When You Receive a Plot

Anecdote: This checklist was created while putting together the setup for an outdoor stage that would be used for 6 weeks. 5 lighting & sound interns including myself worked together for the better part of an entire morning making sure we got everything on this list.

Premise: When you're the ME and need to figure out what to order from the rental place so your LD has everything they need, there are a lot of things to remember. Anything that doesn't add up, keep track of by making a note on the page and inquire asap.

Image from Disney's "Tarzan", 1999
Nothing like having your jungle man tell you what's what.

First, Paperwork

You'll have received the paperwork (channel hookup, instrument schedule, gel cut list, etc.) from your LD. Compare these against each other to make sure they all line up. Does the instrument schedule stay Unit 1 gets a cut of R39, but the channel hookup says R339? Make a note to ask about it. Check all the channels to unit numbers, dimmers, gel colors, and every last element that's included there.

Then, the Plot

What do you need to make it work?

Compare and contrast the paperwork to the plot. Mark anything that doesn't add up.

Checklist below

Cable? Socapex? Feeder cable? 2-fers? Adapters?

Dimmer rack?

POWER?

Pipes/Truss/Additional rigging positions?

Color?

Gobos?

Gel frames? Gobo holders? WHAT SIZE?

Sidearms?

Barn doors? Top Hats? Half hats?

Safety chain?

C-clamps? T-bars? Cheeseboros?

Lamps? Lenses?

Connector types?

Specialty instruments?

Include general notes with your order when you contact the rental place.

ex. "All lighting fixtures to be equipped with 3-pin stage connector, c-clamp, and safety chain."

Take the tech table/booth into consideration, too. You'll need power there, protection from harsh weather, headsets, console & monitor, and some lighting to see your script & console by.

Helpful Things

Consider everyone who needs power. Lights, sound, SM, video, hazer positions, LED and moving light positions, etc.

To find out exactly how much cable you're going to need, use a piece of string cut to scale, and mark out 20ft, 10ft, and 5ft on it. Hold one end of the string to a fixture drawn on the plot, and use it to find its way back to the power distributor. This will give you the length of every cable that will be laid out to power your lights. (See figure below!)

Bring your notes to the LD all in one batch to prevent bothering the LD with 5000 phone calls for 5000 questions.

Troubleshooting

Problem solved

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Troubleshoot (verb)/ˈtrəbəlˌSHo͞ot/ 

The act of determining what's giving you trouble, tracing it back to its source, and restoring it to working order

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Just when everything was going great and you looked like a rockstar Master Electrician for everything going so smoothly, something stops working.

Things go wrong all the time, but don't let it stop you in your tracks. Your worth to the crew will increase by becoming the problem solver. Jump in there. Start looking for the source of the problem, how to fix it now, and how to prevent that from happening again in the future.

Where to Start

Start from a specific place and work your way out.

In general:

Lights

Start with the fixture and work your way back

Is the light not turning on? Check down the line:

>Shutters - Are they closed?

->Lamp - Is there one inside? Is it blown?

-->Cable - Is the fixture plugged in? Are all connections secure? Are connectors wired correctly?

--->Circuit - Is the fixture plugged into the circuit it's supposed to be in?

---->Dimmer - Is the dimmer on and working?

----->Patch - Is the fixture patched properly?

Note: Hot Patch: Something is plugged into a circuit that is always hot/turned on

         Hard Patch: Physically plugging, say, a circuit to a dimmer

         Soft Patch: Which address/dimmer goes to which channel in the console

------>Operator error: Did you select the correct channel? Is the Master Fader down? Are you in Blind mode?

------->Console - Are all necessary cables and power sources plugged in? All DMX, power, etc.

-------->DMX - Is it addressed & wired correctly?

--------->Power - Power strip on? Plugged in all the way?

---------->Building - Is every third light off? You've got a bigger problem. Check your fuses

Sound

Start with the mic and work your way back

Mic not working? Check down the line:

I don't know as much about sound, but I'll seek out the proper troubleshooting questions. As a first step, here are the things to check

>Mic

->Phantom Power

-->Cable

--->Amps

---->Speakers

----->Console

------>Power

------->Building

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Granted, there are many different kinds of problems that can arise.

My advice:

If there's something you can't figure out from what's written above, chances are, you're not the first person who has ever encountered this problem. When this happens, turn to Google.

If it's a fixture issue, like "why won't my LED's work anymore?" seek out its manual. All fixture manuals are online unless it's something homemade.

If you can't figure out what fixture you have because it doesn't have a label of any kind, try googling a fixture that has the same features.

If that doesn't work, take pictures of it and post them to the forum on ControlBooth.com or reddit.com/r/techtheatre and see if anyone else can identify what you have there.

Also, always be sure to save your shows externally in case the console dies. That's just a good thing to do as a fail-safe. And SAVE FREQUENTLY. You'll thank yourself if things go wrong.