A new way of thinking

I am currently being trained on a hog 1000. It's a fun step backwards after learning the ETC EOS. I've previously run a hog 500 for a dinner show, but using the hog for the night bands at TLT Disneyland is amazing.

I've never run a complicated show on the fly. Now I'm being forced to think in a whole new way. It's really exciting and really hard at the same time. I'm not musically trained in instruments, and now I have to anticipate how I'm going to light the verses, the choruses, and the key changes.

My trainer, asked me how I design. I told her it all depends on the script (thanks Bill). I determine the mood, the location, the time, the season. Factor in the costumes, sets and skin tones of the actors.

She said, not to think about that, because here, there is no script. Instead I have to find what texture the music makes me think of. She said that when she lights Teddy Bear by Elvis Presley, she thinks of flowers. Therefore, she chose magenta as a backlight.

Now I find myself listening to music and trying to think of a texture. I was listening to every random song on my ipod and trying to think of new looks for each one. I thought of velvet while listening to a Celine Dion song and choose purple. Then I listened to a Sweet Child of Mine by Guns 'N' Roses and thought of rain and chose layers of blue and white.

I kept doing this until I finally fell asleep and found it helped relax me from the anxiety I felt at having to process so much from my training. Hope this helps someone else out there.

LDI Las Vegas

So LDI was awesome. My first time attending, much like USITT but there was booze everywhere! Gotta love Vegas.

I had a great time attending the Ohm's Law class. Learned a lot but I need to practice my math skills quite a bit. Brain Age on my DS doesn't quite cover resistance and voltage in their math lessons. Too bad! (Hey million dollar idea, Brain Age: The tech's version)

I got a close up tour of the GrandMA 2. Beautiful board in black, squarish. Not as futuristic looking as I thought it'd be, but it still has the "Erect" button.

Also took a session on PRG's Series 400 power and data distro. Great idea running networking down the same trunk line as the breakout boxes. Plus the built-in safety features of power are great. (i.e. If you plug a 120 breakout into the 208v output, the distro will not send power down the line, and if there is a addressing conflict, the network will not broadcast until the problem is fixed)

I also attending a paperwork class on festival and rep theater. Not as exciting, basically emphasized using the class feature in Vectorworks and synching multiple worksheets in Excel or LightWright to keep track of what lights can work with multiple shows.

Can't wait for USITT in March 2009! Hope to see ya'all there!