Lighting Design courses

[robloxley]

What are people's opinions on current Lighting Design courses or courses which offer a serious Lighting Design component, and how they are viewed in the industry. Where you are coming from (student, ex-student, in the industry etc.) would also be useful.

[richard]

I personally studied on a Stage Management and Technical Theatre course, which I graduated from in 1999. My plan was always yo go into Lighting Design but I wanted to make sure that I had a firm grounding in all aspects of theatre, especially as I knew how hard it would be to get a foot in the door on the design side.

 

I'm glad that I did as I have since done quite a lot of Production Management (which I really enjoy) as well as some crewing, stage management and so on.

 

I don't really think that Lighting Design courses are a good idea. To be a good lighting deisgner I feel that you need a full understanding of the way that theatre works as a whole. CSSD for example runs, I believe, I lighting deisgn course AND a stage electrics course. I just can't see how you can go out and design lighting if you don't know how to rig a light (I have encountered students of such courses who have no understanding of electrical safety or how to climb a ladder). Seeing as most people who want to design will have to start out in Fringe theatre, with little or no money or crew, I think that as much training in all fields is necessary.

 

That's my thoughts anyway!

 

Richard

[Rob]

I'm on the Lighting Design Course at Rose Bruford.

 

I went for a Lighting Design course for a couple of reasons. Without wanting to sound big-headed, I'd worked in the industry for four years doing all kinds of things from Stage Management, Scenic Construction and pretty much everything else as well as lighting. I felt that I had a reasonable grounding in theatre as a whole, and the diversity and depth that the pure Lighting Design Degree offers really appealed to me.

 

Having said that, there are other people on the course who havent had that sort of background that I have. Time will tell how they get on! One of the things we have started doing at Bruford is going round the other departments to have a quick look at how they work - but we havent really delved very deep into the mysterious word of the wardrobe or Stage managment departments yet!

 

I was offered places on other courses, including the afformentioned Central course and the courses at Guildhall and RADA. The course at Guildhall is a degree in Stage Management - Although you can specialise in Lighting, it is very heavily SM orientated. The place had a really great atmosphere though, and I really would have liked to have gone there. The course at Central was also good, but I didnt like the idea of having to choose between Production Electrics or Lighting Design as I felt the two kind of went hand in hand and I wanted to study both. RADA's course was also very good, but the fact that it was only a two year diploma put me off.

 

The main reason I chose Bruford was the depth and scope of the course. I'm very interested in getting into the music and corporate events scene; Bruford's course covers a very wide range of theatrical mediums including these, rather than just teaching theatre skills. We have already seen projects from those in the years above including Architectural lighting, Dance Shows, Rock Concerts and mock product launches.

 

I'm not really very far into the course, but I'm really looking forward to what's ahead! :blink:

[Paul J Need]

As a Graduate and ex-tutor at RADA, I would say go to America for any purely lighting design courses - Before I get any comments from other ex-RADA people, I think RADA is great; especially since the building work was completed, the three theatre spaces are superb ( standards in the canteen have not improved however) - but as detailed in another of my posts in here about the state of degrees, the volume of productions students work on is a fraction of what happened in my day. I was lucky and lit 14 productions in 4 terms, someone leaving today will be lucky to have lit 3-4. (Possible one of those would have been a son illuminaire!!!))

 

Richard has a very good point to make - if you are trying to find a coure in the UK do both design AND electrics. You can use your electrical skills working on shows while waiting for the phone to ring offering you your next west end job. The hard facts of the matter are still the same today as when I lit my first show in 1980, only a small proportion of people are actually making a living (AND I MEAN GOOD STANDARD OF LIVING) from lighting design alone. Even Mr Hersey had to start up in business selling gobo's - remember? So, in short, unless you want to starve for the first 3 years after graduation have something else under your belt so you can pay for your shopping at Tesco.

 

Good luck

[Ben]

hi, im a student at CSSD, studing production LX and just though I would say that unlike indicated in an above post there is a component of the Lighting Design course that includes the electrics, however the Production LX go into alot more depth.

Also there is, for the best lighting designers, no need to know how to rig a lantern and a good production LX should be able to work out how the design will work for himself without having to have it shown to him by athe LD.

The main difference between the 2 courses at CSSD is that the production LX learn alot more about the technical side and more about electrics in general and the LDs just do the more basic (rigging, patching, etc...) and not the more in depth stuff. there is also a component of the Production LX course that for obvious reasons deals with lighing design.

Just thought I would correct the previous post.

 

Ben

CSSD Production LX

[gareth]

Also there is, for the best lighting designers, no need to know how to rig a lantern and a good production LX should be able to work out how the design will work for himself without having to have it shown to him by athe LD.

I really must take issue with these comments - they are severely misguided.

 

Generally speaking, some of the best lighting designers I know are those who started as sparks and worked their way up. Some of the worst are those who have come to it fresh out of a lighting design course without any knowledge of the 'nuts and bolts' of what they're trying to achieve.

 

If a lighting designer doesn't have a sound knowledge of the technicalities of lighting, how is he to know what is and isn't possible? When I design (which isn't that often these days) I would never design something into my show that I personally wouldn't be happy to have to deal with as a production sparks.

 

To make a rather ropey analogy, it's a bit like someone without any knowledge of the fundamentals of automechanics trying to design a car. It might look pretty on paper, but it's going to be a right pig's ear when it comes to the realisation.

 

Ben, I suggest that you go away and think carefully about what you said. When you graduate from college, and find yourself working as a production sparks for a designer who is asking the impossible just because he doesn't know what's impossible, you'll find yourself thinking very differently, I can assure you.

