I'm a HS LD and despite the fact that my school is supposed to be the "rich school" that is only if you are a sports team. We do not even have the money to get lamps or have an theatre electrician come in to fix the dimmer problems/ shorts. I have seem posts by ship among others talking about pros donating old gear to schools/ community theatres. How would my school go about getting stuff donated? By the way the most help the crew would get from teachers is a good idea. Or, does anyone have ideas how to get grants for upgrades? We really need a better console and some working MLs. We have 2 technobeams that were broken by "pros" working with a rental group. Help would be appreciated.
How do you get gear donated?
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soundlight
Well-Known Member
1) See if you can put lamps under the school maintenance budget. That works in some situations.
2) Sometimes rental houses will have older instruments that you can try to ask for.
3) You don't need anything. What you want is what matters. What you want may not be what the next person wants, and if the next people don't care as much as you, it could all easily go unused.
4)What do you have already? If you have a bunch of Source Fours, the 1KLs and 360Qs that the rental house could be able to give you (if you ask them in the right way on a good day and are really lucky) might find themselves sorely unused. What kinds of fixtures do you have, what's your console?
6)Very few high schools have working arc-source MLs. I would never, ever recommend real movers for a high school unless there was a staff person who was dedicated to the upkeep of the theater as well as teaching at least 2 levels of tech theater classes. I-Cues and rotators would be a much wiser purchase. I'd recommend scrollers, but I've heard of a few too many cases where high schools leave the lights that have scrollers on them at full while the scroller PS is on. I'm not saying that you would, but someone down the line very well could.
2) Sometimes rental houses will have older instruments that you can try to ask for.
3) You don't need anything. What you want is what matters. What you want may not be what the next person wants, and if the next people don't care as much as you, it could all easily go unused.
4)What do you have already? If you have a bunch of Source Fours, the 1KLs and 360Qs that the rental house could be able to give you (if you ask them in the right way on a good day and are really lucky) might find themselves sorely unused. What kinds of fixtures do you have, what's your console?
6)Very few high schools have working arc-source MLs. I would never, ever recommend real movers for a high school unless there was a staff person who was dedicated to the upkeep of the theater as well as teaching at least 2 levels of tech theater classes. I-Cues and rotators would be a much wiser purchase. I'd recommend scrollers, but I've heard of a few too many cases where high schools leave the lights that have scrollers on them at full while the scroller PS is on. I'm not saying that you would, but someone down the line very well could.
Schniapereli
Active Member
If you don't have money for lamps, sometimes you can get the school to pay for that, since not just drama uses the lights. Try talking to them because their assemblies need lights too. (but your school district might be stricter)
Poke around to other theatres. You may be able to get money from other teachers who have not used all of their budget. Some professional places will give away gels so they don't have to write it off as a loss on their taxes. (same with paint if you don't need an exact color)
I know of some costuming companies who offer a few free costumes if you put their company name in their program. I suspect some businesses in other area do this too.
So I would just talk to the administration and some guys at pro theatres near you. Hope that helps at least a little...
Poke around to other theatres. You may be able to get money from other teachers who have not used all of their budget. Some professional places will give away gels so they don't have to write it off as a loss on their taxes. (same with paint if you don't need an exact color)
I know of some costuming companies who offer a few free costumes if you put their company name in their program. I suspect some businesses in other area do this too.
So I would just talk to the administration and some guys at pro theatres near you. Hope that helps at least a little...
midgetgreen11
Active Member
You must be living in my town. Our school is so "state-of-the-art" that other towns call it the University of North Kingstown, yet, our stadium has a better sound system than our auditorium, and our dimmer system blows.
Les
Well-Known Member
Yeah I'm thinking trying for more conventional's would go over much better than "boo-hoo, we don't have many ML toys". A lot of theatres don't have any.
What city are you in?
Again what do you have in your inventory? Brands and models of lights, light board, number of dimmers. We my be able to give you advice on how to use your equipment better than you currently are using it. As has been said there is occasionally free gear but it's probably much worse than what you already have.
