We run this · Lighting and Electrical
Film distribution, fixtures and rigging, taught by a working gaffer and a best boy.
A load calculation on a working lighting plan. Cable run and dressed the way somebody else has to strike it. Fixtures rigged under supervision. Not an electrical qualification, and not the recognised route into the grade, which is the apprenticeship signposted below.
Who it is for
For people who want to be a spark, and people who already are one somewhere else.
Qualified electricians
The film distribution kit, the speed and the chain of command are what you do not know.
Live events and theatre crew
Rigging and DMX transfer straight across. Film turnaround and the relationship with camera do not.
People with a practical head and no set experience
Comfortable with tools, cable, heights and heavy things.
What it covers
The physics, distribution, fixtures, rigging, then working to a gaffer.
The physics and distribution come first, because they keep people alive. Nobody touches a fixture until they are done.
Who it is not for
A trainee spark, not an electrician.
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Somebody else runs these
The recognised route into lighting, and the tickets crews are asked for.
Bectu’s Sparks Branch states that film, television and commercials have no standard recognised method of confirming a lighting technician’s competence. What exists is an apprenticeship and a set of generic tickets. None is ours to award.
ScreenSkills (opens in a new tab) · the apprenticeship
The Level 3 Screen Lighting Technician apprenticeship, developed by ScreenSkills with Access Creative: two years, training alongside the job, with a lighting vendor as the employer. ScreenSkills gives typical entry as a Level 2 electrical qualification. The recognised route into the grade.
Bectu Sparks Branch (opens in a new tab) · what crews are actually asked for
City & Guilds 2365, the 18th Edition, BS7909, the ECS card, MEWP and forklift tickets, HGV and Driver CPC. Generic qualifications, from electrical and access providers.
Bectu Lighting Technicians Branch (opens in a new tab) · read this before you buy a ticket
The branch states that a BS7909 course is not a standalone proof of competence. Anybody selling it as the way into the grade is over-claiming.
What you leave with
The load calculations and distribution plan you built, marked by a best boy.
Plus a Crew Card entry and a certificate, each naming only what you were seen to do.
Apply
Register your interest.
Tell us which course and we come back with dates, cost and what support may be possible. If you have never been on a unit, say so.
