A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, 2nd Edition

Create the Preliminaries and Send out the Shop Order

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Likewise, everything that is scheduled to arrive has

shown up. In some studios, the person who origi-

nally receives the delivery signs his or her initials,

in order to keep track of who got what. While each

of the documents is important to the process, con-

firming that each of the documents has arrived or

departed is just as important. Not only does it reduce

the amount of potential information that can fall

through the cracks, it insures that responsibility is

left at the proper location.

While the Internet and email have accelerated

information exchange in every aspect of modern life,

there are still times when delivered hard copies have

their place. For example, to reduce costs, contracts

are often made between productions and theatres to

use the house equipment either as part of the theatre

rental agreement, or at a lower fee. The preliminary

light plot then often shows the distribution of house

instruments. In order to prevent any misunderstand-

ings, lighting designers often include a copy of the

house lighting inventory in the preliminary drawings

packet sent to all appropriate representatives of the

house, not to mention the management office. If the

actual house lighting equipment totals are less than

what is shown on the inventory, discussions regard-

ing who pays for the additional rental will be much

more quickly resolved, and out of the lighting design-

er’s hands. In those situations, some lighting design-

ers send hard copies that require a signature to prove

acceptance. In case of misunderstanding, this docu-

ment can then be used to show that the drawings

were sent and arrived in good faith.

In the case of Hokey, that situation won’t come

up, since the production isn’t using any house gear. It

will all be part of the rental package that will come

from the lighting rental shop. Once the preliminary

lighting documents have been distributed to the man-

agement office, the creative team, and the production

team, work can immediately begin to tabulate the

equipment in order to send it out to the lighting rental

shops as a shop order.

THE SHOP ORDER

For the purposes of this text, the shop order refers

to a set of documents that detail lighting equipment

that is rented from a vendor. It usually consists of

two documents, the cover letter, and the actual list of

requested gear, the equipment list.

Vendorsthatspecificallyrentlightingequipment

are generically known as lighting rental shops, or

rental houses. Once equipment rented from a lighting

rental shop is loaded into the venue and combined

with the existing house gear, the complete lighting

package is created. When the theatre is a four-wall

rental (i.e., the only thing the theatre provides in

the rental agreement is the four walls), most light-

ing designers first carefully check the tech specs to

see exactly what, if anything, may be useful or avail-

able for the show. In many commercial theatre rent-

als, the amount of house gear is limited, which in a

way makes the job easier. Merely list everything that

might conceivably be needed to install the light plot.

That’s the idea on paper. The reality, of course, is

completely different.

Since the total amount of equipment required

to produce a lighting design is often unknown until

the preliminary lighting design is created on paper,

the shop order is typically one of the last documents

created in the preliminary plotting process. If a the-

atre owns equipment, the combination of the house

inventory and the rental should result in the lighting

package. If it’s a four-wall theatre, the shop order will

list every piece of equipment, gel frame, and piece of

tie line that will be needed to install the light plot.

Once created and checked, the shop order is then

usually sent to at least two lighting rental shops, so

that their prices can be compared. Once each rental

company analyzes the dates, logistics, and their own

gear availability, they respond with a bid (or quote,

or estimate). A typical bid is a sum of three basic

numbers; the rental price for everything associated

with the equipment list, the cost of all perishables,

and the trucking. A fourth price may be added for

any truss rental; many production companies now

break that into a separate figure so it can be charged

to a separate line item associated with carpentry or

rigging costs.

After the quotes have been analyzed, some

amount of negotiation often takes place between

management and the leading candidates. Once a deci-

sion is made, a shop is selected as the vendor to sup-

ply gear for the show, and the public declaration is

made that the shop has been awarded the bid.

Sometimes the light plot’s design isn’t finished

by the deadline required to submit the shop order, in

which case the best guesstimate is made. Once the bid

has been awarded and a rental price is agreed upon,

the shop order becomes a portion of the binding con-

tract that is made between a lighting rental shop and

the production, so anything specific that is needed

should be included in this document. While the rental

package may slightly change while being prepared

and packed, the hope is that no major changes will

occur, which could radically alter the amount of gear

and force the vendor to change the overall price.

If items aren’t included in the shop order, adding

them later may change the rental price. That’s usually

not perceived as a good thing.