Art School Christmas Wish List

-16 oz.+ hammer
-Fat Max tape measure
-very fine (V5)  Precise Pens
-Time

-A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting
by Steven Louis Shelley

-Light Fantastic 
by Max Keller

-Adobe Photoshop Elements

Stuff

Yesterday I volunteered for a crew call on the Winston Salem Light Project. This is the third year the school is doing it, and its going to be really big this time. There are about four or five sites going to be lit, all of a grand scale. I learned a lot in just four hours and though a bit chilly, had great fun.

Check out the website for it for more info here.

Meanwhile my work on the production of Light Up the Sky is going great. Tonight we will have our third performance after four dress rehearsals starting last Sunday evening. We run through next weekend, which is also arts finals week... which is also the week before academic finals. Its getting crazy crazy crazy around here, but I'm still enjoying it nonetheless.

Can't wait to come home next week...

Its been a while

Its been a while since I've posted, I know... and I know you are all RAVENOUS readers of my blog because you're DYING to know. I just read my last post and realized how much I've done since then, and frankly I probably won't remember.

But anyway. Tonight I begin work on crew for a show, Light Up the Sky by Moss Hart. Its a great show, quite funny. I saw a rehearsal run-through last Thursday night and the cast is quite phenomenal. The drama department is really great here, they're very small and selective, and have graduated some seriously awesome folks. These past two weeks, I was able to see Tracers, a Vietnam-war focused ensemble show and You Can't Take It With You, a classic 1930s comedy. Its so great to see the shows here, they're phenomenal, real professional theatre. The production quality cannot be matched. I wish I could have seen Tracers about five more times. Anyway, I start tonight as a dresser for four actors on Light Up the Sky. I am a dresser because this term I am assigned to wardrobe crew, and have been working in the costume shop stitching costumes (I can do alterations now!). So I have four actors that I'm responsible for making sure they have the proper costume on at the right time and that it looks like it should. You would think that is pretty simple (and it is) but it still carries a great deal of responsibility (and paperwork...). I'll be working on Light Up the Sky for the next two weeks, usually putting in around 6 hours every dress-rehearsal, and 4-5 every show. Fun fun!

Maybe I'll take some pictures of work I'm doing in classes sometime soon, they're all stored away right now. I've got some pretty neat stuff! I have quite a lot of stuff these days.

I'll be coming home Wednesday, the 24th for those of you in Columbus (because I just KNOW by blog has international readers by now) and will be there through Sunday, the 28th. For Christmas I should be coming home the 12th of December and have to leave January 3rd. The breaks aren't long here, and very few, but we like what we do, so I guess its worth it.

And now for pictures!

Drafting!

Found this in a magazine... hmmm... maybe I should go to school there...

This is how small our library is. (Were getting a new one if we can find any money)

A Library with books I like!

Our AC, which had not worked for some weeks, has finally been fixed with this fancy new digital control.

So one night the fire alarm had a short in the line and went off every 10-15 min. We camped out in the Student Center for a while.

Working on a color and design project: creating a dance backdrop using cut out magazine shapes (yes, all cut-out magazines!)

More work...

I don't have a photo of the final product, its being graded right now. After this step I added a black grid I cut out to go over the magazine shapes.

This is the stair case to get the lower stacks of our tiny library. Warm and inviting, huh?

This is for my parents. To PROVE to them I CANNOT SEE YOU!!!! HA!

Weekend

Well, its been a week. I was going to say its been a long week. But it really hasn't. The weeks fly by here. Really, time moves faster here than I've ever known it to. Its probably because of the enormous amount of stuff I do every week. It never stops. This weekend will go by even faster: I've got a drawing project to finish, a drafting project to start and finish, and mid-terms on Wednesday (which means a lot of catching up). Already I have two works for color and design, three for drawing, four 24"x18" sheets for drafting and a bunch more smaller sheets/work sheets. I've put in over 30 hours of crew (and we're finally getting started with crew every day), and I've made an apron! 

So now I know why D&P has such a good job placement rate. Want to interview me for a job? Here, looks at all this STUFF I've done *hands over ginormous stack of STUFF*.

Here's my second Color and Design project. We are able to fix things about it over the weekend before turning it in now that its been through critique in class, so I'm going to make a few adjustments that were pointed out. And yes, I know. It looks like a Native American Space Ship. But really. Its non-objective.

 

Color and Design Project #2: Geometric, Symmetrical, Visual Dialog (multiple focal points), strong vertical thrust, handling of balance among three values, solid figure-ground relationship.
Bad lighting. It looks better in not-a-photo.

My Gourdious Drawing

I feel like I'm doing ok in drawing, surprisingly. Note: the pictures are quite effective at making the drawing look much greater than it actually is.

Some more stuff...

My first project for 'Color and Design'.  A horizontal composition with one focal point using organic shapes and integrating varied rhythm. I think it turned out pretty good.

Working on my first drawing in the visual arts studio. Drawing is hard...

Its done I guess...

Working on drafting lettering late at night. The bottom line represents my tiredness.

Plate #2 almost done! 5 hours!

