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Author Topic: Clock for all day event  (Read 8757 times)

Aaron Maurer

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Clock for all day event
« on: June 27, 2017, 10:35:49 PM »

I have an up coming week long event with the first Saturday having 5 bands throughout the day. Requested a stage clock and they have told me to obtain one. What is the normal "if it exists" size, color, etc. that is the general rule to control stage times?   I get in to a few of these events every year so it will get some use in the future but am looking for something inexpensive. Thanks
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Rob Spence

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Re: Clock for all day event
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2017, 10:55:11 PM »

I use a cheap 12" clock I got at Walmart. White with big, easy to read numbers. One C or D battery per year.

I made a bracket that fits a mic stand. I put it near a front corner of the stage facing the band. That way they know when to end.


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Mark Cadwallader

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Re: Clock for all day event
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2017, 11:42:29 PM »

My buddy does a number of showcase events that are tightly timed. He has an old laptop with a simple program that runs a countdown timer. The background goes from green to yellow (2 minutes) to red (0 minutes) to flashing red at 1 minute over.  Performers are warned that once they are into a flashing red light, audio and lights may be faded down without further warning.  The laptop just sits by the lip of the stage so it is easily seen by the act and easily reset by crew.
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Steve Eudaly

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Re: Clock for all day event
« Reply #3 on: June 28, 2017, 08:06:02 AM »

I use a cheap 12" clock I got at Walmart. White with big, easy to read numbers. One C or D battery per year.

Yep, this is pretty much the perfect daytime solution. If used at night, just make sure there is enough light on the face to read from stage.

Alternatively for indoor shows or night time, a no-frills bedside digital alarm clock with large numbers works well. If you've got a monitor world, I like to set it on the doghouse of the monitor desk so performers see it anytime they look at the monitor engy.

We do a fair amount of comedy shows, and FWIW I find comedians often request a digital clock with red numbers, so that's what we keep around.

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Re: Clock for all day event
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2017, 08:24:23 AM »

Multi-act shows?  Tight schedule?

Stage manager...
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Steve Eudaly

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Re: Clock for all day event
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2017, 09:30:08 AM »

Multi-act shows?  Tight schedule?

Stage manager...

Seriously, though. Good SMs are worth every penny.

Dave Garoutte

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Re: Clock for all day event
« Reply #6 on: June 28, 2017, 12:23:25 PM »

Seriously, though. Good SMs are worth every penny.
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Tim McCulloch

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Re: Clock for all day event
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2017, 02:59:03 PM »

Seriously, though. Good SMs are worth every penny.

Learned from a no-BS SM:  "I don't care how long you take to set up or when you start playing, but you WILL stop on time and leave the stage on schedule or I will have the local crew remove your backline while you are playing."

He was serious.  He also had a plan to deal with acts that tested his resolve:  parking a road grader in front of an offending act's bus or semi and sending the operator off to meal break. 
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Lee Buckalew

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Re: Clock for all day event
« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2017, 04:16:12 PM »

Learned from a no-BS SM:  "I don't care how long you take to set up or when you start playing, but you WILL stop on time and leave the stage on schedule or I will have the local crew remove your backline while you are playing."

He was serious.  He also had a plan to deal with acts that tested his resolve:  parking a road grader in front of an offending act's bus or semi and sending the operator off to meal break.

SM's that are in charge is definitely the way to go.  A timer as a reminder can be helpful but as much as an in charge SM.

Back in my festival days I had a few acts that were notorious for their long setup times.  I told them on their in's that whatever time they took over their "allowed" load in time I was deducting the same amount of time on the out.  They were never happy about it but we also never ran over. 

Lee
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Josh Millward

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Re: Clock for all day event
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2017, 06:37:53 PM »

Learned from a no-BS SM:  "I don't care how long you take to set up or when you start playing, but you WILL stop on time and leave the stage on schedule or I will have the local crew remove your backline while you are playing."

That sounds just like the kinds of things I would tell the bands rolling up on the stage that I'm house monitor guy and stage manager on. They never liked to hear it either and would whinge and cry about "we are supposed to play a xx? minute set!" I would always reply with, "No, you are set to play from (this time) to (that time). At (that time) you are off the stage. You can use all your time to set up and tear down, I don't really care. There are (some number) of bands to play on this stage after you today, so you better get going."

Fortunately I never had to cut anyone off or throw them off the stage. Often, because we were explicitly clear about it before hand, they would end a couple minutes early so we could get the stage cleared for the next band. Generally, it worked pretty well.
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Josh Millward
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Re: Clock for all day event
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2017, 06:37:53 PM »


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