Writing Cues

TOC - Teching The Show

1. Preparation
2. Overview
3. Building Cues
4. Timing
5. Effects
6. Running Cues

In this section I will discuss the process of writing cues for your show. Because everyone has a different way of doing this, I will simply discuss some ways to make life simpler and some techniques to ensure that things run smoothly. I'll also discuss the features of some of the lightboards that you will be using, and how you can use them to your best advantage.

Preparation

Of course, before any serious cue writing can begin, you need to be fully prepared. Although some value can be had from writing cues in whatever state a hang is in, it pays to wait until you are fully hung and focussed. If you are running behind schedule, you can go ahead and rough out the show so the Stage Manager et al can at least start to work on timing, but if you can't yet see the cues in their final states, you'll find that you will most likely have to redo all of your cues once your focus is finished.

There are a couple other elements that you should probably have in hand before sitting down. The first is a magic sheet. A magic sheet (or sheets) is a summary of all the channels available to you, in a simple, easy-to-read format. You'll find that this is easier to refer to than a long list of channel numbers. This also assumes, of course, that someone has written your specified patch into the board so that the channel numbers are accurate! You really don't want to delay your cue writing setting up your patch.

Next, you should have your extensive scene breakdown available, as this will be your guide. The more detailed it already is, especially if you've incorporated your notes from paper tech, the easier writing cues will be.

Cue writing is a serious business, and you'll need dark, quiet, and time. I recommend at least three hours for a simple show; for complex effects and whatnot, you'll need way more. Ryan and I spent something like 30 hours total designing Perpetual Motion, which had complex moving lights (and we didn't really have a moving light board!).

Some designers like to work on their own while writing cues; others like to work with the director, choreographer, SM, etc (you'll almost always want to have someone to run the board and maybe someone else to fix problems that come up). I tend to work with the director (et al), because a) I can ask questions that I might have forgetten/not thought of before, b) I can get very specific about blocking c) I can get a feeling for what the director likes and dislikes, so I can be relatively sure that the director won't ask me to rewrite lots of cues. Clearly, having the director sit down with you to write cues can be a great demand on his or her time, and therefore if you do this, you need to be doubly efficient. It's also important not to let it become a design by committee — you are in charge; the director is only there to answer questions and provide brief comments on the design. I also tend to simply rough out the show with the director, and then go back and fine-tune (more on this later). This saves the director time and lets me concentrate on the design after the practical aspects are taken care of.

Overview

When sitting down to write cues, you basically have two ways to approach it (or any combination of the two ways). The first way is to go through the show in a linear way, carefully building every cue, and I mean every cue, to your satisfaction. The other way is to go through the show quickly, not necessarily in order, and just rough out the various scenes, building something quick that you can look at and then modify/add to later.

The advantage of the first method is, of course, that once your are done, you are really done, with only minor changes left. The disadvantages are that it takes a long time, and there are circumstances where you'll find that you run out of time and have to "skimp" on the last cues. You also may get, say, half the show done on one day, and then do the rest the next, which means that the SM can't call cues for that second half of the show during rehearsal.

The advantage of the second method is that you very quickly have a full show put together, although it might be ugly and have very few cues. But at least the SM can call it, and you have something to look at. You can then go back and add in subcues, build in effects, modify looks, etc, in order of priority. The stuff you don't have time to get to is then by definition less important. The disadvantage is that things will look ugly for a while, and you're likely to be less consistent in your design if you hop around writing bits here and there.

I tend to use some combination of the two methods, in that I start by going through the show fairly linearly, writing every cue as I come to it. But as soon as I see that the cues I am writing are only subtly different, maybe just adding a single unit to pick up an entrance, or writing a long effects loop, or anything else that I can just substitute cues for later, I skip ahead to the next major cue. I do this especially when I'm working with a director, so as to not waste their time. Whatever method you choose will probably be somewhat along these lines.

Building Cues

So how do you write cues? Well, first of all, realize that you are responsible for the entire illuminated experience of the audience, from the moment they enter the theater. To that end, one of the first things I usually do, sort of to get me in the mood, is to build a preset cue. This is just something pretty to throw on the stage or curtain, something that hopefully will make the audience start to get curious about the show. Building this cue also gives me the opportunity to "try out" my lights, I'll usually bring them all up individually or in systems to see what I have.

