Thanks
Gaff, I get what you're saying about the learning to drive (I come up for my driving test in a couple months, got a lot more practicing to do though.). I think my frustration with our program is that I want to learn, but haven't realized until the end of this year, how great and experienced our old TD was, he actually knew his stuff. Our new TD is actually a director... The caliber of our work has gone significantly down. So the frustration is that I feel like something like the exact way of doing some of the basics (example, using a wrench properly) can't really be explained, unless in person, with a wrench and a clamp. I mean those types of skills I'd like to develop and
build on, but I haven't found any resource where I can get that kind of training. I mean I've learned tons and tons and tons from CB and reading manufacturer websites, and the internet in general, but sadly none of that can replace not having an actual technician, as a technical director.
I think it's interesting that in the list of things you look for in a green college tech, you listed being able to create a decent
light-plot, and working with color. In my mind that the actual design process has never surfaced. I can't even begin to fathom sitting down to draft a lightplot. Working with color, I feel is also another more advanced technique. I mean, it's one thing to look at the emotional context of a color, and how that is going to feel to the audience. I think it's a completely different thing to analyze complimentary colors, and how those complements
effect the color of the light, and how the shadows differ, or the different temperatures of white light. I feel like a lot of that can't come without actually sitting down and designing a
plot. You mentioned "finding out what angle
instrument to use". I tried doing that in my theater. I requested a copy of architectural drawings / blueprints. What I got had lines all over it from non-existent hypothetical house-lights, and wasn't to perfect scale, and was completely unclear. I couldn't even tell where the AP slots were. I don't know how I'm supposed to figure out the angle to use if I don't even know how far the
throw is! (I have since figured out if I take a piece of yarn, and
spike tape every
foot, for 100 feet, and tie it to the pipe, and
throw it into the
house... you get the idea, I'll figure it out when school resumes.) Another thing I thought was interesting was the "ability to pick a decent
gel color". I'm not quite sure what you mean. I mean, I thought it would be specified by the designer, so that it was pretty cut and dry for anyone except the designer. For the designer, well I thought they were supposed to have an advanced conceptual understanding of the use/
effect/
etc. of light, and in that respect should be easy. I'm not trying to disillusion myself into thinking I'm a designer. I sure as hell know I'm not, but I'm looking forward to college as a time to learn design. By the way, it's interesting that you mention that the fun
DMX toys get abandoned in a storage room when no one knows how to use them. That is how I came across are, still, unused
I-Cue. I requested a
DMX line put in this summer (It literally requires drilling a hole in the roof of the booth and pulling it to the cats, not that hard. Or, it could be snaked through the walls, in the pre-drilled holes), but I'm 90% sure there won't be anything there in the fall. I really want to spend the money for the
DMX line so we can utilize this 600 dollars of equipment sitting around. (Not to mention the
gobo rotator and
image projector remaining unused.) I think that high school is a time to explore the field, begin to learn the basics, and have fun in
theatre. I think it should be expected that fresh college techs will have some learning / retraining to do. As for the know-it-alls, take 'em down a peg in the next
load-in if something goes wrong, or develop some kind of test, I dunno.