So you want to be an LD do you?

[Smiffy]

I just found this article while googling for something else.

 

It's written by a USA based LD, Peter Maradudin, quite a well known name, and although all the figures are in US$, the sentiment is spot on.

 

http://livedesignonline.com/mag/show_busin...fford_lighting/

 

Cheers

 

Smiffy

[CharlieH]

I just found this article while googling for something else.

 

It's written by a USA based LD, Peter Maradudin, quite a well known name, and although all the figures are in US$, the sentiment is spot on.

 

http://livedesignonline.com/mag/show_busin...fford_lighting/

 

Cheers

 

Smiffy

 

Yes, but you don't do 'arty' jobs for the money do you, you do it for the love of theatre!!! :** laughs out loud **: I have to say when I decided I wanted to work in technical theatre, I had no idea about the money, and I still don't know much, except that it is cr@p....

 

[Emotion]

But even on the small shows that I have LD'd, when I see a good show come together, and all the cues work, and everyone works as a good team, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, and I guess that feeling only gets bigger as the shows do :** laughs out loud **:

[/Emotion]

[Smiffy]

But even on the small shows that I have LD'd, when I see a good show come together, and all the cues work, and everyone works as a good team, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, and I guess that feeling only gets bigger as the shows do

 

Come back to me on that when you're 30 with two kids to feed, a mortgage to pay, and credit cards for days :** laughs out loud **: :** laughs out loud **:

[pritch]

Yes, but you don't do 'arty' jobs for the money do you, you do it for the love of theatre!!!

 

Excuse me for asking, Charlie... but do you still live with your parents?

 

It's great having a job you love, but all too often, a job you love and a job that pays for a roof over your head and the ability to eat things other than instant noodles seven days a week aren't always the same thing!

[Ynot]

The right attitude could be the one my very first am dram group used to apply when selecting their plays/shows.

 

"One for the bank manager, one for the joy"

 

Or more plainly, a production to make some money, and one to enjoy performing.

 

Apply that to the techs, and it's a couple of corporate money-makers, then do one for the crack!!

[CharlieH]

Excuse me for asking, Charlie... but do you still live with your parents?

Yes, but I am a 15 year old student. I wasn't trying to say that I have a proper job, but just that the amateur shows I have LD'd, or even been involved with, have always given me a buzz that nothing else can satisfy, and I cannot see myself being happy anywhere else except in a theatre! :** laughs out loud **:

 

Come back to me on that when you're 30 with two kids to feed, a mortgage to pay, and credit cards for days

I thought someone would say that :** laughs out loud **:

[dbuckley]

Of course, this being the Blue Room, every possible theatrical subject has been discussed before, including this very article, see here.

 

Saves Bob replying again :** laughs out loud **:

[Smiffy]

Thanks for that David. My fault for not checking with a search.

[Bryson]

Scary but true. I'd dearly love to do Lighting Design full-time, but I would end up starving to death! At least my "proper job" is in theatre/events.

[lightsource]

Excuse me for asking, Charlie... but do you still live with your parents?

Yes, but I am a 15 year old student. I wasn't trying to say that I have a proper job, but just that the amateur shows I have LD'd, or even been involved with, have always given me a buzz that nothing else can satisfy, and I cannot see myself being happy anywhere else except in a theatre! :** laughs out loud **:

 

Come back to me on that when you're 30 with two kids to feed, a mortgage to pay, and credit cards for days

I thought someone would say that :D

 

 

Scary but true. I'd dearly love to do Lighting Design full-time, but I would end up starving to death! At least my "proper job" is in theatre/events.

 

Yet there are LD's out there earning a 'proper living', just as there are musicians earning a living, and quite a few sound engineers too!

[the kid]

But those earning are like the talent, right place, right time, right people.

 

I am sure that a large number of those LD's are LD's with maybe 2 company's/promoters who always use them. That is bread and butter and then what ever else comes up is a bonus.

[paulears]

I remember being in the High Court in London as a witness (next court to the Princess Diana case) and one of the other witnesses was Patrick Woodroffe. The judge, who had little idea of anything in our world asked him to name a few of his clients. So he name dropped quite a list, and even the judge had heard of them. He then asked him how much he earned from Lighting Design at that level. He had to explain how it works and how his fees also pay for his associates, office staff, premises, general business overheads - leaving a 'guesstimate' as to his real earnings. The judge then asked how many others in the world there were doing similar things. The list was rather small. The truth being that unless you can earn LD fees all the time, then you have to do other work too.

