Developing A Game Show for our Stage. Will it sell tickets?

[Mike Blakesley]

I serviced a chain of theaters in Wyoming that put big sports stuff on one of their screens

Our booker told me that NFL and NBA have a team of folks that watches for this kind of stuff and stomps on it pretty fast. Regardless, we're still going to have our annual big screen party for "the big event" next month, which you have to be one of our family or friends to get invited to.

[Terry Monohan]

Time to bring back the stage SPIN-O-WIN big wheel. No more dishes these days but give out local gifts from the neighborhood sponsor merchants . Everyone get's a ticket with numbers for the the big spin winning numbers each night, The Balboa Theatre in SF and the Cinelux Los Gatos CA Theatres have these old stage wheels in the lobby. Dust them off and let the host take over the stage. Something they can't get streaming at home. Just like in the depression movie theatre days.

[Martin Brooks]

How about having a comedy night? Hire a comedian... Open mic night... All that. '

You could turn an auditorium into a comedy club, but what I'd do is hire a comedian or two to do a set BEFORE a comedy movie.
And...if we go through another time where it's hard to get movies, get a really bad movie or older film and get three comedians to do a Mystery Science Theater thing to it.

Some years ago, at an outdoor presentation in Prospect Park Brooklyn, a group of comedians live overdubbed new dialog to The Creature from the Black Lagoon and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. IIRC, they managed to get the sound effects and music track so those were still there. (Or maybe they created a new score and efx track - I can't remember).

I sincerely believe that these kinds of events will put butts in seats because it's not something that can be replicated at home.

[Randy Stankey]

...what I'd do is hire a comedian or two to do a set BEFORE a comedy movie."

I like! Yes, definitely better than the usual, canned experience people seem to be getting used to.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Funny this came up.. way back in the early 80's I hand built the "Buzzer" circuit from a magazine article for our Social Studies (I guess it's more like History in today's vernacular) class. We did a game show of Jeopardy! in class as a study aid before each test. The class was divided in thirds, and everyone had a turn on the buzzer. The winning section's players got 5 bonus points on the test, second got 2 points and third got 1 point.

I hand drew the PC board traces and etched my own boards, used LEDs for the lights (back then each LED was around $2, compared to the $0.02 now) AND added remote LED's in each button. As far as I know, the teacher still has it.

The idea of hosting game shows in your theatre is a good one, but as others have noted, please check your local laws/ordinances in regards to gaming so you don't get into (very expensive) trouble.

[Randy Stankey]

Pretty much the same as Tony:

I have made a few different versions of game show buzzers, back in my high school days.

First, it was made out of sets of latching DPDT relays. The first relay to be energized would latch closed and steal power from the other(s). The reset was done by momentarily interrupting the power. Later, we used 2N2222 transistors and, finally, with flip-flops.

One of our teachers used to like to do quizzes in game show format. Everybody got a chance to answer questions. Those who got right answers moved to the head of the class. I mounted the whole circuit in an old cigar box. It had a battery, the relays, the reset button and lights (later LEDs) mounted in the box. I got a couple of remote starter buttons from the auto parts store for the contestant's buzzers. The cigar box sat on the teacher's desk. The cords on the buzzer buttons were long enough to reach from the teacher's desk to the front row of seats where they could be passed around.

I left the thing behind when I graduated from school and, as far as I know, the teacher used it for a few years, afterward.

Point being... It's easy enough to fashion a quiz show buzzer out of spare parts and it should only cost the proverbial, "$20.00 at Radio Shack."

[Ryan Gallagher]

The fun integration would be a phone app buzzer, they enter their seat number, and you have a PTZ camera mounted somewhere with pre-programmed "tight shots" for each seat number. Everyone loves being on a big screen... would hardly matter what game you play. Would work equally well for trivia games.

Add one of those trowable microphone plushies and people are having fun just with the game mechanics alone.

[Bill Seipel]

This is coming along!

Still have the actual game play to sort out but following is done

1. Lighting
2. Podium
3. PA system
4. Game buzzers
5. On stage LED scoreboards
6. Custom program which increases scores AND plays audio through PA

[Randy Stankey]

Can you put a little bit of backlight on the stage? All you need are a few PAR lights (floods) above and slightly behind the tables.

The extra light will help get rid of that "carboard cutout" effect you often get when all the light comes from the front. It doesn't have to be super bright. It can be a stop or two less than the front lights... just enough to add a little back fill.

If you can put some R02 (bastard amber) gels in the front lights, it would make the flesh tones look more natural, too.

[Bill Seipel]

Can you put a little bit of backlight on the stage? All you need are a few PAR lights (floods) above and slightly behind the tables.

The extra light will help get rid of that "carboard cutout" effect you often get when all the light comes from the front. It doesn't have to be super bright. It can be a stop or two less than the front lights... just enough to add a little back fill.

If you can put some R02 (bastard amber) gels in the front lights, it would make the flesh tones look more natural, too.

There are some super old Par 38's up there as well as a giant, ancient light which only turns on via light switch & wall dimmer. I can try thos Par 38s.

I've spent enough on this set this year.

Attached a photo of how I'd prefer the lights. Although its a little brighter than usual.

The other photos are from when my daughter was setting the light scenes.

[Randy Stankey]

Your lighting looks better.

Much more even. Without people on the stage, it's harder to tell if you're getting the cutout effect but it doesn't look as pronounced. Yeah, it's a little bright but that's better than too dim. You can always back the fader down by a notch or two but you can't get more light than you already have.

Is there a college or community theater in your area? Could you get in touch with one of these places and ask if they have any scraps of gel you could borrow?
Most places like that use Rosco gel. You'd want R02 or R03. (R03 is a shade darker than R02.)

