Rigging Training

[jr1312]

I really want to get into lighting and rigging, but at 35 years old with wife/house etc can't really afford (or have the time) to do a full 3 year degree course. I've read about 3 day training courses (in Bolton & Birmingham) for £550 + vat. Question is are they really worth it? Is this something that I need or are there any other short courses that will give me the qualifications or technical know-how that I need just so companies will give me a look-in?

 

Any help appreciated.

[rudigure]

Having done the 3 day course in Total Fabs, I'd give it two thumbs up. I learned an awful lot in those three days.

[JDP]

I did this course a number of years a go, or a smiliar one. It was a very good course, BUT it doesn't make you anywhere near a rigger.

 

If I remember rightly the Total Fabs training room was around 5M high? That REALLY doesn't prepare you for walking accross beams or T irons in the 02, Earls Court, Olympia etc.

[Seano]

Question is are they really worth it? Is this something that I need or are there any other short courses that will give me the qualifications or technical know-how that I need just so companies will give me a look-in?

The answer to that is probably a rather unhelpful "it depends". Sorry about that.

You're not asking whether the Total Fabs course (et al) is value for money as such, but whether it makes sense as an investment for you - ie: will it pay for itself?

 

This isn't really a question that anyone else can answer for you, since it really depends on where you're at right now. If you currently have no contact at all with the lighting/rigging companies you're hoping to contract for, I suspect that completing a 3-day course in itself will not open doors for you. If you do have contact, maybe you should conduct a bit of market research and ask whether they'd have more work for you after taking such a course? Depending on who you're talking to and what kind of work you're bucking for, you might find an IPAF card a new driving licence or something else entirely a better investment.

 

If I remember rightly the Total Fabs training room was around 5M high? That REALLY doesn't prepare you for walking accross beams or T irons in the 02, Earls Court, Olympia etc.

I dont think anyone (least of all the people who deliver those courses in Brum and Bolton) would claim that a short training course in itself prepares a person for work.

That would be silly, there's no substitute for experience. The training room (I think its a shade over 5m actually, but prolly not by much) is nothing more than an environment where you can learn and practice the skills you use to work safely at any height - arguably good preparation to start gaining some experience.

 

Besides, height isn't everything. Tall as it is, the roof of the O2 is one of the most benign working environments a climbing rigger could wish for - straightforward deadhangs and 2-legged bridles on wide, level, uncluttered I beams with an excellent system of catenaries, well lit and pigeon-poo free. :)

 

Sx

[Brixton]

If I remember rightly the Total Fabs training room was around 5M high? That REALLY doesn't prepare you for walking accross beams or T irons in the 02, Earls Court, Olympia etc.

No, but I would guarantee that when you learned to drive and did your hill start and turn in the road that didn't prepare you for tanking down the M6 after an out at the MEN to get to an in at the CIA either.

Unless I am mistaken the course is not called "introduction to walking on really high girders"

I think the title is "3 day rigging for the entertainment industry" at least that what it says on the opening slide.

 

The course would be organised in a really stupid way if on day one we took people up 85' and asked them to walk along a 6" beam

all that would happen is that they told the instructors to go forth and multiply and then go home and in a month the course would close due to lack of applicants.

 

How do you define rigging? walking on beams at extreme height? or

Getting the load, lamp/speaker/bit of set, safely suspended at the right point in space, knowing how to calculate bridles,knowing how to run chain hoists, strong and weak points on truss, correct use of dogs etc.

For every high venue MEN, Sheffield Arena, O2; there are a number of low ones Manchester Apollo, the Dominion, Apollo Hammersmith, Ricoh Arena, CIA etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Sorry about that last post

It seemed a bit harsh on re-reading it

It wasn't meant to be

I was trying ( badly) to point out that whilst people immediately think about the height factor in relation to rigging

the height is only a small part of it and the Total/UK Rigging course addresses all(nearly) elements of rigging

[JDP]

Hi Brixton.

 

How do you define rigging? walking on beams at extreme height? or

Getting the load, lamp/speaker/bit of set, safely suspended at the right point in space, knowing how to calculate bridles,knowing how to run chain hoists, strong and weak points on truss, correct use of dogs etc.

 

I think being a GOOD rigger is a mixture of both. You NEED to be able to work at height AND suspend points, do the calculating etc. If you want to do the second point you said, then theres plenty of room to do that being a ground rigger. But if you want to be putting the points in you have to be able to do both. I am sure I don't need to tell you about the physical work involved being a rigger, hauling 1T chains is enough in Hammersmith Apollo and Brixton Academies, let alone double falls of 1T with stingers on the end. It takes a great amount of skill to work with such weight AND work high in the air doing it.