Voice Recording:
It was decided that the narration throughout the show would be prerecorded and played back through Qlab. I was asked by Charlie to watch the session where these recording took place. Firstly, Baffles were placed around the microphone to create a smaller recording environment. This reduces the amount of background noise being recorded resulting in a clearer recording. A pop filter was used to
shield the microphone from the fast moving air produced when a person pronounced words beginning in P or B. The sound produced by the letter P/B can result in clipping, the maximum level that instruments and voices can be recorded, meaning the sound can become distorted or cause feed back when being played back through speakers. During some of the recordings mistakes were made by the performers, which were cut after the recording session had finished. After the recording had been taken we used EQ to dampen and increase the amount of different frequencies in the voices to sound more monotonous (similar in tone.) The individual tracks were then bounced and saved as individual WAV files. We chose to use WAV files because they allow more information to be played, resulting in a cleaner sound.
Building the LED Boxes:
After conducting some research on the materials needed for the LED Boxes I started making them, with the assistance of Tom and Sarah. I started by measuring and cutting 2 pieces of wood for the sides of each box. Unfortunately, due to a miscalculation on my part, the height of the wood was half of what it was meant to be, meaning that it would take 4 boxes to match the height of the staging instead of 2. I used the band saw to cut the wood to the dimensions 11.4x7.5x6.0mm (HxWxD). I then used illustrator to make the necessary shapes for the sheets of 3mm MDF to be cut, using a laser cutter. I gave these measurements to Sarah who then cut the material for me. After these were cut I then used nails and wood glue to connect them to the pieces of wood being used for the sides. Before attaching the back of the boxes we used a cordless impact drill with a 12mm drill but to make holes for the led strip to be passed through. One the holes were drilled we used pin nails and wood glue to attach the back onto the boxes. We then attached the LED strips to be the back panel using a hot glue gun. This worked better than expected and held the strips on very well. After all 8 boxes had been constructed and the LED Strips passed through each of them we needed to solder some wire onto each end of the strips to supply power to the bottom set of strips for each box. Because I had very little experience in soldering I asked Tom to help, as he had done it before. He soldered the strips together showing me how he did it so that I could do it in the future. We plugged the power supply (DMX Decoder) in to see if everything worked and everything did. I wanted to use 2mm opal acrylic as it is know to diffuse light extremely well and is also fire proof, which is incredibly important in a theatre environment. I forgot to ask for these to be ordered so we had to find a quick, cheap and readily available replacement. I settled on using white tissue paper because it can have the same results as the opal acrylic but at a cheaper cost. I sprayed some ... on it to help make it fire resistant and then stapled each sheet over the front of the boxes using a staple gun. The end result of these boxes exceeded my initial expectations as I thought, somewhere along the process, a mistake was made. However they worked very well and were also able to be controlled via DMX, meaning they can be programmed using our ETC Gio.
Teching the show:
Our first tech day was on Friday 17th of May. I started by constructing the staging. I used CAD to make a plan on the size of the staging needed for the production. Although the final stage wasn't exactly the same as the design I had created it was very similar and still incorporated the technical aspects I wanted to use such as the LED Box and the birdies. After constructing the stage and positioning it to the correct position I placed 2 of my 8 LED boxes under the step at the centre of the staging as it could then be seen clearly by everybody in the audience. I placed 4 birdies under the steps to the side of the stage creating a symmetrical look. These were all powered using a socapex cable and tails. Because I had restricted access to the DMX splitter I had to change the DMX port I was going to use from stage left to stage right. The construction of the staging took longer than expected, resulting in a later start time. Before starting the full lighting run through we blocked out each scene and I added the extras either during the full run through on the following Monday or during my spare time when the theatre was free. This allowed me to attempt to create new effects that I hadn't tried to do before, such as new absolute effects and linear effects. These effects were mostly used in the more upbeat numbers such as "The Time Warp." I used the birdies and LED Box as much as I could. After the lighting states and subs had been recorded I moved on to sourcing the sound effects that had been requested by Shelley. The music and narrations had already been sent to me by Charlie before the teching sessions had began. We used videos from YouTube as our main source of sound effects. These were then downloaded using a YouTube to mp3 converter. We uploaded these files into Qlab and edited them there. A lot of files needed to be cut at the beginning and ends to match the duration. I adjusted the master faders on each track to be at a suitable level meaning that the faders on the sound desk wouldn't need to be adjusted very often. I then used automation to fade certain sound effects out at the necessary times.
