Never Say They Never Ask....

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jokerswild

jokerswild

Chief Bottle Washer
Feb 11, 2007
18,776
1,288
Elkhart, IN
www.totalimpactdjs.com
...for uplighting.

I just had an inquiry for Reception and Uplighting.... even though I do have it as an option to select he still asked and because I was quick to respond with both the DJ quote and Uplighting quote he plans to confirm tomorrow.

I will be buying 10 LEDRains from Keith and was able to roll that cost right into the quote and still come in under the clients stated budget.... after this one gig I will own the lights and any new bookings will be pure profit and I will be able to easily add more lights as needed.... I will have a total of 14 LEDRains....

All it took was one to ask and now I'll be able to aggressively offer them rather than passively through pictures only.

Obviously if he ends up passing... which I doubt very much based on our two phone conversations he was very impressed at how quick I was able to reply and supply a quote.
 
Rob, just asking here, how much time will that add to your setup?

Now, my reason for the question is that some venues only allow an hour to 90 minutes for a DJ to set up and then only an hour to break down and get out. This means that you are either going to have to be fast or hire on more bodies to get the job done.
 
SemiRetired DJ said:
Rob, just asking here, how much time will that add to your setup?

Now, my reason for the question is that some venues only allow an hour to 90 minutes for a DJ to set up and then only an hour to break down and get out. This means that you are either going to have to be fast or hire on more bodies to get the job done.
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Now see I've never run into a venue that limited access like that so it's never been a concern of mine. As it is I will have full access to the venue the night before so the plan is to setup then.

Since this is the first time I will have setup I'm not sure how long.... but, I don't figure it to take much time... all I will do is place them and set their color via dmx and hide cables for 10-14 units.
 
There are plenty of venues in Maryland that do more than one event in a day and they usually have about two hours in between to turn the room over. This is why I never really got into the lighting here but, if you have a large enough crew, it can be done.

There was a time I did do lights; four pocket scans on a 10 foot truss. The pocket scans were tied into a lighting controller. At that time I had a partner that took care of the lights while I took care of the audio. For that setup the two of us could be up and running in about an hour and down and away in less.
 
As far as I know there aren't any wedding mills around here. I've always been able to arrive and setup hours before an event if I choose to. I am however, working on my setup times and ways to reduce them. I do have a roadie that helps me setup and tear down but, mostly I do all the setup as my roadie is mostly just the muscle at this point but, he's learning.
 
There you go. Train the roadie how to set up the lights and have him/her do that while you do the audio. Divide and conquer. Now, you should also pay the roadie a little more if you go that route.

The event mills abound here and, to be honest, I really can't blame them. They can maximize the use of their space and bring in more bucks. On the weekend most have the first event at 10 AM. That means that they can do two four hour events with a space of two hours between; if they cut that space down to one hour (which many do) that lets them do three events.

Hmmm, I see a new thread coming...
 
We've got a wedding factory that we'll be at in 2 weeks and we're happy that the client wants it minimal on the lighting end. But Ducky and I talked about the what if we get someone at this place that wants heavy lighting. Our answer, talk to the venue coordinator ahead of time and politely explain that the client has hired us to do this and this takes "x" amount of time to properly setup, so we'll need to be in the room "x" amount of hours before the event starts.
 
Congratulations! Joker. I'm sitting here with a dozen 904 flat par pros that have been sparsley used. I'm just now learning how to use Freestyler. So, you are saying that because you had photos of "wall uplighting" on your website a potential client inquired about their cost?
Interesting. I don't have any such photos on my site. Perhaps I should "borrow" with permission, a few shots for my site.

I'm a single op and don't have a "roadie" to assist in loading/unloading except in rare instances and then my wife does what she can to help. I'm lucky 'cause I can't remember the last time there was a time constraint on getting in and out. No that's not true. A couple years ago I do recall that there was only 1 hr for load-in due to the facility squeezing this particular wedding in. I had lights and equipment to setup...and the Ceremony was at a site "outdoors" about 8 miles away. I was fortunate in knowing the room captains so they allowed me in while they were changing over the room, so I got an additional 45 minutes. I like the idea of setting up the night before when room lighting is involved.

Good job of selling the lights!
 
