careers in lighting

[raeraeiam]

forgive me if theres been a post on this before, but i didnt see one.
this is mainly for those of you who are working in the business.
can you tell me what kind of degree you have?
would you recommend a BA or a BFA?
what type of work are you doing now, or what have you done in the past?
would you recommend any good schools?

i'm a junior and starting to seriously look around. i'm looking at lighting design for a major. i'd really like to go in or around Chicago, so I can be close to home.
i'm looking into DePaul Loyola UIC and ISU. any information would be greatly appreciated, i've been thinking of all these things and it seems like the best people to ask would be those in the business, and since everyone on this site has always been very helpful, i thought i'd give it a chance.
thanks!

[Jezza]

Check out Northwestern....I've heard they have a pretty good program.

[Footer]

I would suggest a BFA, but its all in what you want from the program. A BFA will give you a much more concentrated education in theatre, where a BA will give your more broad education it things beyond theatre. If you want to design for a living, you will (most likely, not always) need a MFA, so its a good idea to go into undergrad with what you need to get out of it. A few other schools to look at in the midwest/Illinois area, Illinois Weslyan, Webster, Millikin, and SIUE/SIUC. I have worked with people that have come out of every university and each have their strong point. UofI has a great program, but as an undergrad you get little hands on experience. Depaul also has a good program, but they are also very weird about their grading systems and the way the treat their students. What you really need to do is go in and visit each school and see what you like/dislike about each. Don't go in going "they have 9 billion source fours and 2 million mac 2ks". Talk to the students their, look at what those students are now doing.

[raeraeiam]

That is definetly what I'm doing - im actually going to see one this Friday.
basically my major concern is BA vs BFA. to me, it seems more logical to have a BA, because coming out of college with only one option seems scary - but then again, i've heard numerous times that there's plenty of work in this field, so maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing..?

[soundlight]

It's all what you want. I wanted a small college, with flexibility to take classes in other areas (electrical and mechanical engineering, and some physics). We've got one lighting & sound professor total, but it's a great education. I'm already designing and running shows, but I'm only a freshman. We're running a console that was originally designed to just be a "beta console", but we've got all the fun old stuff. We've got 6 intelligent fixtures (we're lucky if all of them work). And instead of half a zillion color scrollers or half a zillion gobo rotators, we've just got a very few of everything. We've got some new S4's and S4 pars, some old S4's and S4 pars. We've got old fixtures...4.5 and 6 zoom lekos, mostly. Some rotators, some scrollers, two I-Cues, some film FX loops, some strobes, some source four strobe heads, some...yeah. You get the idea. We don't have alot of it, but we've got one of everything, so I get hands-on experience with just about all of the kinds of things that I'll encounter. Our theaters are far from ideal, but how many theaters are? We have to deal with our blackbox that many times requires hanging yourself from the grid and swinging across to get to hanging positions. If you want to go beyond the first level sound and lighting classes, it's time for independent study, and you can choose what you want to study. Theater lighting, Dance lighting, Concert lighting, whatever. There's also a whole class on CAD drawing, and there's VectorWorks, MacLux Pro, and soon to be Softplot on the computers. Not many computers, but there's alot of software to get experience with.

Let's just say that I didn't come here because of the huge amount of gear.

I also think that a wide variety of experiences on campus is a good thing. I work in the scene shop, I work in the music performance hall and on outside calls, and I work shows in the theater. I work for two main organizations: theater and dance, and performance services (music hall and around campus calls), and that means that I'm getting experience with two different managements.

[Footer]

Originally Posted by raeraeiam

That is definetly what I'm doing - im actually going to see one this Friday.
basically my major concern is BA vs BFA. to me, it seems more logical to have a BA, because coming out of college with only one option seems scary - but then again, i've heard numerous times that there's plenty of work in this field, so maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing..?

This is probably the best piece of advice I have ever been given, and I was given it when I was in High School asking the exact same questions you are. It is..."Only do theatre if there is NOTHING that you would rather do, and if there is anything out there you would rather do, go do that". My opinion would be to get the BFA, you will have a bit more options, but its really in what you want. A degree in technical theatre is actually pretty marketable in other fields. Drafting firms love to have people that were trained in theatre, as well as architectural firms, and you can always go pick up a hammer. I would say go balls out and get the degree you want, do your best at it. Take away everything you can and you shouldn't have to worry about getting a job. I can not stand it when people go into a career due to the current job market. I can not tell you how many of my friends have a Business degree because they thought they would make a ton of money at it, and are now doing some crappy sales job. Do what degree suits you, and when you leave figure out what you want to make it.

Another thing to consider is what other things you can do besides theatre at the university. Is there a road house on campus that you can work at? Is there an IA local in the area that you can overhire for?

[ship]

ISU did me well. Interesting that given where you are you did not mention NIU. While not 100% impressed with NIU, I have met some very decent tech people that came out of that program and it's local. Not trained in a ISU type of way of course but ....

I'll PM a few six companies to look towards locally.

Lots of past discussion about Illinois schools, believe Columbia and Ithica also came up along with the BFA/BA debate.

[raeraeiam]

i will tell you why i didnt mention NIU. its twenty minutes from home. which means, my parents would just love it if i stayed home..! not too thrilled about that..

plus, i'd really love to work in chicago after school, and so it seems logical to go to school in the area.

[avkid]

Staying at home is a big advantage for the finances. You won't be risking getting a horrid credit score.

[Van]

Originally Posted by raeraeiam

i will tell you why i didnt mention NIU. its twenty minutes from home. which means, my parents would just love it if i stayed home..! not too thrilled about that..

plus, i'd really love to work in chicago after school, and so it seems logical to go to school in the area.

Here's what you do.... since you're majoring in theatre you tell the folks that you would feel safer, and they should too, if you were to live on campus the requisit first two years. Since you are going to be in Technical Rehearsals and load-ins really late at night it would make sense if you lived on campus so you could just stumble home after a long nights partyi...... Um working. Hey I went to school 40 minutes from home and it worked for me. By the third year My wife and I moved in together cause we could save so much more money than living in the dorms.
I have heard many a good thing about Northwestern.