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Author Topic: Just had my first full week of work since the shutdown  (Read 1741 times)

Justice C. Bigler

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Just had my first full week of work since the shutdown
« on: June 06, 2021, 04:23:49 PM »

I just worked 5 days in a row.

Got called late the week before last (on the 27th) to work for the Symphony on a concert/livestream that they were organizing on behalf of Jazz at Lincoln Center, with whom they were doing a separate concert at the arena with the full symphony and JALC and a chorus. My PM told me that it would be two, maybe three days. Turned into four days, two of which were on late notice. But I was the A1 for the local PAC (yeah, that one) and was basically the system tech getting the consoles programmed and networked so that the JALC audio engineers could mix the livestream and the live performance for a small audience in the house. Yamaha CL5 for the live stream, PM5D for the house mix.

And then late on the 31st I got called to go work as a video op, running Power Point and video playback for a corporate show at the local convention center, to be in at 8am the next morning.

Five days and thirty-three hours. That's the most I've worked since leaving the tour on March 13th, 2020. I've had a few one off gigs: a day here, day and half there. But this is the most I've worked in a single week since the start of the shutdown. It's also the first time that I've worked directly for my IA local in at least eight or nine years.

Sounds like the summer may be pretty busy at the PAC, and the arena with some tours rehearsing there.

Also, I've realized that I am super out of shape, both physically and mentally. Sitting at home and staring at the walls has not been good over the past fourteen months. Basic troubleshooting, and trying to remember how to set up the network patch between two consoles and run a crew, prioritizing tasks for set up etc... All seemed like foreign concepts to me. Things I could have done in my sleep a year and a half ago I was struggling with. Not to mention getting winded walking back and forth between FOH and the stage and huffing and puffing the whole time.
« Last Edit: June 06, 2021, 04:40:41 PM by Justice C. Bigler »
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Justice C. Bigler
Business Rep, IATSE Local 354
www.justicebigler.com

dave briar

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Re: Just had my first full week of work since the shutdown
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2021, 04:52:51 PM »

Glad to hear you’re working again bro. Yea, debugging has been the skill slowest to return. Course I am a year older and well into the shrinking brain stage of life.
« Last Edit: June 06, 2021, 04:55:55 PM by dave briar »
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Riley Casey

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Re: Just had my first full week of work since the shutdown
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2021, 05:00:58 PM »

Good stuff Justice, glad to hear that things are looking up. On the winded part I got two words.

Schwinn AirDyne. Bought my first one 35 years ago and I'm on my third Craigslist $100 version. Half hour a day every day I wasn't working on a gig meant I could keep up with people twenty years younger on load ins and outs. One of my top five lifetime investments. Keeping the cardio part in good shape is literally worth your life.

... Not to mention getting winded walking back and forth between FOH and the stage and huffing and puffing the whole time.

Justice C. Bigler

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Re: Just had my first full week of work since the shutdown
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2021, 05:52:20 PM »

I just booked 5 days of work for next week, Sunday through Saturday all full days or longer too. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high but it feels like things are slowly starting to come back. Trying to finish up a mix for an Opera from last month and will be meeting with a guy to discuss a TV show that he's working on developing too. We'll see what happens.
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Justice C. Bigler
Business Rep, IATSE Local 354
www.justicebigler.com

Dave Pluke

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Re: Just had my first full week of work since the shutdown
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2021, 02:53:09 PM »


Also, I've realized that I am super out of shape, both physically and mentally.

All in all, great news, Justice!  Hope this is a sign that things are turning around for our Industry.

I empathize with your conditioning comments. Ran a pre-flight check on some Monitors this week and, somehow, they got much heavier over the pandemic  ;) . Also a challenge to locate my serial cables & adapters to plug into a DSP for programming. But, it sure felt good to make some loud noise again!

Dave
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Justice C. Bigler

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Re: Just had my first full week of work since the shutdown
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2021, 05:05:44 PM »

Holy crap!

I just booked two more days at the end of the month, and took on two consulting jobs, one of which will probably be a long term project for a PA replacement/renovation.

When I came back from Nashville at the beginning of April, after talking to people there; I had a hunch that everything was going to start back up starting in June. And sure as shit starting June 1st, I've booked more work for the month than I have had in total since leaving the tour 15 months ago.

