So, in other words, they didn’t have five minutes in the last month to call up and make sure that we had the right one.
Thursday, April 26, 2018
The “Necessary Evil” Of Paperwork: Rider & Stage Plot Clarity Can Really Pay Off
So, in other words, they didn’t have five minutes in the last month to call up and make sure that we had the right one.
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4 comments:
I love this article. Before coming to grad school, I was the TD at a venue that would often host touring acts. Vicki Lawrence was my favorite. I have a lot of experience reading riders and contracts as a result. And Read them I did. One band was shocked to see that everything on their rider had been provided for. I told them, it’s in the rider. I also got into the habit of calling the tour manager and confirming what on the list needed to be provided and what didn’t. Often times, not only did I oversee the tech, but also the backstage security and hospitality. Plenty of late nights laundering towels. It’s important for anyone in the tech field who oversees a venue to read the riders. It’s also important for a group to update them. As equipment changes and gets better, it’s important to know what will and will not work. Also, sometimes the house doesn’t move the FOH console (in this case a 48 channel analog console that was hard patched into the system and attached to a patch bay for all of the XLR inputs in the space). We had that in our contract.
However humorous this article may feel when reading it, it contains some wonderfully profound nuggets of wisdom that only time and failures can teach you. The simple fact of the matter is that one must always be sure to update all forms of paperwork that goes with the show. For me, in my world, this means the tech rider is law, and anything else that comes along is suspect. In all the shows I build at my summer job, and when I'm touring with the ballet, it is of utmost importance that every detail in the tech rider is correct. For the summer shows, we build its because they are going out to other places and will have a life beyond me and my involvement. These documents serve as early warnings and sizing that helps to expedite the process and ensure that the show will fit into the space they want it to perform in. The ultimate worst case is finding out that your two inches short and needing to break out the saw.
I loved this article, as someone who enjoys reading and making up contracts I have found this very interesting. When creating these types of paperwork, it is very important to have all the information correct and accurate. Without it being correct things will be wrong or forgotten and the show will suffer. An example of this is that the drummer did not have the equipment and thus could not feel the kick the entire show. These are important to have and it’s the job if the venue to provide it. However, the production team needs to make sure they have written it down in the rider all of their needs. One thing I was not a fan of was that he did not even know what was on the rider. The first thing that should have happened when hired was to read all the riders and paper work and to adjust them accordingly. It seemed to take him a while to change things even after mistakes happened.
This article was really quiet funny. I love these kinds of contracts and always find it interesting to see what is and more often then not isn't on a rider. In this sort of business its really important to get all of the little things right when it comes to putting on a production and it makes a difference when someone is missing something. That's why being specific and making sure that everything is right from the beginning is really important. I can think of a number of different times that I've worked at a venue and the production coming in didn't specify clearly enough what they wanted and then things go wrong in the venue. And this is always funny because it goes one of two ways where they either except what they can get and that they didn't do it right or they demand to get something that causes other departments to suffer.
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