This tiny tip comes to you from…not me.  I don’t remember who first told me they set their cue default times to be 4.9, but I’m still grateful to whoever it was.  Why would this be a good thing?  I remember asking that myself.

Choosing a default timing of 4.9 seconds is great not because it’s the perfect time for something.  It’s because it shows you where you and/or the designer didn’t make a choice yet.  We’ve all been there- you are recording cues super fast to get through the cue stack to be ready for first tech.  Sometimes your focus gets split, and you forget to specify a timing.  If you see a cue that is timed at 4.9 seconds, there is no doubt that you didn’t choose that.  So you know where you need to put your attention as you go through your first tech. 

When I am manually marking a show, in my macro I set a default time for Part 20 (seemingly where everyone puts their marking cues) of 2.9 seconds for the same reason.  Most often with the mark cues, I don’t need to choose a different timing, but when I do, I know it was deliberate.

Every day of programming contains so much data that I really enjoy little tricks like this that help me recognize chaos in the order.  (Or perhaps order in the chaos, depending on the day.)  What little tricks do you use like this to help you each day you program?  Hit me in the comments below.