Hello, and welcome, everyone. My sincerest apologies, but it seems I have not blogged in two months. This is going to make this post all the more difficult, so please bear with me if I ramble.
I look back on my last blog post, and my experience from panto, and smile at how optimistic I was prior to working on it. Maybe I had not matured as a techie as much as I thought I had. Naturally, every production will have its ups and downs, but I clearly was not ready for what panto had instore.
The first thing I noticed when we started working on panto, was the stark difference between my line managers for The Seagull and Sleeping Beauty. Don’t get me wrong, both had excellent technical skills, and pulled off great shows. What surprised me was how much the interpersonal skills of ones line manager can affect ones experience on a production. It puts it into perspective, just how tricky it is to get a good balance of technical know-how, delegation and communication skills and the ability to make quick decisions when under pressure. I was in a good position to see first hand how two different people coped with this challenge. It really made me think how I would fair when my time comes. To be honest with you, I feel I am seriously lacking in two of those areas. I’ll let you decide which two they are.
Still, being DTSM, Sleeping Beauty was my first semi-senior role at the Academy, and so gave me an opportunity to practise being a line manager. Looking back, I feel I only had 1 really good day when I balanced doing practical work myself with delegating jobs, making progress and in turn, maintaining crew morale. I always tried to make sure I was polite, and explained anything fully for the benefit of everyone involved. However, my confidence drops when asked to manage a situation, purely because I feel inexperienced. I prefer doing the dirty work. It is what I enjoy the most. But it is clear that having my name barked at me all the time, with questions about how things are to be done will have me floundering. Tip of the cap to you, Calum. You did good.
How can this be solved? Practise, I guess. I think part of my concern, is that I did not know what was required of me as a DTSM. Being given a management position for the first time, and being told “Good luck..”, I feel is not the best way to get the most out of a first-timer. To be frank, I did not feel like a DTSM most of the time. I felt like a regular technician.
I had a very mixed experience on Sleeping Beauty. On one hand, I got to achieve something I had asked for in a PAT tutorial, which was to fly op a show. Although, granted, I did not have the rig, strike and paperwork to worry about, it was good to learn a new skill. On the other hand, though, this was only possible due to the crushing fact that the automation was cut. Gutted did not even come close to expressing my feelings. The reason for it getting cut? A number of factors really. Fore mostly, however, I believe it was a lack of understanding within the Academy as to the implications of using automation, particularly performer flying. If we had had a good 3 to 5 days uninterrupted onstage with performers, I feel we would have been better placed. Automation is not like LX where everything is instantaneous, and it doesn’t affect too much those onstage who may need to work. Plotting automation takes time to program moves and run them over and over. Time we simply did not have. This, coupled with the fact that we are all very inexperienced with it, led to it’s demise, and with it the best opportunity I had to op automation at the Academy. It is still a bit hard to swallow if I am honest. Sometimes I wish that I could start my studies at the Academy in 10 years time, when the automation has been properly used in the Academy for a while, and more is known about it.
To summarise, I have a quiet satisfaction with what we achieved on Sleeping Beauty. It was still a great show that we gave the public, but I will always know that it could have been so much more. I strongly feel that my manager and the crew we had very much acted as damage control, and we achieved a great deal. I am not entirely happy with my performance on it, either. I was not as competent an automation technician as I hoped to be, and not as much of a deputy as I should have been. But,I guess all I can do is use it to learn from and move forwards.
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Buddy,
First of all do NOT underestimate the amount you did on Sleeping Beauty! This was a massive show and threw up so many problems. I know that you do not feel you worked as a DTSM and alot of this is partly my fault, however, you provided skilled and enthusiastic support for myself and the rest of the crew. To be able to ask a team member to go and work on a task and not need to guide them through it is one of the most helpful things that can be done for a manager.
Part of my philosophy has now become that there should be no hierarchy in a team. Kirsty, you and Myself were the senior students but we all worked as part of the team and were all as important parts of the TSM machine as any of the first year crew or indeed Martin and Scott.
I know exactly what you mean about the automation being cut. And that you wish we could be here once all problems are being ironed out but remember we are creating a much better learning experience for years to come and we are also discovering bits of the equipment and software that they will never need to if the gear works perfectly all the time. Learn from this experience with the automation and push hard for extra time and stage space when its your turn to be TSM. This is yet another thing i did not foresee and did not fight for as hard as I should have.
We are students and no matter how hard we are pushed we cannot be expected to step into the boots for a job that could be done by someone with 20 years industry experience. We all have worries and concerns about our skills and especially around management. I never went to the academy to do that and I do not plan to pursue that as a career immediately after I graduate. You need to practice and have experience of working in charge of a team. This is something you havent had and were nervous about. Ask Martin and Scott what I was like at SYT for the Shakespeares and I hope they would say that I improved for panto because i had learnt and pulled knowledge from those shows.
1 day that you feel you worked well is better than none at all but personally I would say that you were a constant support and hard worker throughout even the most stressfull times during the production. You outline your ideas well and if needed you disguise your personal feelings on matters [another thing i am very envious of you!! We both know that I can get very uptight and let people know what i think of them!]
You will do excellently as a manager and I would really like to work with you as my DTSM again although I dont think it will be possible before I graduate. Have a great time in America, learn things, work on things you think you need to work on but most of all enjoy yourself because you have an amazing opportunity.
Hope some of this ramble was useful.
Cheers Mate [we didnt even fall out once, oh yeah and I still owe you a pint!!]
in my opinion….
the work you where asked to do on the show far exceeded what was actually possible particularly in the time that was given, and it it easily conceivable for those who have no understanding of the operation of the automation kit to look on it as a failure on your part, not that i can think of anybody who did think that. I think you showed competency in your work as an Automation technician by admitting you weren’t going to able to do it and your primary concern was for the health and safety of those involved.
I don’t think it is wise to wish that you could start the academy course in ten years time because who can say if automation will have any relevancy then, spare a thought for the poor TSM Graduate 2021 who is having trouble with gravity mats or the confused LX who is constantly emailing the supply company of the AUDIENCE DRY BLIZARD SIM 3000 for fluid and lets not forget the woe-filled SM propping for used earth flag from inter-MARS inc. in exchange for comp tickets and an mention in our e-book file.