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Friday, March 14, 2014
5 Good Habits for Gigging
Dimmer Beach: What is a good habit? Easy, a beneficial acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. Since safety is paramount on gigs and in the shop, let’s look at 5 Good Habits for Gigging.
As obvious as I think these are, they are very useful to point out. Although I haven't necessarily dealt with truss too much, I have seen the road case latches catch so many things...I one time almost ripped a jack off a set because I was pushing a road case through a very narrow space, and the latch caught on the jack. I've also (one time) pinched someone's fingers in a road case...I didn't mean to, but they're fingers were sitting on the rim of the case. As for the running, I don't believe that someone with any amount of experience only had to run a few times, but during loadins and loadouts, running is stupidly dangerous, so I understand his point.
These are all great habits. Especially because I know I’ve personally been guilty of most of these at least once.
Higher education experience is great, but often times it lacks the teaching of habits like the ones listed here. While they all seem like common sense, even the most experienced students are guilty of not following these rules.
While most of these things seem like common sense, as someone who hasn't spent a lot of time around road cases and truss, it is great to hear these tips atleast once in this context. I think it is so easy to lose track of your surroundings when you are really into a job, and even the most experienced tech people have bad habits, so all of these reminders are great.
I have obviously never "gigged," but I think that this advice can be applied to many things. On run crew, especially when we are striking, things can get a bit chaotic. There are lots of people doing lots of things all at once. Plus, most of the people working have minimal experience (freshmen). I think that if people make an effort to keep these little rules in mind, accidents would be brought to a minimum. For example, while striking Wild Party, the fire curtain fell. Luckily no one was injured and there was a cart of plywood that kept it from reaching the ground, but I know I saw at least one person that would have been hit were it not for the plywood. I don't know if its falling was a mistake that could have been avoided, but regardless, if people on the ground would have had that little thought in the backs of their head, it would not have been such a panic when the curtain came in. (This, of course, is just an example and I think everything was handled quite well considering the rarity of the fire curtain coming in!)
Some of these tips, although they seem really basic and obvious, are actually really good. I don't know much about gigging, but some of these tips can apply to a lot of other things. I really like the move with a purpose tip, and it makes a lot of sense. I've been on load-ins where a lot of us were moving with purposes. I really see that tip on the days when I kinda want to be productive but I'm just not, and I wish that I had more of a purpose. Also, the wire thing is a really important tip, especially in 33. Unfortunately, we usually don't have the luxury of being able to run cables to the ground, so tripping over them is a huge problem. That kind of ties in a bit with the being vigilant tip, and to be aware of things like cables, that way stuff is knocked off desks.
I think this is a fantastic set of tips to be aware when working. Having gigged plenty of times doing lighting work, I have seen all of these things happen before and it is super important to be in a safe environment when there is so much potential for dangerous things to happen. But is someone is just mindful of what they are doing and use a bit of common sense and self awareness, there should never be any reason for any of these things to happen. It's all about taking your time and being purposeful as stated.
This is a very good article for anyone entering the workforce not only for gigging but also in any live entertainment position. Since most of the gigging work I have done has been in the sound department so dealing with truss hasn't necessarily been the biggest issue however that habit and all of the rest are good things to get used to regardless of department, especially since when it all comes down to it, the safety of me and everybody around me rests in our hands. I don't want to be walking across stage and be bludgeoned by a lighting guy's phone falling from truss and I'm positive they don't want to be tripping on my sound cable in ridiculous cable runs.
7 comments:
As obvious as I think these are, they are very useful to point out. Although I haven't necessarily dealt with truss too much, I have seen the road case latches catch so many things...I one time almost ripped a jack off a set because I was pushing a road case through a very narrow space, and the latch caught on the jack. I've also (one time) pinched someone's fingers in a road case...I didn't mean to, but they're fingers were sitting on the rim of the case. As for the running, I don't believe that someone with any amount of experience only had to run a few times, but during loadins and loadouts, running is stupidly dangerous, so I understand his point.
These are all great habits. Especially because I know I’ve personally been guilty of most of these at least once.
Higher education experience is great, but often times it lacks the teaching of habits like the ones listed here. While they all seem like common sense, even the most experienced students are guilty of not following these rules.
While most of these things seem like common sense, as someone who hasn't spent a lot of time around road cases and truss, it is great to hear these tips atleast once in this context.
I think it is so easy to lose track of your surroundings when you are really into a job, and even the most experienced tech people have bad habits, so all of these reminders are great.
I have obviously never "gigged," but I think that this advice can be applied to many things. On run crew, especially when we are striking, things can get a bit chaotic. There are lots of people doing lots of things all at once. Plus, most of the people working have minimal experience (freshmen). I think that if people make an effort to keep these little rules in mind, accidents would be brought to a minimum. For example, while striking Wild Party, the fire curtain fell. Luckily no one was injured and there was a cart of plywood that kept it from reaching the ground, but I know I saw at least one person that would have been hit were it not for the plywood. I don't know if its falling was a mistake that could have been avoided, but regardless, if people on the ground would have had that little thought in the backs of their head, it would not have been such a panic when the curtain came in. (This, of course, is just an example and I think everything was handled quite well considering the rarity of the fire curtain coming in!)
Some of these tips, although they seem really basic and obvious, are actually really good. I don't know much about gigging, but some of these tips can apply to a lot of other things. I really like the move with a purpose tip, and it makes a lot of sense. I've been on load-ins where a lot of us were moving with purposes. I really see that tip on the days when I kinda want to be productive but I'm just not, and I wish that I had more of a purpose. Also, the wire thing is a really important tip, especially in 33. Unfortunately, we usually don't have the luxury of being able to run cables to the ground, so tripping over them is a huge problem. That kind of ties in a bit with the being vigilant tip, and to be aware of things like cables, that way stuff is knocked off desks.
I think this is a fantastic set of tips to be aware when working. Having gigged plenty of times doing lighting work, I have seen all of these things happen before and it is super important to be in a safe environment when there is so much potential for dangerous things to happen. But is someone is just mindful of what they are doing and use a bit of common sense and self awareness, there should never be any reason for any of these things to happen. It's all about taking your time and being purposeful as stated.
This is a very good article for anyone entering the workforce not only for gigging but also in any live entertainment position. Since most of the gigging work I have done has been in the sound department so dealing with truss hasn't necessarily been the biggest issue however that habit and all of the rest are good things to get used to regardless of department, especially since when it all comes down to it, the safety of me and everybody around me rests in our hands. I don't want to be walking across stage and be bludgeoned by a lighting guy's phone falling from truss and I'm positive they don't want to be tripping on my sound cable in ridiculous cable runs.
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