Getting Started

[gareth]

To be honest I though the route to LD would be through working as a tech and programmer initially and working my way up.

 

That's as it should be, if you ask me - which you didn't, but I'm going to say it anyway! Almost all 'old-school' LDs worked their way up through being electricians, or in the case of one famous 'father' of our industry stage management - and as a production electrician or programmer I can usually tell whether or not an LD has any experience of what I'm doing. Working with those who do is almost always a more pleasant experience (although there are one or two exceptions, in both respects!).

[Jivemaster]

I LIKE the idea of a degree, it stays with you for life for free -no institute annual subs! BUT it demands choices at age 17 for which you are not always well placed to make, -which degree and where!

 

Do consider whether Open University is for you. It's 10 hours a week of self discipline to read and write all you need to keep up, plus some summer study weeks. The advantage is that you can do studying in free time whenever, not "lectures at 10 AM". OU is however expensive if the alternative is a free Scottish Uni, but those who pay fees and living expenses for three years are deep in debt and three years late in life getting onto the salary ladder.

 

Remember to add CAD to your CV it's a transferable skill from any industry to most others.

[Weir69]

Thanks again for all your replies.

 

I think now I will consider doing a more traditional degree such as physics first rather than a more specific lighting course. This means I won't be putting all my eggs in one basket and let's me keep this as a hobby which, like I said, I could turn into a career somewhere down the line. Nonetheless I'll still try to get experience where I can, hopefully some cable coiling over the summer and see what happens. At the very least it's still a hobby and perhaps a job with a manufacturer might be a route I would enjoy, however haven't really given much thought.

 

Thanks again!

[Simon Lewis]

There are degrees which deliver traditional subjects such as electronics and technology, which are accredited as Engineering Degrees but which still deliver focused hands on skills and training in entertainment technology.... but then again, I am just ever so slightly biased!

[richardash1981]

There are degrees which deliver traditional subjects such as electronics and technology, which are accredited as Engineering Degrees but which still deliver focused hands on skills and training in entertainment technology.... but then again, I am just ever so slightly biased!

 

If you can make it work financially (and I didn't have to worry anything like as much about this when I was there) then University can offer the opportunity to work with a fairly large range of kit, on events where the consequences of a (creative) failure are much lower, than in the outside world. This is especially true in the (unpaid) society scene, as opposed to the SU events team.

 

I am also biased because I read electronics at University, was technical lead at the student TV station for a time and did sound for a few G&S shows, but am now further "up the supply chain" in the electricity industry. The most valuable experience I have came from the student events however, both the good ones and the not so good ...

[Smiffy]

Hi:

 

I appreciate it's a slightly older thread but wanted to add a tuppence worth to one of our OP's responses that I hope any of our budding LD members read and take on board.

First time round I was unfortunate enough to have the treasurer on the other end who for a start didn't have a clue and secondly only checked the emails every about every month

 

I've been lighting shows for almost 20 years now. With my current clients, I'm generally dealing with Accountants 90% of the time. 100% of them don't have a clue. Most of them answer their emails at a leisurely pace, and usually long after a decision needs to actually have been made. Get used to it.

 

As an example of budget constraints, I'm currently designing a show that will be opening on an internationally renowned theatrical street in November. I am already on revision 12 of the design, and am still cutting equipment and changing fixture types so that I can make the whole show work. I expect to get through at least two more revisions and many more cuts and fixture modifications, and this is before our Production Manager gets his preferred lighting suppliers involved who will no doubt tell me that they don't A. Have those lights and B, are not going to sub in the ones that I want for the budget that they have.

 

While I said LD would be an ideal I equally enjoy working with the technical side, a bit of both world would be best. To be honest I though the route to LD would be through working as a tech and programmer initially and working my way up.

 

Start sweeping floors and coiling cables in a warehouse. Work up. The best Programmers have an understanding of what is going on inside the fixtures they are programming, and consequently tend to break the lights a lot less. The majority of the better LD's to work with as a programmer, were also once programmers.

 

CAD course at college

 

Learn AutoCAD and Vectorworks. You will be onto a winner. Im always amazed at how many other LD's I come across that cannot think in Three Dimensions when it comes to drawing a show up.

 

Just a couple of thoughts for you.

 

Best

 

Smiffy

[Weir69]

Hi:

 

I appreciate it's a slightly older thread but wanted to add a tuppence worth to one of our OP's responses that I hope any of our budding LD members read and take on board.

First time round I was unfortunate enough to have the treasurer on the other end who for a start didn't have a clue and secondly only checked the emails every about every month

 

I've been lighting shows for almost 20 years now. With my current clients, I'm generally dealing with Accountants 90% of the time. 100% of them don't have a clue. Most of them answer their emails at a leisurely pace, and usually long after a decision needs to actually have been made. Get used to it.

 

As an example of budget constraints, I'm currently designing a show that will be opening on an internationally renowned theatrical street in November. I am already on revision 12 of the design, and am still cutting equipment and changing fixture types so that I can make the whole show work. I expect to get through at least two more revisions and many more cuts and fixture modifications, and this is before our Production Manager gets his preferred lighting suppliers involved who will no doubt tell me that they don't A. Have those lights and B, are not going to sub in the ones that I want for the budget that they have.

 

While I said LD would be an ideal I equally enjoy working with the technical side, a bit of both world would be best. To be honest I though the route to LD would be through working as a tech and programmer initially and working my way up.

 

Start sweeping floors and coiling cables in a warehouse. Work up. The best Programmers have an understanding of what is going on inside the fixtures they are programming, and consequently tend to break the lights a lot less. The majority of the better LD's to work with as a programmer, were also once programmers.

 

CAD course at college

 

Learn AutoCAD and Vectorworks. You will be onto a winner. Im always amazed at how many other LD's I come across that cannot think in Three Dimensions when it comes to drawing a show up.

 

Just a couple of thoughts for you.

 

Best

 

Smiffy

 

Thanks Smiffy for your response. Seeing as I can already get Autodesk product on an educational licence think I might invest some time learning the ins and outs of AutoCAD.

 

Hamish

[wiredAV69]

Hi Hamish

 

My advice is target all the companies you want to work for (neg, lite alt, coloursound etc), email them, phone them regularly, especially in the weeks leading up to festival season (Everyone is busy at this time so resources are thin on the ground). Make yourself available. Be honest about your abilty, be friendly. Be persistent but not annoying. Keep calling, learn the names of the project managers. Once you get on the crew for your first festival or show you will start to meet people. Those people will lead you to the LD jobs you're looking for.... eventually.

 

Good luck, it's all about timing.

 

Hi all,

 

I am currently studying for my Scottish Higher exams this May and am beginning to think in more detail what route to take after leaving school (in about a years' time). I would like to work within the entertainments industry, to be specific within theatre and working within lighting. Working as an LD is appealing to me because I enjoy the creativity of working with light but I also know this won't just happen out the blue.

 

Basically I am wondering what my first proper steps into the industry should be. Should I go and find a job in a theatre or go to university? Should I study a lighting course a general technical theatre course or even do a physics degree? At the moment I am moved more towards the university side.

 

Experience is also a problem because I live in a remote area and the nearest bus service is an hour's walk away and doesn't run on a Sunday. Now I'm 17 I can learn to drive after the exams so soon that won't be a problem. The nearest theatre is still a good hour and a half away though.

 

So with all that in mind does anyone have some tips or advice!?

 

Thanks in advance.:)

 

Hamish