dont let junior techies near a sound desk
- Thread starterplug_in_baby
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dust4sound
Member
Inaki2 said:
LOL - Have you been working too hard again Inaki? That is what I have said (as have a few people after you).
I think it is safe to say that we have all come to the conclusion that experience should be the key factor when assigning tasks and responsibilities.
However, on the other hand, we have to ensure that junior and new techies have the opportunity to gain experience. This decision need to be made on the basis of the job or task in question.
See - fix one problem and another opens up. Such is life!!
plug_in_baby
Member
plug_in_baby
Member
of course not all junior techies are bad but these one's are its more that i often find the people new to it think they know alot more than they do, and yeah sally j i am the TD of that lot now, i use to be the SM but after the TD left i took over and i'm starting to put together some training schedules and some experiences or them, i'm thinking that if they start by observing the senior crew during shows / rehearsals then they operate things under supervision an then finally after a few weeks / months they get to try it on their own, anyone got any similar ideas?
I am currently the TC(co-title role with TD) and i have been known to use the board to listen to movies when i am working on small shows. But i also know how to keep it out of the mix so no one else hears it. So the "no unauthroized input" rule isnt necessary. The rule should be "no untrained personel may touch this board under penalty of death" 
JP12687 said:no untrained personel may touch this board under penalty of death"
I would say "no untrained personnel may touch this board without supervision under penalty of death"
It has always struck me as odd/annoying that so many places won't take the time to teach you unless you have experience. It makes it hard to break into the field. If your never allowed to operate the board, then how will you ever learn? I guess I'm just stating the obvious, but if someone wants to learn how to run the board, show then, let them do it, just keep an eye on them to make sure they don't trash all the cues in the show, or feedback the entire sound system (is that the right terminology, it sounds a bit weird?).
I agree, and i teach people the basics very often. However int hat situation untrained personel were allowed to use the board WITHOUT supervision and without the ability to learn while doing. But to come in having the aditiude i need no help, i am better then you, i can do it..and then screw it up is unacceptable
zac850 said:
Well, adding my 2 cents to this discussion, and being the person responsible for all the audio, video, and lighting technical aspects of a school district, the above post seems to explain a big part of the problem. There seems to be a complete lack of understanding by school districts that this is as much of a teaching situation as is any other subject in school. There would never be a computer class and lab without a certified person teaching it - why in the world should technical aspects of theatre be any different. Granted, being thrown into a situation and having to produce sometimes can be a great learning tool - but with the cost of equipment and safety concerns schools should be held to a higher standard in insuring that a responsible adult has control over the situation. There are no students in this district that even come within sniffing distance of any of the technical equipment until they have been trained by me and I am satisfied that they have an understanding of the gear and know what they are doing.
There have been some people who have had issues with the way I handle things around here, and more than once I have heard the statement "Well, you know it's only high school theatre". Bullshit - plain and simple. I worked in professional theatre before taking this job and saw way to many examples of high school tech kids being hired for load in and set up for some shows who didn't have a clue, and I swore that no person coming out of this school would ever fit that description. High school technical theatre needs to be thought of in the same manner as professional technical theatre - after all, we are all using the same forms of equipment to accomplish the task, and while those doing it need to enjoy the work they do, there is definitely a professonal attitude that must be upheld at all times. As for the examples of a person sitting behind the sound board listening to music or watching movies, if that ever happened here it would be the last time they'd be sitting in that position.
I compleatly agree.
Let me give (a hopefully breif) snapshot of how I learned tech stuff.
My first year at the school I was shown how to run the schools (very small, very pathetic) lighting set-up. I was shown how to use this set-up by the student who knew how to use it.
Towards the end of that year, I end up running sound for Reservoir Dogs (some kids adapted it for the stage, worked very well). I am running sound. From what I remember, the sound board was set-up, and I was set free on the board. The show sounded horrible, the gun shot sound effects were always at least 3 secounds late, etc.
This year, as the other person graduated, I was the only one left willing to work on the tech stuff. I learned a little about how the sound board worked, and I was getting ready to hang lights for the drama when I came across this site. This site, I can safely say, taught me about 80% of what I know about tech stuff. Over the year, my school spent a lot of money, and we got a new lighting set-up. I was still the single person at my school who knew how to do tech stuff. I found out what board we were getting (Express 125) and downloaded the manual, and read about 200 pages of the manual.
We got our light load-in, and I was there to help set everything up, and one of the guys who came in was nice and helped me learn how to attached the break out to the soco cable, how to set-up the dimmers, the basic's of the S4 and the S4 PAR, and a very basic overview of the board (at that point we didn't have the DMX cable we needed, so it was hard to do much of anything).
There was also a tech class held for lighting that I attended, but that class was more of a this is a fresnel, this is a gel, this is a light board, this is a dimmer type of class, since thats where everyone else was.
Well, we did the big musical, and with enough time on the board, I figured out how to use all of the stuff.
School ended and I got an internship at a large, 587 seat house in my area. It was the summer stock program, which was nice because everyone was a little more relaxed, making it easier to learn. Also, the lighting designer was the guy who came in to give us our lighting class, so I knew him already.
At this large theater, I learned how a real theater works. I learned about how the electrics are set-up, learned how to change PAR laps, and really got better at trouble shooting things.
