# High school technical theater how to videos



## canadiagg (Jan 9, 2011)

I have been considering doing a video series geared towards high school theaters. It would cover basic set craft, lighting design and equipment, wireless, and hand held mic use, publicity basics, prop selection and acquisition, and basic costuming. Are there any suggestions on what to cover, or things you'd like to see covered in a video?


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## Footer (Jan 9, 2011)

Its been done: Practical Technical Theater :: The Complete Solution for Technical Theater Classrooms

If you want to take a wack at it, go for it, just know that you are not the only one out there. These DVD's are well produced and have good information. A bit borring, but well produced none the less. My students really hated watching the videos. The only time I used them was if I had a student that had missed class due to illness or whatever.


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## canadiagg (Jan 9, 2011)

i am familiar with the video series you mentioned. what i would attempt to do is present the information, in an entertaining and riveting fashion without sacrificing content.


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## Footer (Jan 9, 2011)

canadiagg said:


> i am familiar with the video series you mentioned. what i would attempt to do is present the information, in an entertaining and riveting fashion without sacrificing content.


 
If you could cover the same content, keep each video under 50 minutes, make it interesting, develop some form of evaluation/assessment, and get teachers to back it, it will do well. 

As far as what to put in it... 
Very few states will allow a class to be taught in a public school with a state wide curriculum that all teachers of that subject follow. If you want these videos to be sold to schools, you have to fulfill curriculum and teaching standards requirements. One of the reason the practical guided DVD's are so boring is that they do this. Its a hard thing to do. 

This is the curriculum I taught off of when I taught in Atlanta: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=...ocs/Fine_Arts_Theatre_GPS_Final_2-11-2010.pdf 
The technical theatre portion is 11 pages with over a hundred points/goals. Each day I had to in some way involve one of those points. Administration went as far as wanting us to write on the board what standard was being taught that day.

Not saying you can't do it, but there is a lot more to think about then just making some videos. Also, keep in mind that technical theatre education is a very vertical market. There are probably no more then a 1,000 high schools that teach a technical theatre class, and thats a pretty liberal estimate. In Georgia I was one of 10 teachers in the state that used the tech theatre curriculum.


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## gafftaper (Jan 9, 2011)

I agree with just about everything Footer said. I believe that the curriculum standards are often very different from state to state. In some states there are strict rules that are strictly enforced. In other areas there are strict rules that are completely ignored. In my teaching experience, no one seemed to care what I taught. I never even had a principle observe me teach in 5 years! There are often ways that teachers can get away with using videos as "supplemental material" instead of a "curriculum". At my school the librarian had this catalog of educational videos that departments could purchase from for the library's collection. We could then use them any time we wanted. However they weren't approved curriculum. I had an ancient set of terrible books collecting dust on a shelf for curriculum. I advise you to really do your homework on what state regulations say who will be able to use them and how they can use them before you start. 

I would suggest keeping videos under 45 minutes. I am much happier as a teacher having time to setup the video, stop and expand on a topic, or have post video discussion. There is very little spare time if you have a 50 minute video and a 55 minute period. Perhaps 25 minute segments so you can show one or two in a class period depending on the teacher.


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## canadiagg (Jan 9, 2011)

Thank you for the link to the georgia education standards. I was intending to have these videos geared more towards high school after school show production. They would allow for tech directors to help inform the crews on proper safety, and use of equipment, so nothing is left out, or forgotten. They would not be intended for classroom use. They would simply be used to help educate young theater technicians on the basics of tech theater.


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## LavaASU (Jan 10, 2011)

canadiagg said:


> Thank you for the link to the georgia education standards. I was intending to have these videos geared more towards high school after school show production. They would allow for tech directors to help inform the crews on proper safety, and use of equipment, so nothing is left out, or forgotten. They would not be intended for classroom use. They would simply be used to help educate young theater technicians on the basics of tech theater.


 
I'm not sure whether yours is a for-profit endeavor, but my college group is also creating a series of videos to cover various subjects for high school techs.


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## derekleffew (Jan 10, 2011)

gafftaper said:


> ...I never even had a principle observe me teach in 5 years! ...


Nor evaluate your grammar, apparently.


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## Footer (Jan 10, 2011)

gafftaper said:


> In my teaching experience, no one seemed to care what I taught. I never even had a principle observe me teach in 5 years!


 I had our principal show up on on a light hang day when I had a kid driving around in a scissor lift and another up in a genie. Never heard from her again after that day. She wrote a very confusing review. After that, my reviews were turned over to the dept. chair. 