As for lamps. You need your drama teacher to go to the principle, custodial staff, and student activities coordinator and fight for you. If anyone else uses the theater then they should be chipping in to help replace lamps. Figure out how many instruments you are using during an assembly, take the average life of the lamps and the cost to figure out how much it costs in terms of bulb life/$ to turn all the lights on for an hour. You have three key arguments to try: 1) You are not the only users of the theater. 2) It is your classroom. Do they charge the math department for light bulbs in their classroom? 3) These are consumables used in teaching theater, no different than buying chemicals for the chemistry teacher. If they want to teach drama they need to support it to at least a base level.
You don't need moving lights. I've rambled about this a lot, see the gafftaper method.
Again what do you have in your inventory? Brands and models of lights, light board, number of dimmers. We my be able to give you advice on how to use your equipment better than you currently are using it. As has been said there is occasionally free gear but it's probably much worse than what you already have.
As for lamps. You need your drama teacher to go to the principle, custodial staff, and student activities coordinator and fight for you. If anyone else uses the theater then they should be chipping in to help replace lamps. Figure out how many instruments you are using during an assembly, take the average life of the lamps and the cost to figure out how much it costs in terms of bulb life/$ to turn all the lights on for an hour. You have three key arguments to try: 1) You are not the only users of the theater. 2) It is your classroom. Do they charge the math department for light bulbs in their classroom? 3) These are consumables used in teaching theater, no different than buying chemicals for the chemistry teacher. If they want to teach drama they need to support it to at least a base level.
You don't need moving lights. I've rambled about this a lot, see the gafftaper method.
David Ashton
Well-Known Member
In my town a couple of the night club owners give me their old parcans and even old movers which are not worth the cost of repair and I pass them on to various schools and the schools send a thank you letter to the clubs.I can then refurbish those lamps as part of the school maintenance budget, even a ML with a few glitches is good for the kids to learn on.Not maintaining gear is not only annoying but also unsafe.
Gafftaper-
Read your article. I am not talking about for theatre performances, I'm talking about dance performances and music dept pops concerts. I've seen 3 groups rent a full moving rig in the last semester (HogII, 12-15 movers, plus distro). The problem is that some of my pet groups(the ones that I will spend hours begging, borrowing, building for free) can't afford to rent the stuff. Hence their shows look pathetic in comparison. Plus we students never get to do the shows with the movers-- all of those they bring in pros for. I want us to get some stuff so we can actually learn how to use it and get to use it.
By the way, how do you really learn to do design/ programming with MLs? I have been able to help a little with the big shows, but that's a far cry from designing a show.
Read your article. I am not talking about for theatre performances, I'm talking about dance performances and music dept pops concerts. I've seen 3 groups rent a full moving rig in the last semester (HogII, 12-15 movers, plus distro). The problem is that some of my pet groups(the ones that I will spend hours begging, borrowing, building for free) can't afford to rent the stuff. Hence their shows look pathetic in comparison. Plus we students never get to do the shows with the movers-- all of those they bring in pros for. I want us to get some stuff so we can actually learn how to use it and get to use it.
By the way, how do you really learn to do design/ programming with MLs? I have been able to help a little with the big shows, but that's a far cry from designing a show.
It sounds like you have a lot going on in your theater and some intelligent gear could be useful. But here's the problem... if you can't get them to pay the $15-$25 for a lamp for your conventional gear how are you going to get them to pay the $100+ for one lamp for a mover. Then there is the maintenance and upkeep to keep them from breaking down.
Again give us a list of what you do have working and not and we'll see how we can support you from there.
As for learning moving lights it's hard to learn without having them... Most people get into movers in college or they start working at a rental shop. I had a former student who just called a local sound rental shop and asked if they needed any volunteer help. She coiled cable for a while then eventually got to run sound and lights for them.
Again give us a list of what you do have working and not and we'll see how we can support you from there.
