Comments on: Olympic Sized Lighting Design

By: MOB

MOB — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 20:57:55 +0000

Melissa, this process is not easy. A formal education in technical theatre lighting and practicum college corses is a good way to start. After you know your theory try to get a technical position in a theatre, ideally apprentice for a resident lighting designer. Learnning rigging and becoming a master electricain will help. Also get your hands on as many lighting productions as possible. In my carrier the majority of experience I gained was from doing various productions: pep rallies, school theatre (like yourself), disco and club lighting, event lighting, exhibit lighting, etc. eventually I got invited to work for Duke University theatre, it was a very challenging job – we worked on average 70 to 80 hours a week. But, again I was able to gain a lot of technical knowledge and also test some of my lighting design ideas. eventually I moved out of NC to Miami and started my own architectural lighting design company. Good luck in your career pursuit!

By: Melissa Thomas

Melissa Thomas — Wed, 12 May 2010 02:26:35 +0000

Hello,
I am very interested in becoming a Lighting Designer. I have worked with stage lighting before, designing and running lights for high school productions. But, I do know that I need a lot more experience. I was just wondering if you could give me any advice on how to start a career as a Lighting Designer.
Thank you!

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:55:56 +0000

Hi Brian

The crews on large events run can be up to 50 odd production lampies, depending on nature of the shows and the build time. Skilled techs are also supplemented with semi-skilled crew who help with the graft. Not sure I know anyone working in Beijing (DM is Lighting Designer for the handover to the UK – so I probably do) but if I find out, I will get a figure. I have worked on quite a few gigs of a similar scale and it’s all about good organisation.

Control for large shows are often semi-automated. Operators and control systems working in harmony. The biggest challenge with one large rig, is actually programming – too much for one person. It used to be that several operators ran different desks controlling a few DMX universes with particular models of fixture on – then they all ran the show. Now, the use of ethernet means that multiple operators program their desks simultaneously, merging control signals though one gateway that is used to trigger the show.

Although the Sydney Olympics was a while ago, Brad Schillers Book on Automated Lighting is still worth a read for his diary fo the event.

Thanks for you question.

By: Brian Dillon

Brian Dillon — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:51:20 +0000

I was wondering how large of a lighting crew do they have for the lighting on a huge scale production like the olympics. Is there just one guy at a huge table controlling everything. Or are there people responsible for cueing lighting different portions. Also how much of everything is automated and how much is guided and controlled live?