10 Building Jobs in Movie, TV, & Theater

On the lookout for a enjoyable and fulfilling profession within the structure, engineering, and development (AEC) business? Possibly it’s lastly time to comply with your goals and guide that flight to Hollywood. 

Theater, tv, and movie have a novel energy to move audiences to different worlds. These worlds do not seem out of skinny air, they must be constructed. Administrators and performers usually obtain probably the most credit score, however behind the celebrity-centric glitz and glam is a world of unsung staff whose collective labor brings each manufacturing to life– the builders, makers, and expert tradespeople who create the bodily sceneries and accoutrements inside which our favourite tales of the stage and display unfold. 

Let’s check out 10 profession paths in movie, TV, and theater that decision out to the craftier amongst us. 

JUMP AHEAD 

1. Scenic Carpenter 
2. Grasp Scenic Carpenter 
3. Manufacturing Designer
4. Prop Maker 
5. Matte Painter 
6. Rigger 
7. Security Officer 
8. Mannequin Maker 
9. Sensible Particular Results Artist  
10. Asset Supervisor 

The place to Apply for Building Jobs in Theater, TV, and Movie  

Earlier than you may sashay into your new life as a builder of goals, it’s essential know the place to look and apply for jobs.  

Listed here are a 3 good beginning factors that frequently listing all types of openings in present enterprise, together with in lots of the profession fields we’re about to discover. 

Now let’s dive in.   

Common Wage: $39,982 (supply: ZipRecruiter) 

Outlook: Gradual—2% projected progress charge between now and 2031 ( (supply: Bureau of Labor Statistics). 

Job Description: Harrison Ford was famously working as a carpenter in Hollywood when George Lucas employed him to play Han Solo in Star Wars.  Scenic carpenters—alternatively known as “stage carpenters”, “cost hand carpenters”, or “manufacturing carpenters”— are liable for constructing the phases and varied set parts that make up the bodily surroundings of both a movie, TV, or stage manufacturing, whether or not in a lush Roman coliseum or aboard a dirty interstellar star cruiser. Certain, laptop graphics do a variety of the heavy lifting as of late, however lots of the most immersive settings are nonetheless those which can be actual—constructed from stable supplies and props that the characters can attain out and truly contact. In constructing these imaginary worlds, scenic carpenters have to be simply as adept at helping within the meeting of the riggings and mountings for overhead lighting, sound, and different behind the scenes fixtures as they’re at erecting and tearing down the units and surroundings wherein the motion takes place.  

Abilities: Stage carpenters must be expert builders and competent wielders of development gear and energy instruments. They me be known as upon to carry out quite a lot of duties associated to the meeting and disassembly of units and surroundings, so information of varied constructing strategies and a capability to carry out related duties (heavy lifting, measuring, working at tall heights, and so forth.) are a should.  

Schooling: Highschool diploma minimal, although a accomplished carpenter apprenticeship along with a post-secondary diploma in theater or development could be a plus.   

Common Wage:  $55,907 (supply: ZipRecruiter) 

Job Outlook: Gradual—2% projected progress charge between now and 2031 (supply: BLS). 

Job Description: Very similar to a development supervisor, grasp carpenters—within the context of present enterprise—handle a crew of scenic carpenters and different expert laborers tasked with rigging, constructing, and tearing down the bodily settings of productions. Grasp carpenters deal with the whole lot from payroll and scheduling to deciphering blueprints and ordering supplies for set development. Additionally they talk frequently with producers and administrators, serving to translate their inventive imaginative and prescient into actuality.  

Abilities: To be a grasp scenic carpenter, you have to be each a reliable builder and a talented communicator, able to executing administrative and supervisory duties in addition to technical and development associated duties.  

Schooling: Highschool diploma minimal, although a accomplished carpenter apprenticeship, along with a post-secondary diploma in theater, enterprise administration, or development could be a plus.    