To both of you guys: remember who your audience is. First, is a kid going to want to sit down and watch videos about technical theatre as an after school activity? I attempted to do that once to my stage crew (non tech students), I turned off the video after 10 minutes because their eyes glazed over. If you do want to do this, throw the videos up on youtube and see if you can get a sponsor to help make them. However, someone else tried it and ended up having to scale back because of lack of interest. Technical theatre is something that really has to be taught hands on. It can be taught by video or by book, but it is a very hard fight. Good luck to both of you guys. If you can do it, more power to ya, I'll be the first out there pushing it.


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## LavaASU (Jan 10, 2011)

Footer said:


> To both of you guys: remember who your audience is. First, is a kid going to want to sit down and watch videos about technical theatre as an after school activity? I attempted to do that once to my stage crew (non tech students), I turned off the video after 10 minutes because their eyes glazed over. If you do want to do this, throw the videos up on youtube and see if you can get a sponsor to help make them. However, someone else tried it and ended up having to scale back because of lack of interest. Technical theatre is something that really has to be taught hands on. It can be taught by video or by book, but it is a very hard fight. Good luck to both of you guys. If you can do it, more power to ya, I'll be the first out there pushing it.


 
Thank you for the advise Footer. Ours are more along the lines of supplementary/ interesting topics type stuff than classroom curriculum. Most of the ones we're doing have come from a "hey thats cool" from one of our crew or something we remember being interested in in high school. The only one that's online right now is one about how moving lights work Moving Lights » LAVA - Lighting Audio Video Arts which isn't entirely done yet as the sound levels are a mess. We also have ones (either in progress or hopefully coming) including: programming/controlling moving lights on a 2 scene/ conventional console (this stems from the fact that I often don't want to carry our ML console), gelling for dummies, how modern lighting consoles work, mic positioning/technique, what is 3-phase power (not how-to stuff... though there may be a class covering that soon if all goes well), basics of using a multimeter, plus videos about some of our more historic gear like the DHA Light Curtain and the Compulite Animator (for anyone who doesn't know, this was one of THE first moving light consoles). Feel free to make suggestions of stuff you're interested in (or you'd like to show your class/crew) and we'll do our best to make it happen. Also if anyone feels like contributing videos please let us know.

I'm well aware of the struggles Steve faces with LightingTrainer as I have made a standing offer to help host some of their original videos should they be forced to shut down. Partially because of LightingTrainer, we've created ours with little to no costs. We use youtube embedded for video hosting, and I have a free webhosting for the actual webpage. Because of that, I'm not currently seeking sponsors for our online education site (though we may for specific videos and our group is always looking for sponsors).


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## LXPlot (Jan 10, 2011)

Maybe if you could do some more in depth stuff? Sure, it's good to know the basics, but the people who will really take the time to learn it will want to see more design stuff. Plus, it's really hard to teach the very technical stuff over a video because it's so hands on and it varies so much with equipment. Regardless, keep me updated because it sounds like it might be pretty cool.

Edit: Sorry, I meant more in depth on design theories, maybe some color theory. You could also maybe do some explanation of the mechanics behind DMX control or the physics between how stage lanterns work. Also it would be nice to see you show some inside views on various things, maybe performing some basic surgery on a console or the inside view of a fuse box for those of us who aren't well enough trained to open it ourselves.

I've been wanting to start doing a video blog on Youtube about various theatre news-- new technology, theories, success of designers, comparisons of different lines, etc, except I don't feel I'm qualified yet.


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## LavaASU (Jan 10, 2011)

LXPlot said:


> Maybe if you could do some more in depth stuff? Sure, it's good to know the basics, but the people who will really take the time to learn it will want to see more design stuff. Plus, it's really hard to teach the very technical stuff over a video because it's so hands on and it varies so much with equipment. Regardless, keep me updated because it sounds like it might be pretty cool.


 
More in depth on what topic?


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## canadiagg (Jan 10, 2011)

what topics would you like to go more in depth on? 
I deal mostly in set design and construction, as i'm a finish carpenter so a large portion of the lessons would be on set construction techniques, and process, but what other areas on the tech side could be covered more extensively without diving to deep into individual boards programming, and such?


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## mstaylor (Jan 11, 2011)

From the lighting side, I can see the advantages of different instruments in different situations. Where to use lekos, fresnels, PARs, strip lights and other instruments. One area might be to show how ineffective cheap movers are in a stage plot.


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## LavaASU (Jan 11, 2011)

mstaylor said:


> From the lighting side, I can see the advantages of different instruments in different situations. Where to use lekos, fresnels, PARs, strip lights and other instruments. One area might be to show how ineffective cheap movers are in a stage plot.


