Beginning a day at NBA All-Star Jam Session is not like any other, especially the Friday before the big weekend. This year the show didn’t start until 4PM on Friday so us FILO’s had some prep time to get ready. The start of each day in the life of signage could be smooth rolling, or it could be a sweat fest resulting in signs being placed at the last minute. Unfortunately, Friday was the latter.
In the morning the first thing I do is review my list of signs that were brought in last night and have to get placed again, as well as determine what signs are new for today. This includes outside directional trailblazing signs for parking lots and entrances to Jam Session, and indoor signs for special daily events like the NBA All-Star Practice. I also have to fix any sign issues that may have occurred during open hours. This went smoothly until I got stuck on one hitch.
Jam Session has plenty of courts for its guests to play games, watch games, and see/meet players and celebrities, which means my signage crew has to know the full production schedule in order to correctly display who is where and when. Every day we have to make these changes, which is normally easy. But, today was a little difficult because one area that had requested a sign for their STA’s (Scheduled to Appear) was missing and the player name insert wasn’t printed yet! To solve it, first I go to my guy Freddy (dude with the really huge printer) and get printing the player name in motion. Next I search through our distribution area, dash through our dead storage, and finally run around the area on the show floor to make sure the sign wasn’t actually out already. IT’S NO WHERE TO BE FOUND!
Finally I search under what seems like three rivers and a couple hay stacks and magically find my sign. This would be great news in any other circumstance but the logo was falling off this sign and looked terrible. Quick thinking comes into play again and the fact that I went to the same high school as MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) starts shining through. I grab some double stick tape and a razor blade and go to work. After fixing the decal, I get heavy, lift the sign over my head and run it out to its rightful place on the show floor with a couple minutes to spare.
Don’t get me wrong, signs will go up with minutes to spare from time to time but signage is a long, thought out process that takes months of preparation and a lot of human power to get to be show ready. Then, when we are show ready, things can change in an instant so I just have to be ready for it.
After the show started that day, things began to slow down. I may of had a sign to put here or there every once in a while but if the show is open that means the NBA can assume that all my signs are out and placed correctly and I am not there to disappoint. So I go back to my signage office and do some organizing from the mess I made that day, and prepare for tomorrow. Though I had my morning rush, Friday went really well with all of my signage placed in time and my people in the right posts. I was all prepped for All-Star Saturday and left my signage partner Nick Finanger in good shape to fill my shoes for the rest of the day.
This has been a day in the life of signage at NBA All-Star Jam Session. Shaun Donovan signing ;) out.
 |
| Written by: Shaun Donovan |
No comments:
Post a Comment