And so, with the sun high in the sky and long in the night,
the pilgrimage began for hundreds - ney, thousands of those that rally to the
banner of the flightless bird.
Yip its Parach … uhh… Festival One time. Now, while many of
you may have been to one or other of these, very few will have experienced it
quite the way I do, and it being a unique experience for me, I thought I would
share my view of one of these things for your enjoyment.
For those that don’t know, I’m a Video guy – so in the
context of Festival One and previously Parachute, this means that I run a video
team. So, for me, my last full pilgrimage began about June. This started with
an e-mail in which I did my very best to be clever, witty, ironic, and my
normal awesome self. I sent this out to about 30 different people all of whom
were previous crew or had, in the past year, expressed an interest in joining
my team for the upcoming year. I received some definite yesses, quite a few
maybes, and a few no’s.
Next was an e-mail to my boss, the HOD technical at
parachute, in roughly July. This set up my expectations for the year (side
note: after about March the previous event became last year and the one scheduled
for the end of next Jan became this year.) I would be told what our stage would
roughly look like, how many crew members I could get onsite and what my output
would be: Projector, LED wall etc.
After I had worked out a rough crew, I would talk with my
counterpart and fellow video guy about what sort of setup we wanted to produce,
how many cameras we would run, and would we finally get to use that crane? And
then the important part (roughly September) I would make up the T-shirts for
that year. Previous designs included the Palladium incorporated, the Delux
Mart, and the battle star palladium.
The t-shirts went to the t-shirt guy in Christchurch and
would turn up around a week before festival.
In the mean time I would finalise my team, organise car
passes, and wish everyone a very merry Christmas. About December, we would organise
the roster for the weekend, trying to take into account the bands that everyone
wanted to see and when they would get onsite lunch and dinner breaks, and the
skill levels needed for different positions. (Once, we had to rejig the entire
schedule at 3am on the Saturday morning. NOT FUN.)
A couple of changes here and there and we get to the week
before, Wednesday. This is where the experience proper begins. Wednesday starts
by driving out to site and seeing the changes made for the year, we would
unpack and begin the setup process. Usually this involves shoulder mounting a
camera and walking out to as far as we can go (dependent on the lens) and still
get the shot that we need, then marking the ground and beginning the cable run.
This takes about a day and at the same time we would setup backstage control.
At different times this has involved hard copper cable, Cat5
or network cable, fibre and even wireless. After setup is complete (usually
mid-day Thursday), testing commences and this takes us through to the evening
and the crew meeting.
This meeting at different times has been inspiring and
boring but there is always ice-cream so that’s good. Afterwards, the fun
begins.
Many people think that working backstage is great fun, that
you get to meet all the artists, hang out, swap stories and generally have a
good time. These people have never been backstage and working.
Backstage is a busy, noisy place that tolerates no fools.
There is no great view of the stage and the sound coming from stage is
absolutely awful.
My day starts at around 0700, I would get up at home, drag
myself out of bed and get to site before 0800 to get some breakfast. Call time
is about 0900 or 0930 depending on what is happening that day, and then the
talking begins.
My job is to stare at a 40-inch screen about 2 feet away
from me. This screen has up to 8 camera monitors as well as a preview and
program monitor. I have to check that all of these shots are in focus, think
about the shots I have, tell all the cameras what to do while choosing the shot
that I want, choose the shot I want next, change the shot and keep coherent
while talking to everyone and listening to problems that the camera ops may
have, offering solutions and listening to the music.
I do all of this (music dependant) every three seconds or
so.
When there are breaks, they have to be handled carefully,
because we still need all of our cameras online and available; so for me,
lunch, the first break of the day, is usually eaten while backing away from the
mixing desk in the 5 or so minutes between acts. Then we continue through to
dinner. Sometimes there may be a panel, which is a little easier to shoot, but
after dinner usually come the rockier bands, and so more attention is required.
The bands finish up around midnight when we have a hard
sound curfew. This is the best time of day. Because after the many cans of V,
eating in-between bands and the bowls of lollies on the table, at Midnight we
get the crew BBQ organised by one of the best men in Taranaki. This BBQ has
become legend among the various crews that have been served by it. After the
BBQ, depending on whose turn it is, my night ends in going home and falling in
bed, hot, dusty and tired, that or sticking around for the movie to end and
shutting down for the day at around 2am.
So that’s Friday. Saturday and Sunday run much the same way,
and then there is Monday. Monday runs much the same until about midday when the
show stops. Pack up starts very shortly thereafter and will finish for us at
around 3pm. As a rule, we help sound and lighting get out, everyone helps everyone,
and thus we all get out sooner. About 2pm there is often another round of
ice-cream that comes about. After 3 we go home. If you travelled from
Wellington, you might get to Taupo, but for me that’s where my experience ends.
Until the next year at any rate…
