Hey everyone! I just got hired for Rhino and they already scheduled me for a first job. I couldn’t accept it because I’m still figuring out my schedule with my current job. I was wondering if that would look bad on me for not accepting the very first job they try to give me?
Genuinely curious how stressful setup and teardown must have been for local hands for these shows, especially to have less than 24 hours to change over from FF to MCR sets. Does anyone know if the two acts happenned to use any of the same staging/seating/line arrays/delay towers/lighting? I just can’t imagine it being logistically possible to tear all that down and set a whole other set up in that little time.
Maybe I'm just having a particularly bad week, but I have to ask if things every get better. I've been a stagehand for about 4 year (2 full time) and I'm just feeling extremely burnt out. Between constantly changing workplaces as I jump from gig to gig freelancing, to the physical pain I'm in due to the physical demands of the job, and the extremely long hours, I feel like I can't catch my breath or have a life. I decided to go back to school after having to miss one too many events due to a show I was working, but am scared I am making a mistake as maybe I'm just dealing with growing pains of the industry since I am so new to the whole thing. I have a good day or week and it leaves me questioning everything, yet I feel like the people around me are all miserable for the same reasons I am but are getting paid more. So I have to know do these things get better with time? Or are they just the reality of this crazy industry and something you either suck it up and deal with or leave? I just feel like I'm in crisis mode all the time cause of this job and I don't think that that's a healthy or conducive way for me to live the rest of my life... especially since I have such a long LONG way until retirement.
Had a couple gigs last week, on of them ran through Wednesday (8/12). Payday is biweekly so yesterday (8/14) would have been one and i was heavily relying on it, but never got it. To any AV freelancer or boss out there, do you think this wasn't a missed payday but instead the client just hasn't had time to pay the boss yet?
TL;DR - Don't ever work for Corporate AV Labor (or, better yet, agree to the gig and don't show up)
I have worked a few gigs before with VTS/Paytech/CAVL or whatever they call themselves these days. Usually I was paid within 30-45 days after a couple of payment reminders. One time I was even accidentally booked as a V1 when they didn't need me so they basically had me check batteries in microphones all day (easiest $1000 I ever made).
I worked a camera gig with them last year - the guy called me in a panic after the tech called in sick, so I rushed in same-day and saved them. It took 60 days of constant harassment to finally get paid.
So, stupidly, I agreed to a gig here a few months ago, thinking that what happened to me last year was a fluke. When I arrived on-location I met several other contractors who all told me they flat out refused to ever work with CAVL, and even the group I was with all had bad histories.
It's been three months now - and they owe me $1700. The days I spent on-site there I was out the money for parking/meals so I have indeed lost money on this.
I didn't take this laying down - I have gotten in touch with the venue, the show producer and even CAVL's client. They all know how bad CAVL is...they haven't paid any contractors from that show (the company said they sent CAVL a "shit sandwich" over this).
Now, CAVL's client thinks CAVL has just gone out of business again or rebranded itself to run from debt. They told me they have paid CAVL for their services weeks ago, and there were issues in another city. When confronted by their client about non-payments to a particular contractor, their response was "well, we've taken that individual off our call list" - never putting into account the person was never paid.
So, if you ever hear from these folks again, help us all by putting them out of business.
So I'm still pretty new to stage work, I'm about a year in, and I'm absolutely loving it. I've never had a job that I'm legitimately excited to do, but this is definitely it. I find myself getting genuinely excited every time I get a call, and my local union has a ton of really smart, really wonderful people. It feels like I'm really part of something bigger than myself and I can't even begin to describe how much I love that ❤️
I'm currently a 3rd graphic design student in toronto but I've always been really interested in live productions. I reached out to a local staffing company about pathways and they gave me a rundown on applying as a stagehand. While I am really interested in the work, I do really want to eventually work up to production management.
If I were to stick with being a stagehand long term, how viable would that be?
Addition: I'm also worried about being a woman entering this industry. What should I expect in that regard?
Hey I just hung this at a club I work at! I’m-one of the production managers (I do lights, visuals, lasers) and the other production manager (he does sound) we Never hung anything like this it took me and him about 35 hours over 2 days from engineering to being fully hung. The owner of the club is kinda pissed it took us “so long” to do and with complete transparency me and the other guy both get paid 30 an hour. Me and my other production manager both come from festival backgrounds we have worked together for almost 10 years (where the pay is not that great and most the time you don’t get paid from experiences we have)
We were just wondering from a professional perspective for a wall like this how long would have this took to hang and how much would that have cost?
I have plenty of general production experience. But this is my first call for lighting. What do I need to bring and do yall have any tips? Thank you!
Hi y'all, if anyone is interested in a lightweight (financially and operationally) alternative to Revu, "FieldScale" is out on the Play store now. It's built to be used on the go, either via phone or tablet. The application is steadily growing and recently released a major update to support cloud synced, real time editing as a team. Or, it can stay entirely offline, sans account, if you prefer.
It certainly doesn't do everything that Bluebeam does, but if you don't need all the bells and whistles and want to save on the subscription, give "FieldScale" a try. It's free.
Would love any and all feedback if you think it's missing a crucial feature, or something doesn't behave the way you think it should. Hope this is helpful to some folks.
I have been a stagehand since 2022, it has been a ride! Some opportunities have sort of arised- I work some audio gigs on the side and I can climb once I get my gear but... Audio is a struggle for me. Idk if it's self doubt or me being honest with myself but it is not something that comes easy to me. I work alongside people who are so knowledgeable and awesome, it's like they were born for it.
I enjoy audio to some degree but I really just love the industry and want to stay in it but don't know how to make it consistent, a livelihood, or how I can keep going about making myself valuable. I almost want to go to school but a lot of times I hear that being a stagehand there really isn't a use to go to school for this type of stuff.
I know this industry is also big on connections and I feel like I do well in that regard but it seems a little stagnant, like sure I can keep finding stage hand gigs but I would like to venture into something else in this concert industry world.
Any suggestions or your story would be cool. Thanks 🙏
I'm located in The Netherlands.