h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

To avoid some of the perils of Amateur Lighting you must first insist on being paid a 'design fee'.

This means you are now a 'professional' and also a 'designer'. As such you can demand much more and throw better tantrums. The latter usually ensuring that you get what you want because you are a 'designer' and not merely 'directing' light. You are being 'creative'.

Also now as a 'professional' in a world of 'amateurs',(often prefaced by the expletive 'bloody'), you are automatically right and no-one can argue with you. This means you get time to rig, focus and plot in quiet and in darkenss. This is essential as you are of course a 'professional designer'. You are a 'professional designer' because you are getting a design fee.

Securing the 'design fee' can be difficult at first, ironically a few decades as a professional lighting designer can help sway this.