Working as an Electrician

Introduction

It can take a while to learn all the skills that it takes to be a fully-qualified electrician (note: not the same as the electrician who wires up your house; we're talking about theater electricians here). Really good electricians know what the designer wants even before the designer does, and have already set up the required equipment and are ready to go. Hopefully, the stuff on this page will help give you an idea what you should be going for, and make load-in, focus, and strike a whole lot easier.

• Overview of Load-in/Tech Process
• Preparation Before Load-in
• Load-in
  • Basic terms, hanging units, troubleshooting
• Focus
• Strike

Overview of the Show Process

Before we plunge into the nitty-gritty of hanging and focusing lights, let's go through a quick overview of the entire process, because it's important to know where each piece fits in the grand scheme of things. The entire process could be divided into the following phases: Design, Preparation, Load-in, Focus, Cueing, Technical Rehearsals, Run of the show, Strike.

During the Design phase, the Lighting Designer will figure out how to allocate all the lights that will be used. She will produce volumes of paperwork to indicate to the crew exactly where to place and how to configure each unit.

The Preparation phase refers to all those tasks that can be done before load-in, such as ordering and receiving a rental, checking inventory, cutting up gels, etc. Most of this work is done by the Master Electrician, and for the most part, is actually done during load-in.

Load-in is, of course, the big day. Here is where the electricians strut their stuff: hanging the lights in assigned positions, plugging them in, and configuring them.

Once all the lights are hung, Focus happens. This means precisely pointing each light at exactly the right spot, and then adjusting any of the other modifiable features of the units to suit the Designer's needs.

After the lights are focussed, the Designer can Cue the show, meaning set which lights turn on at which times, and how fast.

Then, of course, the show actually runs. Aside from a lightboard op, usually not much else is needed for the lighting department.

And finally, Strike. Once again, the electricians are the major players in making sure that everything gets taken down and stored away correctly.

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's focus in (no pun intended) on the various areas which are important for electricians to know about: Preparation, Load-in, Focus, and Strike. (Note: if you are curious about other aspects of lighting, you can check out the Master Electrician's guide or the Lighting Designer's guide for more information).

Preparation for Load-in

As I mentioned above, most of what we are going to cover here will actually be done during load-in, but efficient LDs and MEs will try to get most of it out of the way beforehand.

In all likelihood, most of what is listed above under Preparation will be handled by the Master Electrician, e.g. the rental package. You may be asked to help out with inventorying a batch of lights or whatever, but for the most part, you'll be told what to do. The major area where electricians are asked to do stuff in the preparation phase is in preparing the consumables, e.g. gels and gobos.

In case you don't know, a gel is a (usually) transparent piece of plastic which is dyed a particular color. The name comes from "gelatin", which is what they used to be made out of. The color is selected by the designer from the color range offered by one of the gel manufacturers (there are three major manufacturers which you're likely to see; Rosco, Lee, GamColor). In addition to colors, gels are also offered with different levels/types of "frost" or "diffusion" to soften the beams of spotlights and other specialty formats.

Gels typically come in 20"x24" (21"x24" for Lee) sheets, which is far larger than is needed by most lighting units. They therefore need to be cut up into appropriate size for each unit. The cut up gels will be inserted in gel frames, which will support the gel and be inserted into a special slot at the end of the lighting unit's barrel. Most gel frames are square, and usually are just rectangles of metal or fiber paper folded in half (with a big hole punched out of the middle of the result).

Since there are different sizes of lighting unit, there are different sizes or cuts of gel that you need to make. If the LD or ME really has their sh** together, they'll give you a list that says something like ' 12 cuts @ 10"x10" '. More likely, however, you'll either get a plot, or some other paperwork, and have to figure it out for yourself (or they'll just try to tell you as you go along).

In order to figure it out for yourself, you of course need to know what size cut each type of unit takes. Here's a fairly extensive list:

• 6.25"x6.25": All Source 4 ERS units rated by degree, 19 degree and above.
• 7.5"x7.5": All Altman-style ERS units, rated by focal length (e.g. 6x9, 6x22, etc). All 6" Fresnels. All Source 4 PARs and Source 4 PARnels. All PAR56 units.
• 10"x10": All PAR64 units.

