I have run across a couple of techniques that are useful when building theatrical scenery to reduce seams. The first is leaving a slight space between the luaun sheets. The second is routing a v-groove along the seams. Both of these techniques allow the Bondo or putty to fill the whole- and this reduced the amount that it mounds over the seam.
A couple of ideas for mounting double sided flats:
Keyholes and pucks. Similar to the method for wall hangings – you would cut a keyhole into one side of the flat and on the corresponding flat attached a round piece of material (Sintra or PVC sheet, steel, etc.) with a spacer to the style with a bolt. Lift the piece into location and slide down to secure. Hold the pieces together – but does not include any compression or help with seams.
Z-clips work a little more like picture hangers. A picture hanger include a mounting plate and then a clip and is usually a little loose, but they can be very useful. Z-Clip use compression to snuggly fit too pieces together.
http://www.mockett.com/default.asp?id=4&action=detail&partCode=ZC3
http://tinyurl.com/2asjrd
http://www.monarchmetal.com/pages/panelclip.html
**For outwater check out item numbers alu111, alu211, aluhac22 and aluhac23.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
On time
Being in theatre we have all heard that being early is on-time and being on time is late - but heres another way to think of it.
the time that your "called" is really the time your supervisor will start calling to replace you.....
(heard in terms of IATSE, but a good way to think of it nonetheless)
the time that your "called" is really the time your supervisor will start calling to replace you.....
(heard in terms of IATSE, but a good way to think of it nonetheless)
Shop Standards
I have been reading through the shop standards book where I work. It is an interesting idea- to create an in-house standards guide that is distributed to the carpenters and drafters and project managers. I could see its use in large theatres and in graduate school. Not that each piece has to be built by the standard – but it gives everyone a base to start with. New people know what the shop is used to, repetitive information can be reduced, and it will help communication on all parts. Of course the book would have to be updated as new technology or methods evolved. I also like that is sets an expectation about what the carpenters should be versed in – and that it can be used as a training tool. The book that I read also had a nice section on shop math and materials (common sizes, layout guides, charts, and various other reference materials).
Standards can be an interesting topic. Some (such as rigging standards) should be adhered to carefully as they are there for obvious reasons. Others are not as rigid, but depend on where you are and what you need to have accomplished. There are lots of ways to build a flat or a platform – but if your new in a place and you build a platform out of 1x6 or 5/4 (which I know some places do) and the shop your in only uses 2x4 – it won’t go over well. (I am, by the way, but aside debates on the structural suitability of the various materials). At the same time, depending on where you work you may receive a highly detailed drawing for that platform – or only your outside dimensions, depending on the scale of theatre, staffing, level of knowledge required from the carpenters and so forth….. (I even worked in one place as a carpenter where I built from the design drawings with fairly little guidance regarding construction from my TD at the time, and yes, it was a pretty reputable venue.) The key is for me, and its hard to achieve – I still try to balance – is the middle ground of enough structure to make the process easy, but not too much – to stifle out ideas or opportunities.
For instance I choose a grad school very specifically that would allow me to have flexibility, yet while I was in school I often wished it had more structure. But going to a school that would have provided the structure that I craved would had made some of the lessons I learned in grad school impossible (though I am sure they would have been replaced by other lessons).
However, the other thing I have noted is that without structure, people will create the structure they need. Like anything, sometimes it is helpful to reflect on your assumptions, and reflecting on what is and isn’t a standard (and who the standard relates to) can be a good thing.
Standards can be an interesting topic. Some (such as rigging standards) should be adhered to carefully as they are there for obvious reasons. Others are not as rigid, but depend on where you are and what you need to have accomplished. There are lots of ways to build a flat or a platform – but if your new in a place and you build a platform out of 1x6 or 5/4 (which I know some places do) and the shop your in only uses 2x4 – it won’t go over well. (I am, by the way, but aside debates on the structural suitability of the various materials). At the same time, depending on where you work you may receive a highly detailed drawing for that platform – or only your outside dimensions, depending on the scale of theatre, staffing, level of knowledge required from the carpenters and so forth….. (I even worked in one place as a carpenter where I built from the design drawings with fairly little guidance regarding construction from my TD at the time, and yes, it was a pretty reputable venue.) The key is for me, and its hard to achieve – I still try to balance – is the middle ground of enough structure to make the process easy, but not too much – to stifle out ideas or opportunities.
For instance I choose a grad school very specifically that would allow me to have flexibility, yet while I was in school I often wished it had more structure. But going to a school that would have provided the structure that I craved would had made some of the lessons I learned in grad school impossible (though I am sure they would have been replaced by other lessons).
However, the other thing I have noted is that without structure, people will create the structure they need. Like anything, sometimes it is helpful to reflect on your assumptions, and reflecting on what is and isn’t a standard (and who the standard relates to) can be a good thing.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
New Year's Goals
While it is slightly past the new year, I thought I would post a few of my goals for the upcoming year:
Increase knowledge & skill in project management
Increase knowledge and skill in technology:
Automation
New materials
Alternative construction techniques
Increase knowledge regarding technical theatre history
Increase knowledge regarding arts administration, innovation, problem solving techniques, and other management techniques useful for technical direction. Technical theatre and project management
Continue to blog, and hopefully provide useful information for my readers.