 

When you're a teenager, I think whatever job you do that you enjoy overwhelms you to the extent that you genuinely believe it's the best job in the world and you can't imagine doing anything different. My own history suggests each phase of my life has lasted around ten years. At the end of this period I started to hate it, and within a very short time needed something new. This then became the best job ever, but lasted perhaps a little less time, then again, time for a swap. My current best job has all my old ones in it somewhere and I can rotate around. I currently hate live sound, and don't want to do it any more, so the next few months will be totally sound-less.

 

In short, I've never got fed up with the industry at all - I think I just get bored with some of the components. Sitting at a big desk, with lots of faders and having one finger on one fader and one on another with the occasional push of 'play' isn't job satisfaction. Doing LX when the turn says about the lighting "I don't care about the lights, make it bright when I come on, and turn them off again when I go off".

 

I suspect the only time I actually go to bed feeling I've had a good day is when unplanned, bad things, happen and I sorted them in the nick of time.

[kerry davies]

Interesting post, Paul. From what you say, and my own experience, whatever one does for a living can be made fascinating but only for a finite amount of time. My periodic "change everything" is about 8 years which ties in nicely with the "every seven years your body has renewed every single cell" theory.

 

Making career decisions at 15 or 18 is facile when people of my age have no idea what they will be doing next year, and specialising in one area of this business just doesn't work. PW may well be the best known rock LD but he also works in shows, film, opera, ballet, architectural lighting, art installations, lecturing and consultancy. Bet he didn't think he would be lighting Yo Sushi, Swan Lake or Prince Charles' house when he was in the back of a tour bus with ABBA.

 

Reading your post I went onto the PSA website and found around 60 people calling themselves LD's every single one of whom also listed other trades like technician, rigger, electrician, AV, PM, SM, H&S, sound design, pyro, fireworks etc. Searching lighting hire companies there were around 50 listed so there is one multi-skilled PSA member "LD" for every PSA member lighting company.

I appreciate that this is hardly a representative or accurate statistic but it kind of goes to show what newbies are up against and confirms my belief that specific graduate training is not necessarily the optimum.

 

If anyone thinks "theatre is different, dahling" there are 9 nominations for STLD/ALD theatre awards today, three of them (one in each category) for one outstanding individual who actually graduated in set design. It is a tiny, perverse world is ours.

[lightsource]

Reading your post I went onto the PSA website and found around 60 people calling themselves LD's every single one of whom also listed other trades like technician, rigger, electrician, AV, PM, SM, H&S, sound design, pyro, fireworks etc. Searching lighting hire companies there were around 50 listed so there is one multi-skilled PSA member "LD" for every PSA member lighting company.

I appreciate that this is hardly a representative or accurate statistic but it kind of goes to show what newbies are up against and confirms my belief that specific graduate training is not necessarily the optimum.

 

 

Maybe you're hinting towards the "It's not what you know, but who you know" scenario.

 

Graduate training is a grey area at the best of times, it's the experience in the real world vs knowledge from training argument that has graced this forum many times in the past.

[gherriott]

I've not been on here for a while, but have just stumbled across this thread and thought I'd give my two cents worth. I'm still new to this industry as a professional freelancer, but have been captured by 'the love' for a very long time. What I've noticed recently though, is that I'm now spending more of my time trying to survive, than actually enjoying what I do. Yes there are the shows that still give me that good feeling at the end, and that still inspire me, but they are becoming fewer and less frequent. This is because, I think, that I'm not challenging myself as much anymore. I used to crave new knowledge and was constantly trying to better my skills. However now, I spend all my time just trying to keep the money coming in, accepting jobs when they come up no matter what level of skills they require at some points. This means I'm challenging myself less and just keeping my head above water. Having said this, I feel that after a time, when my stress levels stop rising towards the end of each contract, then I will get that hunger for knowledge back and start to actually love my job again.

 

I'm sure this is something that everyone goes through at some point in their careers...suppose all you can do is hang in there and try pull yourself out of that rut :wub: