Entertainment Industry (2 Viewers)

[wisequaker87]

I did Entertainment(TVET) for my HSC and we focused on Tech Operations and Backstage work . I really enjoyed it. Was great to come out of school holding a Cert III as well as HSC.
Many places do Events Management at diff levels. TAFE does, as does International College of Management in Manly (Syd), Billy Blue College, and quite a few private (but expensive) places...
NIDA is one of the only places that actually hosts the follow-up studies to ent cert III, they do a certificate IV which follows straight on from the cert III syllabus. They also run stage management, makeup, costume and set design courses.
CSU also runs a Design for TV/theatre course which is a good way to go if you're into the design part of production.
There are lots of pathways and courses you can get into if you're serious about bdeing involved in the Entertainment industry

 

[hannah92]

Entertainment has got to be the crappest subject designed for deabeats, bludgers and losers without half a brain between them.

You teacher must be or must have been pretty shit?. Entertainment is hard, especially when you specialise, you need to actually have an interest.

 

[XPac2]

i thinkits a greatcourse, im keeping it for my HSC. im only like up to tp2 so far thru DE but its going well lol.

 

[XPac2]

Entertainment has got to be the crappest subject designed for deabeats, bludgers and losers without half a brain between them.

i love that u spelt Deadbeat wrong but we're the ones with no brains.

 

[bouncingfire]

doing the Entertainment vet course at school, seems like a good deal Cert III + HSC. Its something I am genuinely interested in however i cant see it being a good career path. ill probably stick to volunteering for a few things.....

 

[Absolutezero]

I'm doing this sort of thing at uni. Whenever I think it doesn't have career paths, I always make sure to mention that the actor unemployment rate sits around 98.5%. Production is closer to 15%

 

[bouncingfire]

I am quite interested in the lighting element of this course, our teacher doesn't now much about the lighting setup in our school hall so basically I have just learnt my experimenting.

Anyhow i want to learn more about setting up DMX, as in configuring the lighting board as well as patching in lights. Anyone got any advice?

 

[Absolutezero]

There's a couple of good eBooks out there for lighting design and basic set up. I had one somewhere, so if I find it, I'll post a link.

As for learning, at a school based level, just get as much experience as you can. Learn the types of lights and what they used for. Get a colour swatch of gels, and test them under different intensities. Alice Blue is a nice one to try on different skin tones.

Try programming a basic lighting sequence into the desk. Work on different cue changes, and if you can, get a hold of more than one desk. Importantly, is learn the limits of your equipment. You don't want to try and run 3 1k Fresnel on the same channel at full (it'll break it).

 

[bouncingfire]

As for the experimenting side of things, i wasn't there at the time but some people in the class plugged in 4 profiles in to 1 power point (overall it was 2amps over) lucky it didn't overload.

I'am going to try and get the school to buy some LED par-cans, they use a fraction of the power along with being able to adjust the colours via DMX.

As for the lighting desks have you had any experience using the computer based lighting controllers?

 

[Absolutezero]

LED's are alright for general colour. Just don't try and do any focus work with them. They also look bad on most skin tones as well. However, as an effect, and something to play around with, they're quite good.

As for direct computers controllers, I haven't down much with them. I've learnt a little about them, but not heaps. You can pick up a DMX interface for relatively cheapily if you find the right place. Mostly, I just use a standard desk, occasionally having a computer attached, yet still desk controlled.

 

[bouncingfire]

Sorry about all of these random comments/questions but do you know if standard XLR cables(ones used for audio) can be used for DMX?

It said some where(i cant remember where) that even though they are the same connectors, the cable it self is slightly different. Are you able to clarify that?

 

[Absolutezero]

They've got different shielding and Ohm rating. They can be used interchangeably over short distances, though the longer the length, the greater the chance of interferance. Personally, I'd just stick to DMX cables for lighting if you've got they. Only use XLR as a last resort IMO.

 

[ClockworkSoldier]

VET Entertainment Cert III I did through year 11 and 12. It was great at my school cause we had facillities that beat the town civic centre.

We also had a professional lighting tech and a professional audio tech as our teachers. We ran shows for over 700 people during the course lol.

 

[Absolutezero]

You're pretty lucky. Most schools have to deal with poor equipment and unskilled teachers.

 

[bouncingfire]

Our schools shocking...in our hall there is a large elevated area at the back about (3m high), basically on top of the store room. This has been traditionally been the area were all the lighting and sound boards are located.

Late last year the school said we couldn't use it because of OH&S, the reason was that we had to go up a ladder to get up there, and because the material we that we were standing on was not strong enough.(which i disagree with)

so what do they do? move it all into the storeroom below! This is a enclosed room with only a small door at the front. In other words it muffles the sound of whats happing in the hall, and makes it a great place to put a sound desk /sarcasm

and whats even more fun is when we are running a show and the volume is wrong etc.....and the person who made the oh&s decision was the one complaining how shit the audio was.

Our school hall is a bini shell and because of the there is a echo, which makes in harder to judge the volume.

/rant

 

[ClockworkSoldier]

Our schools shocking...in our hall there is a large elevated area at the back about (3m high), basically on top of the store room. This has been traditionally been the area were all the lighting and sound boards are located.

Late last year the school said we couldn't use it because of OH&S, the reason was that we had to go up a ladder to get up there, and because the material we that we were standing on was not strong enough.(which i disagree with)

so what do they do? move it all into the storeroom below! This is a enclosed room with only a small door at the front. In other words it muffles the sound of whats happing in the hall, and makes it a great place to put a sound desk /sarcasm

and whats even more fun is when we are running a show and the volume is wrong etc.....and the person who made the oh&s decision was the one complaining how shit the audio was.

Our school hall is a bini shell and because of the there is a echo, which makes in harder to judge the volume.

/rant

Dude, that sucks.

My school had a proper bio box raised up about 4 meters for the lights and underneith, behind a huge roller door is the sound desk on a movable desk. The mixer is a 24 channel behringer (meh) eurodesk with space for an added desk. 20 headset mics all running into dual 500watt mackie amps through to the two mackie pa speakers hanging off the roof.

The sound desk is great on the movable desk cause the production team and the sound operator all sat in a line and we all talked over the intercom to each station.

The entire back of the hall was dedicated to ento.

The stage is huge and has full lighting running out of two DMX units...

The school just pumped money into the hall cause they've been doing musicals, concerts and shows etc. for over 30 years now.

I can try and get some pictures of the facilities if ya want.

 

[bouncingfire]

Our school has a 24 channel Mackie mixer, with 4 pa speakers mounted in the hall. There is about 20 wireless receivers with 16 headesets and 4 regular wireless mics.

There is one 12 channel dimmer pack on the stage and one at the back on were all the gear used to be located, we cant use it because it means we have to go up there and we cant bring it down because there isn't any other area fitted with 3 stage power. not to mention we cant use the follow spots as well they are upstairs.

 

[ClockworkSoldier]

Our school has a 24 channel Mackie mixer, with 4 pa speakers mounted in the hall. There is about 20 wireless receivers with 16 headesets and 4 regular wireless mics.

There is one 12 channel dimmer pack on the stage and one at the back on were all the gear used to be located, we cant use it because it means we have to go up there and we cant bring it down because there isn't any other area fitted with 3 stage power. not to mention we cant use the follow spots as well they are upstairs.

Can't use follow spots? You kind of need to use one as it's a module for completion... Plus they're fun .

 

[Absolutezero]

Plus they're fun

You get over them pretty quickly though.

 

[ClockworkSoldier]

You get over them pretty quickly though.

True.

Most lax job though.