Drafting with Gumby!

This week our campus has been playing 'Humans Vs. Zombies' I'm not playing, but its fun to watch people run around with foam swords and fight off "zombies". 

From the UNCSA All-School Every Friday Email, which usually has a long list of information that doesn't change week by week.

This is not at joke.

GOATSCAPING

In the coming weeks there will be a herd of hungry new “kids” on campus. Facilities Management has contracted with Piedmont Goatscapers , Inc  to help remove unwanted vegetation along the Main St entrance drive. The process will involve 27 goats and 3 herders removing invasive and exotic plants less than 2” in diameter.

Using goats to eradicate unwanted vegetation eliminates the need of broadcast applications of pesticides, eliminates the possibility of chemicals entering storm water systems and is relatively low impact on our natural landscapes.

We hope that you share our excitement as we watch the goats eat their way to a cleaner and more attractive UNCSA. If you have any questions or comments please contact Jamie Moore at 770-3325.

Submitted by Jamie Moore, Manager of Landscaping, Facilities Management

I'm excited.

Pictures

My side of the room on moving day. It looks about the same now. 

 The florescent light in the ceiling was miserable. The Christmas Lights are awesome.

 Books...

 The old music hall: Crawford

 Drafting...

 Mistakes take forever to fix

 Done!

 Movie being shown on the outside of the student center. The screen is about 15 feet tall. As part of the Cirque du Solei technology conference, they showed Cirque videos each night with a rock-concert sized sound system and really really bright projections.

This was taken in one of the five workshops I went to on Projection which were taught by an alum of the school who now works for Cirque. There are two 10K (tech talk for "really bright") digital projectors on the table. They cost about 15,000 each. Christmas present anyone?

So far

Its now my first official weekend, that is a weekend after a full week of class. I have nothing scheduled, so, its going to be sort of nice. Its been a busy week, but it has also FLOWN by. During the day there's hardly a dull moment. On Mondays and Fridays I don't have but about a 25 minuet break for lunch from 8am to 6 pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I don't have class until 11:30, but I have crew from 7-11pm.

As busy as I am, its not a drag. Its really, really fun. I enjoy all of my classes except maybe Theatre History, but its at 8am and I'm usually not awake then so it doesn't count. Some of them are short (50 min) and some are long (2 hrs.). Some are relaxing and without stress (Drafting, Drawing), and some are fast-paced and stressful (Color and Design). Those three that I mentioned, in addition to "Introduction to Theatrical Production", are the make up of my "arts" classes. For freshman year, as you can tell, there is little focus laid on what your major is. These classes are general design (drawing, color and design) or technical (ITP, Drafting), but they are all geared in some way towards theatre. The teachers do a remarkable job of helping us understand why we need to know a drawing technique, why we need to know the elements of good graphic design, and why we need to know how to hand draft when there are perfectly good computer programs that do it for you...

A little side note- Its really neat here how it seems that every faculty and staff member is 1. a top member of their field (as with any university), and 2. also in some way connected to the arts. Nearly all the academic teachers hear have some sort of background in theatre, music, film, dance, visual arts, etc. Its not really necessary, but it helps to have a math teacher understand where you are coming from as an artist. In nearly every lecture or discussion I've been in this past week, the teacher has given examples in the realm of theatre. That fact alone really sets apart School of the Arts (as Winston-Salem locals call us. Excuse me- its just "Winston") from any liberal arts program... with a theatre program. Everything is arts based here. That does NOT, however mean that any less emphasis is put on academics. Even though academic classes are held across the street from campus in an old Catholic school building, the school still regards them above all arts. Your arts advisor will tell you he/she would rather see you doing better in academics than arts classes. When I spoke with my advisor, Norman Coates, on Tuesday, he was explaining how eager he was for me to take certain academic classes. His tone indicated that doing well in "Theatre History" and "Foundations of Western Thought" was vital to my success as a lighting designer.

Anyway. This is getting long so I'll move along. Another thing that has surprised me greatly about this, the first full week of classes here, is that I am completely amazed by the wealth of information I've learned in just the past seven days of class (which started last Thursday). If I feel this well educated in just a week here, I can't imagine what a term, a year, and four years will be. But I suppose that's the difference between high school and college.

As far as other than class, its also a blast here. I spend most of my precious free time in the dorm, where we all pass the time by studying, talking in the hall, throwing juggling balls at each other, duct-taping up people's doors (we have become quite proficient at that...), and today four of us purchased nerf-guns. Also, having a film major as a roommate, and having one across the hall, I have watched more movies these two weeks than I have in the past year. But that's not a huge accomplishment. Be Kind, Rewind, The Big Night, The Darjeeling Unlimited, Man on Wire, and some others I can't remember. Next weekend, the school is screening their mint-condition original print of Star Wars in the biggest movie.

One thing I was worried about was that everyone here would be weird and I wouldn't get along with anyone. Well the first part is true. The second is not. However. The weird people here are weird like me. They just really like lights. or movies. or music. or dance. or scenic painting. Otherwise, the campus at UNCSA is not unlike any other college campus... there are loud, out going people, there are reserved, easy going folks, super geniuses, ditzy girls, former line backers (across the hall actually), base-ball players... however I have yet to see any use of the one and only campus athletic field, which I have deemed "The Pickle Bowl".