Building the set:
Shelley asked for a few pieces of set that were needed throughout the show. This list included a car, a front door, and a machine with both a lever and a screen. I started by designing and creating the car. I wanted to use the shape of an old Volkswagen camper van. I researched the shape of the vehicle to see if it was feasible to create out of the materials we had access to. After making a decision to use the shape of the car I searched in the prop store to find a suitable base/frame. I found an old base of divan that had was perfect for what I needed it for. I used a Stanley knife to remove the material from the edges leaving a wooden frame with wheels. I then used a claw hammer to remove the slats and other unneeded materials, such as nails and staples from it. Anna allowed me into the workshop to cut some wood to raise the height and make the desired shape of the van. I used 2M of 30mmx55mm wood to add enough height so that it would roughly match the height of the real car. I then cut them at an slight angle to make the top of the frame slightly less wide than the bottom. The off cuts were nailed back onto the inside of the vertical pieces and attached a final piece of wood on the top. Once the frame had been cut, glued and nailed together. I used 2 sheets of 2mm MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) to be put nailed onto the front of the frame. The bottom piece didn't need to be cut or altered in any way. A window needed to be cut into the sheet that was going to be the top half. Ideally these cuts would have been made using the laser-cutter in the workshop. However, because Sarah wasn't in on the day that these cuts needed to be made I instead used a jigsaw to cut the outer perimeter of the cars windshield as well as the outside of the car itself. After these cuts had been made the piece of MDF was then nailed onto the frame. A few of the musical theatre students helped to paint the car. We painted it entirely red
It was decided that the narration throughout the show would be prerecorded and played back through Qlab. I was asked by Charlie to watch the session where these recording took place. Firstly, Baffles were placed around the microphone to create a smaller recording environment. This reduces the amount of background noise being recorded resulting in a clearer recording. A pop filter was used to
shield the microphone from the fast moving air produced when a person pronounced words beginning in P or B. The sound produced by the letter P/B can result in clipping, the maximum level that instruments and voices can be recorded, meaning the sound can become distorted or cause feed back when being played back through speakers. During some of the recordings mistakes were made by the performers, which were cut after the recording session had finished. After the recording had been taken we used EQ to dampen and increase the amount of different frequencies in the voices to sound more monotonous (similar in tone.) The individual tracks were then bounced and saved as individual WAV files. We chose to use WAV files because they allow more information to be played, resulting in a cleaner sound.
Building the LED Boxes:
After conducting some research on the materials needed for the LED Boxes I started making them, with the assistance of Tom and Sarah. I started by measuring and cutting 2 pieces of wood for the sides of each box. Unfortunately, due to a miscalculation on my part, the height of the wood was half of what it was meant to be, meaning that it would take 4 boxes to match the height of the staging instead of 2. I used the band saw to cut the wood to the dimensions 11.4x7.5x6.0mm (HxWxD). I then used illustrator to make the necessary shapes for the sheets of 3mm MDF to be cut, using a laser cutter. I gave these measurements to Sarah who then cut the material for me. After these were cut I then used nails and wood glue to connect them to the pieces of wood being used for the sides. Before attaching the back of the boxes we used a cordless impact drill with a 12mm drill but to make holes for the led strip to be passed through. One the holes were drilled we used pin nails and wood glue to attach the back onto the boxes. We then attached the LED strips to be the back panel using a hot glue gun. This worked better than expected and held the strips on very well. After all 8 boxes had been constructed and the LED Strips passed through each of them we needed to solder some wire onto each end of the strips to supply power to the bottom set of strips for each box. Because I had very little experience in soldering I asked Tom to help, as he had done it before. He soldered the strips together showing me how he did it so that I could do it in the future. We plugged the power supply (DMX Decoder) in to see if everything worked and everything did. I wanted to use 2mm opal acrylic as it is know to diffuse light extremely well and is also fire proof, which is incredibly important in a theatre environment. I forgot to ask for these to be ordered so we had to find a quick, cheap and readily available replacement. I settled on using white tissue paper because it can have the same results as the opal acrylic but at a cheaper cost. I sprayed some ... on it to help make it fire resistant and then stapled each sheet over the front of the boxes using a staple gun. The end result of these boxes exceeded my initial expectations as I thought, somewhere along the process, a mistake was made. However they worked very well and were also able to be controlled via DMX, meaning they can be programmed using our ETC Gio.
