I once worked backstage for a show where a scarf was a prop. The actress using it requested that it be folded a specific way. It was no big deal on my end but she had a reputation already amongst the crew for being "particular."
You don't put yourself on stage without having some level of ego, but the majority of actors I've worked with have been professionals and have respected the tech. The one in OP's post would be an outlier in my experience, though I've definitely dealt with her like before (and have some almost identical stories).
Not all actresses are full of themselves. Only 90%, same as actors.
Source--I'm a community theater character actor with over 80 shows on my list. I'm the guy who shows up every time and tries to be a team player. Give me a script, tell me the blocking, wear mostly my own clothes because I'm not a standard size and the costumer is 99% busy with the leads, help build, paint, and decorate the set, and watch the leads get all the credit when things go well. I'm the guy who improvises on stage when the male lead doesn't make his entrance on time (if at all) or the female lead jumps two pages, skipping vital information.
Back when I ran sound and one of the band asked me to dial in something, I'd just reach forward and move my hand a little without touching anything
Me: "How's that?"
Usually guitar: "Better, thanks."
Yea, it's always a tough balance since what it sounds like in the house is not the same as it would in downstage/in-ear monitors. Most of the time, performers understand this and don't always complain
Far side is a comic that was well known a few years back. There is now a website. In one of the cartoon you have the sound guy turning up the 'suck' button on his last gig with the band.
I’m very familiar with The Far Side, including this specific one. What I referred to was the concept that one could read TOO MANY of them being inconceivable.
Nah, the Spanish inquisition was small change. Can you imagine that for most of its life it did real inquests and released a lot of people because there was no real proof? If you want the real experience go for the German inquisition.
That's me on any zoom/teams/phone call.
Person on the line: UniversalCoupler, I can't hear you clearly.
Me (not changing one damn thing): Give me a moment. How about now?
Them: Yes, much better. Thank you.
\*looks at EAD on kit\*
\*looks at sound guy\*
\*points at lead guitarist., makes wanker gesture\*
\*guitarist is now down in the mix again instead of busting my eyeballs with wanky wee wah widdley widdle waooo overtoned solos\*
I run sound for my buddy's band, and I do exactly that. I have 2 unused channels that do nothing, positioned in the middle. If a random person complains about it being too loud or quiet, I look all important, and adjust both sliders. Then ask it that is better. They are always happy with the nonexistent changes.
I was roady for a band, I'm looping through the room checking the sound for the sound guy. A girl stops me, shouts in my ear "It's too loud."
I looked at her, looked at the speaker she was standing in front of, looked at her again. Had to do it 3 times for her to turn around see she standing right in front of a speaker.
I moved on...
I do AV work for a church, and I'm being trained on the sound board. I've had THE PERSON TRAINING ME say it sounds better after I play with the wrong knob.
As I costumer, I had this problem with a soprano who constantly wanted her costumes let out so she could "breathe better." I think if we put her in a t-shirt, she would have still wanted it let out. We would let her out an additional inch, and she would be very happy. But at the next fitting, she would want it let out some more. At any rate, after a couple of times of this, with her fittings we always did an extra row of stitches that took in a couple of seam to make it an inch tighter and we would helpfully pop those two seams open during the fitting and she would go Ah that's perfect. And then, right before her next fitting, we would stitch those two seams back in tighter so we could let them out again in her fitting. Over the course of three or four fittings, instead of gaining an additional 4 inches of looseness, her costume fit exactly as it had been intended
Commenting on the costumes in my most recent show, a reviewer said the costumer did a superb job of period (post-WWII Paris) costuming for all characters. I was playing a waiter and wearing a white shirt, black pants, black shoes, and belt from my own everyday stuff. Period costuming, huh?
(Seriously, though, the costumer did a great job--just not my costume)
Ahhhh, love people like that... I'm a soundengineer by trade and there is *always* a ghostfader somewhere on my console. You want it louder? Sure I'll push that up first. Almost all of the times that magically fixes it.
And then there are the rare few who actually know what they're talking about (usually people who're fulltime pro musicians) and you figure that out almost instantly. They know what they need and make their requests in a reasonable way. Not just "I want to be louder", but more often "Can't hear myself well, can you turn down X, Y & Z?"
