CLE Internship

hello,
it's Chops here. I thought I would start sharing what I have been doing for my internship so far.

I am working as a contractor for a CLE (Central Lighting and Equipment) based in Des Moines.
The first Gig I worked for them was at Waukee High School near DSM where we Replaced an arbor on their fly system. (we replaced it because the other one was too tall and they wanted their CYC to fly out farther) so that was fun. It took about 7.5 hours just to replace one arbor. (a lot longer then I expected)

gig 2 was just setting up some chain motors and truss with a grand total of 5 PAR Bars (Bars with PAR cans attached to them) and 3 source for zooms. it took a lot longer then it should of simply because the crew head (guy in charge) was new at the leader role and was a little un organized. but thats ok because it just means more money for me. they also really need to learn how to use motors for cable picks because they were trying to pull the cable as tight as they could while it was on the ground and couldn't figure out why it was pulling the entire back truss (just had a curtain on it) about 6 feet forward. that was 5 hours.

gig 3 day one. we are working at Dowling High school in DSM (a private Catholic high school) over the next few days we will replace their entire fly system. today we focused on gutting out most of the old system. ya want to know something? ours may be a piece of crap, but theirs is worse. everything is original to the theatre. there was so much dist on the top of everything; dust was actually puffing off of the tie line on all of the drapery when we took it off. i'm not even sure any of it has moved since it was put up.  the hand lines were still original too. (those are supposed to be replaced every so often) one of them actually slipped through the line lock and hit a worker in the head. (don't worry he was fine. he was in a scissor lift so the batton only moved about half an inch before it hit him) so after the drapery, we took the battons and electrics down, then took most of the wire rope and head blocks down. (btw, I also learned how to drive a scissor lift today) it was about an 8 hour day. bringing my total hour count up to 20.5

stay tuned for gig 3 day 2.





Justin "Chops" Voga