In addition, there are some odd sizes, like R40 striplights (something like 5.25"x6"), ZIP strips (something like 5"x3"), and other cyc or strip units like the L&E strips on the Mainstage (something like 11"x8"). In all these cases, I highly recommend you get a sample gel frame and just measure it (the gel should fill the entire frame (without sticking out), not just cover the center hole). Also, for all sizes, it's good to try to put your first sample cut in the actual frame to check that you're making them correctly.

So, what you need to do is count up the number of units of each type so you can figure out how many cuts of a particular size you need. Then, you need to figure out how many individual cuts you can get from a single sheet (hints: 6x7.5" cuts/sht, 9x6.25" cuts/sht, 4x10"cuts/sht). In general, it's easier to cut all the same size from one sheet, rather than try to mix and match sizes on a single sheet. Take some time to calculate the best way to lay out your cuts to minimize the waste gel after cutting, especially when cutting the larger non-square sizes.

When cutting gel, the best way to do it is with a large paper cutter. To my knowledge, only the Loeb actually has one large enough, so if you can, go use it. Anything too small will force you to fold the gel, which makes it a pain in the ass to cut. Cutting with scissors is also really really lame. In all cases, start by cutting the gel across the long dimension first. Make sure your cuts make 90° angles, even the paper cutter sometimes misaligns the gel as you are cutting.

Please label your gel as you go along; it's really easy to confuse colors, and getting the right ones is critical, so make sure you mark each batch of cuts as you make them! Use a grease pencil (white on dark gels and vice versa) if you have one; in a pinch you can use a Sharpie as well. The label should be a single letter to indicate the manufacturer (L for Lee, R for Rosco, G for Gam) and then the gel number (including leading zeros, see below). The label should be fairly small (maybe 3/4" high) down in one corner of the gel, although if it can be just visible when in the frame, that's convenient for later.

Rosco labels its sheets by stamping the gel number on one end, like "Rosco 08". The would become "R08". (Note that you should start cutting the sheet from the other end; if you don't use the whole sheet then the remainder is clearly labeled). Lee usually puts a little sticker on their sheets which says "Lee Filters" and the gel number, although for some reason their popular L201 gels often just have the backing paper labeled (so don't separate the backing paper from the gel until it's labeled!).

As you cut up the gels, it's a good idea to either separate them by color, or if you have access to the paperwork, by position. The idea there would be to stack all the colors for, say, the 1st Catwalk together. Then you can hand the stack to the person hanging the 1st Cat and they can gel everything at the same time. Also go ahead and throw the gels into gelframes, if they're available. Sometimes you might need to combine multiple gels or a gel and a frost in a single frame; it's a good idea here to try to indicate which side is which, as it might be important how they're placed in the unit (this is where having the gel label peeking out in the corner of the frame comes in handy).

I think that's all there is to say about cutting gel, if not too much. It's not really a glamorous job, but it has to be done, and doing it right will make everyone else much happier.

Load-in

Load-in is, of course, the key part of being an electrician. If you're efficient during load-in, that means more time for rehearsals, and a smoother-running show. There's also a lot to do and a lot to pay attention to, so it's important to keep a clear head and think about what you are doing (note: most illustrations have enlarged version if you click on them).

Pulling Units

One of the first major tasks will probably be to pull instruments for each hanging position. Since you need to know what each kind of instrument looks like for this, it's time to plunge into a quick "name that unit" tutorial.

The first type of unit we'll look at is the Altman ellipsoidal, also known as a Leko (old trade name). These are the workhorses of the theater, and you'll find them most anywhere. The basic unit looks like this: You'll most likely run into five versions: 4.5"x6", 6"x9", 6"x12", 6"x16", 6"x22". Since the second number in each case is the focal length, and this proportionally affects the length of the unit, you can often tell which is which by the length of the unit alone. The one tricky bit is the 4.5"x6", which is the same length as the 6"x9". What I do is look at the lens; the 4.5" unit has a smaller lens set deeper inside the unit than the 6x9. In most places, they'll be labelled anyway.

Next, we have the 6" Fresnel. . The 6" unit has a bigger cousin, the 8", but they look very similar and have the same features. Fresnels don't have different lens types or lamp types; the size of the beam is dynamically adjustable.