Also, about half way through this internship, I learned how to use a soundboard. The sound board op was called in for jury duty, so he gave me the hour tour of the board and showed me how everything works, (he didn't know who, if anyone, would be able to come in to cover for him).
Earlier today I talked to the headmaster of my school, and I told him I needed to go in and do some work in the gym/theater. He said OK, and told me to come in next Monday, because people will be at school.
I want to look at this for a minuet, and see how much of this the school taught me.
There was one actual tech class, however by that point, I already needed to know what was being taught. This 6 week class was the only thing that was being offered by the school for tech theater. Sound was not covered at all. Also, this was an after school class, we would stay after school on Tuesday or Wednesday for an hour and learn this stuff.
I am trying to think why the school is not so interested in making sure that kids learn about this. I think it may be because all of this is very new to the school, and I have made it of a "its just going to be there, and it will just be done" type of thing. Thinking back to the days in middle school when I was an actor, I always just assumed that the lights would be there, and that all the lights would be working the way they should be.
However, teaching these things to the kids in school is very important. My school spent $50,000 on our lighting system, and no one except me seems to want to make sure it stays used.
And I wish I knew why.
Let me give (a hopefully breif) snapshot of how I learned tech stuff.
My first year at the school I was shown how to run the schools (very small, very pathetic) lighting set-up. I was shown how to use this set-up by the student who knew how to use it.
Towards the end of that year, I end up running sound for Reservoir Dogs (some kids adapted it for the stage, worked very well). I am running sound. From what I remember, the sound board was set-up, and I was set free on the board. The show sounded horrible, the gun shot sound effects were always at least 3 secounds late, etc.
This year, as the other person graduated, I was the only one left willing to work on the tech stuff. I learned a little about how the sound board worked, and I was getting ready to hang lights for the drama when I came across this site. This site, I can safely say, taught me about 80% of what I know about tech stuff. Over the year, my school spent a lot of money, and we got a new lighting set-up. I was still the single person at my school who knew how to do tech stuff. I found out what board we were getting (Express 125) and downloaded the manual, and read about 200 pages of the manual.
We got our light load-in, and I was there to help set everything up, and one of the guys who came in was nice and helped me learn how to attached the break out to the soco cable, how to set-up the dimmers, the basic's of the S4 and the S4 PAR, and a very basic overview of the board (at that point we didn't have the DMX cable we needed, so it was hard to do much of anything).
There was also a tech class held for lighting that I attended, but that class was more of a this is a fresnel, this is a gel, this is a light board, this is a dimmer type of class, since thats where everyone else was.
Well, we did the big musical, and with enough time on the board, I figured out how to use all of the stuff.
School ended and I got an internship at a large, 587 seat house in my area. It was the summer stock program, which was nice because everyone was a little more relaxed, making it easier to learn. Also, the lighting designer was the guy who came in to give us our lighting class, so I knew him already.
At this large theater, I learned how a real theater works. I learned about how the electrics are set-up, learned how to change PAR laps, and really got better at trouble shooting things.
Also, about half way through this internship, I learned how to use a soundboard. The sound board op was called in for jury duty, so he gave me the hour tour of the board and showed me how everything works, (he didn't know who, if anyone, would be able to come in to cover for him).
Earlier today I talked to the headmaster of my school, and I told him I needed to go in and do some work in the gym/theater. He said OK, and told me to come in next Monday, because people will be at school.
I want to look at this for a minuet, and see how much of this the school taught me.
There was one actual tech class, however by that point, I already needed to know what was being taught. This 6 week class was the only thing that was being offered by the school for tech theater. Sound was not covered at all. Also, this was an after school class, we would stay after school on Tuesday or Wednesday for an hour and learn this stuff.
I am trying to think why the school is not so interested in making sure that kids learn about this. I think it may be because all of this is very new to the school, and I have made it of a "its just going to be there, and it will just be done" type of thing. Thinking back to the days in middle school when I was an actor, I always just assumed that the lights would be there, and that all the lights would be working the way they should be.
However, teaching these things to the kids in school is very important. My school spent $50,000 on our lighting system, and no one except me seems to want to make sure it stays used.
And I wish I knew why.
Anonymous said:
Acouple of things come to mind:
1 its cool to be running threw the sound board 8)
2 maybe he did not have his own headphones and the booth phones were 1/4" only and the cable to hook a laptop up to the console was sitting there.
TJ number 2 is the exact reason i have been known to do that in the past. I was running a show and i did not have my headphones with me and wanted to watch a movie( i was doing a very boring show, a 4 1/2 hour lecture actually not a show) so i hooked myself up through the board and used the 1/4" headphones from the board to lsiten
Soo many things I can relate to here. Our school, we have a 'hierarchy' system in our 'dept.' I'm probably about 3rd. We have someone lower than me ... all I can say is he has, as of last Friday, been permanently 'sacked' and banned from the balcony in the hall on which our equipment is located. Let's just say it involved a MAJOR sound mess-up. The Head of Music asked that he be sacked, after school I phoned the head of the team (also a v gd friend of mine - good thing) and the person in question has been sacked with immediate effect! Let's just say he gained himself a rather derogatory (sp?) nickname from the first time we saw him!
