Define Yourself

You have a creative mind and choose to work in entertainment. You know your way around a film set or a stage or an amphitheatre, but you also know your way around a spanner, a multimeter, a flyrail and a light meter. You will work anywhere, but you live in Orange County. Your ideas clamor for public recognition while your mechanical prowess prefers to remain behind the scenes. You are a technician, and you are not alone in Orange County.

Dozens of technicians live in Orange County. Even so, it often feels like much of the available work remains firmly seated within the Los Angeles 30-mile studio radius. Like many of my technician friends, I prefer to live outside of LA, even though it is often difficult to find work.

Part of our goal here at OCShowbiz is to create channels of communication within our generally disconnected community. Perhaps the biggest hurdle to this is the very nature of our business – we are all in competition with each other. It is possible, though, to share experience without compromising the contacts we have all struggled to make.

There are two initial goals for this column. First, to build a community of Film, Television and Theatrical Technicians in Orange County. Second, to encourage this community to use it as a sounding board for itself. We should all have a place to talk about what it means to be a Technician in Orange County and the ways in which we manage to survive in our ultra-competitive business.

Beyond that, I would like to further define just what a Technician is in the first place. If you are a technician and feel that the voice of your particular craft is underrepresented, please send me an e-mail and tell me about what you do. This column will address all technical crafts, not just the most obvious ones. In the months ahead there will be articles on upcoming productions, technical awards and ways in which we can all find more work. You are an OC Technician and so am I. Let’s be proud to work in the mainstream without having to live in the jungle.

Mike Kirsch       Updated 1/21/04