One of the things we and many other actors & creatives have found, is that during the Covid pandemic, we have ended up working on Zoom, online. 
Zoom is  powerful video conferencing software (basic package is free!), (GET IT HERE) which also allows for things like digital effects like  digital backdrops - brilliant for transporting your audience into the enviroment inhabited by your character, while remaining socially distanced and safe at home. 

I should add that at the production (directing, tech) end there are many more considerations than the ones below. This is written strictly to support our actors who are new to zoom, and how it works from the point of view of a performer. 

We expect all our actors who are working with us online during the pandemic, to be fully conversant with at least these basics prior to beginning. This blog allows actors to explore the basics of Zoom, and have a central place with information on how to practice. As professional actors, everyone should be working to expand their skills on a continual basis, at the best of times, and while this is a lifesaver during Covid, for full shows; I can personally see this becoming very useful and common for auditions and workshops as well even as we move back to normality when this crisis is over. 

What we have found though, is that there can be a huge range of ability levels among people joining zoom projects, and a lot of anxiety around the use of the technology, which can make for quite stressful experiences, when in reality, they need not be anything approaching stressful. This blog article tries to set out the basics of what a performer will need to know (from our experience) in coming to use Zoom, and what tools they will need. 

We cannot reccomend enough that as you explore these skills for the first time, that you spend an afternoon on Zoom, practicing. You don't need a partner to conference with, though it can help to check that they are seeing what you are seeing. Open up zoom on your laptop, explore the buttons and links and menus, and familiarise yourself with where things are and how to change your settings. 

Zoom runs on any computer, tablet or smartphone. For the purposes of this blog article, we are writing about running zoom on a Windows PC or laptop. 

Before you start: 
You will need
- a computer or tablet (I would personally reccomend avoidng a smartphone though they do work too) with a passable webcam and microphone (providing a steady, reliable sound and image) 
- Moderatly good, to good WIFI signal (you can use 4g or 5g phone signal, but it will eat up your data allowance. 
- Reasonable computer literacy, to learn how to use menus, screenshot, type, etc. 

Getting started
Create a basic (free) Zoom account. This lets you access with ease, and be sent the weblinks for signing up. There are a number of ways to join a zoom meeting, but it is easiest when it is created as a "scheduled" event, and a weblink sent to all those being invited. 

Next, if you need to create a meeting, follow the screenshots below:  Set your time and date, and use the video and audio settings as in the second screenshot. Zoom will then give you a link to follow to the meeting.  

Getting set up for a Zoom show.
Lets assume you have already been sent a link for your rehearsal or performance. You click on it to join the meeting. If there are several people in the meeting you may see their faces in tiles across the screen.If it just you, then only you will appear in the window, like so: 

The important thing here, is the menu at the bottom of your screen. You have here, access to all your controls, including your audio and video settings, which are your most important settings as an actor. In audio (the settings are the small upward pointing arrow next to the icon of the microphone), it is best to turn on "original sound" as it picks up clearer audio from your computer microphone. It also improves bandwith issues, the bane of all zoom performances, which we will come on to later. 
HOW TO TURN ON ORIGINAL SOUND TUTORIAL

Next, you need to look at your video settings. In here, you will find things like the all-important digital backdrops. 
HOW TO SET UP DIGITAL BACKDROPS
In reality, if you are like me, with an older laptop, do not be surpised when your backdrop first looks like this, 

(This is happening because the computer is struggling to differentiate the colours. Try, for the first time, with a plain wall, you may be lucky and rectify the problem. If not then, like me, you will need a greenscreen. This is a bright green (a specific shade of green) cloth or background. You can buy them on ebay for around £15, £20, and they are invaluable for modern actors to keep at home anyway!

As long as you do not also wear green, the computer will now be able to run the background clearly.  (this screenshot also shows the selection window for setting up your backdrop). 

But wait! your director or stage manager have just sent you some photos on email or facebook, that they expect you to use for your backdrops. You need to load them into Zoom first. 

Again, look back at that screenshot above. Above the tiles of 8 thumbnails, you will see, at the right hand side, a small + sign in a box
​

First of all, save the pictures to an easy-to-find folder on your computer, then come back to Zoom. Press that little +, and then click "add image". You will need to add the images one at a time, and speaking as someone who several times has nearly wept, as people struggle, having not uploaded their pictures in chronological order for their different scenes beforehand, or kept a note of which backdrop is for which scene, please make sure that you upload your images in a way that you can easily identify them for each scene. In a live performance you will have 20 seconds to swap your backdrops between scenes, and you do not want to get confused. Nobody can do this for you!
When I am acting, I upload one image per scene, in chronological order, so that I know as I finish one scene, I can use the next backdrop for the next scene, and so on.

