This is the third or fourth time I’ve had this problem. I originally posted it to the Facebook group earlier this year on a separate show and have been trying to see if I could sense a pattern about what was causing the issue.
The issue is - while running through a cue list, an effect will seem to continue on beyond when it is supposed to stop, but in looking at it closer, the effect does stop when it is supposed to, and then it will return a few cues later and then track through until another move instruction is given. This has happened with both intensity effects and color effects - though they have always been absolute effects. I’ve narrowed it down to a few things that I think may be causing the issue.
1. Presets - at least two of the times, the original source of the effect was a preset (example a preset called candle light that had an intensity effect available for all practicals). I would put the lights in this preset and make absolute before recording the cue.
2. The effects were taken out of an earlier cue, and that cue was updated. i.e. originally the effect began in cue 1 and was stopped in cue 5. During previews, I stop the effect in cue 3 and update, essentially giving a redundant value of stop effect on cue 5. When running through the show - cue 5 is where they would start effecting again.
3. In the previous example, there would be no effect in cue 4, but when it advances a cue, the lights would be in an effect with all of the values in magenta, as if they have tracked. If I open the effects in the CIA, it says the source is cue 5, but everything is colored as if it is a tracking value.
4. I believe most times the lights have had an intensity value of 0 when put into the effect, or when going out of effect - I feel this could contribute to it.
5. If you “go to cue 5” in the previous example, the lights are not affecting; it only happens when running in order.
In the past, I have gone into blind and “Effect 0”’d the fixtures multiple times, at entered them, effect enter in live with an update - all to no avail. The workaround has always involved a macro that either effect entered and then snuck the channels when the cue ran, or “go to cue” a duplicate of the cue which would clear it. It has been repeatable and happened every time when those sequences were run. I have video of the most recent time (live. Vs. blind) that I can submit, and I can come up with at least 2 show files with the problem, and maybe 3.
As this problem has happened to me multiple times, and I haven’t seen it from others, I feel there could be an issue with my workflow when designing/using effects, but I’m curious to hear thoughts
I would link the original facebook post, but I can’t as the group is closed. It is from January 31 of this year. I will update that post with the videos and a link to this post.
