Showbiz. How do I break into the field of Show Lasers.

[BeamSky616]

So. I have been working on getting my finances in place to be able to join the world of Show lasers. I would love to travel. And work with an Artist Creatively. Eventually but Just being able to purchase large show lasers is Really Really hard. I live in Grand Rapids. MI. Located 3 hours from both metro Chicago and Detroit.
Does any know of any Manufacturers that work with Laserists who both can promote there brand and allow for financing. Variant approved. Of course. Let me know please Thanks Rodney Dynamic Lighting.

[JohnYayas]

When I want to break into a field I usually just jump over the fence.

[masterpj]

So. I have been working on getting my finances in place to be able to join the world of Show lasers. I would love to travel. And work with an Artist Creatively. Eventually but Just being able to purchase large show lasers is Really Really hard. I live in Grand Rapids. MI. Located 3 hours from both metro Chicago and Detroit.
Does any know of any Manufacturers that work with Laserists who both can promote there brand and allow for financing. Variant approved. Of course. Let me know please Thanks Rodney Dynamic Lighting.

Work hard.. practice a lot.. experiment and learn skills in your own time...
Accept you will have to start somewhere and it wont be amazing pay or great from the get go.

[laserist]

Well, first off, remember there are plenty of people out there who will be happy to simply use you up.

Second, I'd recommend you look at other areas where popular and artistic things you like have overlapped in the past, and look for the lessons that can be gleaned from the artists in those areas who you think stood out.

[mixedgas]

Ten years ago that might have been a good strategy. Now, not so much. Lasers are "Everywhere" to a point and the cost of providing the service is now at the point you have to have other facets of enterprise, ie sound, lighting, other business , or have dozens to hundreds of units to be really profitable.

Sorry.

Steve

[laserist]

Oscar Wilde said that if you know what you want to be, then you inevitably become it - that is your punishment, but if you never know, then you can be anything. There is a truth to that. We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing - an actor, a writer - I am a person who does things - I write, I act - and I never know what I am going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun.
Stephen Fry

[absolom7691]

Oscar Wilde said that if you know what you want to be, then you inevitably become it - that is your punishment, but if you never know, then you can be anything. There is a truth to that. We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing - an actor, a writer - I am a person who does things - I write, I act - and I never know what I am going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun.
Stephen Fry

I love this philosophy. To be unbound is a wonderful and frightening thing. It has also led me to many different professions. Lasers though... I couldn't make this my profession. A passion for it keeps it a hobby and a love, but I would detest it if it were my boss.

To the OP, if you're looking to get into this field because you love it, more power to you, you might even make enough to pay for your equipment over time. If you're trying to make it profitable, I would have to agree with Steve. This is probably the worst time to break into professional laser shows for profit. Lasers have become, not only cheap, but easy to use. This has the downside of saturating the market but even more poisonous, polluting the market. There is a tide of unprofessional, short-order cook "laserists" out there. Most promoters and venue managers have been inundated with terrible performers. *See the video game crash of 1983. That's what's happening in the laser world right now. There are only a few laser companies I would pay to see. One of them, probably the best of them, is in the hands of passionate hobbyists and former employees who are having a devil of a time to bring it back and not from a lack of trying.

You need to love this to want to pursue it. Even cheaper, lasers are still a money sink. I would put it on par with owning a boat.

[buffo]

If you're trying to make it profitable, I would have to agree with Steve. This is probably the worst time to break into professional laser shows for profit.

The Laser Effects Handbook stated it a bit more succinctly... See Chapter 2, "Can you make a lot of money doing laser shows?" One word in the entire chapter: NO.

You need to love this to want to pursue it. Even cheaper, lasers are still a money sink. I would put it on par with owning a boat.

Excellent analogy. You buy a boat because you love boating, not because the boat will help you earn money. (Quite the opposite, in fact. Boats are expensive.) The same thing applies to lasers.

Also, lasers are the last thing to be added to an event, and thus the first thing to be cut when the budget gets tight. Lasers aren't cake - lasers are the icing on the cake. Sound and lights? That's your cake. Event promoters know this.

If you want to start a business to support yourself, start off with sound and lights. Only consider adding lasers once your sound and lighting business is doing well enough to pay the bills. Because adding lasers will be expensive, and you may not be able to recoup your investment in the lasers, but if you are otherwise successful then at least you won't go under when you end up spending a ton of money on laser hardware. (And you WILL end up spending a ton of money - it's the nature of the beast.)

Adam