Dear Scenic Construction and Scenic Arts Students
I thought I would provide a quick note to say how much we are looking forward to seeing you in August.
The initial six-week skills-based module starts at the beginning of August. A series of six-week work-based placements then runs throughout the remainder of the course with evening classes and workshops running in parallel. Core teaching hours are Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm, and students should expect to be involved in classes and other activities. During production projects and placements, and especially during performance runs, there will be additional evening and weekend activities.
The first six weeks of your course will be a unique opportunity to be the only students in the Workshop and this Skills Module will give you a grounding in core workshop activities through an individual build project, a flat making project and a team build. All interlinked with work in CAD (mostly SketchUP).
How to prepare yourselves for starting the course:
Essential
Get Some Safety Boots. There will be very few occasions when you will not be required to wear steel toe capped footwear and, in some circumstances, these will need to be boots. I recommend you choose a pair of comfortable light-weight boots and wear them in before you start. Consider a second pair at some point and these could be safety trainers or safety shoes.
Work clothes – only wear clothes to the workshop that you do not mind getting glue, paint etc on.
Useful
You will be expected to build up your tool kit at your own expense, so naturally you can bring whatever you already own to use from the start. In the Mark Tweed book mentioned below there are comprehensive tool lists for guidance on what a toolkit might include.
Don’t feel that you must buy new tools before you can start here. The Workshop is fully equipped, and you are welcome to use these in the first instance, and in doing so you will be better informed about your buying choices.
Do not bring any mains electrical tools other than battery chargers.
Bring your own medium sized padlock if you wish to secure your locker (small suitcase sized ones do not fit).
Laptops – your own laptop would be very useful in continuing your study outside workshop hours and essential if you do not have a smart phone to access remote learning–be aware that all college teaching is on PCs rather than Mac. Please contact me if this is an issue.
Reading
To help you prepare I recommend you get hold of this core text:
Tweed, M. (2018) Scenic construction for the stage: key skills for carpenters. Ramsbury, Marlborough: Crowood Press.
And a familiarisation with SketchUp would also put you in good stead- as we will be using this a lot in the first term. If you can- download the month trial and have a play.
Download SketchUp | Free Trial of 3D Modeling Software
Or there is an on-line version SketchUp that is not the same experience but useful if you haven’t got required download capabilities.
Tip – you absolutely must have a computer mouse to use SketchUP effectively (wireless preferably).
One last thing regarding the term dates.
Term dates can be found here, but you might like to know that we have put in a half term holiday week for your course that is the week beginning 28 October 2024.
Any queries please email me Mike.Robinson@rwcmd.ac.uk or Laura.martin@rwcmd.ac.uk
We look forward to seeing you.
Mike Robinson
Course Leader Foundation Degree in Scenic Construction
Arweinydd Cwrs Gradd Sylfaen mewn Adeiladu Golygfeydd
Laura Martin
Scenic Arts Lecturer
Darlithydd Celf Golygfeydd