As for learning moving lights it's hard to learn without having them... Most people get into movers in college or they start working at a rental shop. I had a former student who just called a local sound rental shop and asked if they needed any volunteer help. She coiled cable for a while then eventually got to run sound and lights for them.
Okay here's what we have-- off the top of my head as I cannot get to the theatre right now:
~24 lekos on the 4 electrics
~24 ERS on the catwalk
4 3cell RGB cyc wash units
~8 strip lights on 3 electrics (some short in and out though)
4 towers w/ strip lights (one only partially works- it got knocked over during
a show and patched back together at intermission-- LONG night)
a couple of extra strip lights, one partially gutted to fix above mentioned one.
One functional worklight and 5 w/o lamps (apparently that kind is no longer made)
assorted extras in unknown functionality of above mentioned fixtures
House lights that flicker and do other strange things
two side bars w/ 3 ERS each
the 2 non-functional technobeams- not sure of the exact problem (I was told by a pro ML LD that there is not much wrong and it wold be worth trying to fix them, but I haven't had time to really look at them)
For the last major show I LDed I used:
4 towers- 2 RGB and 2 RBW
3 stage washes- white, red, blue
3 leko washes- teal, pink, purple
The work lights (2 functional at the time)
4 gobos
Two actual work lights we brought in
the cyc lights- each on a different channel
4 led lights (rented)
Effects, ect:
my fav- the worklights for the tornado dance- it threw shadows everywhere and looked so cool
effects w/ cyc lights and LEDs (chases, rainbow random colors, this magenta/ green alternating thing that totally messed with the auto focus on the video, chases with the tower and strip lights)
backlighting
and of course LOTS of manual flashes and chases
(ALL OF THIS ON AN EXPRESS-- I really lost some hair trying to do 2 cues plus 1-3 manual FX at a time! Actually had an assistant Op helping me some of the time!)
Then in the middle had flyman knock over above mentioned tower light. SM cut hand on glass, had to stop show for ~5minutes, then had that light out til intermission. I managed to screw up(my only mistake in the entire show) during the next song b/c I was on headset trying to find out whether the light was safe to use. I accidentally used the blue strip instead for red for the evil laughter. In my defense as I had not determined the condition of the light I was changing stuff left and right trying to avoid using it. (The only person backstage qualified to determine the cond. of it was SM who was in the bathroom taking care of his hand.
~24 lekos on the 4 electrics
~24 ERS on the catwalk
4 3cell RGB cyc wash units
~8 strip lights on 3 electrics (some short in and out though)
4 towers w/ strip lights (one only partially works- it got knocked over during
a show and patched back together at intermission-- LONG night)
a couple of extra strip lights, one partially gutted to fix above mentioned one.
One functional worklight and 5 w/o lamps (apparently that kind is no longer made)
assorted extras in unknown functionality of above mentioned fixtures
House lights that flicker and do other strange things
two side bars w/ 3 ERS each
the 2 non-functional technobeams- not sure of the exact problem (I was told by a pro ML LD that there is not much wrong and it wold be worth trying to fix them, but I haven't had time to really look at them)
For the last major show I LDed I used:
4 towers- 2 RGB and 2 RBW
3 stage washes- white, red, blue
3 leko washes- teal, pink, purple
The work lights (2 functional at the time)
4 gobos
Two actual work lights we brought in
the cyc lights- each on a different channel
4 led lights (rented)
Effects, ect:
my fav- the worklights for the tornado dance- it threw shadows everywhere and looked so cool
effects w/ cyc lights and LEDs (chases, rainbow random colors, this magenta/ green alternating thing that totally messed with the auto focus on the video, chases with the tower and strip lights)
backlighting
and of course LOTS of manual flashes and chases
(ALL OF THIS ON AN EXPRESS-- I really lost some hair trying to do 2 cues plus 1-3 manual FX at a time! Actually had an assistant Op helping me some of the time!)
