News from the "Real World"

Sunday, November 08, 2015

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

Here are the top five comment generating posts of the past week:

Is Working For Free Ever Worth It?

The [Legal] Artist: For years I’ve advocated to anyone who’d listen that unpaid work is tantamount to a slap in the face; that experience and exposure aren’t sufficient compensation for people whose livelihoods depend on their art. Three years ago I said:

“[B]eing paid for your work is a statement about your worth to yourself and to the project. Directors, producers, and publishers don't work for free; neither should you.”
Posted by David at 33 comments here
What We Owe the MythBusters

NYTimes.com: WHEN the reality TV show “MythBusters” debuted on the Discovery Channel in 2003, its producers weren’t on a mission to transform science and education in America. They just wanted to entertain. In each episode, the hosts would try to debunk or confirm a few classic urban legends. Could a penny dropped off the Empire State Building really kill a person? Could eating a poppy-seed bagel actually make you test positive for heroin? The producers cast two San Francisco-based special-effects artists, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, as hosts. The show was a surprise hit — pulling in as many as 20 million viewers a season — and it helped changed our culture.
Posted by David at 28 comments here
How to tell good acting from bad acting

Business Insider: If anyone tells you there are objective standards, they're full of s--t. This is a matter of personal taste. There are trends. There are many people who loved Philip Seymour Hoffman's acting. But if you don't, you're not wrong. At worst, you're eccentric.
Posted by David at 20 comments here
Negotiating a pay rise: what I wish Jennifer Lawrence had known

Women in Leadership | The Guardian: US actress Jennifer Lawrence penned an insightful essay this week which included her thoughts as to why she was paid less than her American Hustle co-stars. What stood out was that she knows she didn’t negotiate as hard as she could for fear of being labelled difficult or unlikeable, fears that her well-paid male co-stars clearly did not suffer from.
Posted by David at 17 comments here
Public Theater Adds Transgender-Themed Musical to Season

The New York Times: The Public Theater is adding a musical about a transgender group of friends to its winter schedule, and putting out a direct call for transgender actors to audition.

The prestigious Off Broadway nonprofit said Thursday that it would stage a production of “Southern Comfort,” a musicalization of a 2001 documentary of the same name, which tells the story of Robert Eads, who transitioned from female to male, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, had trouble finding medical treatment and relied on friends for community as he died.
Posted by David at 16 comments here

Friday, November 06, 2015

Workflow is Helping to Increase Turnaround Speed and Add Capacity at PhotoCraft

Signshop: For PhotoCraft, the Portland, Oregon-based facility of Vectra Visual, a leading provider of innovative retail graphics solutions, the decision to implement DALIM SOFTWARE's TWIST and ES sprung from the need to exert control over its workflow, simplify the premedia process, and slash production times.

Adoption of the ‘Law of the Actor’ in Argentina: A historical moment

FIA: On the night of 28 October 2015, the ‘Law of the Actor’ (‘Ley del Actor’), officially recognising performers as workers, was unanimously approved by the Argentinean Senate. FIA warmly congratulates its Argentinean member AAA (Asociación Argentina de Actores, Argentinean Actors Association) on this historic victory.

Lighting Plots | Janet Jackson Unbreakable World Tour

Concerts content from Live Design: Unbreakable World Tour was conceived, created, and directed by Janet Jackson with Gil Duldulao as the creative director. The tour features production design by LeRoy Bennett and Cory FitzGerald of Seven Design Works. FitzGerald also designed and programmed the lighting, for which Upstaging supplied the equipment.

Pittsburgh looms large in Starz drama

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Starz’s eight-episode one-season-and-done series “Flesh and Bone” (8 p.m. Sunday), set at a New York ballet company, offers equal amounts of intrigue and irritation.

It’s intriguing for its setting and some of its stories — although the fine arts world in New York does call to mind the lighter “Mozart in the Jungle” on Amazon — and yet at the same time it’s often predictable in its premium cable-style plotting and pretentiousness, which is where the irritation comes in.