You then will want to explore other fine tuning such as three point lighting. The last thing you want in a zoom performance is natural light, which cannot be controlled. If your room lights do not work on their own, then you will need to add extra lights, and we have proven that it is viable to use anything from studio lights (if like me you are lucky enough to own your own lighting rigs), though to torches and phone lights. You will, however, need to be conversant with the basics of three point lighting
READ ABOUT THREE POINT LIGHTING HERE.


BANDWIDTH AND THE JOYS OF INTERNET SIGNAL
This can be the bane of any Zoom based performance. Dropped signal, especially for any of us living and working outside a major city, is a fact of life. However, the details below should make life rather a lot easier , if not disaster-proof, for everyone!

- First of all it is crucial to ensure that you are working close to your router, or plugged in via an ethernet cable.

- Next, make sure all other programs, (yes including Facebook!) are turned off on your computer. Let your computer focus fully on Zoom. If you are in rural Devon like me, with ghastlly internet at the best of times, you may also find you have to ask the other people in the house to not be streaming on the TV while you are performing. I found that can be a make-or-break request, especially in the evenings. The other day, I was struggling with the internet signal in a zoom meeting. I popped into the living room and asked Mum to turn off the Netflix. Instantly my internet signal picked up and was fine.

- Remember me talking about Original Sound? Make sure that is enabled, that helps too.

- When you are not in a scene on zoom, mute your microphone and stop your video. Not only does this stop any accidental jumps of the camera to you, in a scene that you dont appear in (to the great confusion of the audience) it also frees up Zoom bandwidth for the actors who are in that scene. As a director I am hugely fussy about this.

Bad signal or low bandwidth may result in all kinds of issues, like sound and video not syncing, stuttering or frozen images, low microphone volume, or even your internet dropping out completely as you give that dramatic speech. While these things can happen anyway at times (roadworks cuttiing a cable? Everyone in your street streaming Netflix at once?) , we can hugely reduce the number of times they happen.

Unfortunately, if we see your internet signal, or computer being unable to keep up with Zoom on a general basis (no penalties for occaisional issues, they get us all from time to time) , or an ongoing lack of ability to work with the techincal instructions, this may preclude involvement in digital shows. (the door will still be open as usual when we can get back to physical live shows though, because dodgy internet dignal does not detract from your skill as a performer!).

THE CREATIVE SIDE
And after all this, you are now in a rehearsal. You will notice how Zoom automatically highlights the camera of the person who is speaking or making sound. (Thats why we need everyone to mute microphone and cameras when they are not in a scene!)

Clicking in and out of a scene has a good convention as well.
Microphone On, Camera On
Camera off, Microphone Off.
This allows for the distracting clicking of a mouse or keyboard, to be covered by the next actions taking place in the scene, and not to break the immersion for the audience.

The chat window may be used by the tech team, to send cues to the actors (on zoom theatre, if actors are provided with a cue script, then that cue script becomes their show Bible! Never ever pre-empt or be late for a cue (so we discourage the use of the chat box for general team chatter, to prevent any cues getting lost) .


BEING NICE
While we all have to be fully conversant with the techincal aspects of zoom based theatre, and these are the main points for the actors, not everyone learns technology at the same speed.
If you are someone who finds it harder to learn, then you will likely find it an anxious time as you learn. We are happy to help where possible (remember that anyone helping you is doing it for free in their spare time so please respect that!) if we can see that you are truly trying your best.
If you are someone like myself who finds technology fairly easy to learn and adapt to, then it can become inwardly quite frustrating to explain something several times that seems so simple, though it is very obvious that they are doing their best .
What has to be remembered on all sides, is how the other side feels. And that we are a team, who all want to achieve the same goal for a paying audience. However scared or frustrated we may feel, the rule of thumb is to think how the other person feels, and be nice! If someone genuinely needs help, then we do our best to help.
Thats mainly why I wrote this article. With this available to our actors, (current and prospective), it provides a central place with links and information to practice. I am happy to add more information to this article on request!

One of the things that we have been working on, during the Covid-19 crisis, is looking at how we can improve and expand our production work when we get back to doing live stage shows. One small part of this, is looking at how we can improve our tech. 
Obviously, there are no budget, funds or resources to do this, and even less than usual in these times of crisis for the theatre industry, so it is very much a case of finding what we can, for free, and cobbling together. 
Having been very pleased with what we found, we decided to put together an article, linking to the software we found. It is all available for PC and is all free & legal. Some of the software does have paid upgrades for such time as you can afford them, but the basic functionality is free. 

When you are looking at software for theatre, you have to consider many aspects. Marketing/ publicity/ admin in the office, creating posters and videos, audio editing, and then you can go on to more complex software for visualising and controlling lighting and sound in a theatre setting. 
Ultimately, there are also options for online broadcasting of shows. 