My wife said to me this morning, "You sure are working a lot for someone who's unemployed".   8)

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Justice C. Bigler
Business Rep, IATSE Local 354
www.justicebigler.com

Justice C. Bigler

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Re: Just had my first full week of work since the shutdown
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2021, 05:18:12 PM »

You guys don't know how close I came to leaving the industry entirely.

I was set to go to CDL school. Had a start date set, funding in place, and had resigned myself to never working in theatre or live entertainment again.

Then in February, a week before I was supposed to report to the training center I slipped on the ice and broke my wrist. That pushed my start date back by two months. During that time I went out to the AES Spring Training event in Nashville to gauge the industry and see what things looked like. I came back cautiously optimistic and threw the dice and canceled my CDL training hoping that this would be a last ditch effort to stay in the audio world.

People that I talked to in Nashville all seemed to think that things would start back up in June/July and that we just needed to make it through a couple more months.

Well the flood gates have opened and I seem to be getting called to work every few days now. Our Local PAC is booked solid through the end of the summer, and October is non stop for the whole month. Our arena has two major rock and roll tours teching and rehearsing here, there's a Broadway show teching and rehearsing at the PAC in August. And the local Broadway presenter has just announced 8 shows in their next season starting this August and going through next August, all of them week long sits.

I think I'm finally close enough to not only see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I can make out the scenery outside too.
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Justice C. Bigler
Business Rep, IATSE Local 354
www.justicebigler.com

Tim McCulloch

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Re: Just had my first full week of work since the shutdown
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2021, 07:11:55 PM »

You guys don't know how close I came to leaving the industry entirely.

I was set to go to CDL school. Had a start date set, funding in place, and had resigned myself to never working in theatre or live entertainment again.

Then in February, a week before I was supposed to report to the training center I slipped on the ice and broke my wrist. That pushed my start date back by two months. During that time I went out to the AES Spring Training event in Nashville to gauge the industry and see what things looked like. I came back cautiously optimistic and threw the dice and canceled my CDL training hoping that this would be a last ditch effort to stay in the audio world.

People that I talked to in Nashville all seemed to think that things would start back up in June/July and that we just needed to make it through a couple more months.

Well the flood gates have opened and I seem to be getting called to work every few days now. Our Local PAC is booked solid through the end of the summer, and October is non stop for the whole month. Our arena has two major rock and roll tours teching and rehearsing here, there's a Broadway show teching and rehearsing at the PAC in August. And the local Broadway presenter has just announced 8 shows in their next season starting this August and going through next August, all of them week long sits.

I think I'm finally close enough to not only see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I can make out the scenery outside too.

Yepper.  Like you, I was pessimistic in Feb when most of my summer festivals cancelled 2021... but I was getting calls to "'pencil in these dates".  Most of them, for April and May, went away as expected but from next week on, things have firmed up.

Things could still go backwards in parts of the USA and things could get much worse elsewhere in the world before things get 'long term' better. 

That light at the end of the tunnel is the ghost lamp we left on, March 13, 2020.  At least we can see it again!
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Justice C. Bigler

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Re: Just had my first full week of work since the shutdown
« Reply #8 on: June 09, 2021, 08:57:53 PM »

That light at the end of the tunnel is the ghost lamp we left on, March 13, 2020.  At least we can see it again!


Someone just threw that light at me and it hit me smack dab in the face. It left a big welt on my forehead.


Some stuff has happened that I can't talk about yet.   :-X
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Justice C. Bigler
Business Rep, IATSE Local 354
www.justicebigler.com

Tim McCulloch

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Re: Just had my first full week of work since the shutdown
« Reply #9 on: June 09, 2021, 09:05:26 PM »


Someone just threw that light at me and it hit me smack dab in the face. It left a big welt on my forehead.


Some stuff has happened that I can't talk about yet.   :-X

When it rains, it pours.  Keep me in the loop when the loop opens.
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"If you're passing on your way, from Palm Springs to L.A., Give a wave to good ol' Dave, Say hello to progress and goodbye to the Moonlight Motor Inn." - Steve Spurgin, Moonlight Motor Inn

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Just had my first full week of work since the shutdown
« Reply #9 on: June 09, 2021, 09:05:26 PM »


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