Creative Lighting Control BA (Hons)

You will begin to learn the practical and technical skills of the creative lighting control specialist and contextualise these in a developing understanding of the creative and performing industries.

These skills will be developed through laboratory work, projects and experience in simulated professional contexts. On completion of level 4, you will be able to:

• Identify key principles and concepts informing the discipline of Creative Lighting Control
• Demonstrate knowledge of a range of lighting and visual media technologies and systems used in live performance
• Employ basic techniques, practices and processes of Creative Lighting Control
• Form arguments and make judgements in accordance with basic theories and concepts
• Develop personal and transferable skills suitable for employment

Your skills will be further developed towards a level appropriate to professional work as you are given experiences that simulate professional contexts. Year 2 module study options include, but are not limited to:

Programming Styles and Practice

This module aims to bring your programming skills to a level appropriate to the industry and develops your understanding of the profession of the Programmer through practical performance projects and/or industry placements. The module will introduce you to professional production processes, and to a range of professional issues that will frame your future work. You will learn about live lighting and/or video design, operation and implementation, and apply it to a variety of production contexts and roles.

Live Event Production

This module examines fundamental theories and practices of live event production. You will examine a range of conventions and practices, as well as the key practitioners, who have adopted visual media as a central element of performance. You will apply skills acquired during level 4 to new performance spaces, thus presenting you with a new set of technical challenges.

Through a realised project, you will learn to work to a client brief. You will assess and evaluate the needs of the performance event and the space in which you will operate, and design the visual system accordingly.

You will work with a group of your peers, and depending on the event, you may work with students from other programmes and/or external organisations. As a group, you will take responsibility for delivering all aspects of the brief, adapting your approach and processes to meet changing circumstances, and logistical and resource constraints.

Systems, Operation and Management

This module will introduce you to a range of control systems, operation and management practices and technologies. As well as giving you an opportunity to test and further develop your practical abilities in setting up and operating performance lighting/video systems, you will be able to observe how lighting/video is integrated into a performance during the creative process, and its role in the audience’s experience of the performance event.

In this module, you will typically:

• Undertake managerial and/or operational roles on college based performance projects
• Examine examples of the uses of network technologies and show control systems in a variety of environments
• Manage a budget, following College financial procedures, and in consultation with others
• Manage resources of equipment, schedule and crew, within the overall framework set by
• Manage all health and safety issues relating to your area of responsibility, within College and relevant professional and regulatory protocols and requirements
• Take responsibility for the implementation of the lighting/video design in a performance/project
• Support a lighting/video designer in the development of the design
• Work with team members from a variety disciplines using appropriate vocabulary
• Work to deadlines in an effective and efficient manner, responding to changing briefs and circumstances in a dynamic manner
• Study production processes as part of a creative, artistic enterprise.

You are expected to be a self-directed learner at year 3. Module study options include, but are not limited to:

Specialist Practice

This module asks you to consider how – as a professional technologist – you can adapt to the changing requirements of different modes and scales of performance, and the variety of interdisciplinary roles within them. The module gives you the opportunity to analyse the skillset, techniques, processes and creative potential of a Specialist Practitioner.

You will typically undertake two project roles and/or an extended industry placement, to examine their professional requirements in more detail.

The production roles may include, but are not limited to:
1. Technical Manager
2. Lighting or Media Programmer
3. Head of Visualisation
4. Head of Lighting
5. Media Designer
6. Media Content Creator

Professional Preparation and Practice

This module focuses on the professional environment you are likely to encounter as a practitioner, and on your professional development. You will select a specific sector of the industry to examine in more detail, interrogating the work methods, processes and employment ecology of the sector. Depending on your own chosen career path, you may look at businesses, individuals (generally self-employed professionals) or a mixture of both as a comparative analysis. You will then choose to focus your research on either an employment or self employment pathway.

The module will also prepare you to transition from study to professional practice, whether you are an employee or self-employed.

Independent Research Project

In your first year, you will complete around 320 hours of indicative scheduled learning and teaching activities and 880 hours of independent learning on projects, productions, placements or self-directed study. Assessment will be through: Coursework, presentations, assessed tutorials and portfolios

In your second year, you will complete around 180 hours of indicative scheduled learning and teaching activities and 1020 hours of independent learning on projects, productions, placements or self-directed study. Assessment will be through: Coursework, presentations, assessed tutorials and portfolios

In your third year, you will complete around 60 hours of indicative scheduled learning and teaching activities and 1140 hours of independent learning on projects, productions, placements or self-directed study. Assessment will be through: Coursework, presentations, assessed tutorials and portfolios

Creative Lighting Control Programme Specification