As a crabby (now old) lighting designer I have to end this...

As a crabby (now old) lighting designer I have to end this list:

WHAT MY FRIENDS THINK I DO:

Well, they have no idea or understanding of what I do. It’s hard to explain and I don’t really like it enough to wow them with the complexities or subtleties of the medium. It’s pretty boring. Not even the light switch photo works. It could be a picture of television static for all it matters. If you had a photo of someone constantly exasperated and complaining in place of the switch, that would work great because that’s all my friends ever hear about work.

WHAT MY MOM THINKS I DO:

(See the picture of the angry complainy guy.)

WHAT SOCIETY THINKS I DO:

Society doesn’t think of lighting design as a thing, so again, lose the light switch. Probably a photo of pyro and lasers would work because that’s all people ever ask me about if I tell them that I’m a lighting designer.

WHAT ACTORS AND DESIGNERS THINK I DO:

Technically that doesn’t fit the meme because you’re lumping two people who imagine what we do into the same panel, but…

ACTORS: Actors (and/or talent) think “that’s the lighting guy” and for the most part that’s about it. So a picture of a monkey at a typewriter would be more telling than google.

DESIGNERS: since they pretty much want to put wildly ridiculous shows into wildly ridiculous spaces and expect it to look like the rendering they created and never showed me until the set rendering was approved by the client and producer which results in scenery that blocks and/or makes it impossible to light the stage well or effectively but I still have to have that “rock concert/party/circus/Turkish brothel/glitzy gala/’fun’ atmosphere” (and have it look good on video) they clearly didn’t think of the lighting designer at all. So that photo should be the gif of that cute chimp beating a rock with a stick.

WHAT I THINK I DO:

Now THAT’S where the light switch photo should go.



WHAT I ACTUALLY DO:

A photo of a person lying in bed, awake, staring out into the dark.

via Tumblr http://thenelsontwins.tumblr.com/post/70868270754