Theatre Facts 2014 Shows Optimism for the American Theatre

AMERICAN THEATRE: As the Great Recession finally fades into memory, theatre leaders seem relieved to have other issues on their mind. The glass is looking more than half full these days, with a rise in funding from foundations and individuals driving an overall increase in income, and more than half of theatres experiencing a positive bottom line. Even so, rising costs and ongoing challenges in retaining and building audiences and managing cash flow are keeping managing and artistic directors wary.

Nonprofit theaters are attracting more donors, but audiences keep shrinking, report says

LA Times: A survey of nonprofit theaters nationwide shows that they’ve upped their game since the Great Recession when it comes to attracting donors and earning money, but that their audiences have continued to dwindle.

The average theater in the survey spent about $1.2 million and survived without much of a cash backstop, the report by Theater Communications Group found.

'Illegally' Fired Riviera Theatre Stagehands Get Support From Worker Advocates, Pat Quinn

Progress Illinois: Former stagehands at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago who were allegedly fired by JAM Productions for union activity want their jobs reinstated, back pay and a fair unionization process.

The fired stagehands rallied Wednesday morning with their allies, including former Democratic Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, outside JAM Productions' offices at 207 W. Goethe St.

Seton Hill takes on Shakespeare's 'Dream'

TribLIVE: Student actors at Seton Hill University are off on a journey through one of William Shakespeare's most popular romantic comedies, “A Midsummer Night's Dream.”

Not even the writing style of the Bard — sometimes difficult to master for those new to the playwright's poetic verse — is getting in the way of their enthusiasm for the classic piece of Elizabethan theater.

Dialing In Vocal Effects

Pro Sound Web: I love reverb on vocals. It stands to reason; I grew up in the 1970s and 80s, when there were many records made with tons of reverb on vocals.

Today, the pendulum has swung the other way and vocal reverb has become more minimalist. I’m not necessarily against minimal reverb on vocals, but I do often think that reverb covers a multitude of sins. And when we’re mixing audio in churches, having a little extra “awesome sauce” can really help vocals sound better.

Quotable Quotes

Pro Sound Web: Karl Winkler’s reference to “great quotes” in his recent column (here) got me thinking about the many (too many to count, in fact) insightful comments that have appeared on the pages of ProSoundWeb and Live Sound International over the years. It lead to a weekend of reading more than a hundred archived articles, and from them, I’ve drawn the following quotes about the world of pro audio.

Is Working For Free Ever Worth It?

The [Legal] Artist: For years I’ve advocated to anyone who’d listen that unpaid work is tantamount to a slap in the face; that experience and exposure aren’t sufficient compensation for people whose livelihoods depend on their art. Three years ago I said:

“[B]eing paid for your work is a statement about your worth to yourself and to the project. Directors, producers, and publishers don't work for free; neither should you.”

8 Ways Horror Movies Scare the S*** Out of Audiences

screencraft.org: Humans are a strange bunch. We’re curious to a fault at times. We seeks thrills by putting our lives in danger as we jump out of airplanes, climb mountains, run away from bulls in chase, plunge off of a bridge with only a single cord to save us, etc.

Others take it down a notch by climbing into roller coasters and other thrill rides found at carnivals, fairs, and amusement parks.

And then there are horror movies. Audiences flock to them each year. The horror genre is one of the most reliable sources of profit in the eyes of Hollywood and the worldwide film industry as a whole.

Fired Riviera Stagehands Allege Unfair Wages, Unsafe Working Conditions

DNAinfo.com Chicago: Legendary Chicago stage manager Jolly Roger stepped out from his customary spot behind the cameras and microphones Wednesday afternoon to protest the firing of his team of stagehands at the Riviera Theatre and to demand their jobs back.

The stagehands had not received raises in seven years, were asked to perform unsafe work and were not allowed to negotiate for health insurance, Roger alleged at the protest.