Common Wage: $62,960 (supply: BLS) 

Job Outlook: Common—4.46% progress charge projected over subsequent few years. (Supply: Recruiter.com) 

Job Description: Like architects of the theatrical world, manufacturing designers are liable for designing the aesthetic look of the whole lot that’s seen throughout the environments of movie, tv, and stage productions. This may increasingly embody landscapes in addition to the interiors and exteriors of buildings. As with lots of the jobs listed right here, the calls for of a manufacturing designer can swing wildly between tasks. If you happen to’re good on the job, you would possibly go from engaged on a romcom set in modern occasions in a single second to a interval piece set a whole lot of years previously within the subsequent, every requiring radically completely different experience and instruments to execute. For a latest instance of the immersive transformations {that a} expert manufacturing designer can pull off, try Niamh Coulter’s work on the traditionally correct Viking units of the Northman by director Robert Eggers. 

Abilities: Manufacturing designers ought to have an eye fixed for shade, model, gentle, darkness, and texture. They need to even be extremely adaptable, well-versed within the design sensibilities of various historic eras, but inventive sufficient to develop their very own design vocabulary when historical past doesn’t apply. Manufacturing designers are sometimes a part of the core inventive staff, so they have to even be good at speaking with producers and administrators.  

Schooling: No formal schooling is required to grow to be a manufacturing designer, although a better diploma in cinema, design, or theater would provide you with a leg up.  

Common Wage: $46,304 (supply: glassdoor.com) 

Job Outlook: Constructive—8% progress charge projected between now and 2028 (supply: Zippia.com) 

Job Description: This one’s for all of the tinkerers and DIY makers on the market.  

Nice movies have nice props, imaginary objects made stable that in some instances go on to grow to be probably the most iconic parts of the legendary worlds they’re part of. Suppose Luke’s lightsaber in Star Wars (common out of an vintage digital camera flash), Deckard’s PKD blaster pistol in Blade Runner (a mixture of a Bulldog .44 revolver, bolt-action rifle components, and a few spiffy sci-fi parts), or the unbelievable swords from Lord of the Rings (simply…good old school metalworking). 

It’s the prop maker’s job to design and render every merchandise on the display or stage in lifelike element. Nice props inform us a lot concerning the characters in our tales and the worlds they inhabit. For a masterclass in how this craft can improve cinematic worldbuilding, try the unbelievable props created by the Seattle-based TAKA Collective for the 2018 indie sci-fi movie Prospect, starring Sophie Thatcher and Pedro Pascal. 

Abilities: As a prop builder, you have to be a inventive craftsperson, in a position to work effectively together with your arms, and expert within the instruments of the trades like steel and woodworking, 3D printing, electronics and textiles—something that may make it easier to create unbelievable objects that appear actual and a part of the depicted world. 

Schooling: As with lots of the professions listed right here, you don’t technically require a proper schooling to grow to be a prop maker. All you want is expertise and a stable portfolio to showcase your work. That stated, a post-secondary diploma in a talented commerce or high-quality arts couldn’t damage.  

Common Wage: $45,887 (supply: wage.com) 

Job Outlook: Constructive—6% progress charge projected till 2031(supply: BLS) 

Job Description: If you happen to’re technically savvy and artistically inclined however don’t have the knack for full-blown CGI wizardry, think about a profession as a matte painter. The job of a matte painter is deceptively easy: to color photorealistic landscapes and surroundings parts to be used in movie and tv. Pulling this trick off, nevertheless, requires a grasp’s brushstroke—on each the bodily canvas and inside a digital design studio. 

