I realise I’m only updating this every two weeks, and I should be doing it weekly, but I’ve tried to separate it somewhat here so it reflects the different days I worked on the project. I’ll try to get on top of updating weekly, especially as the day of the show approaches.
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2nd September
The venue visit went well, and I managed to test some colour values I’ve been programming. For some reason, anything yellow shows up as a little too green when displayed on the LEDs, so I’ve shifted all yellow lighting towards a more orange hue. Similarly, many purples tend to look more blue, and thus they should be skewed more pink in Pharos Designer. A minor pain, but it’s solved by recording hue values. Saturation and brightness also behave a little strangely, with lower saturation values quickly disappearing into white while they’re still visibly coloured in the software, and a brightness of 1 still being quite bright rather than barely visible.
Other than colours, we tested some synchronisation I’d created for the first four minutes of Act 1. This was well received and made everyone quite excited for the rest of the show. One part, where I articulated a voice using lighting in a manner similar to a VU meter or visualiser, was particularly spectacular, and made me feel good about the amount of time I spent on the articulations. It would be great if there were a way to automate this; I’ll look into it for when the voice appears again later in the show.
During this session, it was possible to take in some changes while in-venue, which I think is the best way to go, but I also entered some changes into a notebook for later, offsite work. I’ve since transferred these to a Trello board, which makes things easier as they’re now in a checklist format.
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7th September
I met with Honor, as well as Marty (sound designer) and Simon (RMIT staff) via Zoom to discuss audio cues and how we can sync them up to the lighting and visuals in Qlab. We came to the conclusion that we’ll try building the cues as layers, using the individual elements (pre-recorded voices, music, sound effects) mixed within Qlab itself for the most flexibility. This also means we can route some sounds to the rear speakers of the venue if required (e.g. in the aforementioned part where I’m articulating the voice using light). We will of course run some detailed tests once we’ve got enough files to work with.
Offsite rehearsals were brought up in this meeting, and I began research into if/how Qlab could trigger the lighting cues in Pharos Designer using MIDI loopback or a similar method. I haven’t found anything yet, but I will continue my research in the coming weeks.
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9th September
I worked through the Trello checklists, taking in changes to the lighting designs that I’d noted during the visit on the 2nd. I’ve been diving deeper into some of the more detailed animation features in Pharos Designer, which is helping to develop some of the effects I have in mind.
I also met again with Honor via Zoom, and we discussed cutting down some of the complexities in the show (e.g. motion design and other video elements) as well as reducing the intensity of most of the lighting, in order to make the final two acts stand out more. During this meeting I took in some changes while sharing my screen with Honor, which helped greatly for being able to instantly iterate and obtain some degree of approval, as opposed to going back and forth via email.
We also discussed the possibility of using one of RMIT’s gallery spaces as a room for development and rehearsal when we aren’t able to fit into the Capitol’s schedule. This would be ideal, as we could meet and work on the show together, and it’d feel more collaborative than working on it in our home studios.
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12th September
We were booked in for another venue visit from 4.30pm, but I went into the city earlier and sat in a library working on more changes and new sections. Honor joined me for most of this and we worked together on a few parts. This was a very productive session and I’ve decided to work like this more often, free from the distractions of working from home.
Venue visits are becoming more elaborate and I’m starting to retain a lot more knowledge in terms of setting things up. I learned about how to correctly reset the lighting system to the default programs, which is what the cleaners use to turn on all of the lights when they’re working in the venue. Later in the day, Erik also showed me the lighting panels elsewhere in the venue. Another staff member will always be present when I’m there, but it’s good to be across these things.
I’ve been tasked to learn more about the lighting console used in the venue:
.. which looks quite intimidating, but I’m quite interested in the possibility of learning to create more complex programs. Currently it’s only being used for basic lighting controls as nobody has had the time to sit down with it and learn it in depth.
We tested some more animations and sync, including a new part later in the show which becomes more high energy with corresponding animation intensity. This part was created earlier in the day in the library, and it was quite exciting to see it go from the very basic simulator on screen to being articulated in the space. During this session I also took in extensive changes, which made me feel more confident about being able to run the show correctly.
I had the chance to use some of the mechanical controls, which includes opening and closing the curtains, as well as closing the screen down to support different aspect ratios. The curtain controls are somewhat fiddly, and take some mashing in order to open/close correctly, which makes me a bit nervous about potentially operating them during the show, but I’ll try to get some practice at each venue visit.
I also found out more information about the gallery space we’ll be using; I’ll be getting a key and will have access until 11pm every day, which makes the working hours a bit more flexible. I’ll try to not make a habit of late night development sessions, but it’s good to have that flexibility. I’m getting an induction for the space on Monday 19th, and will likely be spending some time there post-induction.