Wrangling the Cyc

This is a sequence that, uh, somebody shot while a bunch of us were taking down the cyc. Fine, let's codify it as useful documentation.

What isn't shown is the process of five people lowering the five extensible uprights straight down, about a foot at a time on David's call and staying even with each other. Going up or coming down, the people on the poles can't see how high any part of the horizontal "truss" piece is getting and must rely on instruction from someone out front who can see. The one-way clutches for the uprights are about eight feet off the ground, so the pole people were standing on the stage [and two outboard ladders] with the cyc coming down across their backs.


The people in front of the cyc [with clean hands] were meanwhile catching it, and carefully fan-folding it onto a row of chairs and a couple of cases off to the sides serving as stage extensions.

Now, *I* was back there on pole number 2, implying that someone else had grabbed my camera on its tripod and started blazing away.


At this point in the middle of the stream, someone fixed the white balance in the camera. They in fact did so the *right* way -- it was set on custom WB 1, which was all screwed up from some previous activity, and this and all the subsequent pictures were also shot on WB 1. Which means the shooter held something white in front of the camera and re-captured the new balance for the room, rather than just selecting "tungsten" or something. Which means the shooter has a clue about photography.

The catchers continued catching and folding, until the poles were down at base level.


The obligatory tech butt-shot. The excuse? "Just testing zoom range." Now we also know the shooter is not only male, but is ready with a snappy answer to just about anything.

At this point all the pole people carefully lifted their uprights off the base pins together ...

... and then leaned the entire rig forward over the stage, bringing it within easy reach of the people in front.

This allowed untying the cyc from the truss without having to reach, especially since we'd tied it onto the top rail for a taller hang and cleaner look. This procedure had also made the *up* much easier and gave a better outward pull along the top, since people didn't have to teeter and strain on top of chairs just to reach the thing and could actually think about how they were tying.

Some of the pole-holders from the raising may have expressed a different opinion, but really, it was no great hardship to just freeze there and hold a position. Some people needed instruction on the right way to tie the cyc on, so it took a little longer.


With the cyc finally freed from the truss, the fan-folding process was completed and then multiple ends-in flops toward the center brought it down to the size to fit in the flip-top crate.

The truss piece was then unhooked from the clips ...

and brought to the stage for disassembly.
The major caveat about this procedure is that the pole people MUST keep at least some gentle upward pressure on their uprights, to try and keep the little angle clips hooked into the truss. They don't lock on, it's just by gravity. A moment's inattention and the truss floats off, leaving one's pole waving uselessly in the breeze and the truss bending dangerously in some crazy way until attachment is reestablished.

Use your "back" control to return.