Matte work are certainly one of cinema’s oldest and, to this present day, most gorgeous visible results. In his basic 1936 movie Trendy Occasions, a roller-skating Charlie Chaplin seems to defy demise as he teeters on the sting an abyss, an phantasm created by the intelligent positioning of a matte portray within the foreground of the digital camera’s view finder. Matte work are behind a few of the most iconic film photos, from the half-buried Statue of Liberty on the finish of Planet of the Apes (by Albert Whitlock) to the sprawling warehouse within the closing shot of Raiders of the Misplaced Ark (by Michael Pangrazio). Related as they’re with a bygone age of cinema, you may be shocked to be taught that matte work stay on in a few of the most visually superior movies and TV reveals of the trendy digital period, creating jaw-dropping surroundings in the whole lot from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to Recreation of Thrones and The Mandalorian. 

Abilities: Matte painters have to be extremely expert artists with a capability to create photorealistic photos utilizing quite a lot of strategies. Most fashionable matte painters use digital design instruments to drag off their creations, so that you must also be adept at utilizing digital design software program.   

Schooling: Matte painters sometimes have a post-secondary diploma in artwork and illustration. That stated, nothing speaks louder when making use of for jobs than a robust portfolio. 

Common Wage: $52,100 (supply: BLS)  

Job Outlook: Common  

Job Description: Riggers are liable for putting in, working, and dismantling quite a lot of loadbearing infrastructure—working with ropes, cables, wires, harnesses, pulleys, booms, hoists, and different gear which can be important to the execution of movie, TV, movie, and stage productions. 

 In theatrical productions or live shows, a rigger may be liable for mounting curtains, movable set parts, gentle, and sound gear, or for the behind-scenes manipulation of performers on wires as they “fly” throughout the stage. Wire work is a standard particular impact in movies, the well-known bullet time sequence in The Matrix being a major instance. This job is a pure match for development riggers, photo voltaic photovoltaic installers or wind turbine technicians, as they have already got lots of the requisite expertise working with cables and harnesses at excessive heights.  

Abilities: Riggers have to be technically expert at working with wires, mountings, and different gear associated to the development of behind-the-scenes infrastructure. They will need to have a robust understanding of load capacities, materials strengths, and physics. 

Schooling: Riggers could also be required to have a variety of credentials, together with a certification by means of the Nationwide Fee for the Certification of Crane Operators.  A technical post-secondary diploma and intensive expertise with stagecraft are a plus.  

Common Wage: $74,870 (supply: BLS) 

Job Outlook: Common—5% progress charge projected till 2031 (supply: BLS) 

Job Description: Security should all the time be the highest precedence, whether or not on a movie set or development web site. A security officer ensures that the office is a secure and wholesome atmosphere, each on and off set. Much like the position of a security supervisor on development websites, security officers could also be liable for a variety of duties, from drafting security plans, securing rigging, offering Private Protecting Tools (PPI), and ensuring performers are adequately protected throughout the execution of stunts. Although not a required position on each manufacturing, security officers have grow to be extra frequent for the reason that starting of the COVID-19 pandemic, within the wake of the tragic taking pictures on the set of the movie Rust, and as the results of an averted nationwide strike by the Worldwide Alliance of Theatrical Stage Workers in 2021. 

Abilities: Security officers needs to be present on the perfect practices and security requirements laid out by the Occupational Security and Well being Administration. Security officers have to be ever vigilant for hazards within the office and have the fabric and psychological sources to swiftly tackle them earlier than hurt is prompted. Security officers should even be robust communicators able to drafting security plans and offering trainings to personnel. 

Schooling: A post-secondary diploma in fields like public well being or industrial hygiene are a plus. 

Security officers may obtain certification by way of the OSHA Coaching Institute Schooling Middle or by means of the Board of Licensed Security Professionals.  

Common Wage: $86,220 (supply: BLS) 

Job Outlook: Common—5% progress charge projected between now and 2031 (supply: BLS) 

Job Description: Whereas CGI is used to create 3D simulations, sensible particular results artists design and create advanced visible results utilizing actual world supplies and parts.  