Why do residential contractors ignore OSHA Fall Protection standards?

www.thecontractorcoachingpartnership.com: Here we go again, OSHA announces the top 10 most cited violations (below) and wouldn't you know Fall Protection tops the list again!

In residential construction OSHA is citing and fining Builders, Remodelers, Developers, Roofers, Painters, Siding and Gutter Contractors and any trade who exposes their workers to falls from heights 6 feet or more above a lower level.

Thursday, November 05, 2015

The Grand Mother

Pro Sound Web: Ask 100 sound engineers how to mike a piano and you’ll get 99 ideas.

The piano is the Mother of Musical Creation, the heart of most musical genres and every singer’s lover, yet in live sound it’s often replaced by digital synthesizers and samplers due to the inconvenience of a half-ton instrument that needs 230 strings tuned with a propensity to feed back and resonate with adjacent sound sources.

However, a piano’s organic sound remains music’s most popular keyboard, “hands down.”

Negotiating a pay rise: what I wish Jennifer Lawrence had known

Women in Leadership | The Guardian: US actress Jennifer Lawrence penned an insightful essay this week which included her thoughts as to why she was paid less than her American Hustle co-stars. What stood out was that she knows she didn’t negotiate as hard as she could for fear of being labelled difficult or unlikeable, fears that her well-paid male co-stars clearly did not suffer from.

Cold Mountain (8/5/15), Salome (8/6/15), La Finta Giardiniera (8/8/15), Rigoletto (8/4/15), La Fille du Régiment (8/8/15)

www.operanews.com: THE MAIN EVENT of this year’s season at Santa Fe Opera was the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s first opera, Cold Mountain (seen Aug. 5). An incisive sense of danger and instability suffuses the entire opera, based on Charles Frazier’s best-selling 1997 novel about rural life in North Carolina near the end of the American Civil War. Gene Scheer structured his economical libretto around W. P. Inman’s journey home to Cold Mountain after deserting from the Confederate forces; all events prior to this were told in flashback.

Former Gov. Pat Quinn Rallies With Stagehands at Protest Demanding Right to Unionize

NBC Chicago: Pat Quinn hasn't been in the public spotlight very much lately, but the former Illinois governor surfaced Wednesday at a protest in Chicago with stagehands who were demanding the right to unionize.

The group organized the protest outside of JAM Productions Ltd, a live entertainment production company located at 207 W. Goethe St. in Old Town, after about 40 stagehands were allegedly fired after trying to form a union, they say. The protesters said they were seeking pay increases and better working conditions, and they claimed that they have not received raises in seven to 15 years.

How to tell good acting from bad acting

Business Insider: If anyone tells you there are objective standards, they're full of s--t. This is a matter of personal taste. There are trends. There are many people who loved Philip Seymour Hoffman's acting. But if you don't, you're not wrong. At worst, you're eccentric.

A Shakespearean Excerpt: Orsino's Heart

Breaking Character: As you may know from reading his plays, Ken Ludwig is a bit of a Shakespeare fanatic. He began teaching his own children how to read and memorize passages from Shakespeare from the time they were six years old. The purpose of his book How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare is to pass on the torch and create a whole new generation of Shakespeare lovers.

100 Women Directors Hollywood Should Be Hiring

Vulture: Enough.

Enough with the studios like 20th Century Fox, Sony, Paramount, and the Weinstein Company, none of which put out even a single film this year that was directed by a woman.

Enough with the executives who would rather hand a lucrative blockbuster to a man who’s never made a movie before (like Seth Grahame-Smith, the novice director recently picked by Warner Bros. to direct a big-budget adaptation of The Flash) than a woman who has.

Riviera Theatre stagehands rally at Jam Productions headquarters, claim they were illegally fired

Bleader | Chicago Reader: At a quarter to noon today, Riviera Theatre stagehands fired by Jam Productions earlier this fall inflated a giant rat outside the Old Town offices of one of the country's last remaining big independent concert promoters. The workers hung a sign around its neck: "I was knifed by a 'Jerry Mickelson' slacker for being a union backer." The stagehands say the 40 employees that Jam CEO Jerry Mickelson fired in September were let go illegally—they claim he was retaliating because they'd signed cards to authorize a union election.

