The movie I’m on has a ton of interactive cues all day long.  (For the live events people, this is simply changing lighting values while the camera is rolling.) Further complicated by the fact we are frequently shooting 360.  So the DP is having me follow the camera and action as it spins around the room.  Depending on which way the camera is facing, some fixtures will need to boost higher and some will need to go lower.  Since these elements tend to span days of shooting, simply writing them as cues isn’t very helpful.  So I’m doing them as LTP Subs.

Running multiple playbacks is the beginning of tricky from a control point of view. If more than one playback is talking to the same light, what happens? If you didn’t know already, Submasters in Eos are HTP- which stands for Highest Takes Precedence.  This function says that any playback that is telling the fixture to be the highest value gets its way.  This is great, but wouldn’t work for this project since some values need to go down as well.  LTP stands for Latest Takes Precedence.  This means do what I just told you to do, regardless of higher or lower values.  It’s powerful, easy and very fast to implement.  

After you’ve created your Sub, double tap [Sub] to get to Tab 15 Submasters.  Eos will usually be selected on any Sub you just created, but do take a moment to confirm you are selected on the right Sub.  Once there, see the second column that currently is set to HTP?   

Touch LTP.  But while you are here- you should do one more thing, and possibly two.

Priority is a complicated subject.  Every cue list and submaster is by default set to Priority 4.  If you have interactive subs, it’s often a good idea to increase your priority by one up to 5.  Also- I always set my Subs to Record Exclude.  I do NOT want to accidentally update or record this submaster into the next cue.  So I always do this, but you should make your own decision. 

That’s all there is to it.  Now you can override values both up and down and not accidentally record these things into anything.  

What fun solutions have you found with Submasters?  Hit me in the comments.

***

Mark LaPierre is a programmer in film, television and theater based out of Albuquerque.  He grew up in live entertainment and has been a designer/programmer for musicals, concert dance, live music, circus and corporate.  Mark is a proud member of IATSE Local 28 and 480, an ETC Eos trainer and an enthusiastic trainer of many other platforms and subjects.  He offers remote console coaching in 30 minute to 4 hour times as well as a full range of training in person.  If you enjoy his content, please consider commenting on his posts on the website to appease the Algorithm.