, Checklist and props section all right in the app."
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9 comments:
While I don't have an iPhone or an iPod touch, this application still looks like it could be useful. Having all the information you need in one handy location instead of four or more different packets of paperwork seems like it could be useful. It would be interesting to try it on a show, though I would still want the old school paper versions in case the phone crashes.
That looks awesome! They should definitely come out with one for Blackberry. I would say the majority of SMs I know have blackberries. I'm not sure how useful the checklist app would be. It might just look like you're running around texting right before a show, but I like the idea of the timing system and cataloging spike marks.
I do agree with Katherine that I would probably still write everything down though.
While I have yet to obtain an iPhone, I feel that this application would greatly add to the lowering of the stress level of a SM. While many people say that we have become to dependent upon these application, but I feel that applications like these can actually help in the production of a show. I feel that overall this app has a lot of usable applications. I like the idea of having a concise and contained system from such jobs.
I appreciated the comments from SM major/seeking friends, before I dear to step in this realm. My initial reaction to this application was skeptical, like the launch of the ipad...
I assumed that because SMs work in fast-paced complicated work dealing with live people and events, the conventional note taking on the paper would be much faster and accurate.
However, seeing the relatively positive responses, some functions offered by this application might be useful somehow for their real business. It can be said that in any technologies, how useful it is going to be totally depends on how efficiently we can use it.
I am already in love with iphone applications, and I find this new app very exciting. While I don't think that the information that this app can provide Stage Managers should be contained solely in the iphone, I like the idea of having the ability to keep all of this information in one easily accessible and portable device. This is just another reason for me to want to have an iphone.
I love hearing about new iphone apps. I think this application would be useful, but i would write everything down anyway. i can see where it would be nice to just look on my phone rather than look through papers to find it. I agree i don't know how helpful the check list would be just because it would take longer to type in a long checklist rather than write it down or do it. I don't know if i would use it on a phone because doing it manually is more reliable.
What will they come up with next?
This seems to be just a bit ridiculous but I am curious to see how well it would actually work. The article gave some information but not enough to satisfy me. Also, I do agree with Katherine, what if the phone does crash during the show? Then what would you do? There are a lot of ways in which this could turn out badly.
I just don't know what to even think about it and I like taking handwritten notes so there seems to be more cons than pros.
It's nice to see theatre being on some part of the cutting edge of technologies, but this is just fluff. In my experience, paper and pencil works best for the kinds of jobs SMs do. This may be useful backstage for an ASM, but typically there's not reason to not have a binder with this information. Or a laptop.
Anyone who knows me knows that I could not survive without the assistance of my iPhone, however, I looked at this app and it has very few features that go beyond the capabilities of the iPhone already. A checklist… Notes, or any other FREE ToDo App. A Stopwatch… Clock, it already has one. Definitely not worth the $4.99 price tag (at the time I checked about a week ago).
However, I do think that there is the potential to create a fantastic SM App. There are many daily tasks that could be streamlined. One example would be an app to take rehearsal notes that would then export to a pre-made excel/word document. Another would be to generate daily call paperwork.
While I would never give up my clipboard for the actual running of anything, having a program in you palm that can help with the daily tasks that take up a SM’s time would be amazing.
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