Then there's the PAR can: . The ones you'll see most often are PAR64s; there are smaller varieties but you'll probably only see them if they get rented. All PAR64 units look the same externally; the lamp can be changed to one of four types: WFL, MFL, NSP, VNSP (which stand for Wide FLood, Medium FLood, Narrow SPot, and Very Narrow SPot, respectively). You can tell which is which by looking at the lamp; there's a lamp code stamped on the back surface, and the physical construction of the lens looks different. Unfortunately, the lamp codes are a little obscure, and it takes some experience to ID the lenses (see the S4 doc below for similar samples), but in most case the space will have a "code" for which lamp is in the unit (the Mainstage uses a piece of tape on the yoke: white for WFL, red for MFL, blue for NSP, and double-blue for VNSP).

ETC has a separate line of units, called "Source Fours". They also have an ellipsoidal, a PAR, and a Fresnel equivalent. The ellipsoidals look like this:, and are rated by degree. Since the 19°, 26°, 36°, and 50° all use the same barrel, with just the lenses in different positions, it can be really difficult to tell which is which. Fortunately, most spaces will mark the units with a piece of tape to indicate which size is which. The 10° and the 5° are easy to identify; they use a special large barrel which is very distinctive.

The Source 4 PAR looks like this: . It uses lenses to achieve the different flood settings that the PAR64 does, so you can tell which is which only by knowing something about the lenses. Again, they should be marked. Now Source 4 has a "PARnel" which is a Fresnel equivalent. It uses a different kind of lens than the PAR but externally looks the same. As a quick way to tell them apart, look at this image which was extracted from the user manuals (both of them).

Another common type of unit is the cyc wash unit, an example of which is the Altman Focusing Cyc. . This unit is intended for lighting backdrops with color. You'll also see 3-4 of these connected together in a strip.

Speaking of strips, the remaining class of common lighting unit is the striplight, which should be pretty obvious. These come in a number of varieties, with different types of bulbs and whatnot, but it should be pretty clear which ones you need for which. In these units, every 3rd or 4th lamp is connected together in the same circuit, so a single strip may have 12 lamps but only 3 circuits.

Hanging Positions

We should also probably quickly go over the hanging positions you'll probably run into, just so you aren't confused by odd terminology. First of all, any pipe rigged above the stage is called a pipe (duh) or batten. If it happens to have lighting units on it, it's often called an electric. Electrics (and other pipes) are numbered starting at the proscenium line (PL, the "picture window" the audience looks through, assuming there is such a thing), so that the first one just US of the proscenium arch is #1, then #2, etc. On the Mainstage you might even get up to #8.

Out in the front of the house, you have catwalks or beams. These are also numbered from the PL out, so just DS of proscenium is #1, then #2, etc. This little picture should make things clear:

If there is a balcony in the space (like in the Ag or Lowell Lec), then the pipe on the front edge of the balcony is called the balcony rail. The Mainstage has two balconies to either side called either balconies or coves. Pipes that run US/DS onstage are usually called sidetabs; this is from the type of curtain usually hung there but they can be used as electrics as well.

Free-standing pipes on a heavy base are called booms. These are usually placed onstage for sidelight, in which case they are numbered, again starting from PL and working US (e.g. SL Boom #1). Booms out in the house are usually called box booms and are attached to the side walls. Short pipes hung above head height at the sides of the stage (usually a full frame is hung to prevent twisting) are called ladders.

Things get a little funky when you get into grids. You can either label the pipes starting from one side of the space (as in the Ex, where the pipe closest to the "Northeast" wall is A, then B, and so on), or you can label them starting on center (if they are running US/DS. If you have a traditional proscenium theater (such as the Mainstage), you might label them starting from SL. If the pipes run SL/SR (e.g. across the stage), then you number them starting from the PL (again). The Mainstage has a house pipe grid just DS of PL, before the 1st cat; it is labeled in this manner (HP#1, HP#2 etc going DS; HP-A, HP-B etc going SL->SR).

That should suffice to help you find the basic hanging positions. All spaces have their quirks and wierd naming conventions; if you're confused, just ask!

