SELEM 6: Aug 16 - 19 Sign up now!

[swamidog]

I, SIR, resemble that remark!!

we do things a little different in my neck of the woods.

[DrEvil]

SELEM did seem empty this year. Fewer people along with an additional area really spread us thin. I can't decide if I like having two areas or not. I think I like only having the auditorium was better. That way you don't have to pick which one you'd rather watch. You'd just go and watch what was playing at the time. It probably help the social aspect if everything was in one building. I think walking back and forth kept some in one area for a long time. The rain didn't help with that.

Thanks to everybody that helped setup, plan the event, put on shows, provided drinks and food and everything else, big or small.

MAybe there will be a 5 color lumia box next year.

[Bradfo69]

O.k., here is my $.02 (Typed earlier this afternoon and pondered for awhile.):

I have to admit that sometimes my views are based on the good fortune of what I do and where I work and, I forget that others don't have it so lucky. I get that.... really, I do.

A hobbyist may have only one projector and look forward to SELEM as a chance to see a bunch of them all running together. There are others that may also like that whole "set up a nightclub" thing like we did in the cafeteria. I'm perhaps a bit jaded as I can do that any time I want and practically have a variation on that theme here every weekend. (As a matter of fact, it's going on right now for a Sweet 16 party - 30 feet away.) So at the risk of sounding non-appreciative, I found both areas a little boring for me this year. I'll own that. I don't think I sat through a complete show in the auditorium and I really spent very little time in the cafeteria. I really even debated about putting my 3 watt up on the scaffolding just because of the hassle of lifting it up there. (Why do the big heavy ones have to go on the top shelf?) Frank never even bothered with his, nor did Mario. So, the seminars, the opportunity to get equipment looked at by more experienced eyes, and the social aspect (funny, as I don't consider myself to be "social") are the big draws for me. What I missed this year and, what I had hoped we would have is, that time where the majority of people were in the auditorium and getting to watch some of the new amazing material that's recently been acquired and seeing/hearing people's reactions to it. People applauded last year after a number of shows, such as Tim's Scanner Music, and Best of Echos. I don't know that occurred this year.

I just wonder if there isn't a way to "overlay" two set ups in the auditorium and accomplish both things in the same space. Have your scaffolding set up on either side like we did last year and leave the center open for graphics - again like we did last year but... make sure the 5 "balanced" projectors are in the position they need to be and wire them the way we did but then, put all the rest of the projectors around them and wire them as we have previously. A couple more IDLA splitters weigh less than the subs! Run the balanced shows for some of the time and do the live "playing" some of the time. Maybe during the day run the longer planetarium style shows and then, in the evening, ramp things up a bit with the live club like feel once the beverages start to flow. Speaking of which, last year and this year we talked about people having the opportunity to "play" along with Mario, using LivePro or Quickshow, and unless I'm mistaken, only Frank and Adam have been the ones at the hands of the Novation, touchscreen and DMX controllers. Have people been offered a "turn" or, been shown what to do or what can be done at these sessions? Just curious. I spent some time watching buffo playing on Saturday night and found it interesting to see how someone else does it and have discovered I hit cues too slowly.

I'm happy to roll with whatever people want to do. It's SELEM and it's my big annual vacation so, I'm just happy not being at work. If we keep the club SELEM cafeteria thing next year, I'll plan to bring more to compliment that as well, as I have a ton of other lighting. Best part of the cafe for me was I particularly liked seeing Mario's SCX800's and X-Lasers X-Pods and am now considering adding them to the arsenal. Hell... it's only money.

And... I'm there, regardless of what we do. Shirt size is small and, paypal is on the way - just give the word.

[Bradfo69]

Oh yeah... and how come ya'll LOOK like you in the mug shots and all I see in mine is this goofy looking mofo! That's not what I see in the mirror!

[DrEvil]

I post a link to a bunch of pictures I took once I get them uploaded...

[DrEvil]

This isn't from SELEM but I think the music is fitting for the lumia.

[hakzaw1]

plenty haze --need mo perple...
nice!!
better in person...

[flecom]

I watched a little bit of the Doors shows and although I recognize it was cool for it's time, it was SOOOOO bad compared to current stuff. I've heard the Doors a million times and I don't want to listen to them again while watching an antiquated laser show.

fell free to bring your own (better?) shows then?

like I said before I actually find myself enjoying the social aspect more and more every year vs the lasers less and less... and even then, the stuff I enjoy is like seeing DZ's stuff, seeing the ions and such, but not actually watching the shows etc... not that there is anything wrong with them to me, but I am kind of tired of the same shows for the last couple years over and over... maybe its time we all started making some content? if I actually get some time I may finally put together some full length (45min) shows... but would probably be mostly abstracts and beam shows, kind of bored of graphics too lol

but you know, to each their own I guess

[whitcher88]

WOW What a great event . After missing 2010 and 2011 I had a fantastic time this year.

