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…