ABSTRACT
During shop prep for a rental package, the production electrician and his crew may spend a week or two working in the rental shop organizing the lighting fixtures into road cases so that they are organized by position when arriving at theatre. Other things that may occur during shop prep include: pre-hanging fixtures in truss, bundling and labeling lengths of cable, cutting and framing colors and gobos, and loading moving lights with custom items. Focus, also called “conventional focus,”—the time when every light is focused to its intended place on stage, may begin while load-in is still happening. During focus, designers often have to compete with sounds of load-in. To counteract this, a somewhat universal method of indicating focus through hand signals and body language has developed over the years. Color balancing involves choosing a selection of color correction gel to tape semi-permanently to the front of the spot to make its default color temperature emulate the color temperatures.
