Definition of blind optimism - taking 3 knitting projects to Work on the weekend.Here I am about to start the 2007 Sydney Chinese New Year Gala Performance Evening - we are already 45 minutes over the advertised start time - the rehearsals were stopped with at least six more items to see (and light) because we were way over time.
I'm looking a bit pale because the five photographers lined up behind my lighting desk are all madly snapping away (and the show hadn't even started). 4 hours later at the end of the performance I was feeling totally washed out. We then had to take all the lights and hardware and hanging doodas down in readiness for the next morning's Brahms rehearsal. 8am start to a 1am finish. Am I mad about my job? I must because no one sane would be doing it. The knitting sat in my bag totally ignored but often thought of. The show itself was an absolute extravaganza. Much colour and movement and lots of flashing, in-your-face lights.
Subtlety? don't know the meaning of the word in events like this. These amazing acrobatics were one of the few dark scenes in the show and even then I had the Audio Visual guys nagging me for 'more light on the audience' because they wanted to film their reaction to the bone wrenching, tendon-snapping poses these two were doing.
There were some very pretty moments among all the excess - this star of the Beijing Opera was noteworthy for the style, grace and amazing voice he had, and for the fact that he was a bloke.All in all I felt pretty good about the lighting - there were many cringing moments for me such as lights moving that shouldn't have moved - or when I was madly plotting the next item 'blind' and instead of pressing the Save button I went 'next cue go' - stage plunged into dark blue scene change state - AV guys really screaming. By this time I was totally drained and very, very over the whole creative experience so it wasn't as traumatic as it could have been.
I didn't go near a computer (other than my lighting desk) for a whole weekend so all my planned posts about finished knitting and circular needles comparison lie neglected. I returned the Bamboo Interchangeable Circular Kit to Kris today (very sorry to part with them). She had lent them to me for a practice and I am very taken with them. So more later (I hope).
1 comment:
I hope the first two days of this working week have been a little calmer and smoother for you. The photos look good and the audience probably wasn't aware of anything untoward!
We have similar experiences at church - Mark as Director and me on Powerpoint; people have no idea what's going on behind the scenes.
We had our big missions conference last week - three DVDs to show, one Powerpoint presentation where we had no idea what the presenter would say so the slides came in random order, and the usual slides for songs, etc. Then the guest preacher asked for some slides during his sermon - I had to type those between other AV activities! Just another quiet day in the tech room!
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