on the importance of backing up to paper

for those of you who don't know i lost everything.
my desktop, and my main computer ceased functioning the other day, also my Xbox got the Red ring, oh yeah and my phone broke.
and to make matters worse my laptop is giving me grief too.
and my miserable financial situation has made it so i cant even afford to repair my computer until January.

usually i back up all my work to an external, but i hadn't done that in a few weeks, as i had been busy ect ect. so all the work i had don on my desktop was gone.
i thought it was kind of strange since a few days before i was commenting on how making a paper backup of my book for Tribades was a waste of paper, and money.
now i realize if for some reason i needed to reproduce this show and i was in the situation i am in now i would not be able to unless i had that paper copy.

Lesson learned i guess

but i still need to fix my computer.

Rain in Long beach

I have this umbrella, its kind of silly but i thought it was neat, have you ever seen blade runner, well its like the umbrellas from that movie. it has an LED light down the center of it. while it is cool its actually kind of useless. i was out in the rain yesterday getting all my last minute stuff done, and it was getting dark so i thought "yeah i finally get a chance to use this umbrella light. so i turn it on and now there is a glowing blue orb right in my peripheral vision, i kind of irritated me, but everything under the umbrella had a very nice hint of blue light on it, and it gave me enough light to walk home in, so i guess it wasn't all bad.

now that i think about it Blade runner is set in L.A in the future, but in the movie its always raining.
it only rains like 3 times a year here.

Is it done?

its like one of those moments.

so my Xbox red ringed, then My desk top computer broke, then my phone broke,now my laptop is having some odd issues, fixing all this shit is going to be costly

on the upside my book is done

Look a ghost


WOOOOOO.

The Dome at the Queen

The dome at the Queen has been lit up perhaps for some festive reason, however they have made it all red, now you could associate red and green with Christmas since those are the colors that everyone seems to use ect, but they just went with red. I don’t think this is very festive and it kind of makes it look like something out of a horror movie. But hey to each their own right? I am sure someone got paid lots of money to come up with the idea of putting red Gels over the HMI scoops focused on the dome.

Avalon

So I had a blast camping. The campsite was beautiful, except there was no spot on the ground without rocks so it was kind of uncomfortable,

also the light pollution from LA was still bright enough to drown out the stars. on the last night in Catalina we stayed at a hotel in Avalon, because, well… its nice to shower and I think camping for two days is a good number. Avalon is an interesting little town, that reminds me of home, it’s a small town and the major economy is tourism, there are lots of clubs and bars, and apparently a casino, and the town lights up very nicely when the sun goes down, one thing I really liked is the reflection of the town on the water.


I tried to get a good pic
,
but they came out mostly blurry, either way I had a great time on Catalina again. And a good break from the crazy semester so far. It has energized me a bit seeing as how I was very burnt out after the productions ended. Now heres to hoping the undergrads finals go well.

I was mildly amused by this guy

http://www.alexandreoudin.com/

Some of his photography is cool too

Novembers backlog

Ok so i havent updated in a while, but the fact is i was on a boat, we were making a play, it went well thanks for asking, anyhow here are the updates i wrote but did not post while being on said boat

More on LDI

The Master class was probably one of the best experiences I had this semester.

I know I mentioned it before but perhaps it needs mentioning again, the people who ran the course were from mode studios. I got to meet the people behind the Super bowl half time show with the Who, and listened to their story of how everything kept on going wrong up until the very last moment. There was a demonstration of projection surfaces that inspired me, and made me think of the possibilities for a show like pool of Bethesda. But the one thing that stuck the most with me is how little I actually know, I need to start talking to these people, because they are on the cutting edge, which is where I need to be, media design is growing fast, and it has many more options open outside of the theatre, therefore as a light and media designer, when I graduate I will have so many doors open to me. But I need to start making those connections, as Cal State will not do it for me, and cal state does not have the tool necessary to teach me these things.

More on Vegas

I think Vegas is a place that would suck the soul right out of me. The City is full of tits and glitz. It does however have some of the coolest lit buildings I have ever seen, just the architecture on most of the hotels on the strip is amazing. Treasure island even has a full stage show outside multiple times a day, with, in true Vegas style, girls with barely any clothing and pyro and moving lights. They had macs in bubbles to protect them from the weather, but I wonder if those bubbles cause a bit of a filter on the lights when they are used.

