Best resources for learning to be an electrician

t_elliott

t_elliott

Member
So, I'm a somewhat starting out DP. Most of what I've done was pretty straight forward in terms of electricity. I haven't used a distro box or even an HMI at this point.

When reading american cinematographer and various blogs, I read all these articles where the DP fashioned and wired these crazy lighting setups out of various fixtures and all that and made them all dimmable and complex stuff like that. I can barely keep from blowing out a fuse wherever I'm shooting.

I want to become more well versed in being an electrician. I bought the "Set Lighting Technicians Handbook" and have been reading through that. But I'd like more resources. Besides spending time on sets (which I'm doing also) and learning from experience (which I am over time), where can I learn this type of stuff?

Tapping into the power mains (when can't afford a generator), how to tell how much power I can use before blowing a fuse, how to wire up my own fixtures, etc.

Is there some sort of class I can take somewhere (maybe online) or anything you guys know of where I can learn how to do a lot more with electricity and controlling it and applying it to lighting? How did you guys learn?

Thanks guys. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Not only will this help on set, but in life too, as I'd like to do some rewiring in my own house.
 
W=V*A. West Virginia. Or Watts equals volts times amps. Do some math, and you get V=W/A and A=W/V.

In the US, most household circuits are 20 amps. Older houses are usually 15 amps. Go to the circuit breaker box and look at the breakers. They will have numbers on them that tell you the amperage of that circuit. Usually, household voltage in the US is 100 volts (it's actually 115-120, but 100 is easier to multiply in your head, and adds a safety margin.) You know the wattage of your lighting instrument by the lamp installed, and it's usually listed on the outside of the fixture.

So how many 500 watt bulbs can you put on a household circuit in an apartment in NYC?

Answer: three. V=100, A=15 (because it's an older building) so W=100 * 15. W = 1500. 500 * 3 = 1500, so you can put 3- 500 watt lamps on it.

How about this one: You put an Inkie and a Baby on the same circuit. Are you at risk of blowing the fuse? Read your Handbook for the wattages of those fixtures.
 
electricity is easy. what is not easy, is all the rules set to make sure everything is safe. You can know the rules and ignore why they exist.
You can also ignore the rules , but know what to do to make everything safe. But in case of problem, you will find insurance being very finnicky about
that.
So if you really want to be an electrician, you better to go back to school or rent one.
As said, for basic electricity you need to know that Volts makes the compatibility between devices, a 100V device powered with a 200V power supply will burn.
then there are Amps, that is were the real power is, no amps, no power , too many amps . blown fuse.
At the end you got Watts, not very usefull because watts it the mutiplication of Volts by Amps.
With that you should be able to know that you should not plug a 12V bulb into a 110V socket, and if you connect 3 devices sucking 10Amps each on a line that can provide only 20 Amps, there will be either a blown fuse (at best) of some melted wire.
But electricity is more complex than this, because you need to know Cos phi that make a 35W bulb sucks like a 70W one , phases, behaviour of device like ballast or motor that can suck 5 time the power they are rated for at start, high voltage that can jump from a wire to your body without even touching them, resistance that make wire becoming hot if too thin or too long and why you need a 10 awg wire here and a 20 awg wire there.
magnetic field that can melt an extension cord if winded on a roll, impedance that is resistance that can change with frequency, AC and DC that are really different beast etc....
 
Last edited:
Awesome guys.

Some really great insight. Learned a good deal from both those posts.

This is stuff that you see spattered about throughout books and blogs and stuff. But it's good to see it all specifically laid out like that.
 
You should consider liability before acquiring electrical skills without certification. A certified course or apprenticeship is the only way to be considered qualified by regulatory bodies, insurance and the law. You don't want to open yourself up to liability for any accidents or damage. You don't want to open yourself up to criminal liability for any injury caused (think any charge with the word 'negligent' in front of it). Learn some stuff for sure but get a certification if you want to put it into practice. I don't know about the US but here you can get a partial certification to work on restricted electrical jobs. I work in communications and have a partial qualification to work on anything up to 100VAC. I'm sure there are short courses you can do that qualify to perform electrician work specific to your industry. Worth the investment.
 
A few years ago I found myself on path to become a pretty good electrician. "The Set Lighting Technician's Handbook" is your best text resource. Don't just flip through it--read it from cover to cover, twice.

Working on sets is good, but you'll only learn the standard chain-of-command and protocol on higher end sets. Email around to production managers that you're looking to be an electrician intern. I never tried this, but I imagine if you emailed around to gaffers and best boy electricians about being an electrician intern, they would bring you along. Also read "Production Assistant's Handbook" and learn how not to f*ck up on set.

Buy some small Arri, Mole, and/or Kino Flo lights if you want to practice changing out bulbs from them and setting them up. This sort of thing is the elctrician's bread-and-butter. I mention those brands because there's not much use in learning with off-brand lights the big films never use.

Buy at least one c-stand and practice opening and closing it over and over.

As for learning how electricity works, I learned much of what needs to be known on a film set in high school physical class. I'm sure this stuff is in books. When I was an electrician intern, one of the electricians offered to build me a circuit board that I could practice doing tie-ins on.

Be really eager to learn and have no arrogance. Be the hard working, wide-eyed runt, and people will take you under their wings and teach you what you need to know.
 
My best advice is to get a job at a rental house. It's a lot less hectic than working on set so there is plenty of time to ask questions and gain some valuable knowledge.

You also get to play with all the gear that's going out on the bigger shows and see how they do it. Probably one of the best things I've done so far besides just getting out on set.
 
Last edited:
OP, I have been wondering the same thing. Thanks for asking. Solid responses so far. Any more resources/ways of learning electricity would be highly appreciated. And a related question, when hiring an electrician for your film set, do you just hire any certified electrician off the streets or does he/she need to be well-versed in film-making? I ask because I have never hired one before but might have to as I get more into lighting.
 
Last edited:
Awesome answers guys. I started back on my "Set lightinging technicians handbook" last night, and man that thing really has some good information.

but ^ that question. Seriously, I was doing a music video a few months back and really wanted to hire an electrician, and I was my own producer so I didn't really know if I was supposed to go for an entertainment specific electrician, or just any electrician.
 
Thank you greatly. It's times like this that I very much love the internet. Thank you for the heads up!

This is exactly the type of thing I was looking to find when I made this post.
 
It's worth mentioning there is:
1. A basic understanding of electricity: widely available in books and other study. Try your library.
2. Electronics. (Transistors, etc.). Also widely available. Radio Shack may have some kits that you can wire up for experience.
3. Understanding of 3 phase wiring. (220V, etc.) A little more specialized. You have to search for it. Often found in books for electricians.
4. Electicity for a film set. Highly specialized. The books mentioned sound good.
Anything you wire up yourself will help you to learn.
Good luck.
Jim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top