 

And as for your comment about the production sparks having to be shown how the design will work by the LD ... certainly the LD might need to explain some of the finer concepts of the design to the prod LX so that he knows what the LD is trying to achieve and therefore how best to make it happen. But other than that a decent production sparks should be able to receive a plan from the LD and turn it into a rig that's ready for focussing without being 'shown how to make it work'. Hell, that's your job! If you have to be shown how to do it it's a poor do!

[Bryson]

there is, for the best lighting designers, no need to know how to rig a lantern

 

Have to admit that that one made me cough a bit when I read it...

 

I think Gareth has said it all there, really. But I note that Ben does say that the LDs do get taught rigging and focussing et al...and I guess they miss out the finer points of DMX addressing and the like...that's fair enough.

 

The other "minor bugbear" I have with Lighting courses these days is that they tend to teach you on rather lovely shiny kit...(LIPA, I'm looking at you...)...due to sponsorship deals, which can leave graduates underprepared for the appalingly under-equipped average smaller (or even larger..) venue. Not that there's anything wrong with using tasty new things, it's just that every theatre tech should have experience with the "green" lanterns of this world...

 

 

"..somewhere that's green..." :D

[Light Console]

I went to Rose Bruford on the Lighting Design Degree. Why?

Well, I have always been interested in lighting. My father built me a lighting unit when I was two. While I was at school, I was the head of the crew We had a fire at the school, and I restored all of the equipment with supervision of an experianced teacher. While at college studying Engineering, I helped as a casual Technician at the Gantry Arts Centre. Where I learnt lots, and often given small design jobs.

I only applied to Rosey B, and got in. I really enjoyed my time there, and felt that I learnt how to design, and futhered my knowledge of the technical points, not having worked with DMX before for example. I never went with the intensions to become the next award winning designer. I noticed that you could ask for roles during the productions so those that wanted big designs could ask for them. The people that came up via the Engish / Theatre courses first had a better knowledge of how to deconstruct the play into the inner meanings. But they didn't have much of an interest in the technical side.

I am interested in all technical things in theatre, LX SD SM so I guess I am not a real lighting designer. I now have a job with Thomson Holidays as a Gold Stage Technician abroad, and as was said at the interview, over qualified, but the ideal candidate!

Gosh, this sounds very big headed :D but the course got me to where I wanted, broadened my knowledge of all producction types. And I was able to restore a Light Console, which I have always wanted to do!!!

Rob.

[Rob]

The other "minor bugbear" I have with Lighting courses these days is that they tend to teach you on rather lovely shiny kit.

 

I guess it's a good thing then that Bruford has a rather nice mix of everything from Pattern 23's and 123's to Source 4's and Selecon stuff. It doesn't always seem that way when the old stuff won't behave though!

[Bryson]

When I was at college, (Bretton Hall, fact fans) when the time came to divvy up kit for the various productions, I would always take "everything that's Green." That way, people would let me take more lanterns that were my fair share, becuse they were more excited by the Brios (ugh) and Quartets! Meanwhile, my rigs were comparitvely huge...full of 743s and the like. B)

[Stu]

ah 743's

 

We've got loads of them at work on rig right as we talk... Great lights, and I'm sure they can do the widest angle out of all the Fresnels still avaiable (82º I think).

 

Mind you we've also got loads of T-Spots, so easy come, easy go.

 

Stu

[gareth]

ah 743's

 

We've got loads of them at work on rig right as we talk... Great lights, and I'm sure they can do the widest angle out of all the Fresnels still avaiable (82º I think).

 

Mind you we've also got loads of T-Spots, so easy come, easy go.

 

Stu

Agreed - 743's are still damn fine lanterns (it's that lovely big lens that does it!).

 

T-pots, though ... <shudder>!

 

Poole Lighthouse? Isn't that what used to be the Towngate? Didn't they buy you some new lanterns as part of the refurb??

 

Still, I'm looking forward to my next visit to see whether they've actually managed to make any of the improvements that they were talking about when I was last there!

[James]

Came across an amater place over the new year where they lamp their 743's at 500W, their logic is that the 'operators' can't tell the difference between a p23 and therefore they want to standardise on a single type of lamp for safety reasons.

 

James

[Stu]

Agreed - 743's are still damn fine lanterns (it's that lovely big lens that does it!).

 

T-pots, though ... <shudder>!

 

Poole Lighthouse? Isn't that what used to be the Towngate? Didn't they buy you some new lanterns as part of the refurb??

 

Still, I'm looking forward to my next visit to see whether they've actually managed to make any of the improvements that they were talking about when I was last there!

Yeh the T-Spots have defintely had their day...

 

Lighthouse is the new name for the whole complex and does include Towngate yep. We got loads of Strand SL's kicking around (15/32's and 23/50's) and also some Source Four 19's and 36's.

 

The SL's have gone onto Bridge 1 and the T-Spots relegated to Bridge 2, but there really not used all that much anymore.

 

It's pretty common knowledge tho that the 9 million quid got spent elsewhere than the Tech Department <_<

 

Still, you do your best.

 

Stu

[Wibble]

The other "minor bugbear" I have with Lighting courses these days is that they tend to teach you on rather lovely shiny kit...(LIPA, I'm looking at you...)...due to sponsorship deals, which can leave graduates underprepared for the appalingly under-equipped average smaller (or even larger..) venue.

I presume that Bryson is extrememly familiar with the course at LIPA, certainly his comments seem to imply that he has a good knowledge of it...

 

So does he seek to suggest that graduates from LIPA, and by further implication the other schools were there is access to Intelligent fixtures, and not educated in the use of generic fixtures, or taught to do things in a smaller style?

 

Hmmm..

 

Or is he really un-informed of the true nature of the experience at these schools, and just following some of the recounted tales of LIPA students, and the institutes supposed obsession with "new toys"?