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The Complete Guide to Becoming A Lighting Technician
The real pay, the real grind, and whether you have what it takes to make it — before you spend a dime on training
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: What Does a Lighting Technician Actually Do?
You're standing in a dark, empty venue. The seats smell like stale popcorn and floor wax. In front of you is a pile of black metal boxes with cables pouring out of them, a tangled mess that looks like a robot exploded. This is the canvas. Before the audience walks in, before the band plays a note, before the actors say a word, this is what your job looks like. And the first thing you'll learn as a lighting technician is that the job is 90% logistics and 10% magic.
You are a worker in the production industry. You are not the artist, not the star. You are the person who makes the stars visible. The title covers a huge range of work, from setting up a few light stands in a hotel ballroom for a corporate event to rigging and programming a massive automated light show for a stadium tour. But at the core, your job is to get light from a source to a stage or a set, and to control it — when it's on, when it's off, what color it is, and where it points.
Let's break down a typical day on a load-in for a touring concert, because this is the most common entry point for many techs. The truck arrives at the venue at 8am. The tour has finished a show in the previous city at 11pm and drove overnight. You, as the local crew,