Note that before the preset, I will need a blackout cue, something that the board op can go into before they actually start the show (n.b. I will assume that you are using a computerized memory board for this discussion; if you are not, I'm sorry, but basically all you need to do is take careful notes, write up cue sheets, and pray!). Then, I'll need a blackout after my preset, to let the actors come onstage (this isn't always the case; I encourage you to have dramatic sound and light intros, but usually directors just want a BO and then lights up on the action).

Once we get into the meat of the show, what it's all about is just taking our visual ideas for the show and expressing them through light. But what is essential about this process is that we abstract it into the fourth dimension, yes, time, and then break it down into individual moments that we can write into cues. At the same time, avoid just writing a static series of cues, in some cases you will flow into and out of cues without ever "resting," but you will still need to write that intermediate cue as a static cue just to have a "bookmark," so to speak.

Having an intimate knowledge of your lighting systems (the magic sheet will help you translate this into numbers) and the way they will interact is obviously important. You might want to have a model (human or mannequin or whatever) onstage just so you can see what effect light will have on people in the middle of the set (often your lights won't really be visible until they have someone or something to hit!). With time and experience, you will start to develop a vocabulary to fill the stage space with three-dimensional, rich, interesting light. I encourage you to read as many light design books as you can get your hands on to seek new ideas and ways to express yourself with light.

So, to start with, I usually bring up whatever I might consider my "key" lighting. If it's supposed to be sunny, I bring up the system that's supposed to correspond to the sunlight (e.g. the one that will cast the most shadow). If it's indoors, the ones that are supposed to suggest lamps. I then add other systems as appropriate to fill in the rest of the space, and achieve the goals (from the earlier parts of this document) of visibility, shaping, etc, within the context of what I want to express about the show through my lighting (I will quickly start to discover if my design has achieved this!). I am very careful about levels; even the difference of a few percent can be incredibly significant. I'll also usually modify individual lights within a system, to even out the wash across the stage, or em/deemphasize areas of the stage.

Once I have something I like (obviously, I'm skipping a lot of material here, but it's such a personal thing I'm not sure it's possible to explain it other than by doing it), I'll go back to the previous cue and then back into the one I'm working on, looking at the differences and how they are revealed to the audience. I'll also set the timing of the cue to reflect how suddenly I want the new cue to come in (note that on many boards you can specify the timing of lights that come up in level separately from the lights that move down in level — something that comes in very handy when lights appear to come on jerkily while you are trying to drop other ones out quickly).

I'll usually run into and out of a cue several times, making slight adjustments to the look and timing until I think it's just right. If I don't know enough about how the scene will develop or where the action will take place, of course I skip ahead faster. Sometimes, if I'm headed down the wrong path, I'll scrap the cue and start over from scratch. On the other hand, if I'm coming from an existing cue to one that is similar, I might simply start from the previous cue and build (or reduce) from there. I might even jump back several cues to one earlier in the show, copy that into place, and then modify from there. Any time I can save time by using cues that I've already written, I will. This is not cheating or anything, in fact, it can be very important to maintain the consistency of the show. If the audience sees basically the same thing for a particular scene several times, they'll come to recognize that scene from the lighting alone.

It's important as you work your way through the show to remember to go back and look at previous cues, as mentioned above, but also for the purposes of comparison. You may have a general idea that the show should get brighter as it goes along; you may be surprised to discover that you've done the opposite if you don't go back and check! In general, you will be concentrating on the minutiae of each scene very closely, but remember to also implement your broader ideas about the script that you developed early in the process of design. Run through whole scenes or acts, looking for such.

Timing

I've briefly mentioned timing here, saying that I set it according to how abruptly I want the audience to see the next look. But there's more to it than that, a lot more. The timing you set for your changes may be the most important thing that tells the audience what you're trying to achieve. You should, therefore, give it as much attention as the other aspects of your design.