Thanks to all who did demonstrations and seminars.

Thanks to Adam ,for all the hours of time he puts in to make this event such a,success.

Thanks to X-Laser for the refreshments on Sat. night, and everyone else that provided grub during the weekend.

Boy , we had an amazing bunch of laser equipment all gathered together in one spot for a weekend, we are a lucky
bunch of people. Six years after the first SELEM,we had two venues, the auditorium with a world class projection system
with a dual scanner head and a 6watt ion laser and 5 kavant projectors on the stage. I am a laser noobie and am awed by all the gear tha shows up and is assembled into a great system for creating such neat artwork. thanks to Photonlexicon for showing this hobby to more people.

Thanks to Matt for looking at my argon, and sending me home with more lasers than I came with.

Club SELEM was pretty cool ,and it was alot of work setting this all up, but we sure got a lot of enjoyment out of it, and I'm ready to do it again next year . Thanks again to all who attended.

Bill

[buffo]

Great feedback guys. Please don't feel bad about speaking your mind. We're trying to make this event better, and we can't do that if all we ever hear is "everything is great". (Note: I don't look at it as gripeing; it's constructive feedback, and it's absolutely needed.)

Gary has a good point. We do tend to play the same old shows over and over again. I'm as guilty of that as anyone. (Especially at FLEM's!) I really like Aaron's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" (Kill Bill soundtrack) beam show, and I'm sure several other people feel the same way, so we usually do play it a lot. But it's also because we don't have a lot of really good beam shows to choose from. It would be nice if we had some new stuff to run that was equally enjoyable. (I had a couple beam shows I was working on, but they didn't get finished in time for SELEM - sigh.)

That's one reason why I like the Club SELEM concept so much. It's beam shows with new music. True, they're not perfectly choreographed, but with so many projectors plus the moving lights, it's pretty darned good. But it fills the niche for beam shows that I really like. (I'm sure there are others who prefer beam shows too.)

As for the graphics shows - well, I've never been as much of a fan of those types of shows, but I do realize that some people prefer them. Also, this year we did have some new content available. Trouble is, a lot of it is burried in long shows that have both old and new frames in them. Example: John showed me some of the digisynth stuff, and after 3 or 4 shows I was ready to head for the door because it didn't look all that impressive. But then he played one show that really knocked my socks off. So there are great shows to be seen, but someone needs to sort through them first...

To be honest though, when I saw some older shows come on (like the doors show that Gary mentioned), that was my cue to leave the Auditorium and see what was going on in the ion laser work room, or to head on over to the cafeteria to see what was going on there.

Regarding "Club SELEM"; it was a ton of work, but I'm willing to do it again, simply because it was so very cool to see it all running. (BTW Brad - the reason the higher-power projectors go up top is for safety and because they would wash out - that is, overpower - the other projectors if mounted on the lower shelf.) Also, I recognize that many people never get a chance to see a setup like that, so for them, "Club SELEM" is a big draw. It would be nice to have more people participating in the operation of the lasers though. (When are you ever going to get a chance to sit down and control 10 RGB projectors?)

I did turn the live console over to Eric (Planters) and his two kids on Saturday night, and they played with Beyond and Live pro both for a while, but that was about it. I tried to get Mike Dunn to take the controls, but he said he was too drunk to try it. (All the while I'm thinking that he could out-perform any of us even if he was in a coma...) No one else expressed an interest. (Although James did run a few LSX beam shows from his laptop, and we connected his DAC to the splitter so he technically did have controll of all the projectors...)

Next year I'd like to put that live control station in the back of the room, and have a sign behind it saying "go ahead and try it!" or something... After all, it's not like you can break anything from the console.

If we keep the dual-location format next year (which at this point I am inclined to do), we will have to accept that it will separate the group some. But we are already pretty spread out between the auditorium, the ion laser work room, the buy and sell area, the on-stage area behind the curtain, the upstairs classroom, and the lobby, so if all of that is OK, I'm starting to think "what's wrong with one more area?"... I have to say that Club SELEM sure looked great, and I think I enjoyed that more than even the 5-projector beam shows in the Auditorium. (Sorry Aaron!)

I guess the question we all have to answer is: is it worth being spread out to have the extra activities available?

One thing I would like to try next year is to hang signs in the hallway and on doors etc explaining what happens in each area. Not actually a "schedule" per se (since we can't seem to get that part right no matter what we try) but just a reminder that these other things are going on in those other areas so people remember to check that out. That might help bring people into other spaces, where they will no doubt run into new faces...

Like I said, this is a good discussion, and I'd like to hear more feedback. I'd also welcome any suggestions to increase the social aspect of the event. And finally, if anyone has some new ideas about scheduling, please speak up!

Adam