Increase knowledge & skill in project management
Increase knowledge and skill in technology:
Automation
New materials
Alternative construction techniques
Increase knowledge regarding technical theatre history
Increase knowledge regarding arts administration, innovation, problem solving techniques, and other management techniques useful for technical direction. Technical theatre and project management
Continue to blog, and hopefully provide useful information for my readers.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Quote of the Day
"every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." - Picasso
Thursday, January 3, 2008
industrial erector sets....
80/20 is an unusual sort of company. They offer a couple different systems that allow fast framing (even creating structures without fasteners. For instances they show some interesting ideas for workstations using their system.
Also they have a beam calculator (for their pieces of course) but they do allow users to import user defined beams.
Check it out at:
http://www.8020.net/Design-Tools-26.asp
Also they have a beam calculator (for their pieces of course) but they do allow users to import user defined beams.
Check it out at:
http://www.8020.net/Design-Tools-26.asp
Quote of the day
"I agree that the set designer does and should need to take things like fire curtain limitations into account. Fire curtain rules are every bit as much apart of the theater as where the walls are and how much weight the floor will hold and and how many linesets there are, and all that. Designers DO need to worry about stuff like that. Designs are plans for building. They are not artistic drawings with no real world application."
June Abernathy on the stagecraft mailing list, 12-30-2007.
I particularly agree with the concept that design must work with the space not against it. The quote in context comes from a discussion about whether a designer should redesign a show because the deck breaks the fire curtain (and who on the team should participate in the decision). While there are options for this scenario (always working with the AHJ) and I don't necessarily agree that any design that crosses the fire curtain line should be refused, I do believe that both the TD and the Designer must work together to find a way that meets both aesthetic and safety needs.
June Abernathy on the stagecraft mailing list, 12-30-2007.
I particularly agree with the concept that design must work with the space not against it. The quote in context comes from a discussion about whether a designer should redesign a show because the deck breaks the fire curtain (and who on the team should participate in the decision). While there are options for this scenario (always working with the AHJ) and I don't necessarily agree that any design that crosses the fire curtain line should be refused, I do believe that both the TD and the Designer must work together to find a way that meets both aesthetic and safety needs.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Entreprenurship
In the Exhibit Builder Sept / Oct 07 issue there is an article about entrepreneurialism called “The ‘Entrepreneurial Spirit’ in the U.S.” I thought the article was interesting for a variety of reasons. First – between taking the entrepreneurship boot-camp (4 weeks from first meeting to exhibiting a feasible idea to funders) and innovations in nonprofit management in grad school I have heard more about entrepreneurship in the past year than I have in the past decade or more. And there are always certain thoughts that seem to stem from the idea:
Can it be taught? Is it inborn? Is a personality trait? It seems to get linked up with passion – most great entrepreneurs that come to mind all have a great passion for something and are driven. They are have good emotional intelligence and don’t just have a good idea put can pull together a variety of resources to actually make something happen. Yet, I have often thought that anyone can act in an entrepreneurial way – that you don’t have to be the boss, or open your own company. That’s what made this article interesting to me. Read on for a few quotes:
“Being entrepreneurial means that one looks for problems and the means to solve them.”
“they look for a problem…deduce a solution to it, and create a business to fill the need.”
“Every employee could look for ways to do his or her job better”
The author compares this to initiative, but creativity and “outside the box” thinking is the separation for the author.
Ideas that work respond to a “perceived gap between what is and what ought to be”
“someone who is truly entrepreneurial understands that it’s not just about new ideas, its about making things that exist work as well as possible.”
Can it be taught? Is it inborn? Is a personality trait? It seems to get linked up with passion – most great entrepreneurs that come to mind all have a great passion for something and are driven. They are have good emotional intelligence and don’t just have a good idea put can pull together a variety of resources to actually make something happen. Yet, I have often thought that anyone can act in an entrepreneurial way – that you don’t have to be the boss, or open your own company. That’s what made this article interesting to me. Read on for a few quotes:
“Being entrepreneurial means that one looks for problems and the means to solve them.”
“they look for a problem…deduce a solution to it, and create a business to fill the need.”
“Every employee could look for ways to do his or her job better”
The author compares this to initiative, but creativity and “outside the box” thinking is the separation for the author.
Ideas that work respond to a “perceived gap between what is and what ought to be”
“someone who is truly entrepreneurial understands that it’s not just about new ideas, its about making things that exist work as well as possible.”
A/V Design
A/V Designer:
Able “to navigate the vast array of products out there and select the combination that will best achieve the desired end result within the budget…Put the job out to Bid, evaluate the bids…and oversee the installation”. From Creating Immersive Audio Environments by Steven J Thorton, PE in the Sept/Oct 2007 edition of Exhibit Builder.