The Bach Choir of Pittsburgh opens its 81st season with America: Makers and Dreamers

Local Beat | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: Thomas Douglas, artistic director and conductor of the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh, has a deep curiosity about history. Sometimes, at social gatherings, he’ll throw out a question like, “How many of you know the full name of your paternal grandfather?”

“That’s where the stories really start,” he says with a chuckle. “I always hope to stir up people’s interest in their own heritage.”

Seth Rudetsky's Disaster! Musical Headed for Broadway with Adam Pascal and Faith Prince

Playbill.com: Theatre personality (and Playbill columnist) Seth Rudetsky will soon have two new titles: Broadway librettist and Broadway star. Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick's musical Disaster!, a parody of 1970's disaster movies which ran Off-Broadway in 2012 and 2013, has booked Broadway's Nederlander Theatre for a March 2016 opening with an all-star cast.

Public Theater Adds Transgender-Themed Musical to Season

The New York Times: The Public Theater is adding a musical about a transgender group of friends to its winter schedule, and putting out a direct call for transgender actors to audition.

The prestigious Off Broadway nonprofit said Thursday that it would stage a production of “Southern Comfort,” a musicalization of a 2001 documentary of the same name, which tells the story of Robert Eads, who transitioned from female to male, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, had trouble finding medical treatment and relied on friends for community as he died.

Next Gen 2015: Hollywood's Up-and-Coming Execs 35 and Under

Hollywood Reporter: A common thread among the 35 executives age 35 and under that comprise THR’s 22nd annual Next Generation list is a singular big break or a mentor who helped distinguish each person in a cutthroat business. It’s a path that leaders of previous generations — WME-IMG's Ari Emanuel, Fox film co-chair Stacey Snider and CAA's Richard Lovett, Kevin Huvane and Bryan Lourd, among them — have forged. And it’s one of the reasons that Hollywood continues to lure (and frustrate) some of the most ambitious and talented people in the world: Stardom can happen overnight.

What We Owe the MythBusters

NYTimes.com: WHEN the reality TV show “MythBusters” debuted on the Discovery Channel in 2003, its producers weren’t on a mission to transform science and education in America. They just wanted to entertain. In each episode, the hosts would try to debunk or confirm a few classic urban legends. Could a penny dropped off the Empire State Building really kill a person? Could eating a poppy-seed bagel actually make you test positive for heroin? The producers cast two San Francisco-based special-effects artists, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, as hosts. The show was a surprise hit — pulling in as many as 20 million viewers a season — and it helped changed our culture.

DWP Live, 59 Productions Team for UN Projection Mapping Using d3 VFC Cards

Live Design Briefing Room press release archives: When the United Nations launched its Global Goals for Sustainable Development, the most public face of the campaign was a 10-minute projection mapping on the iconic UN headquarters' buildings in New York City. d3 and its creative software suite supported the dramatic show designed and produced by London-based 59 Productions and projected by Tennessee-based DWP Live.

Wednesday, November 04, 2015

2015 Awards

Theatre Philadelphia: On Monday, November 2, the following nominees and award recipients were honored at the 2015 Barrymore Awards Ceremony at the Merriam Theater. Congratulations to all of our participating artists and theatre companies!

San Francisco Is Losing Its Artists

hyperallergic.com: One of this city’s most-discussed recent performances took place on the morning of April 1, 2014. A group of dancers, clad in acrobatic costumes, blocked a Google bus at the corner of 24th and Valencia Streets in the Mission District.

