The writing in black

[THETECHGUY]

Hello , I have been doing volunteer work at a secondary school for about 3 years now and I am a student. A couple of days ago we had our items checked and pretty much sorted out by some visitors . After their visit I was told I wasnt aloud in our technical room , had to redo my ladder and scaffold training and had to be with a member of staff every time I ring lights or set up desk. I have done it without all of this for 3 years and it has been fine. I was wondering if anyone knows the training and fine print I need to be able to climb ladders and rigg lights by myself or with my co-worker in the school.

 

thanks

 

harry

[Brian]

1) How old are you?

2) If you are at school, does this refer to the school at which you are a pupil?

[paulears]

In tech guy's other posts he was asking for some guidance so it looks like he's a pupil of the school.

 

Sadly - almost certainly the company who have been in have made the school aware of their responsibilities regarding the kind of things you are doing. So your privileges have been revoked, which puts you in the same position as hundreds of other keen people in school. What may have happened is that they've been told what could happen to them, if you have an accident - and what the penalties could be, and if you were not being supervised by a teacher, then any accident could drop at the door of the head and maybe he or she is not willing to accept the responsibility.

 

It's very common!

Paul

[THETECHGUY]

Yeah thankyou for your replies :)

 

I am 14 and I am a pupil

[Ynot]

I am 14 and I am a pupil

Well, sadly, therein lies the rub.

 

Rightly or wrongly (and there are differing opinions here even from old farts like myself) what youngsters can and can't do these days is being restricted with a firm hand by those in charge. And in the little understood area of theatre tech, even more so - because it's understandably hard for adults who maybe don't understand the intricacies of lighting etc to be able to justify allowing a pupil to handle stuff they cannot quantify the risks for. So they simply don't allow it.

 

For the majority of school children that is definitely the RIGHT thing to do. For the small handful who maybe do have the maturity to get involved and some inklings of how it's done that may well seem unfair, BUT trust me, those who DO have that desired level of maturity are most definitely in the minute minority. I include those who THINK they have the wherewithal in the majority as 'thinking' and 'having' are pretty much exclusive!

[ojc123]

Ynot speaks wise words.

I've been through all this with the School at which I work. There are presently a few students that I would trust to do the work. The problem comes with the "What if...?". Our insurers will not countenance students working on ladders or scaffold tower at present. Ipso facto, our students don't work on ladders or scaffold towers. It doesn't matter how many bits of paper they have. To be honest, although I feel comfortable working at height, I do not feel comfortable teaching others without a higher level of training than I have. It's another reason why we don't let students up towers. It seems that your School is letting you do more than we can allow and I applaud them for it.

 

I realise this is very frustrating for a young enthusiastic person. Believe me, I'd rather send a young enthusiastic person up to mess with lanterns than drag my ancient, creaky bones and dodgy ticker up the scaffold tower yet again. The novelty value has long since faded.

 

It's just occurred to me that my Dad was working in a Bakery and my Uncles were in the pits by the time they were your age. No wrapping in cotton wool then.

[paulears]

A bit OT - but from time to time, I'd have a couple of hours a week on a media production unit - where the media people didn't have studio type experience, and I didn't mind. As usual, some students were useless, some fine, some very keen - but had ideas beyond their skill, and just a couple seemed very mature. At that time, we allowed these type of extra keen people - 17, or 18 years old, additional scope - and one was giving them the keys, letting them stay unsupervised to shoot things in the studio, use the edit suites and so on - then, they'd have to lock up and get the keys back to reception ready for the caretakers to set the alarms. This pair had been doing this twice a week for a month to produce their 'cinematic experience'. No problems - never even untidy, all neat, tidy and secure. We had something odd happen - people using the studio started to report a disgusting smell, which was getting worse. On hot days it became impossible to be in the studio. Dynorod came in and couldn't find anything wrong with the sewers and the rainwater drains were clear - no dead rodents, that kind of thing. One day I was in the edit suite, and they were using the Avid suite, rather than tape based editing which the normal students could just about fathom out. I only needed a few minutes in there, but most file space was full of this pairs work - so not needing much myself I started up, and it auto loaded their project. I couldn't believe what I was seeing - the two of them were making a martial arts sequence - with REAL samurai swords! These at the time could be bought from a shop in Yarmouth quite legally. What they'd done was go to the local butchers and buy a plastic bag of offal. This went under one of them's shirt. Then the other took a swing with the sword, was a bit too far away and missed, so then moved in a little bit closer. Eventually the tip of the blade sliced through the shirt, the 'guts' fell out and the shot was complete. What they must have done was then clean it up, but some must have dripped into the vent strip holes around the edge of the studio floor - hence the awful smell.

 

Parents in, riot acts read and THEN the father said "why did you allow them to do something so dangerous?". The head of media said I wasn't there so not my fault. The Governor's disagreed and the head of media was 'promoted' to a non-teaching, management role. After hours working was banned immediately unless a member of staff was willing to stay and supervise. If one of the technical students wanted to move some cases on his own in the summer holiday, nobody would be willing to supervise in a holiday, and none of the holiday staff would wish to do it either. I sympathise, but in my example the head of a department took the heat when in reality, their specialism was actually scriptwriting! That is what happens when the staff idea of trust is not quite the same as the students. The two people involved were not the usual ones who spend time in groups, they were quiet, steady, never caused problems, reliable and dependable - and must have had a death wish. Seeing two students on video swiping at each other could also have been excellent evidence in a coroners court too!

[ramdram]

Sadly the "ladder" training is not that much use if working in a hurry...and age is not really a guarantee of "doing it right". In our venue nobody goes up a ladder unless there is someone in the auditorium with them. Because of brightish ambient light during the day the lanterns are set for an inhouse production the night before when we are assured of complete "blackness" under the canopy.

 

This means waiting until elevenish and moving the lanterns, sorting the gels etc. One of our hitherto steady old lads, anxious to be in and gone contrived to tip the ladder sideways and found himself unable to get back into balance. Fortunately he was not that high (his boots no more that 5 feet or so above ground level) and I was able to "twist" the feet of the ladder back onto the floor. He had overreached and committed the classical error of moving his "belt buckle outside the stiles".

 

This means he will never again be considered entirely safe because he took a risk whilst up a ladder simply to get the job over and done with. (He was trying to shove gels between a Par and top hat but without a gel frame, a bit like trying to push water uphill.)

 

It does seem a little unjust that the notion of safety is based, partly, on age, whereas it may be that a fair proportion of accidents might be caused by being in the wrong frame of mind.