Being in Vegas is also a bit of a downer, since it seems like they never turn the lights off. I feel like the city is a Giant Glowing beacon Visible from space like a little pimple of light on an otherwise dark globe. I wonder what it would be like to live in a place for an extended period of time and have it always be daylight ish.

Love.

The Theatre in the mirage

I think love might be the best show I have ever seen. Everything it does is so beautiful and simple, but also amazing. Its spectacular, the video is not over the top. Its subtle and enhances the moments its used in. I think the only part I didn’t like as far as the video goes, was the sugar plum fairy dance, with the boots. I think it was a bit too literal for my taste. On the whole the piece was very moving; I think it was a good end to this conference, now I need to start making these contacts.

Nine.

When I originally signed on to this show I was told there is going to be only one video cue and it was a live feed, I was unable to do the show because I wanted to be in LDI, but the director made an arrangement so it was ok for me to be go so long as I could coach the people using the cameras before. Then we discovered that we were unable to what we wanted with a live feed, so then it became a recorded video, which I had to record, and then we had to

add more cues. During our second weekend of tech about 30 more videos were created, which in essence isint a big deal, if I had the videos already built, But I had to build each cue. Heres where it gets messy, one thing everyone seems to forget is that these videos aren’t made instantly, they take time, and if I want a video to be good quality on the projectors we have I need to render them at a high resolution, therefore it takes hours. Now

if I need to make 3 new video effects it will probably take up to 6 hours. Basicly its almost imposible to work these things and get sleep during tec week. That being said, we are coming to the end of tech week and I haven’t slept in a few days. That compounded with the pl

ot for my other show being done at the end of the week, I have too much on my plate

and its killing me.

I haven’t slept I don’t have time to catch up on any of my work. I fear I will fail my classes this semester if I cant bring my head above water, and I don’t have the chance.

Tribades rehersals

The Royal theatre presents me many different complications.

The space is a theatre that cant decide what it wants to be. Its not a proscenium, since there are no wings that I could burry my side light in. its not a thrust as there is no audience surrounding the thrust. And its not a black box because there is a stage. So what is it? It’s a pain is what it is. I need the side lights but if I have them they light up the walls, and the truss will always be visible no matter what anyone wants…

Also one of the most frustrating arguments the director is having with the designers is about the truss. Here is the problem, the truss is visible, sadly there is no

way we can paint the trus black, and if we did it would look like shit. Directors often complain that the trus is so visible, and it will draw attention away from the show. First off if the show is good enough no one will notice the truss. Secondly, as humans our brains are really lazy, when we are watching something and intently paying attention to it our minds kind of play fill in the blank with the scenery around. When you concentrate on something your mind blurs out everything around that focus. Think back to that time you watched your favorite tv show yesterday.(if you watched tv..) Can you recall the surroundings around the TV? Probably not. How about you watch this video. Interesting eh? Now imagine what would happen if you had a man in a suit just siting on stage, no light ever hits

him, and he never moves. After the house fades out, the entire audience will forget hes there. Therefore Science has told us that we are too stupid to notice the truss, so don’t worry about it.

Ttibades tech week

Tech weekend is going surprisingly smooth, but I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. The only part we seem to be going over repeatedly are the flash scenes, I the video seems to be meshing with everything kind of well, but it looks like we are having the same problems that we had with Current nobody. The projections don’t even read all the projections don’t read that well and they are only on screen for a few seconds. I honestly don’t think it will have the impact that they should unless we extend the time of the projections.

Sunday

I feel I might be suffering a little because my mentor was unable to be there for me for this show. Granted this show is not very Cue heavy, and my design is very close to my concept, I still feel like I am not accomplishing what I could be. Joanne Gordon, has been siting in as my mentor (The Department Chair) which has been very helpful, what I appreciate is she has an exelent sense of timing, which I believe is one of my weaker areas. Despite this, I still feel that I am missing something and it will only be pointed out to me on opening night.

