Cue Links
As you are writing cues in a new show, you’ll find scene changes in which simple cues fall short of your desired effect. You might want to fire a sequence of movements, all within one cue, but each with a different start time. For example, you might want a two-second delay between the start of each movement. Or, maybe the house wagon needs to wait to move upstage until the balcony unit is clear and in the wings. Whatever the need, links allow you to create sequences of cues that start automatically in a staggered fashion.
When discussing Cue Links, we need a vocabulary to refer to the two cues that are linked together:
Parent Cues are the cues being watched by the link. The Parent Cue is run by either pressing the GO button, or it may be a Child Cue (see below) of another link in a longer sequence of linked cues. Whenever the Parent Cue is running, the link will check its criteria and automatically start the Child Cue when the criterias are met.
Child Cues are the cues that are started by the link. When the link’s criterias are satisfied, the link will automatically run the Child Cue. Graphically, in the Cue Grid, Child Cues have the link displayed next to cue.
In Spikemark, there are 4 types of Cue Links:
Links are great for cue sequences that can be reliably run in the exact same way every performance. If you find that a link is too rigid (for example, you need to run two cues, timed such that the second cue runs right after an actor says a specific line), a cue link might be too rigid, because the timing of the actor’s line is unpredictable from night to night. In these instances, you should keep the cues independent or use Pile On Cues. Pile On Cues are just cues that are loaded manually, and at your own discretion, before the previous cue completes. Since Pile On cues are just cues, we do not label it differently in Spikemark.
Cue Links are Enabled by default, but if you want to Disable or Re-Enable your Cue Links:
Last updated
