It was said to me very early in my career, "The one show you don't document will be the show you have to remount." At the time that advice went in one ear and out the other. About 9 months later I did a small production somewhere of a christmas that I did a TERRIBLE job documenting. That Christmas show went on to remount 3 times, and all I had was a script with cue placements and a low quality DVD. Live and learn right? Since then I have moved on to bigger remounts, and sadly when I look around me it seems like there is an epidemic of bad paperwork floating around. Remounts in Opera are not THAT uncommon, and I get incomplete/insufficient paperwork all the time around here from previous productions, for example:
This past fall we did a production of Margaret Garner here at the opera house. It was a production we own and when it was done originally it toured to 3 or 4 other cities, so it wasn't a secret that it was going to tour. I go up to our archives and all that was there is the original plot and original paperwork. No focus charts had been done, no updates had ever been added, and the person doing the remount wasn't even the designer but his associate. He and I spent a lot of time on the phone remounting a show from a magic sheet because that was the most accurate final document from the show.
All that being said, here are things I find incredibly important that should be with the archives of any show, and again the idea here is to be an open forum if you disagree share below, if there's something I am missing please add it:
-A final plot and a final lightwrite file for the show are the number ones here, but something that can be more helpful than you may think are all the old versions of the LW and Plot files. Why? It helps you remember why you may have made certain choices you made so the same mistakes aren't made, OR, if you're in a house with certain limitations you can always revert back to what you originally intended to do. Maybe one venue doesn't have a footlight trough but you wanted them, in the next house they can go back into the show easily.
-A Channel Usage list. This is something that I generally add a text column in the LW file for. If you're on an obsession go into channel usage, or any of the Expression, Express you can do about channel (I am pretty much an ETC boy, I get my first Ion experience in 2 weeks). Is there a channel that never turned on in the show? A show I am remounting had 10% of the fixtures never turn on, that's almost 40 fixtures I don't need to hang, color or focus when I move it to Lansing which can be a big time saver. If you are sending the paperwork off to someone else, that's 36 units they can choose to cut or retask in future productions.
-Focus Charts. LW has them, use them. It makes focus a breeze and it's really easy to save focus charts into the LW file. This can also help you figure out what you need scenically so you can focus things in the right act or scene. A little cheat I like to do is look at the focus on an open deck when you are done focusing the show and make notes on what a light looks like on an open deck, the less you have to move scenery, the faster focus can move.
-Cue Sheets with GOOD cue descriptions. A cue description I will use from a show I assisted on the remount of not too long, "Absolutely Beautiful Night." Was it a beautiful night cue? Yes, if I was another theatre remounting this show would this be useful, not at all. Talk about what systems are moving where, do you have scrollers, what colors are they in (we had 80 in the show and there was NO mention of scroller colors anywhere in the cue descriptions, another unhelpful thing) do you have moving lights, what focus group are they in and what are their attributes up to? You get the idea.
-DMX Accessory notes. This can include, but is not limited to, what your focus groups are (if anyone doesn't know the immense value of focus groups, at least in the obsession line, leave a comment and I'll certainly get back to you) so it's a quick easy check when you arrive to your next venue, and a quick edit if need be. A scroller break down, what scrolls go where and what they should be profiled to at the console. And anything else that can make things move faster.
-Spot Sheets. The bane of many ALD's existence are keeping the spot sheets up to date. Don't just do a master follow spot sheet, but make a cue script for each of your spot ops. Let them know when they have color changes, pick up changes and the like because the more information they have the easier the tech process can move.
-Boom and Ladder locations. Get the final US/DS and SL/SR positions of all your booms and ladders before you leave the theatre. DON'T do it from the proscenium line. That's boned me in the past. Do it from something off the set. The set may not land in the same place off the plaster line in every venue so maybe from a deck edge is more reliable. Find that piece for every show, trust me it will save you. Now in your new venue you can go and just tape X's on the floor where all your booms and ladders go.
-Trims. Get your final trims to electrics, ladders, and any flying practicals you may have.
-Running sheets. Does your show have electric moves on the deck such as rovers, and things that need to clear for scenic moves? Write this down so you don't have to remember as tech goes on you can just have a running sheet for your deck elec from the start.
-Finally, the thing I like to archive but it's optional are work notes. They turn into a good point of reference. What things were problematic during the first time you did the show and gives you insight as to what to expect in your next location.
Feel free to comment below.
