College

[Avenger253]

Hey Ya'll, me and Uncle Davie need some help. Were both going to college very shortly and also both want to change our majors. Here's the deal: We want to find a college that offers majors in Enterainment Technology and Web design. I figured since most of you have been through college and you all also know about technical stuff, you could help to recomend a good college that offers these courses. It has been very difficult for me to find colleges with even an Entertainment Technology major, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, if there are any other majors realted to techinical theater, lighting, sound, or anything similar, throw them my way so i can check them out.

Thanks for all the help

Matt

[wolf825]

Originally Posted by Avenger253

Hey Ya'll, me and Uncle Davie need some help. Were both going to college very shortly and also both want to change our majors. Here's the deal: We want to find a college that offers majors in Enterainment Technology and Web design. I figured since most of you have been through college and you all also know about technical stuff, you could help to recomend a good college that offers these courses. It has been very difficult for me to find colleges with even an Entertainment Technology major, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, if there are any other majors realted to techinical theater, lighting, sound, or anything similar, throw them my way so i can check them out.

Thanks for all the help

Matt

Hmm... "Uncle Davie"...wow I think I started something. muuhahaha.. =}

North Carolina School of the Arts comes to mind... I never went there but know a ton of very good theater & production folks who went there and had good things to say about it. There also is Full Sail and I figure a few folks will mention it so I'll beat them to the punch... I don't fully endorse or suggest that place, based on personal experiences. You get what you put into (and drag out of) that school..so its questionable for school choices IMO. There are a few other good schools out there I am sure. Try ArtSearch and see if they list any colleges and their programs...don't know if they have a list but its another idea to search. good luck....

-wolf

[TechDirector]

Finding one of those kinds of colleges are tricky. It's like finding a college that has Underwater basketweaving. LOL J/P!!! But I would like to find one that has computer related majors and technical theater because I'm interested in those feilds.

[ship]

I'm a big fan of Illinois State and Ithica colleges programs but again, there are a lot of good schools out there, can you say Yale?
Full Sail, I wouldn't recommend for theater people much less designers or non-lighting or sound people. It's a rock and roll tech training school not really much else.
There was a school in Sarasota that had if I remember right a good theater program. Stagecraft Digest has had a lot of good discussions on finding the right school and has a lot of TD's and people from schools taking part that would let you know what their program is like from reading their posts. The question was also posted on Pro Sound earlier in the year with some good info on school programs. Sorry but I'm well out of school and don't really remember more programs. Perhaps Cal Sag or something like that.

[megf]

I've heard Carnegie Mellon has a strong theatre dept., as well as University of CA, San Diego. I can tell you that UCLA has a nice design program, though not too intensive for undergrad - liberal arts and all that.
Stage Directions magazine (www.stage-directions.com) has a pretty extensive list of schools, but it isn't broken down by program.
Best of luck.

[seanb]

I can give a canadian perspective on this...

The biggest two technical theatre schools are the National Theatre school in Montreal, and the University of Alberta in Edmonton. National theatre school is strictly theatre, though there are web design programs in Edmonton.

Honourable mention goes to University of Victoria in British Columbia, as it's design and technical programs are strong.

[ship]

Contact me off line or by PM and I will forward you to a Canadian Master Stage Hand and Pro Electrician out there and you can ask him. Canada is another world for the most part. Contacting people like him, if not websites centered around that country would give more in-depth info. Otherwise there is always Stagecraft for a larger pool of people to ask.

[wemeck]

With the down turn in the economy some high school seniors have ventured to colleges in Canada for economic reasons. Ran into a musical theater major from Ontario about ten years ago at SIUC and he talked up the school in Montreal. Hope that helps.

[digitaltec]

Full Sail, I wouldn't recommend for theater people much less designers or non-lighting or sound people. It's a rock and roll tech training school not really much else.

