My brain hurts
No, I don't have a headache, I just had to dredge up some old knowledge today. Today, we are working on a 3D movie - reshooting some scenes and new footage for some others. This of course is in a custom built theater, with a permanent show (thus pretty set lighting package), and we haven't changed much of the equipment since it was installed. On top of that, the equipment that was installed wasn't all top of the line at the time either. For instance, two of the lighting consoles were the last two made by the manufacturer before they discontinued it for their new line of consoles. The other consoles were in their prime at the same time Windows XP was rolling out.
Anyhow, cameras see the world differently than the human eye. In order to make the end product look normal to our eyes, quite a bit has to be changed on the front end, usually making it brighter. This is especially the case on this particular show as the lighting designer tended to make it fairly dark in the first place.
So we added lights. No big deal, I have to change the patch from time to time. Oh, wait, they need me to write an effect. I haven't done that in years on this console. Seriously, my youngest definitely wasn't even born yet (she's now 8 1/2) the last time I programmed an effect on this console. Oh, and I'm on movie time, so that means they need it five minutes ago for something that will happen in another hour.
I can do it (really, it took a bit, but I remembered at least one way to do it). So, I patch the dimmers that I'm given and write a random chase, I ask permission to run it to verify, and . . . nothing happens. I call downstairs and ask if the lights are plugged in (no air gap). OK, so we try to call them up dimmer by dimmer. Nope, no go. Oh, he just finds out that what he had given me was already patched and those were channel numbers. {I seem to hear the chorus "communication breakdown" running through my head} I'll figure out how to fix the patch in a bit, at the moment, I have to quickly rewrite the effect. Done.
Yeah, I definitely missed some steps on this one, lack of sleep definitely muddles the brain. First of all, I screwed up by not double-checking that those dimmers weren't already patched somewhere else. It really doesn't take long, I just trusted what I was given. My bad. Second, it should have dawned on me immediately that one of the dimmers that I was asked to patch is used every day during lamp check. D'oh.
So, another day down of filming. Let's see what tomorrow brings.
Anyhow, cameras see the world differently than the human eye. In order to make the end product look normal to our eyes, quite a bit has to be changed on the front end, usually making it brighter. This is especially the case on this particular show as the lighting designer tended to make it fairly dark in the first place.
So we added lights. No big deal, I have to change the patch from time to time. Oh, wait, they need me to write an effect. I haven't done that in years on this console. Seriously, my youngest definitely wasn't even born yet (she's now 8 1/2) the last time I programmed an effect on this console. Oh, and I'm on movie time, so that means they need it five minutes ago for something that will happen in another hour.
I can do it (really, it took a bit, but I remembered at least one way to do it). So, I patch the dimmers that I'm given and write a random chase, I ask permission to run it to verify, and . . . nothing happens. I call downstairs and ask if the lights are plugged in (no air gap). OK, so we try to call them up dimmer by dimmer. Nope, no go. Oh, he just finds out that what he had given me was already patched and those were channel numbers. {I seem to hear the chorus "communication breakdown" running through my head} I'll figure out how to fix the patch in a bit, at the moment, I have to quickly rewrite the effect. Done.
Yeah, I definitely missed some steps on this one, lack of sleep definitely muddles the brain. First of all, I screwed up by not double-checking that those dimmers weren't already patched somewhere else. It really doesn't take long, I just trusted what I was given. My bad. Second, it should have dawned on me immediately that one of the dimmers that I was asked to patch is used every day during lamp check. D'oh.
So, another day down of filming. Let's see what tomorrow brings.
Comments