Chris M Posted April 29, 2003 Share Posted April 29, 2003 I feel this post is very misleading. I am a student and am at Rose Bruford. I have also done a technical theatre coures at Lewisham College. The thing I have fouund on both these courses is you get out of it what you put in. I have put myself forward and offered to help on numerous shows, and because of this I have learnt quite abit about electrics, and jobs. The opportunitys are there to followspot and I have on shows. I have chief'd and designed and board op'd at least 1 show. I am currently board oping a production of Carmen. I have learnt to use (at Rose Bruford) an Arri impuls, Expression (from Express, expression, expression 2X and expression 3 desks), a Zero 88 Illusion, Zero 88 Frog, a Wholehog 2, a Strand 530i, to name a few. The point is a few of these desks I have taken time out of my stuff to go in and learn these desks, they dont make you sit and learn them, but they have them there, and there are quite a few times where the lighting labs are empty and you are free to go in and 'play' and teach yourself. The college doesnt 'baby' you, it expects you to use your initiative. Like I said, the college has projects going on all the time, and if you help out, when things go wrong thats how you learn. I was helping out on a show and a moving light wasnt working. So we VERY VERY carefully took it aprat, and it was a valuable learning experience about how they were put together. When on the London season working on a show, I left my number with the Theatre incase they needed anyone to work. The college gives you opportunitys, but you have to be able to work out where they are and take them. I hope this doesnt sound asthough I'm just trying to promote myself, cause I'm more trying to 'stick up' for the college by usuing me as an example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinmonk Posted April 30, 2003 Share Posted April 30, 2003 Also as a Student doing the same course at Rose Bruford, I would like to support the previous message from Chris M. As he says, you get out what you put in, the experience is there, the knowledge is there! The college offers you the chances to do these things, you have to have the initiative to do it and work it out. The other promising point about the course is that unlike some "production electrics" type courses, everything ISNT offered to you on a plate, you have to have the initiative to do something, to think about it, and to plan what you want to acheive. Sourcing equipment or working with whats available is a valuable lesson... As pointed out, the college has a large stock of desks available to use, from many different manufacturers and from a wide range of industry areas. They are there for us to use when we want, to gain knowledge in them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris M Posted April 30, 2003 Share Posted April 30, 2003 One point that I forgot to mention was the fact that we are taught basic electics and PAT testing. The way we learn about these things is by when we want to design something, if its broke, we fix it. A example of this was a Lighting Desk wasnt working properly, I went to the tutor and told him the lighting desk wasnt working properly. His response was "Waht you gonna do about it then?" He then said it may be an idea to get in touch with Zero 88 (it was an Illusion 500). So I emailed Zero 88, and to do this, I had to find out all the info on the desk (software no. etc.) and then rang them, and they e-mailed me a software update, which when I installed on the desk, and it fixed alot of the problems we had, I then went and gave a copy of the update to my tutor and informed him that I had "fixed" the problems we were having. If a lantern isnt working, we fix it. The tutors are there for advice, but they dont stand there saying first undo this screw, then remove that bolt, then do this and then do that. They just let us get on with it, and teach us to ask for advice when we need it, which I believe is how it works in the real world !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue_tiger Posted July 18, 2003 Author Share Posted July 18, 2003 Hello all and thank you for your replies!!! Apologies for taking so long to reply but I have been experiencing general pc problems and also trouble to add a reply in the blue room. I really appreciate your time and advice and id like to thank Nick Lee, Peter, Smeggie and Gareth for that. Special thanks to Lightnix who cheered me up a lot with his/her comments. I hope there are more people out there in the industry who think like you and do not feel vulnerable about passing on their knowledge to the least experienced. It is something that one usually comes accros it the world of arts from what ive heard Also to give my opinion too on comments made about lightig design courses and especially the one in RB...I agree with Chris M that a course is what you make out of it...I think generally in life whatever you do is what YOU make out of it. However, when it comes to education, people learn different ways and as people are very different some might need more time as well. In general I think if someone wants to be a good professional as a lighting designer or whatever really has to improve themeselves all the time. And to do that, one has to take advantage of all the sources available to provide that. It might be the case, that some people in the beggining of their carreer feel that a 3year course in lighting provides just a basic bacground knowledge. thanks again to everyone for your time and advice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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