Into the Deep End

As I made my journey to the Forfey Warehouse on the Upper Newtownards road for a meet and great session with the team, I began to consider the learning curve of working for an AV company that deals with a vast array of clients big and small. This would be my introduction to working audio/lights at festivals, corporate events, schools and more. While I knew my experience as a lighting engineer for nightclubs would provide a sufficient amount of overlap for me to hit the ground running, I couldn’t help but feel out of my depth. When I sat down with Beth, my placement co-ordinator, and discussed my aims for the module, she reminded me that I am here to learn and any production managers I would be working with would know this. She introduced me to the team and the head of the company Matt, who all made me feel very welcome. I was pleased to know that the team I would be working with were very down to earth and talkative.

My first task for Forfey was a derig job for a Hospitality event held in the Crown Plaza hotel. I went into this not really knowing what to expect as I’ve only ever de-rigged for nightclubs, which usually involves dealing with installed audio and lighting fixtures. I will use Borton’s (1970) Model of Reflection to hone my experience into learning. This method consists of three cyclical points: What?, Now What? and So What? Janse. B (2022) said, “It allows the user to think about a situation without adding too much structure”, which is why I believe this model is a perfect framework for reflection.

What?

What? in this case refers to the here and now of the task. In my case, this involved de-rigging the aforementioned corporate event in the Crown Plaza Hotel. My personal task was to begin de-rigging all of the lighting fixtures that were set up around the room as my production manager knew that I had some experience already with this technology. We then all pitched in with deconstructing the LED wall that was used for this event. This introduced me to technology that I have never worked with before and served as an eye opener for how labour intensive building LED wall can be. I learned here that these screens are put together with single 1×1 panels that when powered and data chained, can be programmed too act as one giant screen. The latter half of this shift involved packing up all the gear and cables and getting the vans loaded. This was all happening at a very fast pace and was at times slightly puzzling in terms of direction.

So What?

This section will be an analysis of my feelings at the time of this task, as well as how my feelings have changed since then. At the time, I was surprised at the amount of equipment used as I always saw corporate events as small/low budget events in terms of production, so I remember thinking at the time that some of these clients must take events for their companies very seriously, and therefore expect an excellent degree of work from us on the production side of things. This sentiment made me feel like I had been thrown into the deep end with the task ahead. Having said this, I do recognise that getting thrown into the deep end has provided me with a lot to reflect on and I can now use this for similar tasks ahead.

The fast pace nature of the load out was particularly stressful as the team around me knew exactly what do at all times and just cracked on with their work. This at times made me feel I wasn’t helping as much as I could’ve been. However, the production manager Stuart was kind and patient with me. As someone who does this sort of work all the time he was able to keep me on track with tasks and make sure I had help with the more challenging tasks. Upon reflection, I have come to realise that the team are aware of my skills in this role and will have a certain degree of understanding for me when facing difficulties.

Now What?

This section in the model is used for discussing what course of action to take next based on previous reflection. In my case, I got into a de-rig session with a team I’m now more well acquainted with. This means that communicating on future shifts will be easier. In terms of actions I would change, the stand out for me would be to take a more relaxed approach with the pacing of tasks and allow myself time to communicate with others, as well as think for myself. In doing this, I can learn to do my part for the team safely, at my own pace.

Bibliography:

Janse, B. (2022). Borton’s Model of Reflection. Retrieved [insert date] from Toolshero: https://www.toolshero.com/personal-development/borton-model-of-reflection/

Borton, T. (1970) Reach, Touch and Teach. New York: McGraw-Hill Paperbacks.