HOW SHOW PREP SETS LIVE EVENTS UP FOR SUCCESS

Note: This transcript has been lightly cleaned for readability (consecutive remarks by the same speaker are combined into single passages). Timestamps mark the start of each speaker’s turn. Bracketed [...] marks indicate portions of the original audio that were inaudible or not captured. Les Goldberg [0:15] Hello, Production World. This is Les Goldberg and the Road Ahead. Today I have three amazing guests. I have Greg Brown. Greg is the technical director, project manager at GSB Productions. I have Hector Alfero. He is a video director in EIC and president of Alfero Media. And I have Mark Cloutier, who is the director of lighting systems at LMG. Everybody, welcome to the show today. Greg Brown [0:40] Hello, hello. Thank you. Marc Cloutier [0:41] Thank you. Hector Alfero [0:41] Well, thank you. Les Goldberg [0:42] Guys, I'd like to first thank you for this joining today. We're going to talk about something that's near and dear to many of us is the idea of show prep and the value of show prep, which is key to success. So I know show prep might not be super sexy, but it is something that is so essential. So I'm going to throw the first question to Greg Brown. Greg, can you tell me what happens during prep and why should a client find value in it? I know I've seen you prepping countless number of times. So tell me what happens during prep and then why should a client value it? Because they obviously have to pay for the labor and the time. Greg Brown [1:26] Well, actually prep is kind of like the pre-production. There's many days, many weeks before. That's actually where the show is actually born. Many people think that magic happens when on show day, but honestly it's where it's revealed on show day. So the prep is part where the client's idea comes to fruition and we shape it into something real. I always think of prep like planning a voyage. I'm a boat person so it's kind of like when you push off from the dock you want to know that you figured out your how to chart the waters, check the weather, make sure your crew knows the plan. If you skip that part you're waiting on the ocean to tell you what it really thinks of you. So you got to prepare. In corporate events, the budgets, the messaging, the timing and everything comes together with a strong prep. You bring the right people and early and they can help you solve all the challenges. Les Goldberg [2:23] Got it Got it same question to you Hector and Hector obviously do you sign corporate you do a lot of musical touring and I have to imagine I Going on a tour where it's so many weeks. Can you tell me? You know what happens during prep especially for a tour and and how does that provide value? Hector Alfero [2:47] I can't stress enough the importance of a good prep. A good prep can either make you or break you. I always say that. I've seen tours go very south with the bad prep. And I've seen tours that should have not been as great be good because of a good prep. [...] If you prep a show good, not only you're going into the field with everything that you know that's working and that's going to be making the show great, but also it's saving a lot of times in your ins and outs, which is key on touring. It's all about how fast we can get in and how fast we can get out. And if you're doing with the 100 %working equipment, your life is going to be so much easier for the next month, two months, three months depending on the long of the run. [...] So yeah, prep is key. Les Goldberg [3:51] It is okay. Same question to Mark Cludier, Mark, [...] and especially in lighting. There seems to be a billion pieces in lighting whenever it has to be prepped. So tell me what the, you know, what happens during prep, especially on the from the lighting side and also why should a client find value with Marc Cloutier [4:12] Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, lighting is it's invaluable the time that's spent on the front end, right? So like on a large production, we might be dealing with hundreds of lighting fixtures each one, you know with a specific purpose and address and control path and power path all that stuff. We're calculating the loads. We're building data distribution and assigning universes that sort of thing. And we're making sure that the system is working before we ever get out on show site. You know, I think the client's value is that we're finding those problems in a warehouse where we have tools, spare equipment, engineering resources and time, not at two o'clock in the afternoon where doors are at six, right? Prep isn't additional work that we're adding to the show. It's the work the show already requires. We're just choosing to do it in the least expensive and least risky point in the process. Les Goldberg [5:06] You know, if you get on site and you have a crew there and you start dealing with problems because you didn't do prep, then it could be exponentially the cost of not doing the prep. I mean, that could really impact the outcome of the show in a negative way. So prep seems to avoid a lot of problems. My next question is back to Greg. [...] Is prep working with gear or is it working with a lot of things? Maybe you could kind of speak to how you see the world of prep and what are the pieces that are included in that? Greg Brown [5:42] Well, it starts before you even touch a cable. It's the conversations, it's the drawings, it's the what-if scenarios. If where you want to figure out the story the client wants to tell and how we can use the technology to tell that story or support the story. Les Goldberg [5:58] So so when you talk about drawings, is that like a CAD drawing of the signal flow? Or is that a room drawing or is that a rigging drawing or maybe you could elaborate a