 
I should explain we do live events/concert type stuff, not so much theatre. So we pretty much use tons of parcans, some older HES scanners, LEDs, and some other stuff. However I do refuse to get cheapo ADJ ect al movers.


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## gafftaper (Jan 11, 2011)

I hear a lot of really conflicting ideas here and I think it's brining up the point you really need to understand your target audience. 

The vast majority of high schools out there have drama teachers who teach something else and no very little about tech. There probably isn't anyone on staff at the school that knows anything about tech and all the tech knowledge in the school (correct or not) is passed down from one generation of students to the next. Probably one kid show "knows everything" (again correct or not). How can your video series best be used in these schools? Your videos here will be most useful if they teach the basics correctly. Students in these programs often think they are advanced because they know how to record a submaster, and god-like if they know how to record a cue. When the reality is they often have huge holes in their basic understanding of how theater works. 

Then you have a limited number of schools with no formal tech classes, the Drama teacher probably knows very little about tech, but there is someone on staff like a theater manager who does know tech. This person usually doesn't teach but does work with the "tech kids" and helps train them to operate shows in the space. The person probably has limited interaction with the design and construction aspects of the department. This is the middle ground. I'm not sure how a video is most useful here. The students have an expert around to help them but at the same time the school has not committed to an actual class. 

Then there are the very rare programs (footer thought about 1000 in the country) with real tech classes taught by a qualified staff member. This person is going to be very skeptical about any curriculum or video series. If they use one at all it will only be to supplement their teaching because they are going to want to draw more from their own experience and believe in hands on training. Your video is going to be most seful to this person if it has LOTS of demonstrations that are difficult and time consuming to setup in class. 

Worst of all are the schools where they have a person who knows nothing about tech attempting to teach a class about tech. Your videos could be very helpful here but again probably the basics are most important.


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## iccelou91 (Jan 16, 2011)

canadiagg said:


> i am familiar with the video series you mentioned. what i would attempt to do is present the information, in an entertaining and riveting fashion without sacrificing content.


 
As a high school technician who is easily bored I say: go for it! At my school we have an excellent group of people in our performing arts department, including people with tech theatre experience, but more resources never hurts. I certainly wouldn't mind watching a few videos, especially if they were entertaining and riveting.


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## museav (Jan 17, 2011)

LavaASU - I'm not entirely sure what is intended but when I watched the one video referenced it came across much more as an anatomy of a specific product than as being a more general treatise. I could see something like a three part series on moving lights consisting of 1) what they are and how you might use them, 2) the anatomy of an instrument (in generic terms and addressing what the main components do) and 3) how to control and program them (again, in general, generic terms and not specific to products even if using specific products for demonstration).

I'll also add that while something like mic positioning/techniques is useful, it really takes understanding mics in general, mic patterns, how feedback is created, what you are trying to do, etc. first in order to be more than a simple copy what we do approach. In other words, you can have a video that shows what to do in certain situations and that is useful but much more useful is understanding the basics behind why you do that and when you may want to to apply, modify or avoid that approach.


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## LavaASU (Jan 18, 2011)

museav said:


> LavaASU - I'm not entirely sure what is intended but when I watched the one video referenced it came across much more as an anatomy of a specific product than as being a more general treatise. I could see something like a three part series on moving lights consisting of 1) what they are and how you might use them, 2) the anatomy of an instrument (in generic terms and addressing what the main components do) and 3) how to control and program them (again, in general, generic terms and not specific to products even if using specific products for demonstration).



True. That video was made out of opportunity (I had that fixture apart for a nice little bath* as it came out of a bar where it had been neglected for a long time) and to use at a class where I covered basics and programming, but obviously wasn't going to pull apart a light. I also feel that the trackspot is good as most features it has are in almost all fixtures, and it's a bit less overwhelming to a beginning tech than a mac 2k or something. I need to look at adding more generic explanations to the video though.

There IS supposed to/going to be others in the series focused on programming and use. They just aren't done yet. There's eventually going to be one explain when and when NOT to use moving lights, one explaining how to control them using channel faders (no fancy pallets and such), and as generic as possible one on a newer moving light console using pallets ect al.

The way I was taught, and still feel, is that you have to understand why and how the equipment is doing what it's doing to be able to use it as best you can. Most high school students aren't actively involved with repair/maintenance of equipment, so I try to shoot a video or some pics when I'm working on something interesting. On this front I also have one coming explaining how consoles (from the 1990s to current) work and have evolved. I have most of the pics and video for that from a class I taught on it, but am working on getting permission to put the ones I didn't take online.

*don't worry not actual "bath"-- this involved medical isopropyl and compressed air


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