The lessons we learn

Four down, most of the season to go...

We're now four home games into the new season, and so far so good. The results on the ice are sort of going our way, the team seemed to have gelled pretty well. Off the ice, we're getting there too.

As Mike's intoned in his recent posts, starting a season on the road is a double edged sword. You get the pressure of not being in your own barn and having to work around other people's schedules, but you get to view the whole thing as a big learning curve ready for when we get into our own rink and rock the place.

I think 'learning curve' is the best way of describing what we're going through at the moment. From Day One we've had the aim of delivering the best match night experience that we can for the fans, and that's what we're striving to do. Whether we're managing it or not is in the eyes (and ears) of the beholders...

My personal role is the Match Night Entertainment Director. Once we're in our own place, I'll be the one calling the shots on the music and video playout, cueing Mike's announcements, and overseeing the entertainment side of a match night experience. I'll have a small staff working under me, and fingers crossed it'll be a pretty tight ship. Until we get into our own rink, we're running on a skeleton crew, good luck, the wind in the right direction and a bucketload of determination, and that's it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bemoaning my lot. I have the privilege of working alongside a crew of incredible people. Mike Landers has been the most patient presenter I could have wished for, and Jon Galione and Steve O'Neill have been outstanding in their professionalism as camera operators and general riggers - the videos you've seen of our home games on Phoenix TV are a result of their ever-improving efforts. Throw in the efforts in the technology department from Steve Foden and Ron Gilmour of Comtec and we're in a much stronger position that I was hoping for at this stage, and that can only be a good thing.

As mentioned above, the whole thing is a learning curve. A couple of weeks back I posted on my other blog about the valuable lessons we'd been learning so far with the match nights, and now that we're a couple more games in, it's time for me to share these lessons with you all! Enjoy!

1. Never rely on having a soundcheck. If you need a soundcheck, do it offline through headphones. The only time you can rely on getting a soundcheck is when you're in your own building. If the ice is being occupied by an ice dancing class who are there right up to doors open, they won't particularly appreciate you blasting some Metallica out, even if you're just 'checking your levels'. I can't think why.

2. Never trust anyone you don't know to do something vital. Unless you can't do it yourself. Nobody wants to see Mike and myself in tutus, so we'll let the ice dancers entertain you in the intervals.

3. Always make sure everyone in your crew knows who is working when. It saves from having an on-a-break camera operator wandering into a still-live area and wondering why he's being yelled at to get out.

4. Always make sure that everyone who needs to be at the production meeting understands that 4.00pm means 4.00pm, it doesn't mean 'turn up when you feel like it, after all we have tons of time and it's not a pressure environment at all and yes I love having the extra stress of you faffing about doing whatever the heck you feel like when I'm trying to coordinate a f**king show.' Or words to that effect.

5. Always make sure that everyone understands that if they speak to me whilst I'm cueing faders, they will die a terrible, terrible death. Terrible death. Mark my words.

6. Keep the Energy Vampires away. I learned this phrase from a gentleman by the name of Larry Blake, who is a sound mixer used regularly by film-makers such as Steven Soderbergh, and it refers to people who are hanging around a production area who aren't anything to do with the production. People like to come along and see what's going on, they like to be around production people who are working, and it's off-putting as hell. They draw your attention away from the task at hand, and they drain the energy away from a production, hence Energy Vampires. Always make sure you've got someone who's sole job is to keep them away. Use garlic and stakes if necessary.

7. If you're using more than one camera position, always set them up next to each other, white balance and iris check them together, fit them with batteries and then move them (still switched on) to their filming positions. Then, when you come to edit the footage together, you'll stand a chance of having images that can go together, rather than looking like someone attacked one of the cameras with a pastel crayon.

8. Always take something to drink and something to snack on with you. You're 'live' for four hours, so you've got no chance to take a break. But don't overdo the liquids if you're not going to have the opportunity to take a whizz. Peeing under a mixing desk is generally frowned upon.

9. Find some method that you can use to momentarily de-stress you. For me, employing someone that I can smack with a hammer is ideal, but since they made it illegal I now just take deep breaths and do a lot of swearing.

10. Listen to the advice of people who wish to give it (when it's appropriate time to listen) but don't always take that advice. Judge for yourself whether or not you should take it - what works for some won't work for others, and there's no sense in changing something that's working in order to test someone else's ideas. There are some very experienced professionals out there, but there are also lots of well-meaning amateurs. Beware.

11. Find time for a debrief after the event, even if it's over a cuppa at a motorway service station afterwards. Everyone needs to unwind and realise that you're a human being, and not the snarling bastard that they've just been encountering for most of the day.

12. Remember who's in charge. If it's someone else, you're working for them. If it's you, then everyone else does as you say. That's the rule. You can even order them to dance for you. Embrace the power.

Those are the lessons that I and my crew have been learning over the past few weeks. Mark my words, there will be more lessons, and once we've finally nailed it, finally got it right, finally reached the point where it's all spot-on and in-the-bag, it'll be time for the Play-Off Finals....