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Theatre to TV - Transferrable Skills?


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Hello All

 

I am a Theatre Electrician with six years industry experience, I have had brief dealings in Television but nothing major.

I am writing this post to ask how transferrable skills are from theatre to TV and what further training would be required. If a TV Electrician would be available for discussion that would be great.

 

Thanks

Will

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Its different

 

There are now few Studio based sparks jobs, because there are few big studios left

 

Status is much lower, In theatre sparks are the clever ones who fix things and wear S shirts and tights, and you can work up to lighting design

 

Location work is much more fetch and carry, design comes from the camera man or a separate LD vision supervior , its very rare that sparks will make that jump

 

So far as kit is concerned, lots more stands, most of the toys are bigger, distribution is rubber box / ceeform forget 15A M10 and hook clamps

 

get used to lots of weird names Honka Bonka French Flag Charlie Bars. Gobo is a different animal, forget frames and rough clip gel to barn doors

 

 

Location is a young persons game you will need to have an exit plan

 

 

Good luck!

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  • 1 month later...

17th Edition & BS7909 absoute minimum.

 

 

The number of qualified sparks in tv is dropping to it's detriment. So you need another angle such as being great on moving lights or something but this will only get you into light entertainment etc.

 

Drama is much more old school so you need to be qualified.

 

If you want to be taken seriously:

 

C&G 2330, or 2360. NVQ L3. C&G 2391

 

Although your CV seems to be heavily sound based. There is no cross over in TV at all, and it will go against you if you try to do multiple things.

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Speaking as one with a TV background (but not as an electrician) one of the things you're going to find is that there are precious few full time jobs for electricians (or any other technical field) nowadays. Many/most of the big studios have closed down and it's pretty common these days for productions to be farmed out to freelancers or at least independent production companies who employ freelancers as required.

 

Just like any freelance job, it's largely a matter of being in the right place at the right time--then making a positive impression on the the job so they remember your phone number the next time they need somebody.

 

Finally, as somebody else has said, the need for a pure electrician is relatively limited so you'll do your career chances a lot of good if you get yourself qualified for things like rigging, moving light operation, etc. etc.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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