Very important, remember that you only set one aspect of the timing, the length. It's the stage manager who calls when each cue happens. This can make all the difference in the world with respect to the impression the audience is left with. An example: a tense dialog between two people. The last line is read, and on the last word, the lights suddenly go black and very quickly the next scene starts. Contrast this with the same scene where the last line is read, and then left to hover for two, three, four seconds, before the same length drop to black. Then there's another pause, and the next scene starts. In the first scenario, the audience might be left with the impression of anger, action, moving quickly. In the second, unresolved pain, fear, strain. It's essential that the SM know the reasons for timing the cues the way you specify, and that he or she leaves the appropriate amount of space. Waiting a few more seconds to start an important scene can make it doubly important, or allow the audience transition from a previous scene without confusion.

There are a couple other important aspects about timing that should be kept in mind, which is the link (different boards call it different things). You can link cues together so that when one cue is called, either another one starts with it, or just as it ends, or whatever. In most cases, the link timing is relative to the beginning of the first cue, so that you can have two cues running on top of each other (but with different fade times, for example). Or, you can specify the link timing to be the same as the timing for the first cue, so that it starts just as the first cue ends. This can give you smooth, flowing cues that give a wonderful feeling of action onstage.

You can also link a cue so that it runs much later than the called cue. This can obviate the need for the SM to call the cue, which can be helpful in busy segments of the show. In this and all the above, though, you should keep in mind that the timing of the actors is probably going to change, so you shouldn't try to time to their action too much. If the show uses music, however, especially prerecorded music, this can be a wonderful thing. I did a production of Hurlyburly in the Ex, and at the end a NIN song played (it had been modified to be shorter). The song ended with three crashing chords that I wanted mirrored with three pulsing lights, but it was basically impossible to identify where we were in the song as it was playing, as it was pretty much repetitive noise. Rather than making the light op count or time the song carefully, I just wrote a fade cue at the beginning of the song that was called at an easily definable point, then wrote the link so that something like 2min later the three lights came on right on cue (of course, the three pulsing lights was its own series of six cues; each one up, then out, all linked together with exact timing).

Effects

Which brings me to the subject of effects. Effects and loops can let you do much more complex lighting sequences onstage, with fairly precise timing. Different boards use different methods; I'll touch on the most common here.

First of all, several boards I've worked with use the convention that if a cue is linked to a cue earlier in the show, then the board will skip back to that earlier cue. If you write a series of linked cues, and link the last back to the first, then it will skip back, run through the cues again, and then skip back again. Once it's gone through one full time, a successive "GO" will pop out of the loop to the cue after the last linked cue. Presto! you have a repeating loop which you can use to create simple flashing effects, more complicated cycling effects, whatever. I've written loops with up to 20 steps in them, if I rememeber correctly.

The ETC Microvision, used in the Ex, has a separate effects module. It's pretty simple, and the basic idea is that you set up up to six "looks", each of which are assigned to submasters. The effects unit can then be switched on, and it will cycle through each of the looks. You can modify the rate, and whether they are actually turned off rather than on, and what order they go in, and whatnot, but that's pretty much it. You might find other boards that use a similar setup.

A more complex board like the ETC Expression (used on the Loeb Mainstage) has a more complex effects system. If I remember correctly, the effects setup is like a little cue system, where you set up any number of looks and specify the way you want them to cycle through (timing, order, etc). You can then assign that effect to any cue, and it runs in parallel with that cue. You turn it off by hitting a separate button (or it can expire as you wish).

Regardless of the method used to create effects, I encourage you to look into them. They can make your shows more dynamic and interesting. Don't be afraid to experiment; it's always easier to delete them than to build a complex effect late in the game. They don't need to be blatant, in-your-face effects either, some of my best effects were subtle fades and dips that the audience probably didn't even notice but that created a more dynamic world for the actors.

Running Cues

Once you're done cueing your show, I'll remind you again, go back and look at the whole thing, accounting for your original design precepts. Don't be afraid to make drastic changes late in the game, either. It might take you several days to build your show, but remember that a lot of that time was spent learning about your lights. Now that you've done your homework, you'll find it much easier to go back and rewrite stuff as necessary to achieve your vision.

The next phase of course will be to tie this all together with the action and crew. Up to now, this has really just been a theoretical exercise! Once crew and actors are thrown into the mix, you'll probably discover that you'll need to make quite a few changes.

TOC - Teching The Show