Head Elec vs. Master Elec

[jhochb]

Good Morning

My ETCP card has me as an ENTERTAINMENT ELECTRICIAN. I know many licensened electricians & electrical engineers and out of respect for them, I am careful as to how I represent myself in the outside world.

 

[rochem]

Based on a few people's responses in this thread, I'm curious - what responsibilities do you associate with the term "Production Electrician"? I personally have a very clearly defined idea of what a Production Electrician is, but I'm curious to see if that's less widespread than I thought. Thoughts?

 

[danTt]

From my experiences, I'd say that a production electrician is more similar to a master elec than a head elec. I associate production elec with the building and preparation of a show, and their job is done by opening. They are much more present when there is a shop build involved, and not so much when it's a house rig.

This is much of what I'd consider a master elec in regional theatre, except they are mostly related to the preparation of the house rig for a given plot. Again, their responsibilities are much more in the planning and implementation phases, and they are much more hands off once the show opens, but they may be involved in a department-head sort of way.

A head elec is more of a show call position, I associate them with board opping, but also responsible for the maintence of a show once it is opened. They are the point person for changes and integrity of the lighting.

 

[mstaylor]

My problem is I work n mostly a touring world but from the local side. I work with national theatre, concerts, circuses, ice shows, kid stage shows(Sesame Street and others) and corporate shows. A production electrician or head of electrics is the guy running their lighting dept. Sometimes that person is the board op, sometimes not. In the music business the board op/LD also calls the spots. On ice shows and kids stage shows, the board op is exactly that and a separate person calls spots, rarely does the production electrician do either job.
When supplying crew for ice shows, kid's shows or theatre, there are dept heads(local hand) but is usually just a point person for each crew.