Building The Stage

Today was particularly fun day because today we got to build the stage for the very first time! Together with our teachers from light class we went up to the cafeteria to prepare the stage for a short performance by RED!. We basically had to put the lighting into the stage truss (the construction above the stage) and help out with guiding cables and making sure the stage was ready and safe for the performance.

When the stage is not in use there are generally a few lights on the truss, though not connected to anything. They are mostly there for the show of things and to keep the storage from getting to full. However the lights that are normally up there are generally not used with an actual performance. So before we could put the performance lights in we had to take those other lights out.

When the truss was empty we got together to have a quick look at the light plan. This a top view of the stage and the truss that displays which light is supposed to go where. In this case we were using the standard PAR Lights, MAC 250’s and MAC 300’s. The latter two also being known as Moving Heads since they can pretty much move in every direction and are programmable to even the tiniest little details using a light mixing table.

We spent about four hours getting the lights in position and securing all the cables to the truss. You don’t want to ruin a good stage by random cables dangling from the truss above you. So when all loose ends were literally tied up (or in this case taped down) we could start inspecting all the safety cables.
To make sure a light doesn’t just fall down on someone should it come loose one way or another, every light has to be secured to the truss with a special safety chain or cable. In the case of PAR lights the barn-doors (the flaps you sometimes see on these lights) have their own safety cable.

When we made sure everything was secured as it should be the more experienced light guys could start programming the lights. I watched along a little as they did, but there were so many buttons there that I quickly lost track of what the hell he was doing. In any case, programming those lights is a lot of work.

Before the performance could begin there was only one more thing that needed to be installed: sound. Luckily we were not responsible for providing the sound as RED! brought their own installation for that. We just had to help unload it from the truck and get it up to the stage.

Setting up the audio took the guys only fifteen minutes or so and fifteen minutes after that the show finaly started. Many of the school’s students had gathered in the cafeteria to watch and the good news was: all our lights worked!

It’s pretty cool to see something you’ve worked for hours on come to live like that. It’s to bad it doesn’t last, tomorrow we have to take the entire thing down again. It’s been a very educational experience though and I hope we have many more projects just like today.

Pictures & Videos!

Of course I did take some pictures and shot some video. What would the world be without camera’s in your phones these days, right? Hope you enjoy watching these as much as I enjoyed making them!

Oh and excuse the quality of the photos. It’s just a phone camera afterall.

[View with PicLens]

Videos

Robin