I'm a recent college grad who is currently working at a LORT theater as a carpenter. In college, I spent most of my time learning about construction, rigging, and scenic design. Despite being able to make a career as a carpenter, I am trying to expand my knowledge in the fields of lighting and sound. My main question is, what are the starting areas within the industry that I could work to learn more about lighting and sound. I have electrics and programming experience, but my sound knowledge is very limited. What kind of people/companies would be willing to take someone on who has my particular skill set. Thanks in advanced for anyone willing to give advice!
Breaking into new areas of the industry.
- Thread starterntrimp91
- Start date
carproelsofly
Active Member
Since you are already at a LORT, use your resources there:
For sound, first build up your knowledge. Read some books. Watch some videos. Read periodicals. Look up what you don't understand. Then, go to the sound guy at your theater and ask if you can shadow a call. If your company does musicals, shadow on both. Pretty much the same advice for lighting, but you have a little head start there.
Stay after you've loaded the set in and sit behind the sound or lighting desks during tech. Make friends with the techs and designers. Ask questions during breaks. Read more. Ask more questions. Repeat....
Once your knowledge is developed, then you can start looking for starter jobs. I'd bet your in-house people would have some good ideas of where to start. It will likely be in a smaller house, but maybe the scheduling at your theater would allow you to do an evening focus call, or be an A2 during a tech rehearsal - it's worth asking, and they are more likely to think of you for that work if you're around and interested.
HTH,
Jen
For sound, first build up your knowledge. Read some books. Watch some videos. Read periodicals. Look up what you don't understand. Then, go to the sound guy at your theater and ask if you can shadow a call. If your company does musicals, shadow on both. Pretty much the same advice for lighting, but you have a little head start there.
Stay after you've loaded the set in and sit behind the sound or lighting desks during tech. Make friends with the techs and designers. Ask questions during breaks. Read more. Ask more questions. Repeat....
Once your knowledge is developed, then you can start looking for starter jobs. I'd bet your in-house people would have some good ideas of where to start. It will likely be in a smaller house, but maybe the scheduling at your theater would allow you to do an evening focus call, or be an A2 during a tech rehearsal - it's worth asking, and they are more likely to think of you for that work if you're around and interested.
HTH,
Jen
porkchop
Well-Known Member
I would start with lighting. If you're a good carpenter, I'm sure you can be trusted with a crescent wrench. Do a few hang and focus calls where it's hard for inexperience to be a huge issue. Ask reasonable questions and get to know how lighting goes, and as time goes on you'll get opportunities to do more technical work. Also Richard Cadena's books are worth their weight in gold for a production electrician.
I think those two just nailed it. Get some books and start reading. Research here and ask lots of questions. From there, exploit your current job position and make friends with the people you want to learn from. 90% of the people I know in this industry love to teach and share what they know with others. And I think I would go with learning more about lighting too.