Then in the middle had flyman knock over above mentioned tower light. SM cut hand on glass, had to stop show for ~5minutes, then had that light out til intermission. I managed to screw up(my only mistake in the entire show) during the next song b/c I was on headset trying to find out whether the light was safe to use. I accidentally used the blue strip instead for red for the evil laughter. In my defense as I had not determined the condition of the light I was changing stuff left and right trying to avoid using it. (The only person backstage qualified to determine the cond. of it was SM who was in the bathroom taking care of his hand.
soundlight
Well-Known Member
Well, you should try to get the broken stuff and lamps on the school maintenance budget. They fix stuff for other departments, right? Well why should Theatre be an exception? Once that's fixed, learn some Express programming tricks. For instance, you can link cues to macros, which can be used to bump subs, which means that you don't have to manually fire FX off of bump buttons and faders. And if the Technos can be fixed, try to get them on the maintenance budget too. Great little fixtures for learning on if they're working right.
You say Leko and ERS, what do you mean by those? ERS is the correct generic term for all ellipsoidal reflector based spotlights including true Leko brand products, Strands, ETC Source Fours etc... Do you have an actual 20 year old Leko Brand instrument? Long ago Leko created the industry standard ERS instrument and became the accepted slang term for an ERS. Strand bought out Leko and continued to produce them until the late 80's (maybe longer).
The Express is the most popular light board ever made and it's for a good reason. With the exception of the Technobeams and LED's, an Express is an excellent board to use with your inventory. A new board really won't make it any easier to use that many conventional instruments (unless you only have a 24/48 model in which case adding more subs could be helpful). Intelligent lights are complicated but not impossible on an Express.
The Express is the most popular light board ever made and it's for a good reason. With the exception of the Technobeams and LED's, an Express is an excellent board to use with your inventory. A new board really won't make it any easier to use that many conventional instruments (unless you only have a 24/48 model in which case adding more subs could be helpful). Intelligent lights are complicated but not impossible on an Express.
Yeah anything intelligent on an Express is tricky but not impossible. Just takes longer than on the newer consoles.
One thing that hasn't been pointed out is that if you were to get donated gear its likely to: a) be 30 years old b) Need lamps c) need other repairs to things like shutters or rewiring. Most little community theaters out there still have a rack of old Strand, Coltran, Leko etc... lights they are regularly using that are from the 70's. The rental place around here occasionally sells off old gear for cheap... but it's all from the 70's and 80's. Remember very few people in this industry have money to just throw away so donated gear is likely to be very old and very broken.
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I try to work it into the cost of doing a show... "I can do the show so much better if the director (or whoever is in charge of budget) can get me this new instrument or item... it will be better b/c blah blah blah..."
Make a case for it! When we did Fiddler we got it in the budget to get a few thousand dollars worth of lights b/c we borrowed most of the costumes... it just was a part of the process, and the director (me in this case) was on board from the get go! Of course you may have to do a lot of convincing.
break a leg!
Make a case for it! When we did Fiddler we got it in the budget to get a few thousand dollars worth of lights b/c we borrowed most of the costumes... it just was a part of the process, and the director (me in this case) was on board from the get go! Of course you may have to do a lot of convincing.
break a leg!
One thing that I would do, is if the show that you are working on depends on having X number of working lights. Talk to the director etc, and see if they can procure some funds for the show.
Most importantly, make do with what you have to use, very few high schools that I know of have the ideal light rig. But making it work with the lights that you have in house, is something that you have to learn to deal with. Especially if you plan on being a touring LD someday, each day will be different and you have to make the best of what you have to do the show.
I as many above said for a high school production of any type don't recommend using any Moving lights at all unless a qualified individual from the rental house or somebody along those lines is on site.
Most importantly, make do with what you have to use, very few high schools that I know of have the ideal light rig. But making it work with the lights that you have in house, is something that you have to learn to deal with. Especially if you plan on being a touring LD someday, each day will be different and you have to make the best of what you have to do the show.
I as many above said for a high school production of any type don't recommend using any Moving lights at all unless a qualified individual from the rental house or somebody along those lines is on site.
