When we do a muzzle flash on set, it’s always using a show control trigger.  But since these remote trigger devices are often one-of-a-kind brand new creations, one needs to be ready for things to go wrong.  So that means always being ready at a moment’s notice to trigger the effect yourself.  It’s an incredibly small detail, but it didn’t occur to me the first time I did such a thing- set your cue stack to Wrap on last Go.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, there are default behaviors of pressing the Back button when you are in the first cue and pressing Go from the last cue of any cue list.  I’ve written about the default of Back from 1st- which is to blackout the stage.  I dislike this setting since it embarrassed the heck out of me on stages one day.  Also- I don’t understand the logic as a default.  But the Go from Last default is much more reasonable- it does nothing.  That’s what the X means. 

I always set my Back from 1st to X to not embarrass myself again, so I’d suggest it.  In case you don’t know what Wrap means as a setting, it means that hitting go from the last cue will wrap the list back to the start and trigger the first cue.  It’s one less thing to think of or type when you need to trigger effects over and over.  All you have to do is touch Wrap under Go from Last.

This tip isn’t earth shattering, but if you are new to programming on demand effects- it’ll help.  What little tricks and settings have you picked up for on demand effects or secondary cue lists?  Would love to hear from you in the comments.  Also- fun fact, this is my 200th blog post!