little Greg Brown [6:09] It's all of the above. The flowcharts for the wiring diagram, it's the room drawing so everybody knows what we're setting up. It's even the storyboard that you come up with a client on what you're trying to portray during the show and convey to the audience. Les Goldberg [6:27] Got it. Hector, when you do prep, what exactly, you know, is it just touching year or do you have anything to do with venue reviewing venues or hangpoints or maybe you can just touch on on the elements of what do you think prep entails? Hector Alfero [6:45] Well, it's also making the equipment custom to the show because we need to remember that a lot of these shows that we put up, equipment came off of another show. So it's kind of like resetting, erasing that show to make our show what it needs to be. If the client has a certain demand, if the camera director has a certain camera position that he wants, it's changing names, addresses to make the show yours because that equipment came from another show that now you need to zero it out and start fresh for your show. So just personalizing everything to your liking, to your show's needs. So that will save a lot of time on getting out to the field with something that, with a bunch of equipment that is already personalized to the show you're working on. Les Goldberg [7:46] Got it Mark. Let me ask this question to you Is is prep just making looms and testing universes or or is there more to prep with? design and and weight calculations and you know and and Schedules and you know, what else do you see the world of prep other than touching gear? Marc Cloutier [8:06] Yeah, it's it's it really happens before you even ever touch a piece of gear I mean the more the most important part of the prep one can be One can refer to that as pre-pro or pre-production right we're reviewing drawings like had files. We're looking at rigging plots We're reviewing power availability [...] We're evaluating trim heights throw distances Control topography like all that stuff is has to get done before we actually figure out what we need to do by touching the gear We're determining like where front house lives. How does that a get to front of house? You know what other? production elements do we need to take into consideration like staging or Pipe and drape things of that nature and how those other departments interact with each other. That's why I think Prep and pre-production have to be connected together as kind of talked in the same [...] In the same sentence right a client wouldn't arrive in the convention center and start deciding Who's speaking and what presentations they're giving or how attendees are getting to or from the airport? Just as we need to be doing all that work in advance like they do We're basically doing the technical equivalent of the exact same thing Les Goldberg [9:20] So, so, Mark is prep sexy. Marc Cloutier [9:22] I mean, in the client side, it's sexy because we come in and we nail it on the load-in. We save them time, we save them money. That's the sexy part about it. It's not sexy in the sense of how we execute it and what they see from the warehouse side of it. It's sexy because the efficiency that we bring to the client and to the show site. Les Goldberg [9:23] Can it be sexy? I don't know. My question is to Greg. Greg, when a show doesn't have prep, what's the risk to the client? You get on site, we start dumping a truck, and it's game on. What happens then? What do you find are the biggest risks that the client faces and just your perspective? Greg Brown [10:02] Well, when there's no prep, you're leaning on the onsite team. They're the last line of defense. You're trying to solve problems in real time with the clock ticking and the client watching. Great teams can pull off miracles, but that's not a strategy. The risk, you have delays, miscues, budget overruns. And the awful moment when the client says, Why didn't anyone catch this earlier? Les Goldberg [10:30] Oh, that is that is a no that's almost like the the [...] They're trying to find someone to hold accountable for whatever the failures that you're describing [...] And and I think you can probably catch a lot of things in prep to avoid Back to Hector Hector. I got a same question is prep sexy? Hector Alfero [10:54] It can be because Les Goldberg [10:55] Okay, all right. Hector Alfero [10:57] if you're saving the if you're saving the client headaches and cost of Flying out equipment ASAP. It's not a good thing Especially if you're in the city the city scenario like a tour is You don't have the luxury of waiting Hours or days for an equipment to come back So that can that can strain that can That can easily make a company lose a whole entire tour just because you weren't prepared [...] I've seen it happen before and it's not a pretty sight so definitely Do your prep make it right? Spend the time on your equipment and spend the time on your rooms spend your time Checking all your cables. You don't want to be doing that on the field Les Goldberg [11:52] So so my question to mark is mark we're dealing with the client and we're dealing with the budget The old-fashioned budget and as Greg just said budget overruns we don't want any overruns right and and You can create overtime if you have equipment problems and rigging problems and and and those are really the enemy to their customer but mark how do you explain to a client that prep's gonna cost X and It's generally a labor cost and maybe some expenses that people are coming into flying into prep and how do you how do you? Explain to them the value of this. What's your strategy when you talk to a client and say mr. Customer? We're gonna have $10,000 with the money spent on prep because we're gonna bring in this team of people and over three