Accessories

Ok, so now you have the units you need, and know where you're bringing them. Is there anything else you need to bring along? Of course! There are a number of accessories, for rigging and modifying the units, which you might need to know about.

The basic rigging piece is the C-clamp. The L-shaped part goes around the pipe you are clamping to, and the "pipe bolt" is used to fasten it on. The lighting unit as attached to the "yoke bolt". The center post (which the yoke bolt screws into) itself can spin freely in the C-clamp; it's held in place by a (pick your expletive)-screw. This should always be tight. The only time the sh**-screw should be loose is if you are taking out the center post to attach something else, like a sidearm (see below), which you should almost never do at Harvard. If the sh**screw isn't tight, focusing the instrument is impossible. Not only that, they're really easy to break off, in which case, you generally say "Sh**!" (or your own favorite expletive). Also, don't ever lose the yoke bolt itself. If you ever remove the C-clamp from a lighting instrument, you will need to take out the yoke bolt entirely. Make sure you put it back into the center post of the C-clamp after you've removed the lighting unit.

Another piece of rigging is the sidearm: This attaches in place of the C-clamp and is used to mount units to vertical pipes (like booms). Note that: 1) the clamp at the end of the sidearm is just a C-clamp with the center post replaced with a long arm (sh**screw warning still applies); 2) the arms come in different lengths; 3) the "tee" (bit with two small bolts sticking up) slides along the arm — the two small bolts are used to fasten it in place and prevent it from spinning (don't break or lose them!) 4) the yoke bolt in this case goes sideways into the tee (it's sticking straight out at you in the illustration) — again, don't lose it, put it back in the tee; 5) you can have multiple tees on a sidearm, thus double-tee sidearm.

Just a couple of other quick terms: strip lights are often mounted with trunions at each end to serve as feet. These are just triangular pieces which hold the unit off the ground. If the trunion is set up that way, it sometimes can serve double duty as a way to hang the strip from a pipe if you attach C-clamps to them. Alternatively, you can use an angle iron to do the same job (which is a lot like a sidearm but attaches to the side of a striplight).

Ok, we'll now move on to the accessories that modify an individual lighting unit. Almost all lighting units have a gel frame of some sort; some of these are fiberboard or metal, some are hinged or whatever, but they all basically hold one (or more) sheets of gel in front of the light beam. Other stuff can go in the gel slot as well; most things are intended to cut down on spill light in various ways. These include the snoot (used mostly on ellipsoidals), barn door (used on Fresnels), and donuts (used to create a sharper image in an ellipsoidal).

Ellipsoidal units have another slot, called the gobo or template slot. This is where patterns/templates/gobos are inserted, and also where irises are installed. A typical gobo holder looks like this: There are other types, and then fancy variants like gobo rotaters and of course the iris units, etc, but they all basically install the same way. Hopefully, your designer/ME will have the holders all set up and ready to go, so you just need to slide it into the unit.

That pretty much covers the accessories, except for cabling and whatnot. We'll get to those a little bit later. For now, let's get to actually hanging the lights.

Hanging a Lighting Instrument

Hanging a lighting instrument isn't very hard, but there are some subtleties to doing it that make everyone else's job easier. I'll go through the basic process, but interject some tips on how to do it better.

Ok, the first step is to get yourself, your instruments, and your accessories over to the hanging position. If this is on the ground, then you're all set. But if it's in the air, then you might need to hoist up the lighting units. The best way to do this is: 1) Send a strong person up into the beam, with a rope (some places already have ropes in place for this very purpose) with a loop in the end of it (if there's no loop, tie a bowline, see any Boy Scout or sailing handbook). 2) Have them tie the rope off in the beam, and the drop the loop down to the floor. 3) Snake the rope through the yoke of a unit, and then drop the loop over the C-clamp. If the person is very strong, you can snake the rope through the yokes of two units. There's no need to tie the rope off at all. 4) Hoist away, and carefully take the units off the rope, preferable without dropping them on anybody below (you can quickly hand-tighten their C-clamps or safety them to the pipe if you want). 5) Send up the accessories in a box or backpack or something.

The next step is, of course, to actually hang the unit. Make sure the C-Clamp is open enough so that it can fit over the pipe before you try to hang it — it's a pain in the ass to lift heavy units, and then not be able to get them over the pipe!

TIP: When placing the unit on the pipe, face the C-clamp so that you and whoever is focussing the unit has easy access to the pipe bolt. This usually means that the square head of the pipe bolt (and the open side of the "C") should be facing you, although this might depend on how much room there is to swing a wrench on that side. On beams, where you sit behind the beam pipe, have the C-Clamp facing in. In the Ex, this means with the C-Clamp facing toward the inside of the cell, since there's not much room for a wrench on the other side. On electrics, they should all face the same way so the focusser only has to travel down one side of the pipe. Note that it doesn't matter which way the lighting unit itself is facing at this point!

The standard way of specifying where units go on a plot is to use a 1/2" or 1/4" scale plot with standardized symbols for each type of unit. Another standard is that the units are all placed 1'6" (18") apart; this guarantees that they have enough room (spots can of course be skipped, and occasionally this rule will be violated but that should be clearly marked). Here is an example of a piece of a plot (click to enlarge): As you can see, each unit is clearly designated by number and type (the designer should put a key somewhere on the plot so you can tell which symbol means which). They are also all evenly spaced (although some "slots" are skipped). On a real plot, you would be able to find a reference point (such as CL or PL) and just count off 1'6" slots from there. Incidentally, the other indications are focus position, color, (instrument number) and wattage, respectively. There's more, but that comes later.

Go ahead and tighten down the pipe bolt. Don't be shy. I go finger tight, and then at least two full turns with the wrench. You really want to crank that thing down; it's impossible to focus if the clamp is loose. On the other hand, it is possible to break or bend the C-clamp, so don't turn beyond a couple turns past finger-tight.

While you're at it, make sure the sh**screw is tight as well. This is easy to break, so be careful! I usually test to see that the instrument is secure by grabbing the yoke and trying to wiggle it. If it moves much at all, try to figure out which part is shifting. If it's just the yoke, no the C-clamp, then finger tighten the yoke bolt (this doesn't need to be tight yet). If the center post on the C-clamp moves, but not the rest of it, it's the sh**screw. If the whole C-clamp moves, then the pipe bolt's not tight enough.

Before you leave that unit, unwrap the power cable tail from around the unit and let it dangle freely. We'll come back in a bit and circuit the unit up. If there's a safety chain, then make sure it isn't caught around the unit. Finally, point the unit somewhere near the spot it will eventually be focussed on (if you haven't been told what this is, then midstage is generally a good bet). Make absolutely sure of the following

1. You only use the yoke bolt and the tilt knobs to point the unit. If anything else is loose, tighten it up.
2. The unit is right-side up. You can tell by which way the gel slot faces. Having to spin units during focus is a pain in the ass.
3. There are no obstructions that prevent the unit from pointing at its assigned spot.
4. Once it's prefocussed, you tighten down the tilt knobs and yoke bolt just finger-tight, or maybe a bit more.
5. If you are hanging an ellipsoidal unit, pull out all the shutter cuts.

This will ensure that when someone comes along to focus the unit, they a) won't have to move it far b) it won't be stuck in a position c) they won't have to flip it over d) the unit won't have to be moved to avoid obstructions e) nothing that shouldn't be loose is loose.

Once that's done, you can drop in color and gobos, and plug the unit in. This last bit is tricky; everybody has a different way of specifying which circuits go where, and whether they're two-fered or whatever. Here's another bit of plot to look at, which will elucidate this somewhat: Now, we see the circuit numbers marked in for each unit (the little circle). You'll also see the there's a little line connecting some of the units. This indicates a two-fer, which is just a Y-cable to connect two lights to one circuit. One important note, however: sometimes circuits have two outlets (like in the Ex); in these cases, it's just as good to use both outlets as it is to two-fer the cable (unless you are actually hooking up more than two units).

So, go ahead and plug in the unit. You might need various lengths of extensions and adapters to do so. Most spaces on campus use stage-pin cabling: . It should be pretty obvious how these go together. The Ex uses twist-lock, just to be different: . These cables connect together, and then you need to twist to make the final connection. Once this is done, you shouldn't be able to pull them apart without untwisting them.

For now, just plug in the units and let the cable hang down. Well fix this up later. If a connection seems to be slipping, you can apply a piece of gaff tape across the connection to hold it together. Do not wrap the connectors in tape! There is no reason to do this; a single strip will hold a heck of a lot. Also put a little tab on the tape for easy removal.

After all the units on the pipe are plugged in, you can neaten up the cabling and tie it all up. The best way to do this is as follows:

1. Use black tie-line and tie a clove hitch and a bow.
2. Tie the cable straight along the pipe from its source to where the unit is.
3. If there's excess cable,just fold it once along the pipe and back and then tie it along; try not to loop it!
4. Tie the final connector just above the unit, or close to it. Never, ever ever tie the unit's pigtail to the pipe!
5. Make sure that your ties give slack where connections are made, rather than stretching them apart.

Some of those rules deserve further elucidation. Here's how I tie up cabling: First, I start tying up the cabling along the pipe from where it came from (I know I'll never need slack at that end). If I reach the unit, and have slack cable, I fold it along the pipe and then back, looping only once if possible. I then tie off the final connector just above the unit, leaving the tail free in case the light needs be replaced or focussed at an extreme angle. This is all brilliantly illustrated in this drawing: Of course, this can get pretty complex with lots of units and cables coming in from every direction, but it's pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it. The neater you tie up your cabling, the easier troubleshooting, focus, and strike will be. Note that some people like to label both ends of the cabling so you always know which circuit goes to which. This can be done easily with some gaff and a sharpie.

Once the cabling is all done, it is very important to go back and attach a safety chain to every instrument that will be over anybody's head. As mentioned, it's not unheard of for C-clamps to fail.

That's pretty much it for load-in. Once you've gone through all the above at every position, the lights will all be hung and pretty much ready to focus. The only remaining thing to do is...

Troubleshooting

It's almost inevitable that a few lights won't work after you've hung them, and there's a wide variety of reasons why that might be the case. I'll hopefully hit the major ones here, but we'll continue to add to this section as we see things happen.

The first thing to check is whether the lightboard is working. This is really the lightop or MEs responsibility, so let them handle it.

If they report that they think it should be working, and indeed most of the other lights work, then it's time to check for problems at the hanging position. There are a number of useful tools here, but it's unlikely you'll have any of them: Gamcheck, voltage tester, continuity tester, etc. If you have these tools, you'll likely know how to use them, so I'll assume you don't.

One of the easiest things to do right off is to establish whether the circuit is working. First, have them bring up the problem unit (which won't come on) to a low level (20%, say). Identify a unit nearby that works (make sure it's been tested), this will give you a "known-good" unit and a known-good circuit. Unplug the known-good unit from its circuit, and plug it into the problem circuit. If it comes on, then you know the problem is in the problem unit itself. If it doesn't, then the problem is in the problem circuit. Double check this by having them kill the problem circuit and bring up the known-good circuit. Plug the problem unit into the known-good circuit. If it comes on, then the problem is in the problem circuit, not the unit. Make sure you return everything to the way it was!

It's not all that uncommon to get confusing results with the above experiment, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes you just have flaky contacts, so moving the cables around or the units around will cause them to turn off and on seemingly at random. Keep testing different combinations until you've figured it out.

If you have a problem unit, the most likely problem is simply that the bulb blew. Get a replacement bulb (make sure you have the correct wattage) and install it in the unit (see below). If that doesn't fix it immediately, then the problem might be the physical connections inside the wire/unit. This is probably for the ME to fix.

Replacing lamps:

• General rules: a) Never touch the quartz glass envelope of a good bulb with your bare fingers. If you do, wipe it off with a soft cloth. b) Make sure the power's off before replacing a lamp. The best way to do this is to unplug it yourself! c) It's sometimes not the lamp that's bad, so it's always a good policy to treat the bulb you're taking out as good unless it's visibly broken.
• Ellipsoidals: The lamp socket is attached to a base that screws to the back of the unit (where the power pigtail attaches). You might need to tilt the unit so the back of it is outside of the yoke. There's a large, usually brass screw that holds the base on; unscrew this (you can often use a coin or key if it's difficult). The entire base will come out of the back of the unit. All but the oldest units use a bi-pin base; just grasp the ceramic base of the lamp and pull. Take the new bulb out of its packaging and, using the paper or plastic sheath provided to grasp the bulb, push in the new lamp. Test.
• Fresnels: Lift up or unscrew the pin at the top front of the unit which holds the lens assembly in place. This will swing down out of the way. Inside the unit is a "sled" which has the lamp base on it. Usually these have a "prefocus" lamp base; you need to push down (fairly hard) and then turn to remove the old lamp. The new lamp has two tabs of different sizes that need to be lined up with the gaps in the base, then you need to push and turn. Test.
• PAR can: There's a clip which holds the back of the can on; unclip this and fold the cap back. Pull off the ceramic base and let it dangle. There's a circular metal ring that holds the lamp in place; find the tabs on it and squeeze them together to pull the ring out. After that, the lamp should just fall out. Drop the new one in place and replace the retaining ring, making sure it's past the dimples that hold it in place all the way around. Reattach the ceramic base (it always feels like it's not attached to me, but it is). Test.
• Cyc lights (linear filament): Take out the gel frame, then remove any protective screens. Grasp the lamp in the center, and push straight to one side (don't pull yet!). Once the contact to one side has retracted and the lamp has come off the other contact, twist out the lamp. Replace in the same manner in reverse, making sure that the lamp seats itself firmly against both contacts. Test.

That should cover the basics of troubleshooting; anything more complex can be referred to the ME.

Focus

Ah, focus. This can be either a breeze or mindbogglingly painful depending on the skills and willingness of the crew, and of course of the designer. From your perspective, you need to be as patient and as efficient as possible; the designer needs to focus lots and lots of lights very quickly, and shouldn't have to wait for you to catch up. Good designers can run as many as four to five focussers at the same time, but if the designer has to keep coming back to your light to fix up problems then you aren't doing your job.

Here's the basic layout of what happens during focus:

• Prep: Ideally, the LD or lightop knows which light you'll be focussing next as soon as you've finished the last one. They may indicate this to you by listing off a unit number on the plot, or by glowing the next unit (hopefully, the designer will be working straight down electrics rather than hopping around).
• Go to the next unit and prep it for the focus. This means you
  • Make sure all the shutters are pulled out
  • Remove any gels that may have been put in the unit
  • Make sure the sh**screw and C-clamp are tight
  • Make sure the tilt knobs and the yoke bolt are only finger tight
  • Make sure the unit isn't obstructed from pointing at where you think it is supposed to, either by objects in the way or an improperly tied-up power cable
  • If possible, bring the unit into "tight" focus, e.g. for ellipsoidals, try to get a nice hard edge; for Fresnels, run the sled all the way back.
• When the designer is ready to focus your unit, she will have the light op bring it up to full. At this point, you follow her directions for pointing the instrument at the precise spot onstage where it is needed. It's better to do left-right first, as once that is clamped down, up-down is very easy to finish up. The basic rule is that you are trying to center the unit on the back of the designer's head.
• Usually, the designer will point or say which direction the unit needs to be moved in. Once it is in position, you'll be told "lock that down". You need to somehow figure out how to get out your wrench and tighten down the unit without letting it move an inch. As I said, it's easier if you get left-right locked first, but in general you should learn how to hold the instrument in place and use your wrench to tighten down the yoke bolt without letting the unit move. While you are doing this, it is a good idea to yell out "Working!" so the designer knows that she can move on and come back to you when you are finished locking down.
• Adjusting shutters is similar, in that you follow the designers directions as to how far they go in and at what angle. Shutters can be pretty stiff, so if you aren't quite getting the angle the designer wants try a little more oomph. Notice that the lighting unit had better be locked down pretty well if you are going to be pushing on the shutters with any force.
• After the shutters are set, you will probably be asked to drop color (put in the gel) and maybe fuzz the beam using the barrel. Once this is all complete, double check that the unit isn't obstructed by anything or obstructing anything else, and that the cabling is neat and tidy. Finally, check that the safety is correctly fastened to the pipe.