They passed out fake bus passes. (The shuttle buses, which ferry tech workers to their cushy campuses, are resented by many locals because they stop at public transit stops but don’t serve the larger public). They formed human pyramids, shouted slogans, and tossed around exercise balls printed with parodic Google logos. They stopped the bus from moving until the police came to break up the action.>

Lucasfilm's Skywalker Sound: Behind the scenes

Fortune: There are still seven weeks to go before the new Star Wars flick hits theatres, but already The Force Awakens is proving to be one of the most exciting movies in years. Trailers for the film have broken records. Demand for Star Wars-themed figurines and games have buoyed toy sales. And a surge of demand for presale tickets, which became available earlier in October, caused websites like Fandango to crash.

How Many Cameras Does it Take to Live Stream?

ChurchProduction.com: A lot of churches start live-streaming with a single camera. That’s fine to start. But too often, live-streaming ministries languish with a single static shot or a single camera operator for years. Ideally, both of these would be a temporary situations.

Stage preview: Public Theater takes a turn at comic mayhem

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Tragedy for openers, a comedy tonight.

After “The Diary of Anne Frank,” Pittsburgh Public Theater presents “A Servant to Two Masters” — Ted Pappas’ 50th credit as a Public director, and what better way to celebrate than amid gales of laughter?

TOH Top 100 2015: Best New Home Tech Products

This Old House: From a low-tech flue damper to a high-tech HD video doorbell, these 14 products put you in control of your environment

16 New Products from the 2015 Remodeling/Deck/JLC Live Show

www.remodeling.hw.net: Looking for something new for your next project? We found 16 great products around the floor of the combined Remodeling Show, DeckExpo, and JLC Live event in Chicago last week with creative applications for interiors and exteriors.

TOH Top 100 2015: Best New Tools

This Old House: Pop-up workbench? Check. Flexible sandpaper? Yup. A plastic welder? Indeed. And many more items to stock the garage

Labor Union also takes issue with Pittsburgh's Delta Foundation

Blogh | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: This week City Paper reported about the apparent lack of progress with the Delta Foundation since the protests at Pittsburgh Pride by smaller, local LGBT groups. Protests were sparked by the selection of Iggy Azalea as headliner (the rapper had a history on social media of making comments that many felt were racist or homophobic), but protesters felt the issues went beyond that (Azelea later dropped out and was replaced by Nick Jonas). Demonstrators demanded more inclusive practices at Delta, particularly the participation of trans and people of color in Pride.

Review: ‘Death of a Salesman’ in Yiddish

The New York Times: There are moments in New Yiddish Rep’s “Death of a Salesman” when language comes memorably to the fore: the “achtung” Linda Loman utters when she tells her sons that attention must be paid; the phrase “riding on a smile and a shoeshine,” which acquires a striking musicality when said in Yiddish.

Call for presentations and exhibitors now open through October 31

Live Design Briefing Room press release archives: Professionals and students across the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), landscape and entertainment design disciplines are invited to join a global community of visionaries at the 2016 Vectorworks Design Summit on April 25-27 at the Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park. With keynote presentations by Vectorworks executives and industry leaders, an inside look into Vectorworks software’s future development cycle and networking opportunities with product engineers, power users and third-party partners, attendees will leave Chicago fueled to solve their next design challenge.

Sergio Trujillo Realizes His Dream of Salsa on Broadway

The New York Times: Sergio Trujillo has choreographed seven Broadway shows, yet he hasn’t quite established a signature. He has created period-perfect steps for populist extravaganzas like “Jersey Boys” and lent unfussy movement to smaller, less dance-centric shows like “Next to Normal.” But in “On Your Feet!,” which opens on Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Marquis Theater, Mr. Trujillo has found his most personal project yet.

The Benefits Of Being A “Tech Ninja”

Pro Sound Web: A few years ago I was visiting with my friend Chris Walker, the worship leader at Covenant Life Church in Grand Haven, MI, when he dropped the term “tech ninja” on me.

I laughed and thought of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I imagined a green shell-clad sound guy with an assortment of weapon stashed in his belt.

