Journal #8451

So I've had a fairly fun few weeksSince i've started second year at Uni, i've decided I really should get more involved with socities. I auditioned last year for the Footlights Society which is a musical theatre based one but unfortunately didn't make the cut. ( I didn't realise the musical was a very heavy urban-dance one... and I can't dance). This year however I auditioned and (surprisingly) got in to the Showchoir ( basically the glee club except filled with alcoholics ) and It's been great so far - I've met so many amazing people from it.

I've not just joined the showchoir; Edinburgh University has it's own student-ran theatre, known as Bedlam - which is literally an old churchThey've a resident weekly improv-comedy show called the Improverts, and they hold their own little tech-workshop alongside it to learn some small bits about theatrical tech.Since i've had some interest in the lighting area, I've been attending almost all of these since the semester started and have got on really well with the senior techs and a few of the not-completely-nerdy first years. I got asked a week ago if I wanted to be the lighting operator for a show - and in my blind enthusiasm I accepted, without really knowing what I just signed up for. The show was a round so myself and the lighting team managed to come up with some really funky lighting ( and some really creepy effects as well ).
The show came and went ( and unfortunately we had to turn people away we'd sold that many tickets) and I learned a fair bit about how to actually use Bedlam's lighting desk - which comes onto my next partBedlam's desk is an ETC Element, according to the techies it's a fairly nice ( and expensive ) bit of kit, and is fantastic for theatrical performances, but for live stuff (which i'd attempted to do beforehand) it's a bit awful.
The fun fact about bedlam is that almost all of the senior techies there actually work at the Student's union, and run the lighting for almost all of the union's events - the major one being the weekly "Big Cheese" club night. Because I'd said I was really interested in live stuff, almost every techie replied with "oh just come along to the big cheese and i'll let you go mental on the desk for a bit".

When you're literally invited to freely play about with some smart lights, you can't really turn it down.( Slightly outdated image, those moving LEDs were only temp. hired, we've got Martin RUSH MH3s permanently )

So I come in to the venue at 10, the dancefloor is dead as almost nobody comes in that early, and I'm literally plonked in front of the desk and the two techies who'd helped at bedlam started showing me how to use their Tiger Touch IInerd part
The difference between the Tiger Touch and the ETC Element that Bedlam has is that the Tiger is almost entirely designed for busking ( fancy way of saying on-the-fly lighting rather than having everything premade ), and is actually incredibly simple to use. Presets and playbacks are available and can be easily created on the fly, if an idea for an effect pops into your head in the middle of the night.

Becomes about 11 o'clock, and I'm expecting the person who is actually employed by the union to run the lighting desk to chuck me out, but he seemed overjoyed that he was now being paid to do nothing, and let me stay were I was. 11 became 12, the venue got packed and pretty much before I knew it I was single-handedly in charge of lighting the now rammed venue.

The annoying thing was that the union had recently had job openings for Tech crew, but I'd literally missed the deadline for a few days. Turns out the positions are re-opening.. next year. The tech people helping me seemed frustrated that I'd not applied, and I was equally pissed off that I had come to the conclusion that I could've been paid money to do something that I was literally vibrating with excitement whilst doing it.

And that's the story how I lit a clubnight with little to no experience, totally bossed it, and how I missed a fantastic job opportunity.