Lighting Piece

[BenLane18]

New to this Blue Room forum, was told about it by a fellow course mate. So I've been reading through some topics and you guys seem helpful, so here's my first post :)

 

I have an up and coming lighting piece that I have to program and put into action for an assignment, using an Orb XF & many movers. Only problem is my lack of confidence, It's my second year in tech theatre in college, but my confidence has really held me back from pitching in ideas throughout the course, worrying that I might be wrong or that the idea itself is somewhat unrealistic. I also feel it's had an affect on my grades. So I now have this assignment coming up, I know how to use most aspects of the console, but my confidence is still lacking and I'm slightly nervous, could anybody give me some tips on how to overcome this? Cheers.http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif

[JCC1996]

Hi Ben,

 

Welcome to the Blue Room, I'm sure you'll like it here. I am a few rungs below you in the educational ladder, I'm in my penultimate year of secondary school- but I have experienced some of the issues you are talking about: not only through technical work, but also as a keen horse rider I have picked up a number of good, confidence building tips.

 

Firstly you have to believe in yourself: take a look at my signature below this post. 'I am the technician. I know what to do.' The fact you have asked here for advice shows that you are very probably a competent technician. Believe that. Once you believe deep down that you are good at what you do you can start to figure out how to show that.

 

That's where the 'fake it till you make it' technique comes in. Again, in my signature it says, 'The more the need for panic, the calmer you should look'. And this is what you should do. If you get nervous just tell

yourself that you know what you are doing, you are good at this etc. Pick a positive phrase and use that as your 'buzz word'! And most importantly, force yourself to have a positive body position. Eventually, this fake confidence will turn into real confidence.

The third thing I would say is that you must accept you will be wrong sometimes and that you will make mistakes. But you're better to do that now than in a few years when you're board op for a massive West End show, if you get what I mean! Just take a positive from every mistake- in my opinion its only a mistake if you don't learn from it. Otherwise its experience.

Good luck

Joe

[kerry davies]

Interesting thing, confidence. Some who look extremely confident are a boiling mess inside and others who look a bag of nerves can have more basic self-confidence. That is where "con man" and "con trick" comes from, surface impressions. Don't compare your insides to others outsides.

 

Being wrong and making mistakes is what you are actually in college for. I wouldn't want to pay you to be wrong or make mistakes on one of my gigs. I would far rather someone make mistakes and learn from them than never make mistakes from which they could learn. In the real world knowing how to rectify the inevitable failures is more important than never failing. Things ALWAYS fail, sometime or other.

 

Look on this exercise as a chance to have fun with what you already know. Nobody actually knows precisely what the end result will look like so you have a relatively free hand. Try things and, if and when they fail, use the knowledge gained to work on the next trial. I can't even switch that console on....but I would have a go and learn by doing so.

 

Finally try to enjoy the task. You have only just started on a lifetime of learning and the first lesson is that nobody ever got it perfect to their own satisfaction. There is always room for improvement.

[Just Some Bloke]

Don't forget that the one thng your fellow students will love doing is being invited to chip in ideas. If you look at the stage at any point and think "I don't know what to do", just look pensive and say "Hmm, I'm not sure - what do you think?" to the person standing next to you. They will love the opportunity to give an opinion and you can either agree or disagree as you like. Sometimes someone suggesting one thing will make you realise that another way would be better! Other times you can say "yes, that's exactly what I was thinking" and you're off!

 

Once you get started it will soon mae a lot more sense, believe me!

[Adam L F]

One of the things I did love about being at college was that you could mess something up, I'm not saying I wanted to, but there was somewhat of a safety net if anything did 'hit the fan' so to speak.

 

You're in education to learn, at the end of the day not to be right, I'm still in education (currently in my third year here at Glamorgan University, on the Lighting Design & Technology course), and I'm still learning new things every day. Take this for example, currently I'm having to develop a product for the lighting industry with two fellow course mates, there are lots of things I need to learn that I've never come across in my life, for example programming in C++, never thought I'd have to do that in my life!

 

If you're nervous, use it to your advantage, nerves will make you concentrate, and make sure you're doing the right thing, but don't let them overcome you. Every time I go out on site I still get nervous sometimes, and I'm sure most of the hardened professionals on this forum still get the jitters too.

 

I hope all goes well for you with your assignment!

 

 

 

[paulears]

This wouldn't be unit 68: Automated Stage Lighting would it?