Cheap Broadway Tickets Can Be a Matter of Luck, Timing and Apps

The New York Times: SAM PARKER’S smile was so big, he looked as if he’d just won the lottery. Which he had: to “Hamilton,” the hottest show on Broadway.
Stories from Our Advertisers

Mr. Parker, a young actor who said he wouldn’t be able to afford a regularly priced ticket, lucked out at a recent lottery drawing for 21 front-row seats ($10) and eight standing-room spots ($40) to “Hamilton,” a hip-hop musical about the founding fathers and one of the most elusive tickets. He was among some 350 people who entered the lottery, held under the marquee at the Richard Rodgers Theater.

Tuesday, November 03, 2015

The Hypocrites' All Our Tragic | All Greek Tragedies In One

Theatre content from Live Design: Nine hundred pages, one lighting plot with 600 cues, at least 500 sound cues, 148 costumes, and a five-page prop list. That’s what it takes to do 32 tragedies at once.

All Our Tragic, Sean Graney’s adaptation of all the Greek tragedies, is an eight-act epic, broken into four sections, separated by dinner, if you see them the same day. It runs about ten hours, 12 if you count the intermissions. The Hypocrites in Chicago opened it last year alley-style, and the team remounted it—yes, they’ve done it twice—this summer, reconfigured in proscenium/thrust style. In both arrangements, characters are supposed to be living in an abandoned factory.

Insane Clown Posse cancel show over Faygo Shower ban

Consequence of Sound: When one attends an Insane Clown Posse concert, one should be prepared for a night of elaborate “horrorcore” performances, as well as expect to be doused in soda, a messy ICP tradition known as the Faygo Shower.

Are long-running topless shows too safe in their sex?

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Take a topless dancer for granted? Only in Vegas.

"Crazy Girls" celebrated 28 years on the Strip last month, and "Fantasy" just threw itself a 16th birthday party. That makes them the third- and seventh-longest running shows in town.

The opening narration of "Crazy Girls" goes a step further, telling audiences it's the longest-running topless revue in the country.

These little piggies went to the circus

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: No, pigs don’t fly, and they don’t jump, not even those who perform at the circus. They do elicit squeals of delight from crowds, though, and are at least as smart as the dogs they star alongside for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s “Legends,” which opens at the Consol Energy Center Wednesday.

Detroit Public Theatre Gets In on an Urban Arts Renaissance

AMERICAN THEATRE: Sarah Clare Corporandy remembers the reactions she got when she told people she was relocating to Detroit to earn her masters in arts administration at Wayne State University.

“Their faces cringed,” she said. “They were like, ‘Oh God, I hope you’re going to be okay!’” While the “usual reaction to my move was concern or fear, a lot of these people had never even been to Detroit.” Still, Corporandy confessed: “I grew up in Michigan, and I hadn’t spent a lot of time in the city; I think I had that fear, too.”

Thirty-One Killed, 183 Injured Pyro-Sparked Nightclub Fire in Romania

PLSN: A fire sparked by pyro effects during a performance by heavy metal band Goodbye to Gravity ignited foam decor and raced across the ceiling within the crowded Colectiv nightclub at about 10:30 p.m. Oct. 30, filling the venue with smoke and fumes. About 400 people were in the club at the time of the fire. Thirty-one were killed, including the band’s two guitarists, according to news reports.

LDI Award Winners Announced

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: The winners of the 2015 LDI Awards were announced at the Live Design International Show in Las Vegas, on October 24.

Hog Factor Champs Win Hog 4 Console, $20K Scholarship for Carnegie Mellon University

PLSN: High End Systems drew crowds to its LDI booth with gear ranging from the new SolaWash Pro 2000, SolaSpot Pro 2000 and Uno to featured products including the SolaSpot Pro 1500, ShapeShifter and Hog 4 Hoglet and Miniwing. Also featured: the new GUI interface for Axon. The company also staged the finale for its Hog Factor competition and awarded a new Hog 4 console and $20,000 scholarship to the winning school, Carnegie Mellon University

Hog Factor Winners Help HES Unveil the Future at LDI 2015

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: Automated lighting manufacturer High End Systems states that "the future is now," and the company upheld that bold statement at the LDI 2015 exhibition last week in Las Vegas. High End's display featured an unprecedented range of high power LED moving lights. With the introduction of three new LED products, the company says High End enjoyed a tremendously successful LDI. Designers and specifiers had much to witness during the three day event; the company debuted SolaWash Pro 2000, SolaSpot Pro 2000, and Uno. The trio of new products was accompanied by SolaSpot Pro 1500 and SHAPESHIFTER.