days And we're gonna make you we're gonna prep and and do you ever get pushed back on that? Marc Cloutier [12:43] I mean, sure, there are people who just don't understand the process, but I would think of it as paying for the efficiency, right? Like there's a domino effect that can happen if something isn't prepped and therefore fails on site, that could push every department back based on that timeline, right? If a light fails and I fail to focus on time, then I'm not programming on time, then I'm not shipping the cameras on time, then we're not doing rehearsal on time. Like all of that, we're protecting their schedule Les Goldberg [13:16] So it's like a cascade effect, right? Marc Cloutier [13:19] domino effect for sure. And then like, you know, when on top of that, you give me eight hours in a controlled environment where I can eliminate all of those problems, which would then, you know, maybe $50 of fixed time for this one little thing will save $5,000 of domino effect costs later down the line. Les Goldberg [13:38] So so it's hard to kind of get your arms around preppy sexy But maybe I should get some shirts made so when everyone comes into the shops So everyone can really appreciate it. You know, I I gotta tell you the worst thing in the world It's when you get on site and you have equipment that doesn't work or you're missing pieces and parts or something hasn't been tested and Ultimately you you put the show at risk and so my question to you Greg is what percentage of the shows that you work on? Have prep versus the shows that don't have prep do all your shows have prep or some of Greg Brown [14:09] I think it's a level of prep. Most of them have some sort of prep. It's just a matter of how much prep there is and obviously the more prep you have the usually the better the show goes. You got to look at the prep is kind of like a little insurance policy. It's like Mark said it's a little cheaper to pay for the insurance up front than pay for the last-minute stuff on the end. You know it's tenfold is the the overtime you have to pay or the last-minute rentals redesigns and a stress on everybody the whole crew the client everybody gets stressed out when things aren't going right I mean when you go to build a building You don't just start in one day you you prepare before you lay the foundation Les Goldberg [14:57] Have you ever had clients that say, Hey, I don't want to pay for prep? Greg Brown [15:01] Of course, nobody wants to pay for prep. The company like LMG should have it all covered, but you have to set up a good plan for your teams to make sure you execute it. Everything's working properly. [...] They go in with one foot in front of the other, and they're ready to run as soon as they get on site. Les Goldberg [15:26] I think in our industry, a a lot of people are measured on when they get on site and how well it goes from when the door is open to when the door is closed when we put all the equipment back on the truck. And if you have a good plan and you have the gear all prepped, you position yourself for success. And I think a lot of what we're talking about is getting on site and making sure that we've done all the right things before we get there to deliver on to our promise. And I kind of think about what Hector was saying was that if you have a piece of equipment and you're in one city today and then you have to be in another city tomorrow, your critical response time is so tight. And with shipping availability that to perform and execute, you really have very little chance to have failure. And so everything we've talked about is about avoiding failure. And so is there an example you can give me Mark of prep that doesn't include touching gear or testing gear? Marc Cloutier [16:35] Yeah, there's a lot of things that don't involve touching gear, power calculations, network topography, universe allocation, fixture addressing, circuiting, rigging coordination, weight of department timelines. All of that stuff doesn't involve touching a single piece of gear. All of that is looking at paperwork and sorting out who does what and when so it can be executed. And a lot of that needs to get done prior to ever touching a piece of gear. Les Goldberg [17:17] Got it. So Hector as a video director. Do you ever have before you get on site any any time where you talk to? whether it's the show designer or Someone from the production team about the kind of switching elements They're trying to incorporate and a plan for when you get on site. Do you ever have any of those conversations? Hector Alfero [17:39] Absolutely. It's a deal because you as a camera director, you want to go in and cut the show like the client expects it to be. They're the one that has the vision in their head and you just have to translate it into video. So it's very important to know what kind of elements the designers are looking for. That way you go in and give them a product that they are envisioning. And then you can kind of make it your own on the way, but at least you have their idea in your head and you have a path of what you need to follow for them to see the show that they envision. You don't want to just make it yours and they'll be like, Oh, this is not what we wanted. You have to make it translate the video part in what they had in their head so that way they're happy with the product. Les Goldberg [18:39] Hector you help people tell stories. They're whatever their story of their music is and what they're trying to convey, whether it be content you're playing back or image magnification or obviously, is every tour similar where there's a certain shot at a certain time that's planned? Hector Alfero [18:59] In music, no, it's just they're all similar but not the same. You have to take in consideration what