Teching the show:
Our first tech day was on Friday 17th of May. I started by constructing the staging. I used CAD to make a plan on the size of the staging needed for the production. Although the final stage wasn't exactly the same as the design I had created it was very similar and still incorporated the technical aspects I wanted to use such as the LED Box and the birdies. After constructing the stage and positioning it to the correct position I placed 2 of my 8 LED boxes under the step at the centre of the staging as it could then be seen clearly by everybody in the audience. I placed 4 birdies under the steps to the side of the stage creating a symmetrical look. These were all powered using a socapex cable and tails. Because I had restricted access to the DMX splitter I had to change the DMX port I was going to use from stage left to stage right. The construction of the staging took longer than expected, resulting in a later start time. Before starting the full lighting run through we blocked out each scene and I added the extras either during the full run through on the following Monday or during my spare time when the theatre was free. This allowed me to attempt to create new effects that I hadn't tried to do before, such as new absolute effects and linear effects. These effects were mostly used in the more upbeat numbers such as "The Time Warp." I used the birdies and LED Box as much as I could. After the lighting states and subs had been recorded I moved on to sourcing the sound effects that had been requested by Shelley. The music and narrations had already been sent to me by Charlie before the teching sessions had began. We used videos from YouTube as our main source of sound effects. These were then downloaded using a YouTube to mp3 converter. We uploaded these files into Qlab and edited them there. A lot of files needed to be cut at the beginning and ends to match the duration. I adjusted the master faders on each track to be at a suitable level meaning that the faders on the sound desk wouldn't need to be adjusted very often. I then used automation to fade certain sound effects out at the necessary times.
Building the set:
Shelley asked for a few pieces of set that were needed throughout the show. This list included a car, a front door, and a machine with both a lever and a screen. I started by designing and creating the car. I wanted to use the shape of an old Volkswagen camper van. I researched the shape of the vehicle to see if it was feasible to create out of the materials we had access to. After making a decision to use the shape of the car I searched in the prop store to find a suitable base/frame. I found an old base of divan that had was perfect for what I needed it for. I used a Stanley knife to remove the material from the edges leaving a wooden frame with wheels. I then used a claw hammer to remove the slats and other unneeded materials, such as nails and staples from it. Anna allowed me into the workshop to cut some wood to raise the height and make the desired shape of the van. I used 2M of 30mmx55mm wood to add enough height so that it would roughly match the height of the real car. I then cut them at an slight angle to make the top of the frame slightly less wide than the bottom. The off cuts were nailed back onto the inside of the vertical pieces and attached a final piece of wood on the top. Once the frame had been cut, glued and nailed together. I used 2 sheets of 2mm MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) to be put nailed onto the front of the frame. The bottom piece didn't need to be cut or altered in any way. A window needed to be cut into the sheet that was going to be the top half. Ideally these cuts would have been made using the laser-cutter in the workshop. However, because Sarah wasn't in on the day that these cuts needed to be made I instead used a jigsaw to cut the outer perimeter of the cars windshield as well as the outside of the car itself. After these cuts had been made the piece of MDF was then nailed onto the frame. A few of the musical theatre students helped to paint the car. We painted it entirely red
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