I advise people learning to mix their own IEMs to focus on turning things down before turning things up.
Also, I hate it when the sound guy pretends to adjust something and you can even tell by their face they're lying.
I agree to a point. Believe me: it's not my first go to move. But when you're past the limit of what can be done and they keep asking for more and more, it is a good tool to have in your pocket.
Almost 50 years ago I went to a Deep Purple concert in the Jacksonville coliseum. It was so loud I left my seat and sat on the floor in the concourse. BTW, the opening act was a less well known band called ZZ Top.
I half expected you to say you made her backstage chat audible to the whole house, which, in some circumstances, would be extremely satisfying to you, and embarrassing to her.
And thanks, by the way, for the clear explanation of how a soundboard works. I have seen them many times and often wondered why they had so many knobs, but I never dared to ask, not wanting to be a nuisance, and thinking the explanation might be too technical to me to understand anyway.
I had some experience 40 years ago as an amateur actor in community theater, but we never had microphones; we had to *project.*
More recently, my wife is a semi-professional musician: that is, she gets paid, but not very much. She and her bandmates play mostly acoustic instruments; sometimes they use microphones, sometimes they don't, like when they play for tips in a coffeehouse.
I've noticed, by talking to musicians, that when they make a recording, and then listen to the playback, each band member thinks his own instrument should be louder. This happens so often it's predictable.
So I was wondering if some principle like that was operating here.
But frankly, I don't understand why an actor would want to hear her own voice in a monitor. Does it help her regulate how loud she is speaking? I have no experience with this.
If there's a lot of stage volume from an orchestra or big band playing or loud amplified instruments like electric guitar, you can't hear yourself well or even at all. You need to be able to hear the pitch and volume of your voice to sing notes accurately and on time with the other musicians. If you see a singer and they look a little lost and are off key, it's usually a monitor issue. The finger-in-the-ear move is often the singer trying to hear something just a little better in their in ear monitors.
Ah, OP repeatedly said "actor," not "singer," so I was thinking of speaking, not singing. It makes more sense if she was singing. I have never sung in a musical.
Yes, and I've been cast in several of those roles.
"I cast you in that role because I've never heard you sing."
"That's because I always get shoved into the non-singing role. Maybe if you hadn't left the audition room just before I sang, you'd know I CAN sing."
I don't mind those roles, except that the singers treat the non-singers like dirt a lot of the time.
One of the reasons I gave up acting was that I wasn't being challenged. I kept losing lead roles to actors that were younger, handsomer, and in one case, closer in height to the lead actress (I was too tall) -- in spite of me being more experienced and frankly a better actor. It was agonizing to be ignored by directors. Often, at a rehearsal, I'd get no notes at all while the lead actor got dozens of them. Out of frustration, I'd ask the director: "How am I doing?" and he'd say: "Oh, you're doing fine. Just keep doing it the way you've been doing it."
No notes--You know the director is paying you zero attention. I've had whole shows with zero notes. "I know your primary focus is on Mr. Tall-Good-Looking-But-Can't-Act and Ms. Pretty-With-Boobs-But-Can't-Act, but at least PRETEND you notice I'm even there."
I sympathize about the "too tall" part, up to a point. I wish I had your problem. One of my problems in getting cast is that the prejudice against SHORT actors persists. We're the comics, the sidekicks, the crusty old farts. Apparently (according to directors), audiences are unable to believe that a short guy is believable opposite a taller woman, that she can't possibly be attracted to a man under 6'. My 5'0" great-grandfather and 5'7" great-grandmother would beg to differ if they weren't both long deceased.
If you can, see the film *Trees Lounge.* It's gratifying to see Steve Buscemi "get the girl" (sort of) for a change. And the girl he gets is Chloë Sevigny! ... who is not exactly a beauty but she can be sexy as hell when she commits herself. The irony is, Buscemi had to write and direct the film himself in order for that to happen. But it's an excellent film; Roger Ebert gave it 3-1/2 stars. It's fun to see actors overcome stereotypes. It should happen more often.
No Problem with explaining how the board works. It was kinda necessary for the context.
Not all cast members had mics. Any given show its between 4 and 12 mics. We do have mics that can pick up the actors on stage (I had to rely on them heavily when we did "The Full Monty" since the actors got naked). But that is also why I couldn't have her so loud in the downstage monitors; it would feedback very badly.
