Rehearsals 30/1

For the rehearsals the sound team had to clear the band pit and set up the band with a new arrangement compared to last week so that the Musical Director could have a better view of the stage. So we moved one of the three keyboardists to the stage left side of the band pit. We then watched the rehearsal and made notes such as 

1. Does Big Davey sing with Dad other than for assemble 

2. Drums and Billy need to be balanced when Billy is singing quietly. (Electricity) 

3. Start with George slightly lower because of shouting(scene 1) 

4. Does Billy need muting when he whisphers into Dads ear

5. Any extra mics for last scene

Change in headset microphone

Pulse headsets were what we planned on using however due to artistic integrity the musical director/producer has decided that he wants to mics to be completely invisible. So therefore we are going to have to use the Sennhieser mke 2 with make up protector which can be put through the actors forehead hair line instead of round their ear and along their cheek. Which admittedly does make it much more visible but makes the sound so much better than having it at the top of the actors forehead which is naturally blocked by the face, this will make it much harder for us as the sound team as we will have to really boost the less experiences singers who hold a lot of the main roles in the Billy Elliot production.

Theese pictures shows the difference between using a concealed head microphone and using a visible facial one. The bonus is of coarse how much better the microphone picks up the sound, although the bonus of a concealed microphone is in upholding artistic integrity by not having a visible microphone.

updated Mic Plot 27/01

Final Mic Plot - Billy Elliot by Sol Collier on Scribd

This is the mic plot with a few additions such as when the spare microphones are being used and also who has taken some of the unnamed lines such as "miner 1 etc" also Small boy has been assigned a microphone.

Going through the script - Sound department

Me and Rowan (with the help of Elishia) over about a week went through every page in the script marking down when all the different mics needed to be turned on/off and also when any visual/audio prompt cues would be. We also made note of where the sound effects would be and any questions we had for the Director or the Technical production manager.

Examples of some of our questions for the Director:

Who are the Scabs at the start of Act 2: Scene 5?
Are we still having four Panelist's?
Does Mrs Wilkinson go offstage after Act 2: Scene 8 and before Scene 9?
Is Mr Braithwaite in the song for "We stand as one"?
When does Keeley Gibson reenter in Shine?
Does Small Boy have no mic?
Which Policeman are speaking at the start of Solidarity?