Perhaps its just nerves because everything is going so smoothly…

Monday

It has come to my attention that the lights have slightly drifted away from my original concept, however they have reached a place that both the director and I agree supports the story, part of the reason my concept has changed slightly is that the concept of the show has changed slightly. Origiany they were on stage, set changed but as the set was being built the director decide that they wer in the wings, I think that’s what altered my concept. I still wanted the foot lights because of the dynamic change and “period-ish” look they provided, but in reality they would not be there.

Tuesday

David Came by tonight to see the Rehearsal, at this point I was fairly comfortable with what I have, but he pointed out a few glaring errors I had overlooked, one of the problems is focus, but I have mentioned before its almost impossible to draw focus when one of the actors refuses to follow his blocking. I spoke to the director tonight about this, and it has improved, which means now I can fine tune everything, and make it look awesome!

Wednesday

I am very happy with the way it looks right now today was a good day, we got a lot of work done, and I think I made changes in the right direction, there are some things I think I still need to do, but right now it’s not much. I am very sick of the way SJB runs the production meetings, it’s too

faced paced, and she constantly pushes everyone, consequently nothing ever really gets discussed.

Thursday

Preview today, so essentially I am done, I have a few minor changes to make, but nothing big, everything went well, except for the blackout issue, but that was media not dousing the projectors so I cant be blamed for this, I guess, but as it goes if there is light on the stage it’s the designers fault right?

Friday

Opening night, and there was a mild disaster, lucky I was able to make it to the theatre to fix it, but the root of the problem needs to be addressed, and hopefully will be for next semester. Firstly people with no experience with the light board should never touch the board, secondly the tech supervisors should be trained in the light boards…

you should watch this

go here http://vimeo.com/9078364

Christoph Gielen

I discovered Christoph while on CNN of all places. He is an aerial Photographer who is making artistic photos of Americas Suburbs. i think the photos are awesome, and the message behind them is not heavy handed.
Its Almost reminiscent of Edward Burtynskys work. where the artist is examining Mans interaction with the landscape.

Long awaited update...

it has been a long time, i know.
more than a week , which is bad, but i have a lot to talk about. I might even break this up in to two posts.

LDI

for those of you who dont know i was in Vegas at LDI from Tuesday until yesterday. or was it friday... it was a bit of a blur.
Iwent to LDI to take the projections master class taught by Bob Boniol, and it completely changed the way i look at video as a form of art. It has also made me think of changing my focus to be more towards the video and media aspect of theatre, that is not to say i wont still design lights, but i think Video might be the way i want to go.
one designer of note is Pablo Molina, he teaches at Calarts and works with Bob at Mode studios
Pablo designed video for a show that was going on in new york. the show was called Abacus. What impressed me most about this show was, the way he designed the control. Pablo built his own media sever, which was controlled by by a Wiimote that was held by the main character.

it made me realize that as a designer you dont just need to think of the content but also the control and the way the actors can interact with the control and media. This can turn the projections from digital scenery to basically another performer on the stage.

Peter pan 360

we went to See peter pan 360 on Tuesday.
i was realy looking forward to this production, not only because i love the story and im a big kid at heart, but because the show was done in the round with projections projecting on to a 360 degree surface above the audience. content wise the projections were a bit childish, but its to be expected since the target audience is kids.
the video was used to basically be the stage, and there were 4 backdrops, there was the nursery, the pirate ship, the forest and the lagoon. and the video would change sometimes depending on the scene. for example when peter and the kids first fly off leaving the nursery the projections become a flying tour of london, while the actors are raised in to the air.
there were about 10 or 12 barco 10000 lumen projectors at the base of the stage creating the interactive video.

one thing i found very impressive was the lighting designers use of mirrors. since the only good place to hang moving lights was at the top of the circus tent. this would make most low angle shots impossible, but what he did was put mirrors around the outer circle of the tent. therefore he was able to make almost any shot possible, despite having a limited hanging position.