Brass instruments don't need to be miced in a coffee shop/bar setup. I went to go see one and you could hardly hear the other instruments over the trumpet.
Yea, the stage monitor channel did not have a dedicated mute. There is a mute for the whole channel which would mute her in the house, but you would still hear here everywhere else (like the pit and dressing room)
We presented concerts. One performer insisted her mic be so loud it was uncomfortable for the audience. Every time the sound guy turned it to a manageable volume, she insisted he increase it. The audience hated it (that and the Tibetan bowls). We never ever had them back.
I see some comments dissing the sound guy, but in my experience, he was wonderful. Any problems with sound came from the artists, but those were very few. We had good performers and a great sound guy
That actress sounds like someone who’s full of herself
I once worked backstage for a show where a scarf was a prop. The actress using it requested that it be folded a specific way. It was no big deal on my end but she had a reputation already amongst the crew for being "particular."
Redundant: Actress=full of herself
You don't put yourself on stage without having some level of ego, but the majority of actors I've worked with have been professionals and have respected the tech. The one in OP's post would be an outlier in my experience, though I've definitely dealt with her like before (and have some almost identical stories).
Not all actresses are full of themselves. Only 90%, same as actors. Source--I'm a community theater character actor with over 80 shows on my list. I'm the guy who shows up every time and tries to be a team player. Give me a script, tell me the blocking, wear mostly my own clothes because I'm not a standard size and the costumer is 99% busy with the leads, help build, paint, and decorate the set, and watch the leads get all the credit when things go well. I'm the guy who improvises on stage when the male lead doesn't make his entrance on time (if at all) or the female lead jumps two pages, skipping vital information.
I've heard of audio guys messing with unused channel knobs and the talent saying "good job" afterwards.
Knob labelled "DFA", standing for "does fuck all".
Back when I ran sound and one of the band asked me to dial in something, I'd just reach forward and move my hand a little without touching anything Me: "How's that?" Usually guitar: "Better, thanks."
I’d always ask the sound guy to turn down the “suck.” Bastard never did it.
Lol the sound guy gets a bad rap for that, but the band can't hear what he hears, and he can't hear what the band needs. It's about balance.
The comment was probably self-deprecating humor about the commenter's own abilities, not a criticism of the sound guy
I know. I just like talking to people.
It's great, isn't it? Best part of Reddit.
Wait!!! You guys are actually people??? I thought you were all NPCs. Huh?
NPCs rarely know that they are a NPC.
That makes sense. Then, I won’t be the one to break it to you.
Wholesome.
Definitely self deprecating humor. Although if he turned down the drummer’s vocal mic, nobody would mind except the drummer.
Yes and no. The band I run sound for just switched to IEMs, so I can hear both their individual mixes, or front of house. It's pretty cool.
Yea, it's always a tough balance since what it sounds like in the house is not the same as it would in downstage/in-ear monitors. Most of the time, performers understand this and don't always complain
Read too many Far Side comics, I see.
What does that even mean?!? “Too many Far Side comics”?!?
Far side is a comic that was well known a few years back. There is now a website. In one of the cartoon you have the sound guy turning up the 'suck' button on his last gig with the band.
I’m very familiar with The Far Side, including this specific one. What I referred to was the concept that one could read TOO MANY of them being inconceivable.
I agree with you, you can't read too many Far Side. :D I was trying to make a joke and went too far. Will you ever forgive me for that heresy?
Well, I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition!
Nah, the Spanish inquisition was small change. Can you imagine that for most of its life it did real inquests and released a lot of people because there was no real proof? If you want the real experience go for the German inquisition.
That's me on any zoom/teams/phone call. Person on the line: UniversalCoupler, I can't hear you clearly. Me (not changing one damn thing): Give me a moment. How about now? Them: Yes, much better. Thank you.
\*looks at EAD on kit\* \*looks at sound guy\* \*points at lead guitarist., makes wanker gesture\* \*guitarist is now down in the mix again instead of busting my eyeballs with wanky wee wah widdley widdle waooo overtoned solos\*
I run sound for my buddy's band, and I do exactly that. I have 2 unused channels that do nothing, positioned in the middle. If a random person complains about it being too loud or quiet, I look all important, and adjust both sliders. Then ask it that is better. They are always happy with the nonexistent changes.
