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    Jeff Toussieng
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using a moving light for a follow spot

I would never attempt to actually follow someone using encoders as a follow spot because I just don't have that left hand right hand talent however I was wondering if using manual cues might work.

They will step down from one level to a second level then move to their left. Should I record a cue for the mover to go to the step down position and then another cue for it to move to their final sideways destination then run those two cues manually as they move?

If so I'm thinking it would need to be 4 cues; first one focus position performer start position open full. Second performer moving down to next stage level still open full. Third performer moving left to final destination still open full. Fourth performer finishes and open spot goes out.

Also if this works will I be able to instruct just those 4 cues to be manual keeping all cues before and after as GO cues?

I've never tackled this before. Can you tell?

  • Hey Jeff,

    Yes, you can do exactly as you described here. I'm doing the exact same thing for a church Easter musical.

    Record a cue for each "leg" of the actors movement. You could program in a specific time if you can rehearse with the actor to have the timing the same each time, or you can make the time of the cue (or just the focus time if you like) manual and use the playback faders like you said to manually move the light from cue to cue.

    For a section of the Easter musical, I am using manual timing on a series of 4 cues. My first cue turns on the light in the first position with a follow of 0 to automatically launch the first manual move. The cue is fired, but will not actually start until I bring down the playback fader and move it back up. The next cues all have a Hang time of 0 so that after each move is complete, the next move is already cued up. All I have to do is bring down the playback and move it up again to move the light without having to worry about hitting the GO button. Once the last move is complete, I continue hitting GO as normal with programmed timing. It works great for us; I hope it works out for you too!

  • We did a similar thing for a show a little while ago. We had focus points programmed for each point or change of direction the actor was blocked for. Then we built an absolute effect and set times to each step in the actors average time for the move. Loaded that into an effect sub then executed a macro in the cue that fired the effect sub. We set the sub to control the rate of the effect so you can follow the actors 'pace' as it varied through the run. Worked like a charm and was lucky that we had set it up that way as he injured himself during the run and couldn't make his crosses in the same time. All we had to do was pull the sub down a bit.
  • in reply to ATudge
    So you had the effect sub all the way up during the show in order to bring it down a bit when the cue was running?
  • in reply to Jeff Toussieng
    No, i missed writing a step where we added 40% to the average time so the sub could sit in mid range to allow for acceleration or deceleration. It was on an EOS so we had the sub page switch the cue before to make that handle available for the operator then switch back to a blank page when completed. This way the sub couldn't be bumped by accident and stayed at its level from the previous performance which gave us a nice starting point for each use as the performer started healing up and then walking faster. There were quite a few of these 'live' moves in the show. Really worked like a charm.
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