Brian Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 The other approach would to be to not get involved in the Olympics. You could then name your price for all the work that will still need to get done elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Shush Brian! You're not supposed to tell anyone that!:P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich newby Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Yer, if anyone knows when you can actually volunteer for the lighting and sound side of the event I would be really interested. I would be 20 by then and have 13 years of experience. It really would be a once in a lifetime thing! Like your thinking Brian :P CheersRich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Yer, if anyone knows when you can actually volunteer for the lighting and sound side of the event I would be really interested. I would be 20 by then and have 13 years of experience.Why would anyone, let alone someone with 13 years of experience want to volunteer? Call me an ole grump but... Anyway I'll shut up now this "thing" has been ranted about here before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickwoolley Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Yes I must say Mike that I agree with you - there will be people at the time looking for work on the Olympics and it wont help if 100s of people volunteer to help - leaving not a great chance of paid work. One of them looking for work will hopefully be me and I think the amount of time that people who need to give would just not be financially viable if they were not paid. Especially for the technical expertise that people will give. Sorry all - I just get annoyed sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich newby Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 yes, paid would be ideal, but as said before it would be a once in a lifetime experience, and that what I'm saying, I would do it voluntarily if that's what it would take to get a job there! However I think that the companys who are doing the tech will suddenly get alot of job applications in 2011! Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 I would do it voluntarily if that's what it would take to get a job there! However I think that the companys who are doing the tech will suddenly get alot of job applications in 2011! Rich I still don't understand why you would volunteer, nor do I think the companies involved will be inundated with job applications. The key roles will go to known and skilled operators, the lesser roles will go to the usual suspects and the volunteers (if there are any) will get to unload trucks and hump boxes if they're lucky and not manning the car parks that is.Sorry, but I suspect that you misunderstand the way events of that sort of scale work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich newby Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 yes, I know. However I think that it will be one of the only ways I will get to be involved with the 2012 Olympics. To actually get a decent job on the event, without having to work for many years with the company that will be doing lighting. I will only have 5 years from scratch to prove myself, which would have to leave school before 6th form aswell, which I don't want to do. Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickwoolley Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 The speed that these events have to go in, they can't really afford to choose someone for an important job just because it says so on a piece of paper... You really do have to proove yourself in the company, or as always word of mouth is very useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 To put it another way - the lighting, sound and staging aspect of an event like the Olympic games is no different to any other major component of such an event. It's run on a purely commercial basis, with large companies tendering for very valuable contracts and using the services of lots of skilled people who earn a living from doing that sort of thing. Hordes of lighting and sound 'hobbyists' getting involved as volunteers - well, it just ain't going to happen. You could liken it to the phase of preparation which will precede all the public ceremonies and events - the design and construction of the stadia and other venues. Will there be a load of DIYers queueing up to volunteer the skills which they've perfected by putting up a stud partition wall in their spare bedroom? No, the projects will be carried out by large corporate contractors using skilled professional labour. The technical side of the opening, closing and other events will work in exactly the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeStoddart Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 I would love to be involved in some way with the event but as some of the above posts indicate the "show" which is the opening and closing events will be organised by a large corporation (or perhaps even a consortium) and they will use experienced people they have worked with in the past to get such a high profile job done efficiently. My volunteering to help or even applying for paid work will probably be consigned to the wastebasket. Having said that there are loads of requirements for volunteers to be involved in the Olympics. Depending on your availability and probably location I'm sure you could end up helping in some way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dosxuk Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 There are a lot of benefits from volunteering at the Olympics. Most of them come from being accredited (having an official pass) which for a start, volunteers get virtually free access to all the public areas of your venue(s). In Athens all accredited staff had access to free public transport, access to all Olympic transport between venues, easier access to other venues (i.e. if you wanted to go see another sport), free clothes / pins (if you've worked an Olympics, you'll know why the pins are so important :D) and free entry to all the historical sites / museums. I was lucky in Athens as I had an host broadcaster 'infinity' pass, which meant I had access to all the venues and sites, and access to all the broadcast compounds and camera positions, and not once was I challenged when I turned up at random venues to spend half an hour watching stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellis Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 yes, paid would be ideal, but as said before it would be a once in a lifetime experience, and that what I'm saying, I would do it voluntarily if that's what it would take to get a job there! However I think that the companys who are doing the tech will suddenly get alot of job applications in 2011! Rich 2011 will be too late to apply - even to be a gofer. As for volunteering, would you really have volunteers working on an event if you knew that any failure would completely destroy your company's reputation world-wide? Not likely! The games will be big money and the contractors will be expecting to trade on their reputation for years to come. With an event that size and the inevitable tight deadlines, each contractor will have to be able to trust their team members 110% They will hire people they know to have done a good job for them in the past - when they have all been hired (or won't be released by their regular employers), word of mouth will be next - anyone known to be reliable and hard - working by the contractors associates will be approached. The best way for any current blue-roomer to get to work on the games is to get casual work with one (or more) of the eventual contractors and show their worth when they get asked to work an event (and take every event they ask you to do). If they want general grunt labourers (to load steeldeck onto trucks, etc) they will doubtless go to several of the well established temporary staff agencies who will either use local labour or bus them in. As has been said before, with all the best people on the games crews and every available venue within 2-3 hours travel of London looking to cash-in on the huge numbers of visitors in the country, there will be plenty of work for technicians who do not work on the games - and good money to tempt enough good technicians away from the glamour of the the games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wycome5 Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 I do not know how true this is but I was told by a technician I worked with back in October that Just FX had got the pyro contract. I would have thought Le Maitre would have got it. Apparantly, Just FX also did the confetti when it was announced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 ...I was told by a technician I worked with back in October that Just FX had got the pyro contract... Hmm, nice idea. Just FX often gets involved with this type of event in a background capacity, sub-hiring equipment and supplying materials, but having spoken to my friends at Just FX I can categorically state that they have NOT be been awarded any such contract (but that their fingers are firmly crossed!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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