Positive Impact on the Collaboratii

The two day cable fest that was "Across The Ether" provided an extreme hands-on opportunity for our Collaborative class. Trial by Fire.

By the end of the second day I feel we all were much more comfortable and knowledgeable about cables, adapters, connections, equipment because of the intense setup experience. I would hazard a guess and add that each of us gravitated toward a specific area and became little "mini-pros" at our various stations.....as an example:

L - who began the weekend as a very timid participant in cabling/adapters/video distribution wiring became a very competent audio mixer. It was a delight to turn and watch her manning the controls on the audio board and being familiar with the vocabulary and even anticipating situations. Bravo! Collaborateur!

All three camera operators (developed not only a heads up in cabling and connections and in taking responsibility for the paths their connections took, but became very fluent in panning, zooming, close ups and framing a shot. We had many ongoing, behind the scenes conversations going on during the performance and stayed in touch with one another to try and create not only a technical performance, but venturing into making the camera work artistic in itself. Bravo! Collaborateurs!

Those in the Stage Managing positions must have done well; entrances and exits were smooth (that I saw!). They remained poised and helped out all over - not just within their assigned realm. Bravo! Collaborateurs!

I was assigned to the Video Mixing board along with Thomas McFarland on the other board. We spent a great deal of time investigating the possibilities of mixing, crossfading. Tom Beyer was the Master of Cues and Calls for camera shots and the distribution of screen real estate. The greatest task was ensuring that all participants got as much coverage and time while balancing that with what was shown to our in house audience. Whew! My head was spinning for the first 20 minutes.

We were assigned to become camera operators, video mixers, audio engineers, cable runners, cable testers, stage managers.....but for a great deal of the set up, we were all in it together as haulers, lifters, tapers, lunch runners,......I felt we struggled and were ultimately rewarded as a team in that:

During the performance, everyone and everything melded together (held together by some very strong glue from Tom Beyer and Dr. Gilbert). The level of confidence had risen by virtue of the effort of configuring and setting up. The hands-on practice contributed greatly to the comfort level achieved by the time of performance by those who were "behind the scenes" (our class). We reached enough of a knowledge level that I believe many of us were able to expand upon it during the performance and begin to use these tools are they are meant to be used - as tools!

How would you all like to do this on a daily basis?
: -)