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More answers...

A couple weeks ago, Ted asked about the qualifications forthe job when I was rambling on about not being able to find a scenic artist... A few days ago Headcount asked me a few more questions about scenic artists and the job market... What I want to know is why do people like to ask me about jobs I'm really not good at... lol... Here are my thoughts on scenics...

Qualifications: This is difficult, as many people go about scenic work in different ways... Mostly its the end result that matters most... Here's whatI look for when I'm searching for a new scenic. 

1. Relaxed attitude... I've worked with a couple high strung scenics in the past, and they drive me crazy... Relax, the job will get done, and we truly are not doing brain surgery, scenic work quite often does not need to be "perfect"...


2. Eye for color/layers... This is huge for me... Since I do corperate work mostly (or atleast that waht I did before this first quarter of '04) we are always haveing to color match scenery to very specific colors that the company uses for their marketing... You'd think I could just take the color chip down to Home Depot/Lowes and have their computer do it, but many of these colors are too deeply saturated for the computer to handle.  That's where the scenic comes in... They need to be able to mix this stuff by eye often... I swear its alchemy to me, even though I do a similar deal with lights... The layers are more often found in "art", (aka theatre, opera, etc) Some scenics work with translucent washes, some use spatters, others do other things I don't know about... But the layering gives a sence of depth and richness to scenery that you just don't get with single colors...


3. Equipment... Most scenics have their own set of brushes and other paint gear... That's not to say the shop doesn't provide any, but just like I take my tools with me to freelance as a carpenter, scenics should do the same... Beyond haveing the tools of their trade, I look for their gear to be clean, and neat... A scenic with neat equipment will usually be a neat worker, and I can tell you I HATE messy scenics...


4. Flexability in hours... This is something that sucks for the scenics really... In many situations, and particularly in small shops such as mine, the carps work during the day, and then the scenics come in at night and often work all night... While overnights are a pain, they are just easier in many cases since there is noboy else around to worry about messing up wet paint, and nobody is running saws to make dust either which can be an issue...


5. Experience and References... I honestly don't care what school you went to as a scenic... I want to know what the scenic in question has actually done... School projects are nice, and somewhat educational, but they are done in a very controlled enviroment that has nothing to do with reality... I want to see references that don't come from college, unless I happen to know that reference personally...


6. Flexability in Materials... Do not come into my shop and start to tell me that you only work with brand X paint... I like a scenic that can work with whatever happens to be available... We get almost all our paint from Home Depot/Lowes for a couple reasons... a) we aren't a major paint shop, so stocking the expensive scenic paints would be silly... b) "scenic" paints are really expensive... c) When we take a set somplace, and the client decides to change something, we can simply get more of the color in question at the local HD/Lowes...


7. Scenic that wants to be a scenic... That sounds obtuse I suppose... Here's what I mean... Many scenics out there that are freelanceing, are designers that can't get work as a designer... They don't want to be painting, so they tend to be less dedicated... A scenic that wants to be a scenic tends to have a more positive attitude it seams...


8. Non-Union... I don't want to get into a union bashing deal here, since that isn't my goal... There are many excellent scenics that have their union card... The problem for me is I run a non-union shop... While most of the carps I hire have union cards (IATSE) there really isn't any trouble with hiring them... USA scenics get in more trouble with their local if they work outside a union contracted enviroment, and that causes me headaches... I also don't have lots of time to screw around with some of the union regulations... At my company, everyone works hard, and gets the job done, for which I pay reasonably well, introducing much of the structure involved in a union agreement would ruin the freeform environment that we have set up here... Everyone that works here seems to enjoy how we run the place, I'm not changeing that because someone carries around a union card.

Ok, that's what I look for sorta... As for Headcount's questions...

1. The job market is probably ok for scenics, if you are flexable... Most staff positions pay poorly untill you are the senior scenic in a union enviroment... The staff gigs let you get established in the field while you work on building a freelance career... If you are going to go the union route, be prepared to spend a long time base painting, and washing paint buckets... As a non-union painter, you will as often as not get thrown in the fire very quickly and be over your head... Personally I prefer the non-union method as it produces faster results... Once you are established in the area, you an go freelance and be more able to pick your jobs and pay rates...


2. Skills outside painting include but certianlly aren't limited to: Sculpting, Plaster Working, Carving (usually some kind of foam), basic carpentry, estimateing cost of scenic treatments, estimating time of scenic treatments. (you will need those basic carp skills at some point, trust me)

As a scenic, you tend to be the "artistic" one in a shop enviroment... The carps are just that frequently... The Technical Director, should have a bit of a clue about scenic work, but they are usually from a carpentry background... You will get the questions from the TD about what the heck the designer meant when he said it needs to be more "froofy", or my favorite of all time, more "googy" (pronounced - goo gee) or whatever other silly discriptive word tumbles out of the designer's mouth...

And here ends my thoughts on the realm of Scenic Artists...