LIPA Light Night - Light Show Programming and Playback

Lots of people have asked me how I went about programming the Hope Street light show so I've written this short piece to answer some of the more geeky questions...

I programmed the show on the free Chamsys MagicQ PC software as a cue stack. This version of the software has a basic built-in visualiser which was ideal for this project, meaning that I knew exactly how the show would look before the kit even arrived. Each cue was set to fire from timecode, although in this case I was using the software's internal timecode, rather than using an external input (a free alternative, given that the interface costs about £650!). The internal timecode starts as soon as the cue stack is activated.

I then recorded the timecode stamps onto the cue stack using the 'Record TC' function, meaning that every time I press 'GO' in real time, the cue stack remembers the timecode stamp. There was one slight problem though - there were 347 cues in 3 mins 29 secs so I had no chance of remembering where they all went! My solution was to notate where every cue went using the Sibelius software (being a musician has its perks), so when I went to record the timecode, I simply read the music and pressed GO every time a note was shown. It did take several takes to get it all completely right!

My next conundrum was the playback: how to get the audio track and the cue stack to line up (the problem with not using an external timecode trigger). I decided to figure out the musical tempo of the song and create a click track (similar to what musicians might use to record to, or keep in time when playing live), but in this case the click track only lasted the duration of 1 bar of music before the song begins. The click track would only come through my headphones (not the main PA!) and once I had heard 4 clicks, establishing the tempo, I knew to press GO on the 5th click. The timecode took care of the rest of the show and I could go and watch! 

Here's a video compilation showing the recording of the live show, as well as the pre-visualisation, the cue stack and the click track audio at the beginning:

Something to Shout about

It's been a very long time since I posted anything on here so I thought it was about time really, and now I have something to write about.

I've just spent the last two weeks at the Edinburgh Fringe as the Production Manager for 'Shout the Mod Musical'. I have to say, daunting, nervous, sceptical and responsible were all words that would describe my state of mind in the days leading up to it. My first main worry that we wouldn't fit everything we needed in our fairly compact van was soon overcome with the use of some strong, brainy people who had a good grasp of 3D tetris, and I imagine 7 years of packing the car for boarding school probably helped too!

After a long and sleepy van ride to Edinburgh by the very capable (if not mildly terrifying at times) driver Hayley, we turned up at our accommodation, dumped our stuff and headed for the Royal Mile where we would be spending every afternoon for the next 11 days, presenting complete strangers with a flyer and trying to convince them to part with their money and watch our show. I reckon you get about 2 seconds of initial attention from them, in which time you have to pique their interest by saying something like '60s musical, live band?'. If you get past that stage with more than the shake of a head or 'no thanks' or simply being ignored (rude), then you might get a few more seconds to say a bit more about the show and tell people how to get there. All this must be completed with sufficient smiling and energy, but not so much as to scare people away. This becomes more difficult when you've been doing it for 3 hours with the usual mixture of bright sunshine and torrential downpours. It is fair to say that while sometimes quite fun and getting the chance to meet some really cool people including inviting Jeremy Paxman and Joanna Lumley to the show (I know, highlight of my career) flyering was my least favourite activity of the last 2 weeks!

To boost our flyering efforts, we took to the mini stages on the mile and performed a medley of the show songs. This quickly attracted lots of attention and big crowds gathered around us. There's something rather heart-warming and satisfying to see those people who grew up with the music of the 60s singing along with us and remembering all of the words.

That first evening we did a rather squashed run through of the show in the living room of the new flat, the first time that we'd actually run this cut-down version of the full show that we put on back in April in Liverpool. The next morning we were up at 5am to get to our technical rehearsal at 6am. Not cool. Some of us had less sleep than others due to a rather loud snoring problem... (you shall remain anonymous *cough* Adam Murdoch *cough*). Because we'd brought so much equipment with us, we had very little time to actually 'tech' the show, with just a very brief sound check, a run of a dance routine and a bit of singing. That afternoon, our first public performance would be the dress rehearsal. All things considered, it went very well and resulted in a glowing 5 star review (http://www.broadwaybaby.com/shows/shout-the-mod-musical/701442 just saying...). Over the next 11 performances the audience numbers fluctuated but on the whole we were pretty happy with them, peaking at about 70% capacity. The audience reactions to the show overall were fantastic, if a little embarrassed at the more risqué moments...

Living with 15 other twenty somethings is quite an interesting experience too, sleeping on a combination of double beds, air mattresses and sofas, and made even more entertaining when we had visitors staying too! I found myself chatting to everyone about anything and everything and having those bizarre conversations that can only take place at 4am!

A mixture of antics ensued while we were there, including to-the-point show reviews from a certain actor (Fifty Shades of B*****d Sh*te!), me ending up in a kilt and a fruit hat as part of a comedy routine, people not returning to their own beds of a night and endless singing/humming/melodica-ing of the show tunes. I've had an absolute blast and couldn't have wished to spend the last 2 weeks with a more fun, caring and talented bunch of people. I was worried I'd just have to 'grin and bear it' but instead I could 'forget all my worries, forget all my cares'. Here's to the next time!