Photomerge

been experimenting with photomerge when i have some spare time.
it basically does panoramas for you, which is convenient, but i have been trying to do a big photo with all the dancers in 9, but its not working out exactly how i expected...
perhaps this warrants more trial.
heres the one i did of the players theatre during tech weekend

it is a rare time that i am up for a sunrise

today was one of those rare times.
what i find interesting is not the sunrise itself, but the moment before. when the sky is this interesting blue gray, and you can kind of make out shapes. most of the stars are gone (well here in Long beach the sky is so polluted we don't see stars)
and then the warm light of the sun slowly peaks over the horizon, and everything changes.
gold warm light trickles in to fill the darkness and flat gray light and everything gets more shape and definition. perhaps this is because the source of light is visible and we aren't just light by the reflection from the atmosphere

the sunrises are definitely better on the east coast, but the sunsets here are nice.

gizmodo shooting challenge

i think i am going to be doing the gizmodo photo challenge every week from now on.
the challenges are fun, and it give me an excuse to take more photos.
lets see how it goes.

Disposable cameras

22 Experiments with disposable cameras
I had almost forgot that these still exist.
while looking at these pictures it makes me want to go out and get a disposable camera right now!
i might just do that.
also i think it would be interesting to do an entire project with a disposable camera...

and photo shop of course

Backlog

So i didnt have the internet at home for a while. this meant that i didnt make as may updates (since i usualy update at the end of the day).
But i have been keeping a pen and paper version for the month without internet. here is what you missed

Sept 7

Running around today trying to figure out my elective I took a ride in one of the art dept Elevators. Now this is not a very impressive feat, but while I was in the elevator I noticed the odd polish on the metal wall gave this interesting reflection on the faces of everyone in the elevator. The light source was from the small incandescent in the ceiling but the reflections were these interesting swirls of light, giving a felling of motion almost.

Technically the elective is figured out... but I still want to know if it’s right for me

Sept 8th

More thoughts on FYF

In retrospect I realised how much the sound and lights actually ruined the show for me, and yes in many cases bad tech can totally ruin a show... (Unless it’s Shakespeare in the park) The one band I wanted to see was school of seven bells, so I busted my ass to get across the park from the mountain goats to get a good spot. So first of they did an extra long sound check, that in the end involved one of the girls from the band coming out to make adjustments herself (which were re adjusted by the tech right after she left) then they finally got onstage and every song was bracketed with awful feedback and the band members looking at each other in despair and over to the sound guy with malice. Then there were these projections, which were a series of screensavers and the occasional live clip washed out in saturated colors. Now I know they had decent equipment there. All the boards were road hogs, and it looked like they were using Hippos for the media (although I could be wrong since I got escorted away by security when I went to take a look)

Hippos for those who don’t know come with a wide variety of effects that anyone can figure out provided they have 15 minutes of spare time and a brain. And if it wasn’t a hippo even the most basic media servers have decent effects programs... so why not use one of those programs rather than running the 80s filter. I feel like this is what you get when you hire a group of people who don’t give a crap about what they are working on (Except for the one board op on the small stage) and I think this is a vital lesson to learn. If everyone has a vested interest in what you are creating then it will show in the art, but if your team is just there for the pay check, then they are bringing everything down.

Sept 9^th

Interesting discussion in today’s class... I now have a list of everything I could do wrong in a plot; therefore if I use this as checklist I should never have any technical errors on my plots... I think if I approach everything with a bit more precision I could eliminate most of the major errors I will make.

Sept 12^th

There’s something to the sunset in fall, I am uncertain as to what the quality is that like so much, perhaps it is tied in with the nostalgia and memories of my youth, and returning from school after the first few days of being back, I also miss the smell of dead leaves.

I think there is a big difference to the sunsets I have witnessed around the world too. Here in long beach the sun has this warm almost golden and red quality to it. Up north I feel the sun sets differently. There is a bit less warmth to the sun set. Perhaps this could be due to the proximity to the equator, but I think it could be also attributed to the gross levels of smog in the air. I think there is also a noticeable difference between the seasons.

I man there will obviously be a difference due to global positioning and all that stuff, but I wonder how noticeable it is to the average person...

Sept 14^th

There is a bit of a hill I have to walk on my way home, I was lucky enough to be walking this hill today at sunset. I really liked how as cars drove past me their shadows extended to these long shadows I expect from a sunset, and then disappear.

