# Kool Beans...



## WestlakeTech (Nov 11, 2008)

Hey, I'm WestlakeTech, a student and Asst. Facilities Director at my high school. I found CB hoping to get and give some help. My main Tech Theatre interests are Stage Management, Lighting, and Stagecraft, but I'll do practically anything.

Nice to be here, I'll try to not be a stranger.


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## soundlight (Nov 11, 2008)

Are you at the high school that produced these?


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## WestlakeTech (Nov 11, 2008)

Yes, it is that Westlake High school. In my opinion, Chad's show (2007) is much better than Ryan's (the other). 

I didn't really know Chad THAT well and the light show is THE Light Show, so it's a big deal and usually an under-wraps type of thing; only the designer knows what's going on and why until it's displayed the night before the first performance at Zenith, our annual dance show.

And as I, coincidentally, posted on the youtube response to Chad's show just a day or two ago, we're currently undergoing a rennovation which will, among other things, provide newer and better intelligents including a couple of Showguns.


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## soundlight (Nov 11, 2008)

I'm sorry, but you have got to be ****ting me. Showguns??? In a high school??? Can you send my high school some of that money? All we had was Century Strand gear from the early 1970s and a Lightronics Crapbox!!!


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## WestlakeTech (Nov 11, 2008)

soundlight said:


> I'm sorry, but you have got to be ****ting me. Showguns??? In a high school??? Can you send my high school some of that money? All we had was Century Strand gear from the early 1970s and a Lightronics Crapbox!!!



Bond Program+Rich District=Millions of dollars for the FAF as well as other parts of the school.

Conventional Inventory I couldn't get until I'm at school, and right now I'm at home.

Black Box Theatre: 2-3 shows/year, not including UIL.
Fine Arts Facility: 4 major productions (Nutcracker Spectacular, Battle of the Bands, The Musical [Guys and Dolls this year], and Zenith [the afforementioned dance show]), there's also a bunch of band, choir, and orchestra concerts spread throughout the year, but those just use white conventional lighting.
Plus, we rent out our Fine Arts Facility to whoever can afford it that wants to. I think it's about $25,000; and our crew members that work "Rentals" get paid $10/hr. Dance companies, the Austin Bar Association,... my sophomore year we had someone rent out the facility who put on a Chinese Talent Show.

We make DVDs of all FAF productions and Varsity football games filmed on cameras that cost about 18k, which rest on 3.5k tripods (I say that not to flaunt the money, but to explain the quality of our equipment, though I know cost doesn't always vary directly with price). I couldn't tell you the brand of the cameras off the top of my head, but then I haven't been on Video Crew in a couple of years.

Student LDs... That's a bit more difficult to pin-point. Usually we have at least one student design intelligents while our Tech Director designs conventionals (no, not the other way around). Zenith however, every dance has its intelligent lights designed by a different student on the Wholehog 3 mentioned in the video. Black Box Shows, this year one was designed by our Tech Director, and our upcoming production is being designed by a sophomore.

Design classes, we don't have separate design classes. We offer Technical Theatre 1 (teach the basics, no need to waste the effort on the 90% of students only taking the class for the Fine Arts credit needed to graduate), Technical Theatre 2 (what is needed to know about Lighting, Sound, Video, Fly System and design), Theatre Production 1-3 (practical application of everything you learned in Tech 2. Yes, you'll be on running crew for shows as a Tech1 and Tech2, but as a Production student, your grade depends on how many hours you work). Design is becoming more and more prominent in Tech2 as the years go by. Our teacher is trying to get Design into a separate class, but the program is still taking baby steps. She's made some big and quite necessary changes in her 4 years here already.

Internal Personnel Structure? Care to elaborate?... 'cause I'm not pickin' up what you're puttin' down.



Sorry if that came off as rude or showy or anything like that... your post just kinda made me feel like I had something to prove... like there was some standard I needed to live up to or something.


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## soundlight (Nov 11, 2008)

Please don't feel offended or that you have something to prove, it's just my gut reaction to the massive rich school districts.

If it's tour programming that you want to go in to, then this looks like a great high school to graduate from. Wholehog III programming skills as a resume listing when graduating high school? Yes!

Do you have any production shots from the blackbox shows? I'd be interested to see what they look like.


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## philhaney (Nov 11, 2008)

Charc said:


> We've seen you guys can walk-the-walk when it comes to budget. So, what is your program like? How are the design classes? What's the internal personnel structure?




WestlakeTech said:


> Internal Personnel Structure? Care to elaborate?...



I think (my best guess here) is that Charc is just curious as to whether you have a Dean of Fine Arts, several department heads (Acting, Costume, Set Design and Construction, Lighting, Sound, etc), with Teachers and TAs for each department, or if you have a "drama" teacher who also coaches the girl's volleyball team (or whatever), or if you have something in between.

That's my take on his question......

($3,500.00 tripod????? I would give my eye teeth for a $500 Manfrotto tripod/head. Sheesh. )


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## WestlakeTech (Nov 11, 2008)

Soundlight, I appreciate that, but I was actually referring to Charc's post.

It's really ironic, 'cause I'm in a rich district, but I'm hardly a rich kid. I'm just glad I got such a great tech theatre opportunity.