TwinSpinDJ said:
Congratulations! Joker. I'm sitting here with a dozen 904 flat par pros that have been sparsley used. I'm just now learning how to use Freestyler. So, you are saying that because you had photos of "wall uplighting" on your website a potential client inquired about their cost?
Interesting. I don't have any such photos on my site. Perhaps I should "borrow" with permission, a few shots for my site.

Good job of selling the lights!
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Yes, and as we spoke on the phone he referenced several other things that I have on the same page, including Monograms... which he also had inquired about. The pic I have on that page is from my most recent wedding, Keith was the one who did the uplighting for that one. It was the resulting picture that I believe partially prompted the question but, I also think it was something he was looking for to begin with. I asked him for a sample of the colors he was looking for and he was quick to send that along with examples of uplighting.
 
Regarding the extra time, I sometimes do lighting by myself but more often will have an assistant. Either my 13 yr old son or a hired asst. The asst also ends up helping me with sound set and I'm paying them with a portion of what I charged on the uplighting. Net result, I'm making much more money.

One suggestion on the pics, be sure to take a bunch of shots of that room while it's bare, then taken more, from the same angles, with the uplighting. Obvious, yes, but it's pretty easy to overlook it when you actually show up for your first one. Have you given thought to whether you're going to wire the cans together or do stand-alone? BTW, congrats on the new add-on. I think you'll find it's pretty easy to double your money in the same amount of time/energy.
 
rickryan.com said:
Regarding the extra time, I sometimes do lighting by myself but more often will have an assistant. Either my 13 yr old son or a hired asst. The asst also ends up helping me with sound set and I'm paying them with a portion of what I charged on the uplighting. Net result, I'm making much more money.

One suggestion on the pics, be sure to take a bunch of shots of that room while it's bare, then taken more, from the same angles, with the uplighting. Obvious, yes, but it's pretty easy to overlook it when you actually show up for your first one. Have you given thought to whether you're going to wire the cans together or do stand-alone? BTW, congrats on the new add-on. I think you'll find it's pretty easy to double your money in the same amount of time/energy.
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My plan is stand-alone static color.... I'll use Freestyler to set the color via dmx but, I'm not leaving them connected via DMX so as long as they don't get unplugged overnight the color set will remain after I disconnect the dmx cable.
 
Joker...one of the features of the 904 Flat Par Pros (got them from Ben, NFLX) is that you can set the color, turn off, and when you turn it on again...the color is still set. I use it as a stand alone with Master/Slave options. They also can be power linked, too.

Anyhow, glad you were successful in getting the gig.
 
TwinSpinDJ said:
Joker...one of the features of the 904 Flat Par Pros (got them from Ben, NFLX) is that you can set the color, turn off, and when you turn it on again...the color is still set. I use it as a stand alone with Master/Slave options. They also can be power linked, too.

Anyhow, glad you were successful in getting the gig.
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I haven't actually confirmed the gig yet... but, he's been online again this morning so it looks very promising.

I can set colors via the dipswitches but, some colors are impossible via just the dips... each color has three levels....

I haven't seen the Flat Pros, how are color's set?
 
jokerswild said:
...for uplighting.

I just had an inquiry for Reception and Uplighting.... even though I do have it as an option to select he still asked and because I was quick to respond with both the DJ quote and Uplighting quote he plans to confirm tomorrow.

I will be buying 10 LEDRains from Keith and was able to roll that cost right into the quote and still come in under the clients stated budget.... after this one gig I will own the lights and any new bookings will be pure profit and I will be able to easily add more lights as needed.... I will have a total of 14 LEDRains.....
Click to expand...

Love my Rains!
 
Joker, the settings are done by LED buttons. Check out Eternal Lighting on the net. There is a thread on here too that references a YouTube video on setup. I'll see if I can find the link.
Anyhow, you set the color chart number for red, green, blue and then you have the color. When you turn it off, the color will still be there. Then link them together the one with the color you wanted as Master, the others set to slave.
 
Randy A said:
I'm the exact opposite....their construction is junk; too flimsy, rivets aren't tight, casing dents easily. I have 4 that I baby and leave on a t-bar now; which they do well because of the daisy-power, but I won't ever purchase anymore.
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Really? I think the others were junk. I tried most others in the same range before I settled on these. I'm running the Rain 64's. No problems whatsoever. The quality of the Rain's was above and beyond the others.
 
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