Sept 16^th

I agreed to work on the Symphony showcase. The main reason I did this is because the idea is extremely interesting, but also I love working on musical shows. Music and light have much in common, and the director believes that light will have to be with the music, so it’s bound to be an interesting show.

Sept 18^th

Today was lefty tech. I stopped by the theatre to see how Heather was doing and to see how lefty was going. Now I had heard that the stage was going to be red but I think I was still kind of surprised when I saw the red stage and the hue of red the stage was. What I think is very interesting, is that it gives off a very nice reflection; I think it’s always a bit of a risk to do something like that, but it almost gives the lighting designer a little bit extra fill light.

I think that’s why I like the showcase room so much, because it has a very light collared reflective floor, even if an actor can’t find their light there’s a chance they are still going to be caught with the reflection from the floor.

Sept20th

I gave my first lecture of the semester today. Surprisingly not a bundle of nerves I was last semester when I gave a lecture. I was surprised and mildly disappointed that many of the people in the class never had high school physics. I feel like this would be something that should not left out of a high school curriculum. Physics are the building blocks of the universe, how can this be ignored in school?

You need to check this guy out

Normally i am opposed to photos of the homeless, and photos of cats.
i find that they are a bit too cliche but Christophe Huets work is amazing.
bonus points for a nicely done website.
the photos themselves were done by other artists and he did the photo shop work, but they are still impressive none the less.



Seriously check it out

i want to get this printed again

i still have the negative

FYF Fest

Or is it just FYF since the last f actually stands for fest?

There were 3 stages, the two big stages had about 20 moving lights (looked like mac 2k profiles)and LED strip lights
the small stage had about 8 moving lights (Profiles as well)
out of the three of them, i think the best run was the small stage. the board ops on the large stages just seemed to run effect after effect with no consideration for the music.
the small stage board op, realy had a feel for the music and the bands styles.
for example, cold case was playing and he turned off all the conventionals and just did a slow sweep that built with the music. whereas on the big stage, with Local natives the board op just threw up strobes and color chases at random intervals.

the small stage also did this really neat effect using a Spirograph gobo in the haze. this is definitely something im gonna use during the drag show if it comes back (since i have the same gobo in my personal collection)

last night in oslo

The show opened last night, and it was spectacular. My first big opera and it went really well. To all those Nay sayers who said “I wouldn’t be able to keep up with david” or “there’s no way you can track 70 moving lights” I say HA! I did it, And I did it well. Now I know what it means to be a good assistant, and what someone needs to do to be a good assistant. This also means I am going to expect a lot from my assistants. I mean after all if I can keep up with 78 moving lights, then anyone else should have no problems tracking the 5 in the QE for Night of the triceratops. There is much more to reflect on, but right now I need some sleep

tosca day 14

Day 14
Tomorrow is opening night. Today I watched from the balcony and took photos. I was trying to take photos of each cue, and found it supper difficult to figure out when some of the cues changed. A lot of the cues in this show are very subtle; I spoke to David about it afterwards, because I find the cue timing is one of the biggest problems I have.
It’s something that needs to be taken in to careful consideration, because there are certain moments that absolutely call for a well timed cue. For example the tedium at the end of act 1 finishes the music cuts so the lights should cut as well. If there was a fade it would look weird, but alternately the pull down to toscas famous aria in act two can be much more subtle. I think it would be a bit easier for a musical or an opera since you have the music to work with

tosca day 13

I find the use of texture in this show rather interesting, I recall that early on in the rehearsal process Kevin Knight (set and costume designer) commented on David’s use of the Upstage Profiles during act 1 and act 2
The Upstage profiles are used to create texture on the walls, in act one they cast an almost daylight looking light with a break up on the door and the SR walls roughly going in the direction of the window gobos, the light looks almost like the reflection of daylight off a marble floor, the lights are at a very low level so it’s very subtle but it adds a nice level of texture to the walls.
In act two the gobos are used in a similar fashion, but they are a much darker blue to match with the moonlight coming in through the windows.

this is going to go in my steal from David file. i think used subtly this could have a good effect on the mood of the scene, and my next show is going to be very moody, its a nice effect i think because its so subtle, but when its not there, (like it was for the first cues today) you kind of notice.