In the control room, no one can hear you scream! Or, the out of control room.

I've heard of directors walking out of productions and I had thought, for the most part, that it was a result of an ego out of control! So imagine how surreal it felt that I was doing the exact same thing!

Last night at the studio, I was directing a performance from a string quartet from St. Petersburg. The producer and I had gone over what the show was going to look like and after about 5 different sound checks we were ready to go at quarter to 10pm (already running an hour behind schedule). We laid down the bars and tone, we got through the opening credits and the first movement, I told my floor director to count the musicians down into the second movement when all of a sudden aforementioned producer started hollering “Why is he talking? Why is he talking? He’s ruined it! I wanted it to be like a live concert!” All this as the performance is still going on and I’m trying to set up shots with three cameras and directing my td! I’m trying to keep it together and half understand what the producer is going on about.

At one point I asked my td to take over and asked what the problem was. Turned out the producer and one of the facilitators had decided to change the format of the show right before we began, and they changed the graphics DURING the performance and never bothered to tell the floor director or me. Brilliant! As a result my concentration was shot and I was, let’s just say a little more than a little bit, angry. I kept going through the end of the fourth movement and when that was done. I grabbed my coat and purse and walked out of the control room. About 5 people followed me, one of them, the producer who kept insisting he had told me of the changes and I insisting that he had not. In retrospect it was useless going back and forth with the “I did!” and “No, you didn’t!” Yet, it took place and there you go. The facilitator did interrupt and apologized on the spot owning up to changing things and not telling me, which was fine but I was still angry. The kicker was having the producer ask me to stay and do the fourth movement over, to which I responded, “The fourth movement was the best take!” Apparently not for the quartet, which I understand, but honestly, I was too rattled to even attempt a decent direction.

I drove home, ranted, took a hot shower and went to bed. This morning I received a long letter of apology from the producer, fair enough. The end result was that they had the facilitators direct the entire show over…hopefully the producer will end up with some material he can use.
I am so glad I don’t do this for a living…I’d look like Eddie Van Halen!