Winston-Salem, or just Winston, or just "The Dash" (my personal favorite) is a great city. Everyone in town is proud of School of the Arts (except the local paper), and the whole city is just really cool. Last weekend there was a festival called Rock the Block that apparently had a turn out of 50,000. The school had bussing to it, and there were free concerts, skateboarding, etc. I didn't get that memo until Monday... unfortunately.

Anyway, hope things in Georgia are going fine. Its going nice and cool here :)

Peanut Butter

is good.

The College Life

Email from a Residence Life Staff Member:

Subject: MISSING CUSHIONS
The cushions that belong on the couch in the C/D Lounge have been missing for over a week. If you have them, please put them back immediately. If the cushions are not returned a fine may be assessed to all students who have access to the C/D Lounge and/or furniture in the lounges may be removed completely.

Thank you,
Residence Life Programs & Housing

Kole Metz
College Life Judicial Coordinator
University of North Carolina School of the Arts
1533 South Main Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27127
Telephone: 336.631.1215
Fax: 336.631.1289
metzk@uncsa.edu

Schedule

This does not include additional shop/"fundies" hours, or crew hours, OR additional class hours, OR time to work on projects for classes.

I don't

I don't want to be a blogger. But I do want to keep people that care (a couple of people do) updated on how I'm doing and whats going on ALL the way up in North Carolina, which really is just Georgia that gets a little colder and with Costcos (everyone loves Costco apparently). SO. Instead of sending lots of different personal emails and calling everybody every day... I figure this will work (I'll still call, mom).

This is day four I believe. Its one of the last days remaining that I'll have any time to do anything other than work on academics and arts projects. The course load between my academic classes (usually two per term, three terms per year) and arts classes is very intense, my hours many days may be from 8-11 in the morning for academics, and 2-11 for arts. But everything depends on what day, what crew, what show, what went wrong, what went well... Despite the difficulty of everything, I'm very excited to be working up here. Everyone from the faculty to the older students are incredibly supportive and willing to help with anything. There's not the typical hate-the-freshman attitude going on here, so that's nice.

But for now, until Thursday when classes start, things are real slow. We've been going around, making sure we know where stuff is, how to use stuff, etc. Occasionally there are some orientation things scheduled . Its funny the amount of choice they have in deciding where to have a school assembly. There are two concert halls, four theatres, three screening rooms, and a large movie theatre on campus, it seems like we have a meeting in just about all of them. Today all I have to do is get a respirator fitting! How exciting!

My dorm is not too small, my roommate and I have got things nice, and I'm pretty confident we have the coolest room in the hall. My film-major roommate has a bunch of cool movie posters, and I brought a bunch of cool posters of my own. Our dorm is on the third (top) floor of our building, of which there are six. Each hall only has about 18 people, although it seems like less. Its nice to have a small hall so we get to know other people. The residence life office decided to experiment this year with all-school halls. So like below us there is an all-music hall. In building E, there is an all D&P (explanation below) hall. I'm sure thats cool and all, but I'm glad I'm in a mixed hall. If my roommate was a lighting major, I'm afraid we'd spend way too much time together and way to much time talking about lights. Hearing the filmmajors on my hall talk about movies may get old, but at least it wont be about lights! I'll get to hear about more lights than I ever wanted to know about (yes, even me).

So, unless you were my parents, you probably just read that and wondered what in the world D&P means. Well. I'll tell you. There are five schools at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Thankfully the five schools have much shorter names than the college name. Theres a School of Dance, Drama, Film, Music, and Design&Production. I am in Design&Production, AKA D&P AKA the best school on campus. Each of the schools have their own dean and buildings, just like different colleges in a "normal" college. Because there is nothing "normal" about UNCSA. The scene shop takes up probably double the space the only recreation field takes up. Thats not normal. Anyway, within D&P you can specialize in all kinds of things: sound design, scenic design, technical direction, scene painting, costume design, costume technology, performing arts management, motion control, stage management, and of course, lighting. Its just called lighting because they tell us everything about lighting, and then in our junior year we have to decide between lighting design or lighting technology. That's going to be reeeeeeeeally hard... D&P has a huge facility on the east side of campus (I talk like its a big campus. its not). There's a massive scene shop, props shop, theres a huge scene painting shop, sound shop, sound studios, really cool costume shop and storage facilites, AND best of all... a giant electrics shop with hundreds of lights and light boards that the students are in charge of. One of the things that was so unique to me about UNCSA is how D&P is separate from just a theatre school. We do productions for the school of Drama and Dance, and I suppose a little Music. We work at all the campus performance spaces, including the Stevens Center, which is a large restored movie theatre downtown in Winston-Salem that the school owns. All kinds of traveling shows go through there (think RiverCenter) including Garrison Keillor later this fall.

Ok, I hope that was informational. I have to go to my respirator fitting now!