As I have stated, its been hit or miss with a lot of the things I have done. Also, I pretend not to have done it all, I am only 20 and still in school. I have just been fortunate in my opportunities. So this is just what I have seen in the real world so far and not what is been told/done in the class room.
There are a lot of different LD's in the world. Everything isn't just rock 'n roll or theatre. A lot of what I do is corporate work. That means set up, program, rehearse sometimes, run the show, tear it down, go to the next show all in one day a most of the time. I don't have the luxury of time to sit down with the client through every 'scene', go over what they want done, tell a programmer and a master electrician what needs to be done, and tweak till its what the client wants. We do a sight survey, go over what they want, get ideas, then its up to me to make it happen.
Google Hair o the Dog. I designed for '07 at Philly. I met with the client once. All they wanted was the gobos around the room. Don't even get me started on the Delilah's gobo because that was handed to me as the doors were opening. Anyway, load in was 4 PM, weren't allowed downstairs until 5 PM when the place closed to the public. Doors were at 7 or 8, can't remember which. Either way, there was no were near enough time for me to explain to someone else what needed to happen programming wise. Set up was this goes here, that there, focus this here, that color there, etc. Stuff was added, taken away, and changed that day as set up was going on of course. So, because of time, I programed.
Point being is that not every show, even one's with tons of money floating around, have the luxury of time and rehearsals. It just needs to happen, and it needed to happen 10 minutes ago. So thats why I program most of what I design. Your own situation might be different for your own needs. If you can give out duties, I recommend it actually because it takes stress of others. Trying to do many jobs at once can be too much for one person to handle on larger shows, but sometimes thats not how it pans out.
Designing and doing work in the corporate/industrial world is a completely different beast, however many corporate types like to have even more info before they walk in to the space. They usually do not like the "I'll make it work" approach, instead most insist on fully realized rendering. Usually in the corporate world there is even less guessing in the space then there is in any other field, what you showed them with the rendering you made better be the same thing that they walk into.
Just like in any field, when you start out your going to be doing everything yourself. There are plenty of designers for theatre out there right now that have to hang, focus, cue, and run their own show because if you get paid 600 to do the design, 600 to be production electrician, and 60 dollars a show run (making these numbers up) you get to eat more often then if you were just designing. People do everything all the time, but usually at a loss of something. If you spend half you time programming and thinking about how best to cue a sequence and keeping track of blocks, hot moves, and all that other good stuff you are not focusing on the show, your focusing on the technology. A scene designer should not be working in the shop, the costume designer should not be stitching, and the lighting designer should not be touching anything, in a perfect world. Due to budget things get throne on more then one person.
Now, going in a hanging 30-50 lights and having to do everything yourself is a pretty easy thing to do, doing that for a show with 350 fixtures, 60 scrollers, and 20 movers is another thing all together. Back to the OP, in the educational world that is what you are working up towards, your training should be pushing you to work in that situation, and in that situation you need all the help you can get.
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