WANTED: Tips on planning for Christmas 2012

[milateket]

Hi.... First of all, thanks for all the great info here. I had my first display this past Christmas and it turned out pretty well. I sequenced a few songs my self -- proud of that as i really only got going mid november or so -- and had many of you offer sequences to me.

My question/request is this: What are the planning essentials for you. With many of you having years of experience what are the most important elements for your show? What are you thinking about when planning?

Thanks

[jimswinder]

milateket wrote:

My question/request is this: What are the planning essentials for you.

**I would imagine if you asked 10 different people, you will get 10 different answers...so I would think this one is probably what helps you plan the best. My suggestion would be (and not that I followed it last year!! LOL) but make a plan and try your best to stick with...change will be one of your biggest opposition**

With many of you having years of experience what are the most important elements for your show?

**For me, those elements that will best represent the strong beats in the song..and for me it is my Arches and Mini trees...but again, it is a personal preference and depends on how your display is laid out.**

What are you thinking about when planning?

**How I can get even MORE Lights into my display...it's an ego thing..what can I say?

Unfortunately..with adding CCR's and hopefully CCB's, my light count keeps going DOWN!! **

Thanks

[hdracer]

jimswinder wrote:

milateket wrote:

Unfortunately..with adding CCR's and hopefully CCB's, my light count keeps going DOWN!! **

Thanks

Thats not all that keeps going down... Whether its the tree(blue lights or pills) Or muchless the tree itself!

Amazing how gravity works....

[Guest Don Gillespie]

jimswinder wrote:

milateket wrote:

My question/request is this: What are the planning essentials for you.

**I would imagine if you asked 10 different people, you will get 10 different answers...so I would think this one is probably what helps you plan the best. My suggestion would be (and not that I followed it last year!! LOL) but make a plan and try your best to stick with...change will be one of your biggest opposition** totally agree with this, plan your layout now and sequence to that do not start changing your display around come Nov you will regret it.

With many of you having years of experience what are the most important elements for your show?

**For me, those elements that will best represent the strong beats in the song..and for me it is my Arches and Mini trees...but again, it is a personal preference and depends on how your display is laid out.** again agree, and refer to question #1 and answer #1 lay out your display and stick with it, find your WOW factor and use it in your display.

What are you thinking about when planning? I am constantly thinking of Jim's display and always asking myself what is going to fall down this year :P

Thanks

[bretk]

hdracer wrote:

jimswinder wrote:

milateket wrote:

Unfortunately..with adding CCR's and hopefully CCB's, my light count keeps going DOWN!! **

Thanks

Thats not all that keeps going down... Whether its the tree(blue lights or pills) Or muchless the tree itself!

Amazing how gravity works....

Do you know how much hot coffee hurts when it spews out of your nose !?!

[Redbirdruss]

My #1 Planning essential...
Find more money

[scubado]

How






Much








Does










It












Hurt?!

[hdracer]

See look gravity affects everything..
Coffee draining down nostrils & scuba's typing... Looks like Newtons law is correct!

[scubado]

hdracer wrote:

See look gravity affects everything..
Coffee draining down nostrils & scuba's typing... Looks like Newtons law is correct!

My vote for post of the week!

[gizmomkr]

I agree with all prior :

Pan NOW.

Dont add anything after june / july that wasnt in your original plan - your sequencing should be DONE in august, not starting over to add new elements.

I try to always have extra of everything. If I measure and need 500 ft of SPT, I buy 700, need 50 connectors, buy 80. Even down to extra channels on my controllers. Lines can short, chips can blow. Its nice to load a controller with everything you can, but I have been much better off having open channels when I needed them.

Labels are GREAT. Keep things orginized. (and this is coming from a REALLY un orginized ADD driven mind) this year was our second year in the same house. The show went up if half the time because everything was marked, and packed nicely.

Dont forget about your wife and kids - you will need them to hand you things on the ladder, bring you coco, and call for help when you fall on your A$$.

Dont forget about the end goal - I dont know what yours may be exactly, but for MOST of us its "Make someone Smile" Dont ever get so wrapped up in your light show that you forget. Its not going to make you a millionare, The world wont end if the timing is off by .01 seconds, or a bulb burnt out.

At least that my.02

[George Simmons]

I agree with the idea of not adding things after August. Unfortunately I've rarely been able to adhere to it myself. So if you DO add something late, don't add more of something that's already there - like mini trees - but rather add something new that's not going to affect sequencing you've already done.

I also agree with the labeling concept. I'm another of the ADDers around here, and I finally got my entire inventory of everything Christmas light related sorted and labeled last summer. It is one of the greatest feelings... makes me wish I had done it sooner. Like 20 years ago...

And just to be safe in case Gizmomkkr is wrong about what will or won't cause the world to end, I'm planning on not playing ANY songs on Dec 12th that have the timings off by .01 seconds or more.

[Denis Chaput]

I agree with everyone above, being organized and planning ahead is number one . I am starting now to wrap lights for new poles and arches plus building new props. Also finding ways to have things go up and take down very simple is my number one priorty.

Making sure I have enough cords,checking my controllers out in september rather than last minute . I slowly start getting ready to put up at the end of september so I can go hunting and know what I need to do after hunting season.

Planning and scheduling your layout !!!

[Jim Hans]

While eveything above is 100% correct I would add that cleaning, testing and repairing your 2011 lights and displays BEFORE starting on 2012 items is critical. It is easy to get wrapped up, and behind, on your new 2012 items only to discover at set up time that you haven't fixed 2011 problems yet.

[Avind]

As someone who is jumping in for the first time, I have already discovered that the Visualizer provides a great perspective. I had some idea's that I thought were fantastic only to find that reaching that goal would take too many channels, it didn't look good or it didn't create the visual affect I wanted.

[jimswinder]

Avind wrote:

I had some idea's that I thought were fantastic only to find that reaching that goal would take too many channels, it didn't look good or it didn't create the visual affect I wanted.

don't go by just the Visualizer!!

I am sure a lot of us had things that looked just so-so in the visualizer, but in reality they look a lot better...

[caniac]

jimswinder wrote:

Avind wrote:

I had some idea's that I thought were fantastic only to find that reaching that goal would take too many channels, it didn't look good or it didn't create the visual affect I wanted.

don't go by just the Visualizer!!

I am sure a lot of us had things that looked just so-so in the visualizer, but in reality they look a lot better...

same here, my show in the visualizer didn't look all that impressive but once up and when I fired it off for the first time at night it was like WOW.

[Avind]

I am not saying to just go by how visualizer looks, I am saying that some things I wanted to do proved to be much more difficult when setting them up in visualizer leading me to abandon my original design and go with something more simple yet as effective. If you have a design and go to set it up in visualizer, you may find that it requires more resources than you intended. This is the benefit of which I spoke.

[james campbell]

above all else just have fun

[milateket]

Thanks Folks! Great advice.

Lets see how the panic is in November as I am starting this weekend to plan things out. Last year was a rush job... so much so, that i was sequencing every night my lights were up and running in December... So if i look at my situation comparatively i am in much better shape starting to sequence and plan in August of this year than I was doing the same thing for the first time in November of last year...

[Max-Paul]

Resequence!!!! Shoot the op is new, got nada at this time. OP best throw themselves into this every evening and weekends. It takes most newbies 10 - 12 hours per minute to sequence a song. Thats unless they got money bags and can afford to buy someone elses sequences. And then you might still need to modify it to look right in your yard. No, one will want to start in Jan. to start to seq. and plan out element adds or changes.