What is that about Ship? You have delt with one person from there now you are going to go about and trash Full Sail? Have you ever been to Full Sail or acually looked into what they teach? If you do, you will find it's not as you call it a "Rock and Roll" tech school. I's sorry that you have to deal with the 15% of Full Sail Grads that have no clue anything other then what the book says. Im sorry that the other 85% are on Broadway, Tours, Theme Parks, Theaters, etc. Are you going to be in town for LDI? Why don't you grow up a bit and acually treat people with respect.

For the kid who was looking for a school with Entertainment Technology and web design, Full Sail has got both programs.

[ship]

I can see that I should look into it more and form more of an opinion on the school before writing it off as a college that offers majors in Entertainment Technology and Web design as was requested.
Had the request been for someone wanting to pass by college and get training in entertainment lighting and sound, tech. only than I will have said Full Sail was an option, if not going directly to work in the field and learning on the job as even more people do with just as much success. That's given they would not consider going to college that I would still recommend as always. As the question was posted, in requesting colleges that not only got into the tech part of entertainment which to me would include more than lights and sound, plus web design, I did not recommend Full Sail. That’s my opinion to date, why not help to change it?

As for growing up and treating people with respect, there are many ways you could have written your correction of my obviously mis-informed opinion which will have been more helpful to myself and others.

Up until a few months ago, I had not heard much about Full Sail because it is not known as a theater training school, much less one for web design. Perhaps that’s just me with my head in the sand because it did not exist when I was in school. I had no opinions other than knowing it was an option as a training school mostly for high tech lighting and sound for the entertainment industry, but it is not a college nor will it give as broad based an education especially for theater that is again in my opinion, even more helpful. I realize that there are a lot of people that come from the school and all but a minor percentage that graduate from there make a good living. How many of them design for theater much less work theater as other than a member of a touring house staff? I suspect that more theater people come from colleges and do this, just as more people do everything Full Sail people in the industry with or without college and are just as proficient.

My opinion at the moment about this school is not based off having met one person from there, it is based off having met only one than talked some with others. Not a huge amount, but enough to I think become concerned. Surely it’s not my luck that I am only talking to the lower 15%.

I do know that when a fresh graduate from the school was assigned to repair some lighting fixtures, he informed me that such things were not well covered in school, and that is what surprised me and changed my opinion about the program I had before that heard good things about. Many schools don’t get much into depth on the basics of electrical equipement much less how to service all of them - especially the conventionals. Full Sail specializes in training lighting tech people and I would expect them to not only master how to use a Hog, but how to analyze and repair a lamp bar and fix a Socopex cable, much less a Leko that’s missing it’s mica insulation causing an occasional short in this case. The simple things it would seem are not covered very well in depth and that is what I would take issue with based upon that lower 15% I’m exposed to.

Why do I rag on Full Sail? My opinion and expectations of what it could be was let down. Misinformation, the lower 15%, perhaps, correct me. What percentage of the training is in lighting especially electrical fundamentals? Such students might get a Mac 2K back up and running when a teacher pulls a part, what about what kind of wire to use for a 5K Bambino?

Than we can get into the people coming from such a school having lots of experience with programming and using lighting, but what do they do with it? How much of all the different types of design do they really get including architectural and theatrical? I would assume they can read and draw blue prints on a design program, can they hand draft also? How about doing story boards for the director? Is part of the program also spent in getting designers to get beyond stick figures? It has it’s uses at times if for nothing else but sketching working drawings that are ledgable, much less in doing presentation level designs if but on the fly.

I would at least hope they have class in the NEC at very least where it applies to the entertainment industry. Stuff like how many circuit breakers are allowed to be on a AC Distro that they just might have to construct some day as part of being a professional lighting technician. The brown wire on a Euro cable is for what? The fixture is 1.2Kw/120v what gauge of wire is needed to wire it? All kinds of little details about a entertainment lighting, a trade school of which should have just as much focus in properly training people in better than even an adequate and general theater school given the specialization of instruction given.

Again my opinion about the school is only from having talked with people that were there. Perhaps it is from the disgrunted and disillusioned.

Such information based upon those I have talked to and seen is not gone into depth enough and that’s a concern for me given the reputation this school has or wants to have.

Brian Ship
Lighting Hack.