The keys here are the preparation and communication between you and the designer. The biggest time wasters during focus are when the unit needs to be moved, flipped over, or some other major adjustment needs to be made. Usually this is discovered after the designer has already spent several minutes trying to focus the unit. That's why you should spend some time before you start to try to focus checking that all the pieces of the unit are in working order.

The other key, communication, is important so that you don't waste time waiting for each other. If you yell out "Working!" every time you are making adjustments that will take some time, the designer can move on to other units. If you don't, in all likelihood the designer will start yelling out commands that you can't handle because you're trying to adjust something. Remember that they can't see you at all because you are shining a big bright light in their eyes. If it seems that the designer thinks you are working when in fact you aren't yell out, "Ready!" so the designer know she can start tweaking the unit.

If you do your job well as a focusser, the whole process will be quick and easy and be done before you know it. If you don't pay attention and use your brain looking for potential problems, it will be extraordinarily slow and painful. So keep your head up, communicate well, and ask if you don't understand something.

Strike

Strike is of course when you have to take down the results of all your hard work, which happens far too soon for most Harvard productions. There are two very very important things to remember while you strike:

• Be safe: it will most likely be late at night, and there will be lots of inexperienced people running around. Be very careful when moving anything, and don't rush. Watch out for yourself as well as others (which brings to mind my roommate's story of the actor who was trying to knock out the legs of an 8' high platform with a sledgehammer while standing on the platform).
• Be neat: In all likelihood, another show will be in here the next day to load in their show. Have some pride in your work, and realize that the next show will know exactly who struck the night before and will remember whether you did a good, neat job or a crappy, messy job. And they may be your potential employers after you graduate, you never know ;)

With that in mind, let's discuss what needs to be done. Some houses (e.g. the Ex, the Mainstage, etc) strike every single light, cable, etc. Others allow you to leave up some of the units, perhaps depending on what the next show is like (e.g. Leverett, Rieman, etc). Sometimes it's even more complex than that, and you need to strike only certain units, perhaps because they're rented, or borrowed, or whatever. The point being, make absolutely sure you know which bits need to be struck and which left alone to avoid having to redo a lot of work.

Once you're certain what needs to be struck, it is helpful to specialize. As an example, let's say I'm striking in the Ex. Rather than just send a bunch of people upstairs and say "strike the lights", I might tell them to do the following:

• One person, start by the stairs, and run through the entire grid, and just unplug all the lighting units
• Another person, follow behind, and just undo the safety cable, free up the power cable, point the unit straight down, and push in shutters.
• Another two people, follow behind, and start to undo the lights and lay them in the walkways.
• Another person, start to pick up the units and run them back to the rack.
• As soon as all the units are unplugged (which should be very quick) some people can start to coil up the cabling (being careful not to yank on it and pull units off the grid!).

Note that with the above plan, very few people need wrenches, and those who have them use them constantly, instead of only occasionally. Also note that you start coiling the cables very soon, which is usually the most time-consuming part of striking. The idea here is to get as many people working on simple, specific tasks, and to try to parallelize the strike process.

To be a bit more specific about the things that usually need to be done during strike:

• Lighting units:
  • Lighting units will need to be taken down, and placed on a rack or in a room or something.
  • Units should be stored with the yoke straight up and down
  • And with the shutters and the lens barrel (for ellipsoidals) all the way in
  • Wrap the power cord around the yoke and drop it through so it won't get caught on anything
  • Ditto for the safety
  • In general, all units should be left with C-clamps on them, which might mean removing the sidearm or floor mount. Note that the bolt hardware stays with the sidearm/floormount
• Cables should be coiled neatly and stored by length. Coils should be 2' or so in diameter, and if possible plug the ends together or tie them up with tieline. Note that electrical cable has a "natural" tendency to twist, so as you coil you should twist the cable between your fingers and you'll find it falls easily into a coil. If one end of the cable is attached (as in the Ex), start from that end so the other end can twist as necessary to find its natural lay.
• Gels, gobos, etc should be removed from lighting units and stored appropriately.
• Any special rigging, custom mods, etc should be undone.
• All tape, labels, etc should be removed from all lighting units, cabling, etc.

Once this is done, and everything is neat and tidy, you are done with strike. Go party!