I keep getting questions about, "What exactly is it that you do in this Montreat place?" which I shall now attempt to answer. My official job title is "Production Director", which is colloquially known as "AV Co-Director" (there are two of us, so we don't have to work 6:45am-11pm.) Essentially, my job is to ensure that all of the technical elements (sound, lights, projections) happen. This means that I work with planning teams and leadership to ensure that information gets to the crew, I train and give notes to the crew, I make sure mic checks happen, I troubleshoot when issues arise. During events, I am not in the sound booth, but rather sitting at the back of the auditorium, giving adjustments on level and EQ because it's easier to hear from the back of the auditorium than from the booth.
My job also means that I will do whatever it takes to make sure people are heard.
Picture this, for example:
It's closing worship for the Worship and Music conference. The theme is Christ the King day, where they attempt to go through the entire liturgical year in one service, which of course means using almost every microphone we have. All our wireless mics are used up, and several are shuffled between people for so that more people can use them. I have spent most of the hymns ferrying microphones back and forth.
We come to the affirmation of faith, which is being presented through the story of Pentecost by the drama group. They are using four wireless body mics (the kind that clip onto your shirt or go above your ear), and two wireless handheld mics set up on stands in the aisles. At first, there are two people on stage with their body mics, and everyone else uses the handhelds. Then, there is the sound of a mighty wind and everyone gathers on stage, wondering what's going on, and then they are all filled with the Holy Spirit and various people speak on their body mics. Oh, and one of the music leaders grabs one of the wireless handhelds so that he can lead a song that transitions out of the skit.
It was already a decently tricky dance to play with faders and muting and unmuting, so I had taken notes as to help with the calling of it, but then... one of the body mics of the people onstage at the beginning stopped working.
It had worked during sound check.
It had worked earlier during the service.
It had just... stopped.
Panic. Widespread panic on headset. Luckily, the people onstage are actually theater professionals, so when they realize the mic isn't working, the woman with the mic starts projecting extremely well, and when she whispers asides to the other man, he leans over so that his microphone could pick up her voice. But I know I hadveto do something, especially for the second half which had so much other sound going on underneath the amplified sound. There would be no way for her to be heard over all that.
I come down to the front and knelt by the first pew, wondering what I could do. All of the wireless mics are in use. We have no backups. If I hand her one of the handhelds that wasn't in use, it would be on the same channel as one of the other mics being used in this skit which would cause static.
But, if I somehow can get her the handheld that's not being used after the first half of the skit...
As the sound of the wind happens and the large group of performers start to move onstage like the confused Pentecost crowd, listening to the wind, wondering what it is, I move to the handheld and take it off its stand. I look at the actor... she's too far upstage for me to be able to hand it to her from the floor. I see no other choice... I walk with the crowd onto the stage, acting confused and curious about this wind sound along with them. We all form a clump, leaning over like we're listening to the ground. I scoot my way forward in the clump and touch the microphone to the back of the actor's hand. She takes it. I am now very prominently on stage, needing to get off it pretty soon so I can tell people when to turn up mic 18.
Meanwhile, in the booth, the crew member running sound sees me going onstage. His jaw drops and he says to the projections operator, "Jake! Jake! Look at the stage! Colleen's onstage! Pure awesomeness is happening!"
Bless the other people in this skit's hearts, they immediately accept me as another member of their group. I follow their leads... as a group we all slowly look up and reach our hands up to the sky in quiet amazement, including me. Then one of the main actors steps forward and starts preaching and the clump widens out into a semicircle. As the clump widens, I move to the back of the clump, and then off stage via the back of the stage. I then leave the auditorium and RUN AS FAST AS MY LEGS CAN CARRY ME to the back where I pop back on headset, panting, just in time to tell the crew to turn up mic 18. I am greeted on headset with cries of, "THAT WAS AWESOME" and "I'm buying you lunch!" The rest of the skit goes well. I leave again to grab the other handheld from the music leader at the end so that I can get it to the cantor who sings at the back at the very end of the service (the plan was that I'd grab the handheld from the stand that was left, but that was the handheld that I had handed off to the actor).
Everyone was greatly amused by this rather intense passing of a mic, including the actors, who, being theater professionals, know that sometimes things just happen and were incredibly impressed by me joining into their skit to get the microphone to them.
This is by far the most ridiculous thing I have done as a co-director, but it gives you an accurate depiction of what my job is. Sometimes, my job requires me to be a ninja. A ninja with a BFA in drama.
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