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Hello All,

 

I am a university student and Rose Bruford College studying Creative Lighting Control. I am currently in the process of writing one of my essays for this year. I was hoping some of you would be willing to help me out by giving me some info and some general views on the subject.

 

So here we go this is what I would like to ask you.

 

Should the lighting programmer be considered as a member of the creative team?

 

If so what for does their creativity take?

 

How is Individual craftsmanship articulated?

 

 

 

If any of you have any answers or views on these questions please to leave a comment it would be much appreciated and very helpful.

 

Thank you very much for all you help.

 

:)

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Hello All,

 

I am a university student and Rose Bruford College studying Creative Lighting Control. I am currently in the process of writing one of my essays for this year. I was hoping some of you would be willing to help me out by giving me some info and some general views on the subject.

 

So here we go this is what I would like to ask you.

 

Should the lighting programmer be considered as a member of the creative team?

Not necessarily

If so what for does their creativity take?

Not sure

How is Individual craftsmanship articulated?

Pardon?

 

If any of you have any answers or views on these questions please to leave a comment it would be much appreciated and very helpful.

 

Thank you very much for all you help.

 

:)

 

You'll probably find people will be able to help better if you expand on your questions- give us some examples of what your current thinking behind the questions is!

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The problem is that you haven't defined what creativity, in your opinion is.

 

The modern usage, especially in programmes and the web presence is cast and creatives - and the creatives are the people who are usually being used to formulate the design, look and feel.

 

My own view is that programming is a task based, craft, not a creative, or artistic feature. This comes from the designer, who nowadays has the luxury of being able to split off the operational aspects to someone who can interpret a request and produce the required result. The creation is somebody elses. The Red Arrows are a brilliant display team, but the routine is designed by the leader. Sure, he has input from the others, but he is the 'creative'. The pilots know how to fly what he wants to happen. Splitting the art from the craft is tricky, but until the programmer starts to design, in my book he's the pilot, but not the leader.

 

 

I don't understand these bits at all

If so what for does their creativity take?

 

 

How is Individual craftsmanship articulated?

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The thing is, the boundaries are more blurred than perhaps they used to be.

 

Some LDs might say to their programmer "I want the VL5s on bars 3 and 4 to do a figure-8 pattern, with a random offset, and keep them within the pros and out of the auditorium ... oh, and make them do a three-step negative intensity chase with a half-second step time while they're doing that" ; others might say "this cue needs to have some of the moving lights that aren't already on waggling about a bit and flashing - make me something nice!". A good programmer can be a bit creative when the situation requires.

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As Gareth says, it very much depends on the relationship between programmer and lighting designer. Some designers will tell want they want exactly (keystroke by keystroke, sometimes!) and others will just suggest themes or general ideas and let the programmer work it out. It might be better to consider the programmer and designer as the "Lighting Design section", which should absolutely be part of the creative team and not worry too much about how their actual internal dynamic works.
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I think the OP needs to clarify terms here- there's being 'creative', as in being able to make the lights produce something pretty, and there's being a 'member of the creative team'- something that I have always understood to be those who are on board from day 1 (or thereabouts), who have the 'vision' for how the show should be (IE, director, LD, SD, Set designer etc...). Certainly I would not necessarily include the programmer in the latter.
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Josh, this is another of those queries which automatically gets the "It depends" response because it really does.

 

In many jobs the programmer will have zero creative input and in others be an integral creative influence. One day they could be designing the whole thing and the next pushing buttons if and when told. Personally I used to take creative input from the cooks and bottlewashers let alone operators and programmers but even in my own field of outdoor events that could be a rarity. I find the whole job title thing to be fraught with hazards but it has to be that way in more established, venue based organisations.

 

Putting anyone in any box can be a restriction just by doing so. I was once given a van driver for a tour who watched me do an effect for three weeks before he said; "Looks as good as when I was working for Pink Floyd and did that for the film." I could have gone on holiday, innit?

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