In terms of film magic, there’s merely no substitute for sensible results. Sensible particular results gave us the terrifying shapeshifter in John Carpenter’s The Factor (by SFX artist Rob Bottin), the acid dripping xenomorphs in James Cameron’s Aliens (by Stan Winston), and…effectively, just about the whole lot on display in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Highway. As soon as once more, computerized graphics have decreased using sensible results in Hollywood, as they’re cheaper and comparatively simpler to supply. Nonetheless, sensible results stay a hallowed and assuredly deployed method in lots of modern movies. 

Abilities: You want to have the ability to construct issues—just about something and the whole lot—if you wish to be a sensible particular results artist. Who is aware of what particular impact you’ll be known as upon to create, or what budgetary constraints you may be working below. Sensible results artists should due to this fact be extremely inventive, adaptable, and resourceful, in a position to conceptualize and manufacture a big selection of compelling creations within the realms of pyrotechnics, puppetry, animatronics, and the whole lot in between. 

Schooling: There isn’t any formal schooling requirement, though an apprenticeship or internship at an FX studio that makes a speciality of sensible results could be a serious plus.  

Common Wage: $75,630 (supply: CHRON) 

Job Outlook: Gradual 

Job Description: One other old skool showbiz job that continues to outlive within the age of computerized graphics is mannequin making. Mannequin makers are liable for constructing miniature, bodily, at-scale representations of onscreen objects, be they characters, autos, landscapes, and even total planetary our bodies. Some well-known examples of movies that used fashions to create their cutting-edge particular results embody the unique Star Wars trilogy (the Demise Star, spaceships, AT-AT walkers, and so forth), the Lord of the Rings trilogy (Helm’s Deep, Isengard, Minas Tirith, to call a couple of) and extra just lately, The Darkish Knight (see the bat tumbler chase scene on Decrease Wacker Drive).  

CGI has actually decreased using fashions within the fashionable period, however they’re nonetheless deployed to nice impact to this present day, significantly in full-length cease movement animation movies like Nightmare Earlier than Christmas, The Incredible Mr. Fox, or Mad God, a masterpiece that took business legend Phil Tippets 30 years to finish. 

Abilities: Mannequin makers want a broad vary of technical, mechanical, and anatomical information to construct miniatures that convincingly seem and behave as in the event that they had been alive or animate. They have to be inventive downside solvers with a DIY mindset and be extremely expert with a big selection of instruments, constructing strategies, and supplies, from clay and foam to steel and electronics. Whereas they will need to have a transparent inventive imaginative and prescient, mannequin builders usually work intently with administrators and manufacturing designers, so they have to even be able to collaborating intently with others. 

Schooling: No formal schooling required, though a post-secondary diploma within the expert trades and an apprenticeship with a seasoned particular results studio are a plus.  

Common Wage: $77,030 (supply: BLS) 

Job Outlook: Extraordinarily Constructive—28% progress charge projected between now and 2031 (supply: BLS) 

Job Description: Leisure productions have a lot of transferring components. Huge inventories of costumes, props, cameras, microphones, rigging, lighting gear, and plenty of different mission crucial belongings are always flowing out and in of film units, phases, and on-site areas, every object altering arms a number of occasions from one second to the subsequent. It’s an asset supervisor’s job to maintain monitor of all these things, making certain that the whole lot is all the time precisely proper the place and when it must be.  

Abilities: Asset managers needs to be highly-organized and detail-oriented. They need to even be extremely proficient in using digital stock administration software program like One-Key™, our free-to-use asset monitoring app that makes use of IoT expertise, machine studying, and Bluetooth tags to observe the areas of instruments and gear . 

Schooling: No formal schooling is required, though many stock managers do have some faculty schooling, both within the type of an Affiliate’s or Bachelor’sDegree in arithmetic, finance, logistics, provide chain administration, or enterprise administration.   

Backside Line 

It is by no means too late to chase after your goals. There are such a lot of nice careers in theater, movie, and TV you could pursue for those who’re a designer, builder, maker, or expert tradesperson.