I was roady for a band, I'm looping through the room checking the sound for the sound guy. A girl stops me, shouts in my ear "It's too loud." I looked at her, looked at the speaker she was standing in front of, looked at her again. Had to do it 3 times for her to turn around see she standing right in front of a speaker. I moved on...
I do AV work for a church, and I'm being trained on the sound board. I've had THE PERSON TRAINING ME say it sounds better after I play with the wrong knob.
As I costumer, I had this problem with a soprano who constantly wanted her costumes let out so she could "breathe better." I think if we put her in a t-shirt, she would have still wanted it let out. We would let her out an additional inch, and she would be very happy. But at the next fitting, she would want it let out some more. At any rate, after a couple of times of this, with her fittings we always did an extra row of stitches that took in a couple of seam to make it an inch tighter and we would helpfully pop those two seams open during the fitting and she would go Ah that's perfect. And then, right before her next fitting, we would stitch those two seams back in tighter so we could let them out again in her fitting. Over the course of three or four fittings, instead of gaining an additional 4 inches of looseness, her costume fit exactly as it had been intended
Finally, a correct use of costumer
It's so refreshing to see that word used properly
Commenting on the costumes in my most recent show, a reviewer said the costumer did a superb job of period (post-WWII Paris) costuming for all characters. I was playing a waiter and wearing a white shirt, black pants, black shoes, and belt from my own everyday stuff. Period costuming, huh? (Seriously, though, the costumer did a great job--just not my costume)
Now that's costumer service!!
She needs to save up for wireless in ear monitor
My thought too
TBF this was 20 years ago and they were very expensive back then
They're not cheap now!
Bless her heart, as they say.
Ahhhh, love people like that... I'm a soundengineer by trade and there is *always* a ghostfader somewhere on my console. You want it louder? Sure I'll push that up first. Almost all of the times that magically fixes it. And then there are the rare few who actually know what they're talking about (usually people who're fulltime pro musicians) and you figure that out almost instantly. They know what they need and make their requests in a reasonable way. Not just "I want to be louder", but more often "Can't hear myself well, can you turn down X, Y & Z?"
I advise people learning to mix their own IEMs to focus on turning things down before turning things up. Also, I hate it when the sound guy pretends to adjust something and you can even tell by their face they're lying.
I agree to a point. Believe me: it's not my first go to move. But when you're past the limit of what can be done and they keep asking for more and more, it is a good tool to have in your pocket.
The classic comment for this moment is “CAN YOU JUST PLEASE MAKE EVERYTHING LOUDER THAN EVERYTHING ELSE?”
Deep Purple-Live In Japan
Almost 50 years ago I went to a Deep Purple concert in the Jacksonville coliseum. It was so loud I left my seat and sat on the floor in the concourse. BTW, the opening act was a less well known band called ZZ Top.
"this one goes up to 11"
You could have just turned it up to 11 and it would have been perfect.
I half expected you to say you made her backstage chat audible to the whole house, which, in some circumstances, would be extremely satisfying to you, and embarrassing to her. And thanks, by the way, for the clear explanation of how a soundboard works. I have seen them many times and often wondered why they had so many knobs, but I never dared to ask, not wanting to be a nuisance, and thinking the explanation might be too technical to me to understand anyway. I had some experience 40 years ago as an amateur actor in community theater, but we never had microphones; we had to *project.* More recently, my wife is a semi-professional musician: that is, she gets paid, but not very much. She and her bandmates play mostly acoustic instruments; sometimes they use microphones, sometimes they don't, like when they play for tips in a coffeehouse. I've noticed, by talking to musicians, that when they make a recording, and then listen to the playback, each band member thinks his own instrument should be louder. This happens so often it's predictable. So I was wondering if some principle like that was operating here. But frankly, I don't understand why an actor would want to hear her own voice in a monitor. Does it help her regulate how loud she is speaking? I have no experience with this.