I thought the definition was interesting – while we don’t have A/V design (projections tend to fall under lighting not sound if a projection designer isn’t involved), I wonder if it will eventually come into theatre. It seems like the design elements become more and more merged into each other. Historically, we used to have production design as opposed to element design (meaning sets, costumes, lights etc.). Many other places outside of the US still tend to design productions as a whole following the historical model. It makes sense in some ways – costumes and scenery are the first areas, then lighting, then other pieces. Sound, as always underrated, is historically there but not considered a design element (though other elements where there prior to being a designed element also as they were actor provided). Any way – I digress, my point really is that I wonder if we will come full circle and start to look more at production design as a whole instead of individual elements.
Able “to navigate the vast array of products out there and select the combination that will best achieve the desired end result within the budget…Put the job out to Bid, evaluate the bids…and oversee the installation”. From Creating Immersive Audio Environments by Steven J Thorton, PE in the Sept/Oct 2007 edition of Exhibit Builder.
I thought the definition was interesting – while we don’t have A/V design (projections tend to fall under lighting not sound if a projection designer isn’t involved), I wonder if it will eventually come into theatre. It seems like the design elements become more and more merged into each other. Historically, we used to have production design as opposed to element design (meaning sets, costumes, lights etc.). Many other places outside of the US still tend to design productions as a whole following the historical model. It makes sense in some ways – costumes and scenery are the first areas, then lighting, then other pieces. Sound, as always underrated, is historically there but not considered a design element (though other elements where there prior to being a designed element also as they were actor provided). Any way – I digress, my point really is that I wonder if we will come full circle and start to look more at production design as a whole instead of individual elements.
25 Things Every TD should know how to do.
Through the month of December a thread on the stagecraft mailing list revolved around the idea of what 25 skills are the most important. It started as 25 skills everyone should know, then went to technician, and it can easily then go into individual skill sets. So here is my rendition of 25 things a TD should know how to do: (not in a particular order)
1. Manage time efficiently (shop scheduling work flow through shop etc.)
2. Manage / maintain (and create) Budgets & finical records
3. Have a knowledge of structural engineering for the stage
4. be able to draft well (communication through graphics...)
5. Have a knowledge of welding & steel / alum construction techniques / and tool usage
6. Have a knowledge of wood construction techniques / and tool usage
7. Have a knowledge of fabric, plastics, and other random materials useful in theatre, and how to work with them. (and relevant tools)
8. Seek new Knowledge (be able to research)
9. Have an inner MacGyver (creativity, willingness to try new things, resourcefulness.....)
10. planning (shop, season, show.....)
11. problem solve - creativity, efficiently....
12. Communication & collaboration
13. how to have fun
14. How to have a life outside of theatre
15. Know how to rig safely
16. Safety issues (and MSDS, HAZmat, fire, life safety codes)
17. Know a little about every department (focus a light, run a mixer etc.)
18. know a variety of knots including a bowline, clove hitch and other common theatrical knots.
19. be computer literate
20. have a basic electrical knowledge
21. be able to make basic repairs
22. mechanical skill set (automation, maintenance)
23. Be able to drive large vehicles (and drive a manual transmission)
24. know theatrical flying (how to rig, hemp and counterweight systems, spot lines)
25. know when to get more information
The list is certainly open for input - comment if you have ideas.
Also I should say that I believe that the TD will not be the best carpenter or the best welder - and that the skill set that makes the best carpenter, welder or stage hand is not necessarily the same. The TD needs, in my opinion the knowledge behind those positions plus a great amount of knowledge about management and people and problem solving and so forth.
1. Manage time efficiently (shop scheduling work flow through shop etc.)
2. Manage / maintain (and create) Budgets & finical records
3. Have a knowledge of structural engineering for the stage
4. be able to draft well (communication through graphics...)
5. Have a knowledge of welding & steel / alum construction techniques / and tool usage
6. Have a knowledge of wood construction techniques / and tool usage
7. Have a knowledge of fabric, plastics, and other random materials useful in theatre, and how to work with them. (and relevant tools)
8. Seek new Knowledge (be able to research)
9. Have an inner MacGyver (creativity, willingness to try new things, resourcefulness.....)
10. planning (shop, season, show.....)
11. problem solve - creativity, efficiently....
12. Communication & collaboration
13. how to have fun
14. How to have a life outside of theatre
15. Know how to rig safely
16. Safety issues (and MSDS, HAZmat, fire, life safety codes)
17. Know a little about every department (focus a light, run a mixer etc.)
18. know a variety of knots including a bowline, clove hitch and other common theatrical knots.
19. be computer literate
20. have a basic electrical knowledge
21. be able to make basic repairs
22. mechanical skill set (automation, maintenance)
23. Be able to drive large vehicles (and drive a manual transmission)
24. know theatrical flying (how to rig, hemp and counterweight systems, spot lines)
25. know when to get more information
The list is certainly open for input - comment if you have ideas.
Also I should say that I believe that the TD will not be the best carpenter or the best welder - and that the skill set that makes the best carpenter, welder or stage hand is not necessarily the same. The TD needs, in my opinion the knowledge behind those positions plus a great amount of knowledge about management and people and problem solving and so forth.
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