12/17/9
Seoul, Korea
I am in Korea. We all flew from Fukuoka, Japan (which incidentally possess my favorite airport abbreviation of all time) to Seoul, Korea, today; to do a show tonight. We arrived at the venue around 3pm. Lights and sound were already loaded-in. But, alas, the lights are such a poorly maintained batch that it is reminiscent of running an ICON rig in terms of the number of bad lights and constant resetting that will be required to hobble through the show. Really though, I suppose I shouldn’t complain; the local vendor managed to find the bulk of the fixtures requested on our plot.
Being the OCD programmer I am, I tried very hard to be well prepared for all of these …er…um…”unusual” moving lights that local vendors advanced with me. I sent tech support DMX breakdowns of “nonexistent fixtures” (fixtures that do not already have personalities written for my console) . Cowboy Rex kindly created officially sanctioned personalities of each of the “new” fixtures for me. Sadly, all for not, because none of the information supplied by the local vendors was accurate. In some instances it worked in my favor; and I was pleasantly surprised to find the locals had sourced the fixtures I had requested. Conversely, sometimes I found that the gear on site was nothing I had ever heard of, and in no way resembled the advance I had been given. And, of course, in the latter instances, the fixture’s manual is always written in Chinese.
Today has been a combination of the two. I was pleasantly surprised to find Martin 2k profiles. But, the floor light LED’s were something completely unexpected. When I showed the local lighting guys the DMX breakdown I had been advanced for these fixtures, they shrugged and said it didn’t come from them. They have no idea where such information materialized from.
So, an hour before show, I successfully wrote a personality for these moving head LED’s that are knock-offs of the new Martin 300’s. (They actually are really nice very punchy little lights. I wouldn’t mind having them in the US). Anyway, this doesn’t sound like much of a challenge until one considers the fact that there is no DMX breakdown and I’m writing each line by trial and error. (hmm, ok , this channel is pan… this channel is Red….) I would say I am becoming quite proficient at creating new fixture profiles for the GMA; but that is a lie. In actuality, I am becoming quite proficient at taking fixtures that Cowboy Rex has already written and modifying them to meet my needs.
Midnight that night…..
The crowd was THE most enthusiastic crowd I have ever seen for any show ever. It was a great vibe. It really was like the ICON days to run the show tonight. One at a time, I easily reset 50% of the rig during the course of the show . But, even that adds a challenge and sort of makes things fun. Keeps a girl on her toes when she has to work around lots of technical problems without losing her lights.
I am currently happier than I have been in a long time. The production manager announced that the Nigeria shows have fallen through! We were supposed to fly there seven hours from now. Apparently since no money has been deposited in the band’s account, & the credit card given to the backline vendor to charge the rental deposit was declined, we are not going! A huge cheer went up from the entire crew upon hearing said announcement. (Seriously, think the “merry Christmas one & all” celebration scene at the end of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” People are applauding & hugging each other in a shared delirious happiness for the unexpected reprieve). We are all going home tomorrow!
Tags: GMA, Korea, lighting, lighting programmer, roadies