 

The only reason being that one of the prerequisites to getting a Distinction Grade is

operate control with confidence and demonstrate the ability to react to unexpected events in a suitable manner without guidance.[\quote]

 

Confidence is a very tricky thing - and I think you'll find that you could be thinking a bit bigger than maybe you need to. If you think about it, you have a nice control and loads of movers, somewhere else could have a less capable control and just a few old mirror scanners? Complexity and extra complication can work against your confidence. The thing for what you're doing is to know the control well - think of all the things you might need it to do.

 

Examples to think about - could you do these things instantly, with just a scratch of your head - without the manual and without prompting by somebody else.

 

1. 
    
   
2. Move a number of beams to a specific location, in a certain colour, with a particular gobo - then record it so it can be recalled instantly.
   
3. Take this position, and then make half of the beams move to position B, and the others to position C
   
4. Create a fast multicoloured exciting chase.
   {*}Go back to step 1 and change the colour to red, and spread the beams out - recording this.
   {*}create a cue stack and step through the cues on instructions from another person
   {*}on an instruction from somebody else, bring up an immediate bright state - as perhaps for an emergency
   {*}on an instruction from somebody else, jump from the current cue to another, perhaps again to solve a problem - as in 'the scene change isn't done, cut to the nightie scene - GO
   

 

If your little creation is simple, then all these things can be easily accessed, maybe even by just shoving one fader - no frantic looking at lists or screens of info. So prepare well, use scribble strips if it helps, and gain confidence by practice. Assuming I've guessed right = there is no need at all for it to be mega complicated, and that would make your life difficult and be an obstacle to being confident. You can be a lot more confident with a few faders than you can with loads of complex cuestacks.

 

Think about too - how programming can work in theatre. The Director calling out instructions and you making things happen - make the enrance brighter, brighter, brighter - stop - that's it. Now the window area, up, up up, stop etc etc.

 

If the director yelled for the fire to come on, how long would you make him wait while you made it happen. Practice and knowledge are the key.

 

Automated lighting needs confidence for top grades in just one area, ordinary lighting (operation and design) doesn't mention confidence. I They only put it in because with moving lights even basic things can be tricky to do, and the idea was to encourage people to be familiar with the kit, and become confident in using it. Very often in colleges particularly they have really nice kit, but nobody knows how to use it! The confidence bit means that you need to practice it.

 

Steer well aware from complicated and confused systems - keep it simple!

[BenLane18]

Cheers everyone for the input! And yes paulears, tis Unit 66 http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif

Thanks for the advice!

[J Pearce]

Unit 66 is stage lighting operations, automated stage lighting is 68 (and 67 is design).

Guess what I've been teaching today?

 

Practice and practice some more, don't be afraid of mistakes and when they happen deal with them calmly and professionally. A clear head and a smile goes a long way.

[alistairhammond]

Is your lack of confidence in your design work, or your ability to operate and run the lights? With design, often the best way is just pitch an idea in, don't worry if it's a bit stupid. Your fellow students and lecturer can can help refine and improve ideas. I've come up with some really stupid bits of rubbish in the past, but even a rubbish idea can spawn into something good.

 

With operation and control, I find the best way to help confidence is to practise and rehearse what your doing. Download the Orb XF simulator onto your computer and play with, get used to doing different operations and editing and tweaking cues (directors love doing this. When it comes to your actual performance, have your script, cue sheet and rig plan on the desk in front of you. Even if you have a DSM to call you, having a cue list to know what's coming next can help you stay confident. Rig plans also help - if an actor misses their mark, knowing there's a profile you can bring up to cover them is a great help.

 

Other tips; go to the loo before the show, and don't drink loads of coffee or alcohol, check with the director and DSM about any cues you're unsure of at dress, have a water bottle with a sports cap with you at the desk, and if you tend to get sweaty hands when nervous, a small towel or similar to wipe your hands will stop the desk getting all sweaty.

 

Finally, if you do f*ck up, keep calm and carry on. Chances are, no-ones noticed and they never unless you shout 'oh sh*t' down the cans.

[paulears]

If you look carefully, you'll see that the lighting (and sound) units are designed so they can be assessed while you are doing a show - but the obvious down side is that if there are lots of students then you can't have lots of shows, unless it's a busy department. If you do the work as separate assignments, then it's actually very important that at some point it goes wrong - so you can get grades for reacting properly and fixing it. Some places have super vindictive teaching staff who really enjoy messing things up to make you react - others are a bit gentler. It's how realistic they want it to be that gives opportunities for the grades. The thought behind the words in the criteria are pretty easy to see, I hope. You probably have people who fit some of those criteria to a tee - I certainly had certain students in mind when I wrote them. Most technical theatre people fall into quite common pigeonholes.