Well, here's the thing. I want to try touring at least once just so I can see if it IS something I'd like to do or not. As is, I don't think I would and I'd probably prefer to live in a house, not a hotel or bus, but it's hard to be sure until I've tried it out. To be honest, I don't do a lot with the Hog. I maybe shouldn't be saying this, but we've got a very aristocratic/favoritist crew. I was never one of the "Chosen Few" so my chances at learning a whole lot about the Hog were limited, but I don't really mind. It's an interesting board, but I'm just as happy with conventionals, lighting and scene design, and some stage managing.

Black Box, I can maybe get a couple of pictures of the set in a minute or two... none taken during the show, but I'm sure you can imagine why Techies wouldn't be taking pictures during shows and rehearsals...

We're a high school. We have no deans. We have a Facilities Director for our FAF and a teacher of the Tech classes who is the FD for the BBT. FAF's graduated from Ithaca having studied Tech Theatre there and was working at Production Resource Group before he came to teach here. BBT's has a degree from Texas State (though it may have been Southwest Texas) in Scene Design and has tons of experience. She's done pretty much everything.

I know, I'm looking for a car and WISHING I had 3500 dollars for one.






... and this one's from a show a couple of years ago...



None of the booth, but I'll work on that sometime soon.


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## chrispo86 (Nov 12, 2008)

This is all extremely impressive for a high school, even if it is a wealthy one. The high school I help out at is also in a rather well-off district and we're lucky if we're able to rent couple of Mac250's to run on our Express 24/48 :neutral:. We basically have to forget about purchasing anything. The district gives our theater department next to nothing, which is a shame because (not to sound conceded) we're pretty darn good.

Anyway, I would really like to see pictures of the booth and maybe some backstage shots. You seem to have quite an opportunity on your hands to have a facility like this to work in. Hope you can gain some knowledge here and please share some as well. Everyone really is very friendly and quite helpful. Welcome aboard!


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## WestlakeTech (Nov 12, 2008)

chrispo86 said:


> This is all extremely impressive for a high school, even if it is a wealthy one. The high school I help out at is also in a rather well-off district and we're lucky if we're able to rent couple of Mac250's to run on our Express 24/48 :neutral:. We basically have to forget about purchasing anything. The district gives our theater department next to nothing, which is a shame because (not to sound conceded) we're pretty darn good.
> 
> Anyway, I would really like to see pictures of the booth and maybe some backstage shots. You seem to have quite an opportunity on your hands to have a facility like this to work in. Hope you can gain some knowledge here and please share some as well. Everyone really is very friendly and quite helpful. Welcome aboard!




Hey man, you guys gotta think you're good, otherwise you'd have no motivation to do it.

Well, being a Black Box our backstage isn't much of a backstage, but I'll see what I can come up with in the next month or so.


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## chrispo86 (Nov 12, 2008)

WestlakeTech said:


> Well, being a Black Box our backstage isn't much of a backstage, but I'll see what I can come up with in the next month or so.



Ahh... I was getting confused (doesn't help that I couldn't actually look at the pictures at work. Stupid corporate network blocks everything ever... Blackbox makes a lot more sense seeing the pictures). I was thinking about the theater shown in the videos. I'd be curious to see photos of that setup! (I'm getting a tad jealous  ...and I'm looking for ideas on how to improve our [-]run-down dump[/-] beautiful auditorium  )


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## WestlakeTech (Nov 12, 2008)

chrispo86 said:


> Ahh... I was getting confused (doesn't help that I couldn't actually look at the pictures at work. Stupid corporate network blocks everything ever... Blackbox makes a lot more sense seeing the pictures). I was thinking about the theater shown in the videos. I'd be curious to see photos of that setup! (I'm getting a tad jealous  ...and I'm looking for ideas on how to improve our [-]run-down dump[/-] beautiful auditorium  )



Can't get FAF (theater seen in the video) pics until about March or April, but I'll put them in an album on here as soon as I've got them. What is it you'd like to know about that setup? I might be able to answer some questions, but I couldn't guarantee anything.


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## chrispo86 (Nov 12, 2008)

No specific questions pop to mind, I was just curious to see the venue with the lights on, it looks pretty big...
I just like seeing what other people have and trying to take a little from here, a little from there, and slowly work different things that stand out to me into our theater. Though if I think of anything specific, I'll definately ask.


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## gafftaper (Nov 13, 2008)

Wow. (former high school teacher, now college teacher here). You have no idea how lucky you are. You've got access to stuff that many universities can't afford. You are probably one of only a hand full of schools in the country with gear, budget and production values like that. Consider yourself well launched on your way to the career of your dreams. Back that up with a good college degree and you will go far. 

And welcome to the Booth! The search function is your friend so don't forget to use it.


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## philhaney (Nov 13, 2008)

gafftaper said:


> Wow. (former high school teacher, now college teacher here). You have no idea how lucky you are. You've got access to stuff that many universities can't afford. You are probably one of only a hand full of schools in the country with gear, budget and production values like that. Consider yourself well launched on your way to the career of your dreams. Back that up with a good college degree and you will go far.
> 
> And welcome to the Booth! The search function is your friend so don't forget to use it.



Don't forget the glossary or collaborative articles either.....


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