So, without further ado, here is our "must have" list of free software. Remember, if it is possible for you to donate, that most of the freeware creators, welcome a donation to thier funds. 

Office/ Admin

Openoffice is a free answer to Microsoft Office, with added functionality of being able to export documents direct to PDF. 
Quickfile is a free business/ accounting program, for up to 1000 ledger entries. 
Zoom is free for up to 40 min calls, using video-conferencing to work - especially useful during the Covid-19 lockdowns
GIMP is the internet's free answer to Photoshop. Very powerful, and with some great third-party plugins available, you can create your show posters, video overlays, image watermarks, batch edits and anything else with ease!

Video editing

Hitfilm Express is a programme that contains basic video editing. It is also easy (and cheap) to buy add-on packages for special effects, motion graphics and more. 
NCH VideoPad is a very simple but robust video editing program, ideal for beginners or lower capacity hardware. The non-commercial version is free (please make sure you are honest about how you are using it). 
Da Vinci Resolve is a complex program for more advanced video editing, with a specialism in colour correction. Do note that you will need a more powerful computer to run Resolve -  Laura's 4gb ram laptop can't do it. 

Audio Editing

Audacity is a fantastic, fully free, audio editing, recording and mixing program, with some excellent sound correction and noise removal functions. 

In the Theatre

Mixx is free "DJ" software, but ideal for mixing different inputs from sound, eg microphones, and sound effects, or microphones and backing music. Can be integrated with Itunes.
Freestyler is free stage lighting control software, ideal for production lighting. You will of course need to use this linked to external lighting equipment to control the lights. 
Magic 3d Easyview is a free 3d modeling program that can be used in conjunction with Freestyler, to create virtual models of your stage set, and to test out lighting effects and rigs in a virtual world - making design from home a lot easier. EasyView connects the DMX signal from any controller (console/desk, software) to your computer. 
Open Broadcaster Software, allows you to create and stream live broadcasts to the platform of your choice (youtube, facebook live etc) from your computer/ webcams etc. 
MapMap is a free projection-mapping program that allows you to project images or video onto any survace of your choice (you will of course need to use this with a projector) 


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and that, thus far is the list - hopefully it is as useful to others as it is to us. And now, of course, is the ideal time to download, test and learn to use some of these programs, ready for better times. 

Stay strong, theatre-awesomes! 

So, on top of all the other challenges we face as a small regional theatre company, we now have to face Covid-19. 
This is going to be a death knell to many theatre and film production companies. With (quite nessecarily) theatres closed, and film productions shut down, and us all encouraged to at the minimum socially distance, and if ill (even with a cold) to self isolate. 

As with all other businesses and organisations, it is down to us to help set a good example and not only look after our cast, crew and audience members, but also on a wider scale, to not break the reccomended methods for keeping people safe. 

We have lost our main funding source - the market where we have our book stall is closed. 
Theatres are closed - so we have no shows in rearly spring therefore no Spring earnings for cast & crew 
We cannot meet to make films for festivals - social distancing. 

This does not mean we are finished. FAR from it. We are adapting and developing new temporary ways of working. All work is now happening online. 

- We are rebooking our shows for a time that hopefully life will be starting to get back to normal. 
- We are rehearsing and meeting online using a video-conferencing system called Zoom. (many thanks to the people on Women+ In Theatre for reccomending). Until it is safe, there will be no meetings in person. 
- We are setting up online broadcasting, so that we can live-broadcast Zoom-based readings and other creative work on a "pay what you can" model. 
- We are finding ways that our people can offer their skills online, for a small fee just over UK minimum wage), helping them raise some money for the time being. 
- We are working on funding bids, networking, and preparing all sorts of things to build company publicity, funds (ultimately to find ways to fund full wages for all cast and crew as opposed to profitshare), developing further expertise by online and book study, and networking.   
- We are writing new scripts & training manuals, making new costumes, repairing equipment, and doing all those tasks that we didnt have time to complete before, that can all be done from home with no physical interaction. 
- We are keeping a safe locked online network for our cast and crew to chat and interact, with friends from our productions - helping keep all our mental health together at this incredibly stressful time.

Ultimately, however upsetting and stressful (and absolutely heartbreaking) it is, we will survive this. We will even have developed new things,and  when things are able to get back to normal, we will have used this time as well as possible. We will have the technology to reach many more audiences via online broadcast. We will have maintained interaction and operation.  We will have developed and grown many things. We will be ready to hit the ground running. 

For now, please stay at home if you possibly can, keep well and safe, look after those around you, follow social distancing advice, and do not, whatever you do, give up. This storm will pass. Decide that you WILL emerge victorious, just as we have decided.