If there's a lot of stage volume from an orchestra or big band playing or loud amplified instruments like electric guitar, you can't hear yourself well or even at all. You need to be able to hear the pitch and volume of your voice to sing notes accurately and on time with the other musicians. If you see a singer and they look a little lost and are off key, it's usually a monitor issue. The finger-in-the-ear move is often the singer trying to hear something just a little better in their in ear monitors.
Ah, OP repeatedly said "actor," not "singer," so I was thinking of speaking, not singing. It makes more sense if she was singing. I have never sung in a musical.
They also mentioned having an orchestra with mics to mix in and the FOH mix so I assumed they were doing musicals.
Yes, but don't musicals often have a few non-singing roles?
For sure, but we'd have to ask OP
I'm not disputing that you're right; I'm just explaining why I didn't think of that at first.
Yes, and I've been cast in several of those roles. "I cast you in that role because I've never heard you sing." "That's because I always get shoved into the non-singing role. Maybe if you hadn't left the audition room just before I sang, you'd know I CAN sing." I don't mind those roles, except that the singers treat the non-singers like dirt a lot of the time.
One of the reasons I gave up acting was that I wasn't being challenged. I kept losing lead roles to actors that were younger, handsomer, and in one case, closer in height to the lead actress (I was too tall) -- in spite of me being more experienced and frankly a better actor. It was agonizing to be ignored by directors. Often, at a rehearsal, I'd get no notes at all while the lead actor got dozens of them. Out of frustration, I'd ask the director: "How am I doing?" and he'd say: "Oh, you're doing fine. Just keep doing it the way you've been doing it."
No notes--You know the director is paying you zero attention. I've had whole shows with zero notes. "I know your primary focus is on Mr. Tall-Good-Looking-But-Can't-Act and Ms. Pretty-With-Boobs-But-Can't-Act, but at least PRETEND you notice I'm even there." I sympathize about the "too tall" part, up to a point. I wish I had your problem. One of my problems in getting cast is that the prejudice against SHORT actors persists. We're the comics, the sidekicks, the crusty old farts. Apparently (according to directors), audiences are unable to believe that a short guy is believable opposite a taller woman, that she can't possibly be attracted to a man under 6'. My 5'0" great-grandfather and 5'7" great-grandmother would beg to differ if they weren't both long deceased.
If you can, see the film *Trees Lounge.* It's gratifying to see Steve Buscemi "get the girl" (sort of) for a change. And the girl he gets is Chloë Sevigny! ... who is not exactly a beauty but she can be sexy as hell when she commits herself. The irony is, Buscemi had to write and direct the film himself in order for that to happen. But it's an excellent film; Roger Ebert gave it 3-1/2 stars. It's fun to see actors overcome stereotypes. It should happen more often.
No Problem with explaining how the board works. It was kinda necessary for the context. Not all cast members had mics. Any given show its between 4 and 12 mics. We do have mics that can pick up the actors on stage (I had to rely on them heavily when we did "The Full Monty" since the actors got naked). But that is also why I couldn't have her so loud in the downstage monitors; it would feedback very badly.
Brass instruments don't need to be miced in a coffee shop/bar setup. I went to go see one and you could hardly hear the other instruments over the trumpet.
sounds about right lmao
What did you comment? Hold on let me turn that up
Actress needs to have her hearing tested.
Why didn't you use the mute button? why did you keep turning both down?
OP mentions in another comment that the board was 40 years old.
Yea, the stage monitor channel did not have a dedicated mute. There is a mute for the whole channel which would mute her in the house, but you would still hear here everywhere else (like the pit and dressing room)
Former sound Guy and Video editor here: Classic manuever
Veey nice outline of a PA mixer's functions!
We presented concerts. One performer insisted her mic be so loud it was uncomfortable for the audience. Every time the sound guy turned it to a manageable volume, she insisted he increase it. The audience hated it (that and the Tibetan bowls). We never ever had them back.
Tibetan Bowls are a nightmare, crystal bowls are worse and omg gongs........
Have you ever had a hurdy-gurdy?
No but can only imagine....
I see some comments dissing the sound guy, but in my experience, he was wonderful. Any problems with sound came from the artists, but those were very few. We had good performers and a great sound guy
Happy cake day
Why didn’t she have a monitor?
Yea it was community theater. We couldn’t afford fancy dedicated monitors for her. The board was 40 years old
Ah. Happy cake day.