My First Lighting Job

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from one of my teachers, asking if I would be interested in helping out with a stage building job in Amsterdam. Of course I wasn’t going to let an opportunity like that slip so without knowing exactly what I was getting into, I said yes.

The following Monday was the first of a three day event over in another ROC building in the center of Amsterdam. The event serving as a sort of informational meeting mixed with some fun team play events. My teacher and some hired help (including me and a classmate, though we didn’t get paid unless you count a 25 euro gift certificate as being paid) were responsible for everything audio visual. Everything from building the stage to operating the lights and sound installation was done by us. And, like with any event, the first day started with building.

Monday February 9th – Day 1

My day began at the ungodly hour of 4:30 AM. I didn’t have to be at school until 7:30 AM but I don’t like rushing in the morning like some people do. Do you know there are people out there who shower, dress, eat, watch the news, walk the dog and pack their bag in less then half an hour? I’d go crazy every single morning!

Anyway, after I took my time preparing for what would be quite a long day, I got in the car and headed to school where I would meet with my teacher and my classmate. By 8:00 AM we were all in my teacher’s car, heading to an AV supply company who would be supplying all of the equipment for the event. After a short introduction we got in an already loaded truck and headed off to Amsterdam, hoping to arive there before 9:00 AM. Needless to say traffic around Amsterdam sucks at that time of day so we didn’t get there until about 10:00 AM or something.

We quickly got a move on and started building seeing as we were already late. While the more experienced guys started working on assembling the trus, I unloaded the speakers and dragged them and their standards to the right place. All in all work went pretty smooth and the entire stage + control booth was set up and ready to go around 4:00 PM.

Tuesday February 10th – Day 2

For the event that would be taking place today the attendees would be guided through the building and attend presentations in various classrooms about stuff so boring I don’t even want to know. These presentations did require a computer and beamer to be present though and setting those up was our job.

The event at the main stage started at 9:00 AM and the classroom presentations would start at 11:00 AM, meaning we had two hours to get everything set up. But as usual everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and we ended up with a rather primitive blueprint of the building which, on top of things, was marked incorrectly. It took some doing and a lot of talking to people to figure out in which classrooms exactly the equipment was supposed to go. But in the end all beamers were working at 11:00 AM and everyone was happy.

As for the rest of the day, we did absolutely nothing. The only time we were needed was when the stage was actually being used, which wasn’t even that much during the day. The entire crew spent more time on Solitaire that day then on anything productive.

By the time the entire thing ended, which was around 9:00 PM, we got started on turning things off and covering things up for the next day. I got home at about 10:00 PM.

Wednesday February 11th – Day 3

Just out of curiosity I asked my teacher how long we would be working today. He took a look at the schedule and told me that the event itself would be lasting until 9:00 PM, minus the breaking and packing of the equipment. We were in for another long day.

Since the morning part of the day was not really that busy and we didn’t need 6 people running around doing nothing, I requested to come in later. Luckily I was granted that wish, so on that last day I got to sleep in a bit at least. But even when I got there, things were still boring. For the biggest part of the day we just sat around again, doing nothing. At that point you’re glad when the entire thing is over because that’s when you actually get to do something.

As soon as the last guests left the building we started tearing down the truss, ripped apart the stage and threw everything (ever so gently) in their respective cases. All in all it cost us almost 2 hours to get everything loaded in the trucks at which point everyone was glad the day was over.

We said our goodbye’s and all headed to our respective homes. I reached mine at about 10:30 PM, at which point I was just about ready to fall asleep on the sidewalk.

All in all it was a very cool job and if there’s one thing I learned it’s that I am NOT going to go into the lighting business after I’m done with this study. As fun as the work is, the hours are hell and I do not want a job with hellish hours.

Robin