Getting into Showcalling

[izzywizzy]

Hi everyone,

 

I was just wondering if anyone had any advice about how best to break into the world of corporate showcalling? I have 2+ years of professional theatre stage management and live events management experience, and have staged managed a few high profile corporate events. I have called many shows as a DSM/SM on book and am looking to expand this skill into the corporate world - but I don't know where to start!

 

Any advice/suggestions most welcome!

 

Thanks all http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

[indyld]

If you have some 'ins' with the corporate world, then you have a good start. Bear in mind, though, that many corporate shows are run without a dedicated (and super-experienced) caller, often by the producer/project manager/senior production company account bod. Even the Production Manager. I've called corporate shows while operating the lighting desk! Events always needs screens, lights, mics and technicians to run them but many corporate events can get away without show callers, despite the benefit they can bring to running a slick show with very little rehearsal, wrought from a jumbled mess of the client's brain-farts, 8 different Powerpoint decks and a few Post-It notes with VT In and Out points written on them.

 

The big shows that really need calling (award shows make regular use of showcallers due to their cue-heavy nature, multiple technologies and scant rehearsal opportunities) are taken on by some of the key show callers on the circuit. In the UK, many of them can be found through http://showcallers.co.uk. To put them into context, most of them have 20 years experience in both theatre DSMing and event calling. They are regularly also appearing on my Facebook timeline, bemoaning clients from hell, big names turns that go off what little script there was, awful accommodation and food, and petulant / incompetent VT engineers (just in case you thought show calling was glamorous or exciting) and how they wish they 'had listened at school and been able to get a proper job'.

 

Event show calling is to DSMing what extreme rock climbing without a harness is to meandering up a hill with a highly detailed map, on a route you have already had a good few goes at. Given the above, it's also not an easy gig to get into bearing in mind that the market is only so big and the girls (most of them are girls) knocking about have been doing it for a good while and show very little signs of aging (nor the financial capacity to jack it all in).

 

If all that was a bit negative, I'd suggest asking one of your corporate clients if you can have a crack on a show that wouldn't usually use a show caller. They may see the benefit in it and they may not already use one of the guys linked to above.

[top-cat]

Well to balance the scales in contrast to Rob's post... I guess you could do worse than to ring every corporate event company that google can throw your way, and ask them if you can send a CV to them.

 

Don't expect work straight away but as corporate season gets into swing in the Autumn there may be a gig they can't fill and they get to your name on the list.

 

It is always cheaper to take a freelancer directly than go through an agency or company so I expect most companies will be happy to take your details, of course there is no guarantee they'll ever call, but it's a start and won't hurt.

[mac.calder]

Having worked corporate for about 8 years, my general experience is that if there is a production company, usually they will show call - normally they won't outsource it. Working for an AV company that is often contracted by these production companies, we would often rather they didn't, as I am yet to find a producer client that does a proper show call. Those production companies that have worked with us for a while will generally throw the show call over to one of our technical directors and take on a purely client/speaker/artist wrangler role. If our AV company is directly employed by the end client we usually have our TDs show call or our vision operator show call as most cues tend to be based on VT cues.

 

The huge shows tend to either be broadcast (in which case the TV production house will supply the show call) or as mentioned above run by people with 20+ years of experience in running live events and known by the production managers with a great deal of trust built up over many years of working together. It is all about trust in corporate - as a poor show call could result in refunding hundreds of thousands of pounds/dollars/euros

[top-cat]

Yeah I meant more the AV companies than the production company as in my experience it usually falls to the AV company to show call since they've supplied everyone who's going to be on comms anyway. I agree when it's not done by the AV company it's usually done by the client as they're too precious over it all to let somebody they don't know do it.

 

But it's an obvious pre-requisite that to get 20 years experience you first have to get 1 years experience. There will always be times that the 'usual suspects' can't be there and having your CV somewhere in the pile will certainly not do you any harm. I would say that as projection and LED and vision mixing gets cheaper, we will see in an increase in Live VT at more and more corporate events, and a rise in live feed will almost certainly lead to a rise in requirement for show callers, as this is one of the main times in corporate events that they are used.

[mac.calder]

But it's an obvious pre-requisite that to get 20 years experience you first have to get 1 years experience.

 

It is not 20 years of show call experience necessarily. I would say it is more 10-20 years in corporate building reputation and trust. As I said, a messed up show call in corporate can end in huge refunds. Trust is the key factor. I have seen a company sued for $200k in damages when the major event sponsor pulled out after their VT roll was not displayed at the correct times during the event.

[top-cat]

But it's an obvious pre-requisite that to get 20 years experience you first have to get 1 years experience.

 

It is not 20 years of show call experience necessarily. I would say it is more 10-20 years in corporate building reputation and trust. As I said, a messed up show call in corporate can end in huge refunds. Trust is the key factor. I have seen a company sued for $200k in damages when the major event sponsor pulled out after their VT roll was not displayed at the correct times during the event.

 

Yes these things are not news, however as far as I'm concerned it's up to the AV company to read his CV and decide if he's good enough for them, rather than for him to not send it because you've convinced him he's not good enough.

 

We are all aware of the importance of high profile events and if a company is not sure of your ability they won't give you the jobs that demand it. But there are big jobs and small jobs and as I said the worst they can do is say no, the best case scenario is they put you into work and the rest is history...

[indyld]

Certainly I would try those smaller AV / one-stop production companies who often don't have the same expertise as some one with even a smidge of DSM experience and thus, you are the "expert". There can be plenty of little awards shows and odd smaller corporates run by fledgling providers that have yet to really make their mark on the bigger end of the market. Of course, one has to start somewhere.

 

Didn't mean to come across as negative, only that in nearly 20 years of event experience, I can say that I have seldom, if ever, come across a specialist show caller that I didn't know on UK originated shows and can count the individuals on fingers only. The Showcallers website is just a central point they run to promote themselves as freelancers, rather than an entity or agency.

 

Still, there is hope as everyone gets older and some even manage to exit the industry, leaving gaps for newcomers. Best of luck.