875 Scenic Artists Are Latest to Petition New York Times to Restore Production Credits in Theatre Reviews

Playbill.com: United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, the labor union and professional association of designers, artists and craftspeople, is the latest group of theatre professionals to pen an open letter to The New York Times, urging the newspaper to restore the list of designers and production members to its printed and online reviews and listings.

Drafting Table Quarterback: Power Drill Teardown

Core77: In this installment of the Drafting Table Quarterback, we have a side-by-side comparison of two products near and dear to any design student, homeowner or design professional: Two 18v cordless power drills. We picked these Ryobi P271 and the Makita XPH012 not because they are the most popular or highest rated. We selected two entry level products, not made by the same parent company.

.Party() At Los Angeles' LA Coliseum | A Raver's Dream

Live Design: When Swedish video game programmer and designer Markus Persson (aka “Notch,” the creator of Minecraft) decides to throw a party, he turns to Production Club. The series of shows, dubbed .party()—pronounced dot party—has been produced annually in various cities over the past few years, but the most recent incarnation at the LA Coliseum in Los Angeles has been the most ambitious version yet

The ‘King of Horror’ as arts advocate: The Vincent Price papers at Yale

YaleNews: Halloween is a time for haunted houses, hayrides, and horror films, a number of which were recently acquired by the Yale University Library in VHS format. The library's Manuscripts and Archives department also houses the papers of the “King of Horror” himself, Vincent Price ’33.

John Brophy on Utilizing Technology in the Field

Remodeling | Leadership, The Big50, Big50 Bites: In this edition of Big50 Bites—our audio series on the biggest issues facing remodelers today—we talk to John Brophy from Compass Property Services in Grand Rapids, Mich. Three years ago the firm transitioned from a paper-based system to using iPads, which allows the crew to store all of a job’s information on the cloud and makes accounting a much smoother process.

Monday, November 02, 2015

Dec. 1 Is #GivingTuesday, Give to USITT!

sightlines.usitt.org: GivingTuesday – the Tuesday after Black Friday and Cyber Monday – is a day to give back. And #GivingTuesday -- the December 1 social media campaign -- is a way to give back to a favorite non-profit organization. Why not make it USITT?

USITT is launching its first #GivingTuesday this year by asking the backstage community to Tweet, post, and give to support its efforts on their behalf.

Member Spotlight: Kucharski Expands the World of Costume Design

sightlines.usitt.org: Joe Kucharski, costume designer, professor at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, USITT Costume Design & Technology Commission, and Editor of Tyranny of Style blog.

USITT: How did you get started in costume design?

How to? Just Do!

sightlines.usitt.org: With the power of the Internet, anyone can find a “How-to...” video providing instruction on ways to do almost anything. Whether it’s rewiring a household lamp or getting rid of woodchucks, answers can be found.

The same can be said for those seeking career advice. Thousands of websites offer critical information about how to succeed in an interview, how to write the perfect cover letter, and even how to negotiate the very best salary.

Shows on the go: Some productions appearing on new platforms

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: As entertainment creators and presenters look to grow audiences through the marriage of product and technology, consumer choice is the winner. Every day, it seems, an event or announcement heralds a new option for the quickly evolving ways we view entertainment. This month has brought a wave of news to illustrate the point.

Savini’s Special Make-Up Effects program goes wild over Halloween 'Face Off' win

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The black T-shirt hanging by the door said it all: “Keep Calm & Make Zombies.”

