Broadway shows turning to iPads to simplify production & cut down on waste
Lagging behind some other industries, stage shows on New York City's Broadway and elsewhere are finally beginning to turn to tablets -- specifically the iPad -- to replace giant stacks of paper.
The crew for 'Pretty Woman' on their iPad Pros.
To this day, many directors and stage managers are carrying around production books that can weigh as much as 10 pounds, according to CNN. But some Broadway shows like "Kinky Boots" and "Pretty Woman" are reportedly moving to an iPad app called ProductionPro, which merges scripts and lyrics with videos and other production material. The software is also being used at firms like Disney to shoot film and TV, and at some 400 U.S. high schools for their theater departments.
Users can do things like add margin notes with a stylus, but one of the primary advantages is pushing updates to cast and crew instantly without wasting thousands of pages of paper.
In the case of "Pretty Woman," the show was updating roughly 30 pages per day during 12 weeks of pre-production, and those pages had to be shared with some 50 people. Stage manager Thomas Recktenwald is now using ProductionPro, an iPad Pro, and an Apple Pencil, and the show even has videos with the blocking for each scene.
One drawback to the app is its cost. While it can technically be used for free, that's limited to a single production, 1 gigabyte of cloud storage, and a 250-megabyte cap on filesizes. Commercial operations must effectively spring for a Premium plan that costs $19.99 per month.
A number of businesses have switched to iPads to reduce paper burdens. One of the earlier adopters was the airline industry, which used iPads to replace heavy pilot bags full of charts.
The crew for 'Pretty Woman' on their iPad Pros.
To this day, many directors and stage managers are carrying around production books that can weigh as much as 10 pounds, according to CNN. But some Broadway shows like "Kinky Boots" and "Pretty Woman" are reportedly moving to an iPad app called ProductionPro, which merges scripts and lyrics with videos and other production material. The software is also being used at firms like Disney to shoot film and TV, and at some 400 U.S. high schools for their theater departments.
Users can do things like add margin notes with a stylus, but one of the primary advantages is pushing updates to cast and crew instantly without wasting thousands of pages of paper.
In the case of "Pretty Woman," the show was updating roughly 30 pages per day during 12 weeks of pre-production, and those pages had to be shared with some 50 people. Stage manager Thomas Recktenwald is now using ProductionPro, an iPad Pro, and an Apple Pencil, and the show even has videos with the blocking for each scene.
One drawback to the app is its cost. While it can technically be used for free, that's limited to a single production, 1 gigabyte of cloud storage, and a 250-megabyte cap on filesizes. Commercial operations must effectively spring for a Premium plan that costs $19.99 per month.
A number of businesses have switched to iPads to reduce paper burdens. One of the earlier adopters was the airline industry, which used iPads to replace heavy pilot bags full of charts.
Comments
Far and away away the largest waste is incidental sheet music for every part in the orchestra multiples over every musician playing their respective parts and that music is distributed as a work right contracted by the music union AGVA? I can’t recall... Actor’s aren’t allowe in and no where in the professional music world - no where - is iPad replacing the mass produced orchestral parts in a bway show or a ballet or in opera - it’s apart of the culture and the union will often stipulate that the music come prepared in a certain way and that way is never digital.
Also the only reason there would need to be 20 pages of changes to a show in technical preview is if it sucked and was flawed. That’s long past the time where Cast or Crew would be able to do anything with 20 new pages ... notes ? Sure. There almost always dictated by the director at the performance to the stage manager who then may Or may not use an iPad to distribute them but more than likely they get typed and put on a cork board with a highlight next to ur role or job with the note. They’re rarely even discussed it’s just expected to always be the new way the time... Or you get fired. iPad would him that process up. Stage managers are cranky and stress out folk... I cannot see a day where Tablet’s make headway into this works and supplant a digital master cue list...
Lastly19$ is nothing for a bway show. A bway show makes zero profit on average each week if it can’t clear a million a week. Period. Some easily do this - pretty woman had a very successful PreSale but now it’s hot garbage and they won’t need to worry about apps or iPads... if it doesn’t close and goes on tour perhaps this iPad story will start a trend. But it’s gonna close and lose a lot of money.
KinkyBoots has a gabillion cues and makes a fortune each week so maybe they’ve given iPads to the backstage folk. The Actor’s wouldn’t have free iPads for sure and the musicians would look down on it ...
there are some professional piano accompanists that won’t freak out if you bring an iPad in to an audition in nyc but most would ask for sheet music or decline to play. Seen it happen.
Its cultural. Backstage lends itself to the dork universe - and I’m sure outside a pit musicians use iPads but more than 50% carry both to a gig in case something happens. iPads aren’t paper and paper doesn’t need charging.
As the article said... the production "Pretty Woman" was updating 30 pages per day... for 12 weeks (84 days)... among 50 people.
You're right... paper is cheap. But distributing 126,000 pieces of paper over 3 months is a pain in the ass. And there could be errors/delays if some people see the new pages and others don't.
But with this method... all 50 people would see the updates instantly on their iPads. And they can incorporate music and video in addition to hand-written notes.
Yes... 50 iPads aren't cheap. $329 minimum buy-in. Plus Apple Pencil. Plus AppleCare. Plus a case. You could be spending $550 per person.
That's $28,000. But at least the production company can keep using the iPads for future productions.
It might sound expensive... but so is time lost if everyone isn't on the same page due to errors and/or miscommunications.
Again... I don't think this is necessarily about saving paper... it's about having a smooth production.
The $28,000 cost of iPads isn't even that high on the list. To put it into perspective... the production "Kinky Boots" spent $150,000 on just hair and makeup. (1.1% of their $13.5 million budget)
And they spent $350,000 on just the costumes (2.5% of their $13.5 million budget)
Suddenly those iPads don't sound too bad...
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/09/tech/broadway-pretty-woman-technology/index.html
As as for the musicians union, it’s just a matter of time until these technologies become part of control negotiations. It will happen but probably not soon or all at once.
Then there’s how impractical iPads are for rehearsal. You can bet actors and crew will still print their pages out for easy portability. Maybe a mini would do the job, but more likely an iPhone will be the better device, but it would also need Pencil support (though a dumb stylus could work). Perhaps this article is geared toward the digital show production use in general regardless of device used, the iPad just being the example. But Broadway is just a small part of this. TV and film are the biggest wasters of paper with daily page updates for ever scene shot, as well as the use of shooting sides on set. All productions deliver these changes digitally now, but there’s still a large amount of printing going on. Shifting to a digital platform definitely streamlines this process, but convenience in distribution is always going to be tempered by convenience for the workers, and that’s almost always going to involve reams of paper until such systems accomodate all needs.
As for updates, I'd agree there's probably not a need for a play to have that many changes daily once it's being staged on Broadway. But during the workshop phase, and even off-broadway, there are a lot of changes as they tweak the content, and not just dialogue. In general this is all a very good idea, applied not just to Broadway, but the entire entertainment industry, including film, TV & Radio. Of course the biggest obstacle to all of this is not just the device on which it will be viewed, but the security of distributing the content electronically, especially when it's being developed. Bad Robot for instance keeps a tight rein on it's scripts, distributing some projects only on watermarked red paper to even prevent photocopying. But the industry already has secure distribution systems like DAX which provides cuts of programs in progress, which studios would never want to leak to the public. Distribution of finished stage plays would be easier, and allow for something I never had in high school -- using rented books, the ability to make notes in my scripts. Then again, everybody in the High School theater group would need access to a compatible digital device, including the musicians in the pit, each capable of allowing annotations. We can't even get iPads into the hands of every student yet, so that's probably a dream anyway.