It's summertime. Many college or community theaters are dark during the summer. At Mercyhurst College, we used to do maintenance during the summer... cleaning, repairing and organizing equipment and supplies. We'd often throw out boxes full of old, wrinkled up gel. We'd buy all new stuff for the upcoming fall season.

If one of those places let you beg or borrow some gel, tell them you'll put up a poster for some of their future shows in your lobby. I say that'd be a fair trade. Right?

[Ryan Gallagher]

This activity looks really fun and promising.

If budget were no object, the only thing I'd change would be to ditch that one overhead floody unit.... it really feels more like a worklight and not a show light.

What the others suggested about backlight, or something to color that curtain would be swell. There are very cheap LED bar units that could make a curtain ground row and give you more opportunity to play with color/effects. The ultra budget version would just be to throw a saturated color in that one overhead floody unit, you have plenty of front light. But that might kill your one good work light.

Once the curtain is esthetically lit I might consider tightening up those top shutter cuts on the front light. The one at center for the lectern seems about right, the others feel higher than necessary for the action on stage (unless they have to serve a dual function when the curtain is open).

I would also be thinking about ways to make it workable with the screen visible, you can do a lot of stuff on a screen with a projector for a gameshow a laptop input and not much cost, just extra effort!

Before my current role I was the head electrician for the Ballet and Opera in town. ;-)

[Bill Seipel]

This activity looks really fun and promising.

If budget were no object, the only thing I'd change would be to ditch that one overhead floody unit.... it really feels more like a worklight and not a show light.

What the others suggested about backlight, or something to color that curtain would be swell. There are very cheap LED bar units that could make a curtain ground row and give you more opportunity to play with color/effects. The ultra budget version would just be to throw a saturated color in that one overhead floody unit, you have plenty of front light. But that might kill your one good work light.

Once the curtain is esthetically lit I might consider tightening up those top shutter cuts on the front light. The one at center for the lectern seems about right, the others feel higher than necessary for the action on stage (unless they have to serve a dual function when the curtain is open).

I would also be thinking about ways to make it workable with the screen visible, you can do a lot of stuff on a screen with a projector for a gameshow a laptop input and not much cost, just extra effort!

Before my current role I was the head electrician for the Ballet and Opera in town. ;-)

Its an OLD, ancient work light, yes.

I have two Blizzard LED bars in front of the banquet tables now, they're just difficult to see in the photos. Two more wouldn't be too expensive. However, the walking room on stage is becoming an issue with all the stuff up there. There's only 6 feet between the edge of the curtain and the lip of the stage. Add banquet tables and chairs and it makes for a 'tight' walkway. But I hear you on the lights.

I would love to make it workable with the projector and screen. But the projectionist is... "protective" of anyone making changes to the projector. And it would take more staff to run it. Possibly.

I have one person running the audio & scoreboards and another person running lighting.

--- Scoreboard --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 'scoreboard control' is something I programmed myself. My dayjob is a Microsoft developer.

I started off using a program called Bitfocus Companion. But that got 'messy' very quickly. But it did give ideas.

I use a program Multiplay to control the audio cues. Its configured to recieve OSC commands.

Next, the .NET application is coded to do two things: send an OSC message to Multiplay to play a sound AND send an HTTP POST to update the scoreboard.

---- Lighting -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are two Blizzard lighting Spektors and two Stormchaser LED light bars
InfiniPix™ Spektro 5 ft LED Block Pixel FX Tower | Blizzard Pro Lighting
StormChaser™ Supercell 1-meter RGB LED Pixel FX + Wash | Blizzard Lighting (blizzardpro.com)

They are wired together and each pair are on on the same DMX address.

The first 'input' DMX is a Blizzard 'SocIt' wireless DMX connection point.
SoC-It™ Wireless DMX Controller with At Full App | Blizzard Lighting (blizzardpro.com)

[Ryan Gallagher]

Yeah keeping stuff off the floor can be an issue when the space is that tight.

Those StormChaser units look fun, but, at least with the diffusion in, are more for direct viewing accents as you are using them, probably wrong beam shape to really throw up the curtain and compete with the front lights.

In the ultra budget category might be some of these chinesium ones:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SL98WV1

Or a little more for a pro-sumer brand (lots of options):
https://www.chauvetdj.com/products/family/color-band/

As far as projection, can't help you there if the policy is to employ the extra person (as it should be), but really you wouldn't be changing anything... assuming they have a reasonable ALT 1080p 178 preset, if they ever show blu-rays chances are the projector is already set up for what you would need. Getting signal from the operator's location to the booth is the crux where some additional purchases might be required.

In software (such as OBS, QLab, or Resolume etc) you could resize the image as needed, or apply a creative mask, to avoid shooting on the people and do what you need to with the gameshow graphics above head height.

For the scoreboard software, good job utilizing your other skillsets! I probably would have tried Companion plus a streamdeck first too, if that didn't meet my needs I might have moved to TouchOSC on a tablet before resorting to hand coding something, but that part came easier for you.
https://hexler.net/touchosc

[Ryan Gallagher]

As an aside, a more theatre industry standard way to host those audio cues would be via QLab or their standalone "Go Button" audio only app (both accept OSC commands). But QLab is mac only and probably not your jam.
https://qlab.app/overview/ (free for 1 video surface and 2 channels of audio)
https://gobutton.app/

Trigger appears to be a cross platform competitor at least with an audio focus, but non-free, and cannot vouch for it.
https://www.triggerplay.co.uk/

Though multi-play looks like it did what you needed it to. Just wouldn't expect anyone else to know how to use it. ;-)

Once you add video cues too, then you really start wandering into area where purpose built software is nice, be it QLab, Resolume, VDMX, or shoe-horn OBS to do it all (OBS really suffers on the audio front for live events, the only true "mix" is tied to the stream output, which we often don't use... but free is nice).