the genre is, what kind of music it is, what their audience is. [...] Like right now I'm on a hip hop tour, which is your more aggressive, more fast paced. I wouldn't do the same thing with like a country or with a ballad. So you just have to keep in mind what your music is, what your client is looking to get with your cut, and make it where it's according to the music. Les Goldberg [19:46] Got it. So guys everything we've talked about so far is it's almost like the Boy Scouts motto be prepared That's it. We're going on site. We're gonna be prepared and everybody wants to look good They want to deliver flawless shows They want that they want to execute and they want the least amount of stress and everything you do in prep Allows you to do that avoid stressful situations that could have been done in advance How do you get a client and this I'm throwing this question to Mark Cloutier? How do you get a client to become a believer in We're gonna spend money, but it's worth every penny. Do you have did they learn this over a period of time? The essential element or is it something they have to get burned by not doing it and then go? Oh, well next time. I'm sure we're gonna do a good prep for that one Marc Cloutier [20:34] I mean, you know, lessons learned through experience is always, you know, the bitter pill to swallow. And yes, that can happen. But I think being an advocate for it is just understood, like how to explain to a client what 40 hours of prep labor actually means. You know, I think to a certain extent, you know, explaining like, hey, your lighting system has 300 fixtures in it. They've all been addressed. They've all been configured. They'll be tested. They'll have been labeled. They all been assigned. They all been networked. They've been organized. All of that stuff needs to happen for this process to go through seamlessly. You know, your power's been calculated. You're not going to show up and something's going to blow up because we miss something. You know, that 40 hours is the uncertainty being removed from their show. Right. That's their risk management side of that show. Les Goldberg [21:29] Got it. Greg, have you ever anyone ever pushed back on you saying we have to do prep on a show? Greg Brown [21:34] Of course, like we said before, and like Mark said, obviously the experience, if they've been through it before, they understand. But if they haven't been through it before, you just have to explain to them that's trying to keep you within budget, keep the schedules clean. You'll want to make sure that the team isn't scrambling at the last minute. Everybody feels that. But you've got to be honest, skipping prep can be more expensive. Over time alone, like I said, can blow the budget, like Mark said earlier. It's $50 in the shop, might cost $5,000 later on site. Not having the right gear can derail the show. [...] Yes. Les Goldberg [21:38] What do you do to convince them? So prep is risk mitigation. Marc Cloutier [22:24] The cheapest place will ever solve a production problem is in the shop. Les Goldberg [22:28] Risk mitigation. Okay Greg Brown [22:30] It protects their investment. Les Goldberg [22:32] Ah, for sure. Guys, this is my last question. I'm going to start with Hector and has nothing to do with crap. Hector, what do you love about this business and keeps you wanting to continue to do it? Hector Alfero [22:43] For me it's just creating being in the front of making a show happen. Just getting to a venue where you have a clean slate and hours later you see a full show going and after the show you see that slate but go back to normal. It's just a rush. Seeing people enjoy and be happy for a while and then just enjoying their music, enjoying their artists. Les Goldberg [23:15] So Hector, you deliver happiness. You help in the happiness delivery process. Hector Alfero [23:19] We try every day. Les Goldberg [23:21] Got it. Greg Brown, what is it that makes you the most happy and keeps you doing what you do? Greg Brown [23:27] I love working with the crews. I love being in new places, different challenges every week. Different venues, different cities. It's just exciting to change the change. It's not like sitting in an office. You get to change every week with new crews, new people, new cities. It's fun for me to travel. [...] Nothing the same. Les Goldberg [23:44] No monotony, nothing boring. Got it. All right, Marc Cloutier, tell us the thing that keeps you excited about this business and it's probably not prep, but tell us and share with Marc Cloutier [23:55] Hey, Prep helps get me there. It's the creativity that we get to experience and deliver to the clients and the guests, right? You know, to tie it into Prep, you know, we wouldn't be able to be creative on show site if all we were doing were solving problems, just to get something out the door, right? Everybody in this industry has to have a creative flair. And when we get put into a position to where we can really show that and flourish that creativity and then seeing the smiles on the attendees' faces, I'll echo Hector's point about like bringing happiness. That truly is, through creativity, why I love this industry so much. Les Goldberg [24:41] Guys, I think all of you have made prep sexier today than it was before this podcast. I wanna thank Greg, Hector and Mark, all of you are consummate professionals. I will see you in the ballroom, in the venue, in the convention center, wherever we go out and deliver an amazing show with a qualified prep so that no one gets on site without that risk mitigation. And this is Les Goldberg and the Road Ahead. Everybody, great job. Thank you so much. Hector Alfero [25:14] Thank you. Marc Cloutier [25:14] Thanks, Les. Greg Brown [25:15] Thank you, Alas. Thank you for having us.