Task 2 Unit 58 - Supporting documentation

 This is a document showing parts of the planning for the show. Such as what extra equipment would be needed for the band, such as DI boxes, Amps and Microphones weather they be SM57s, clip ons or drum microphones. There is a brief list of issues concerning microphone placement and how things regarding the show were going to be carried out but this would have be a prompt for me to ask either the Director or the Technical Manager. Then there starts an equipment list featuring how many microphones, speakers, racks and multicores would be needed. This is useful because all of this would have to collated and sent to the Technical Manager who would then forward it to the equipment hire company CPS.

This is another rough document that shows how many and what speakers we were going to need/use. There is also some useful power consumption information here such as there is a 32amp draw from a single C4 stack which is useful for the sound design of the show as you need to be aware of how much power you are taking from the supply. There is also a break down of what cables would be needed for each instrument of the band, e.g. guitar = 2 XLR's and 1 jack, keys= 6 XLR's, 6 jack..etc. This is really useful as we had to be very specific in how many cables we were using when we gave the cable list to the Technical Manager who sent it to CPS.

This rough document covered the lengths of the XLR cables, whether they were 20m, 10m, 5m cables. Also how many 13A kettle plugs that would be needed for the P.A(12) which is again necessary for the cable list that was sent to CPS.    

This is a rough document that shows various personal promt notes that would be used to ask the Director or the Technical Manager. Such as "When does Keeley re-enter in shine?". This is useful as when Rowan and I were going through the script making comments on things that didn't make scene we would write down any questions we had for the Director.

Notes continued.

This is a sketch of the stage featuring where we were planning on placing the speakers and the direction they would be facing. Another document crucial to the sound design because as a designer you must plan exactly where the sound will be coming from and any issues that may bring up such as whether the sound will be reflected or absorbed by the materials it is facing which in our case was the tiered seating.

This is an example of us planning the show by discussing with the Director about mic plots and microphone changes. These emails/conversations were very important because otherwise certain aspects of the show wouldn't have worked or looked as good as they did.

The above two picture are examples of script annotation that were used for the show as a promt for turning off and on microphones as well as controlling the reverb and noise levels of different channels on the M7CL. This was to help the show run smooth by doing the best planning in advance to assist our roles as much as possible. 

 This is a picture of our weekly production meeting sheets that includes a list off what each department needs to do each week. For sound we had to order pegs for rehearsals, ask the Director some questions and count how many batteries we had and how many we needed which I remember going and doing straight after the meeting.

This was from one of the first production meetings which shows what we had to do that week, this included having meetings with the rest of the sound department to sort out sound effects, work out how to put the mics through costumes and to sort out the mic plot.

This week was just a reminder to speak to various people such as the Musical Director and the Director about various different sound issues such as the mic plot.

This week was about sorting out an appropriate sound effect for the character dead mum to have on her voice however eventually we decided that would lower our artistic integrity as it wouldn't sound right. 

In these production meetings the sound department has begun drawing technical sketches of how the equipment and cabling will be laid out in the hall. This has involved two different drawings , one of the hall as a whole and another of the band pit.

 

This is the band pit drawing. (^) 

This is the notes from production meeting 7 (^) 

Billy Elliot Evidence

                                                      THE GET IN (5th & 6th February)

 This is a picture of me setting up the band pit. specifically assembling the mac for the use of keyboardist 2 ( Ms Himmel) and her amp.

 This is also a photograph of me assembling the mac for use of the keyboardist in the band pit before the rehearsals.

 This is a photograph of the multi-core we rigged on the IWB's that went from just next to up stage right to the sound desk up in the box. We used black electrical tape to secure it to the rig instead of cable ties to reduce risk of damage to the cable as it was expensive and hires from CPS. To do this we had to work up a ladder and the tower in a group so we used correct PPE such as helmets.

 This is a picture of me plugging in the correct cables into an amp that was linked to the ES rack which would power most of the sound equipment we hired such as radio mics and band equipment.

 This is the back of the ES rack, specifically the choral/floor mic inputs as we had to change the XLR cable because it was faulty.

This is a picture of one of the hanging microphones that was at the back of the stage, to show the length we decided to put them at down from the rig so that it would still be able to pick up decent level as well as being out of reach to Actors/Dancers or the placards that were used in the first scene. 

THE SHOW (7th - 11th February) 

This is picture of Rowan and I operating on the sound desk in a rehearsal.

This is a photograph of the wiring we had to put into the back of the Mackie speakers and daisy chain into an amp that was kept in prompt corner. These speakers were used for both the cast so they could hear themselves and also for specific sound effects such as the beginning of the Swan Lake sequence were the sound needs to be coming quietly from stage before erupting out the main speakers.

The above three photographs are evidence of "Squeaking". A procedure that helps to reduce feedback by cutting appropriate pitches of sound, to do this you cause feedback from the microphone then cause feedback on the desk and try to match both of the pitches of feedback together before dragging down the correct pitch of sound to reduce the risk of that pitch of feedback returning.

This is an example of human error and how a simple mistake can cause quite a bit of grief. This was the patch for Micheal's microphone, and our first impression when his microphone wasn't working was that his cable was faulty so we changed a load of cables until we finally realized that it had been patched wrong initially.

This is a picture of how the cast had to have their microphones attached having had a change in decision after realizing that the microphone level wasn't good enough in the hair line so we then decided to put the mic on the cheek which resulted in much better sound quality but sacrificing some of the artistic integrity of the show by making the mics visible to the audience.

This shows us preventing a trip hazard and attributing to health and safety by masking tape loose cables such as multi-core and XLR cables to the wall. We did this after having it pointed out to us by the Director so as a point for next time this could be done straight away instead of having it to be pointed out to us.


                                                   THE GET OUT (13th February)

This is evidence of the doing the get out and me pulling the bands multi-core from underneath the stage and coiling it ready to be used again. This proved to be quite a task as it had gotten stick underneath a big roll of carpet that was very heavy and could have been avoided, so another note for next time this could be avoided by making sure nothing can roll/fall onto any cabling and making others aware that there is an important cable there.