In the chapter where he was writing about running the lights for the KISS show. In chapter 16, "At one with the Machine" he wrote about the buzz and excitement of running the lighting.
For the past 3 months, me and and another techie at my church have been installing several upgrades to the lighting system. We bought 8 PAR cans and 4 source fours to complement our set of 10 PAR cans and 6 Altman Ellipsoidals. We had to pull two new 30 ampere circuits and lots of DMX signalling wire to control the new dimmers. The week before the show, I was at my favorite shop "Backstage Inc" picking out light gels, gobos, and other effects to get the perfect look. I was there nearly two hours, like a woman picking out shoes trying to pick just the right colors. After picking the colors, it was then time to mount all the new lights and get them positioned, aimed and focused for just the perfect look. Some people create art with paint or sculpt out of rock...I create art with light and sound, and this was my masterpiece!
It all came down to this past week as it came time to run our concert and musical for Christmas. Wednesday night, during dress rehearsal, I blew a PAR lamp, the follow spot quit working, and a fuse blew. That got me a little worried, but after all the equipment was repaired, Thursday's rehearsal went perfect, but I was again sweating it opening night on Friday, and for the subsequent shows on Saturday and Sunday, especially at the finale end, where I had all the light circuits running at full brightness!! I was wired, I was buzzing. I was as much nervous as I was excited, I was pacing the aisles, stimming, and talking to myself. Once the show began though, I threw my intense hyper-focus at the performance and it all went off without a hitch! From the sounds of camera shutters going off, and the claps of the congregation, the show was very well received!!
While my church is hardly as big as a KISS rock concert (and for a better cause!), I felt the same thing the author John Elder Robison did while he was running the shows as he described it in chapter 16:
he writes
"The first time you hit the button, you fell it in your stomach...What if nothing happens, what if nothing works!?!?! It's like magic, how does it all come together, though you don't think of it as magic because you understand how every single piece works and you know there is no magic involved, just basic engineering. You've designed it, you've built it and now it's come alive. Electricity is it's food and you are it's brain. You have become one with the machine. As long as you remain part of it, it is alive. Without you, it will revert back to it's component parts. If it burns up while you are running it, maybe you pushed it too hard or made a mistake...that's death!"
"You feel a chill as the lights change in response to our commands. You've brought millions of watts of lighting to life by leaning forward and moving a few fingers. Just a gentle push and you have moved enough power to light a whole neighborhood. For now, your mental energy is focused on that lighting system. Once the show has started, there is no time for daydreaming. You know the color and focus and aiming point of every one of the three hundred lights that hang from your truss. You concentrate and pick out each one, one at a time, and you make small adjustments as you scan them.
Now that you are working, you concentration is so intense that you don't even hear the show. You don't see the crowd, instead you are seeing each of those hundreds of lights as individuals and it's all you can do to keep them following the music. It's just like playing a huge musical instrument and your hands never stop moving on the dimmers"
...the feeling was totally awesome, and it was great getting the same feeling doing it for God!!
17 Dec 2007, 11:42 pm