“To us, Halloween is more important than Christmas,” said Tom Savini, a pioneer in the field of realistic-looking special makeup movie effects.

The “us” he refers to are the 141 students, faculty and alums of the Special Make-Up Effects program bearing his name at the Douglas Education Center in Monessen

Thousands struggle to buy sold out Harry Potter and the Cursed Child tickets after technical problems

www.telegraph.co.uk: A second batch of tickets has been put on sale for forthcoming Potter play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, after thousands of customers were left disappointed and frustrated with technical problems that caused havoc with ticketsales.

A Simple Primer on A Visual Technology Mainstay

ChurchProduction.com: Twenty years ago the concept of a church having or even needing a video switcher was ludicrous. As the only tech volunteer at my church at the time, all I had was a small soundboard and a cassette tape deck. Now, video switchers are common staples in churches of all sizes. Even small churches often have simple A/B switchers.

The Entrepreneurial Lessons of 'Hamilton'

Adam Lashinsky | LinkedIn: I saw a musical in New York Wednesday night about one of America’s greatest entrepreneurs, Alexander Hamilton.

The entrepreneur label might seem at first blush to be a stretch for the founding father whose face is on the ten-dollar bill. After all, he was a soldier, a politician, and a lawyer, not a businessman. But the best and scrappiest of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs will recognize plenty of themselves in Hamilton. An immigrant, an orphan, and a striver of the first degree, Hamilton saw what he wanted, a new kind of country, and he went for it. Or, in the melodically memorable words of lyricist, composer, and title-role actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton took his “shot.”

Happening now: UNCSA students, faculty and alumni light up the White House for annual Halloween event tonight

www.uncsa.edu: Today, students, faculty and alumni from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) in Winston-Salem will have the unique opportunity to light up the White House. Yes, that White House.

According to Norman Coates, director of the lighting program in UNCSA’s renowned School of Design and Production (D&P) and founder of the Winston-Salem Light Project, the UNCSA group have helped stage the White House for its annual Halloween party tonight. More than 5,000 people are expected to pass through the event, including children of military families and area school children, who will trick-or-treat there. The President and First Lady typically give out treats during the event.

WHAT'S IN YOUR 3D AUDIO TOOLBOX?

Anthony Mattana | LinkedIn: How many times have you heard “Make it brighter?” “Blow it out.” “It’s too dark.” “Can we sharpen it?” Bright, blown, dark, and sharp are adjectives used to describe light and visuals. Yet we use them to describe a presentation, a speech, music, and even sound design. Why? Why do we use the same descriptive words to represent image and sound?

‘Hopscotch’ Takes Opera Into the Streets

NYTimes.com: On a recent Friday afternoon, Yuval Sharon gestured enthusiastically at one of many television screens mounted inside a circular wooden structure under construction in a large parking lot in this city’s Arts District. “It won’t ever be the same thing twice,” he said.

Serving Up Neon

Signshop:City Neon, Inc., has been around since the 1950s, and in that time, the shop has seen many lighting trends come and go.

Today the company handles mostly LED projects, but they still get requests for the occasional large neon project—such as the one they’ve been working on for Primanti Bros., a chain of sandwich shops based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Avant-Garde 1920s Costumes Reemerge, Revealing Their Makers’ Tragic Story

hyperallergic.com: In 1920s Hamburg, a dancer couple created wild, Expressionist costumes that looked like retro robots and Bauhaus knights. The dancers were Lavinia Schulz and Walter Holdt, and through the new Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MKG) online collection, their tragic, forgotten story can be rediscovered.

Standup Screw Gun

Fine Homebuilding: Using screws for decking or subflooring prevents squeaks better than nails. Unfortunately driving hundreds of screws is slow compared to nailing with a framing nailer. But a collated screwgun, like the Quick Drive Pro 300 from Simpson Strong-Tie is a great equalizer. It's also a lot easier on your back than a nailgun because it has an extension tube so you can use it standing up.

Sunday, November 01, 2015