Greetings from Montana

[bdkdesigns]

Hello everyone,

I've been reading for awhile and finally decided to take the time to join. I'm currently a grad student at The University of Montana. My emphasis is in lighting design with a secondary focus in sound design.

I received my BFA in Technical Theatre at the University of Central Florida. So as you can tell, I sure made a big move for grad school but it was worth it. I sure do miss doing industrials though.

Oh yeah, and my website is www.bdkdesigns.com if you are interested. Which reminds me, I probably should get around to updating that with the latest dance showcase and Gypsy.

[Spikesgirl]

Welcome on board...even if you are another light and sound guy...

Seriously, it must have been quite a shock to change from Flroida to Montana. Do you love it? Did you love GYPSY? Inquiring minds and all that.

There's a ton of info here, but don't be afraid to dive in with your own comments and questions.

Char5lie

[Grog12]

Welcome to the Booth....funny story one of my students almost went to your school but ended up in the grad program here....which happens to be in FLORIDA!!!

Small weird world.

[Van]

Wow ! Florida to Montana! I thought Oklahoma to Oregon was a shocker!
Welcome Aboard! Please ask want you want answer what you can. You can take Spikesgirl and I with a grain of salt, we're feeling outnumbered as the ratio of hum heads/ electricians to wood butchers is approxiamtely 100 / 4 around here.

[gafftaper]

Welcome to the booth. Jump in and post. You'll find it's a great community if you'll invest a little of yourself in it.

Get to know the search function there's a ton of information buried in the archives.

[bdkdesigns]

Hey Grog, what school are you at? I had my choices narrowed down to UM, FSU, and Cal State Long Beach before I chose to come here.

As far as Gypsy goes, I loved it. Especially Electra's costume . She ended up getting 75 LED's total. Five sets of 15 LEDs each with their own momentary on switches. Those things are bright....they even overpower the spotlight. Best of all, it only takes two nine volts to power the thing.

[Grog12]

Good choice in not going to Cal State Long Beach. A former aquaintance of mine went there and it is apparently not as up to snuff as others.

I'm a staff member at a school in Florida...beyond that I take a nod from Derek and others about where I actually am as in I keep it quiet for my own self preservation!

Welcome aboard!

[Spikesgirl]

Originally Posted by bdkdesigns

Hey Grog, what school are you at? I had my choices narrowed down to UM, FSU, and Cal State Long Beach before I chose to come here.
As far as Gypsy goes, I loved it. Especially Electra's costume . She ended up getting 75 LED's total. Five sets of 15 LEDs each with their own momentary on switches. Those things are bright....they even overpower the spotlight. Best of all, it only takes two nine volts to power the thing.

Our Electra was pretty bright too, well, the costume was bright. she also had two twirling butterflies upon her breasts. Try as we might, we could never get them snychronized. That was about the only thing I enjoy from our production of it - it ended up costing us our summer program (and nearly closed our department) for five years after the director told our visiting designer that cost was not the limit. He spent $90k on the set (no, I'm not exaggerating a penny). Since I was just subbing at the time, my power was limited, but it was a pretty scary time for all of us as we didn't know if we'd still be around the next semester.

Char5lie

[Spikesgirl]

I enjoy Electra's costume as well, but we could never get her butterflies to synchronize (she had them on her breasts). the production did nearly close our department and cost us our summer program after the director told our visiting designer that there was no limit on what he could spend. The show was horribly over built - we were still building and painting the third act during the first act. It was the only set I ever had go out wet. End figure was, no crap, $90k. Set was great, show wasn't and our audiences sucked the big one - one night we had 27 people in the house...the director said he didn't have to advertise the show. If he put on something, they would come. Well, they didn't and he ended up as a part time instructor and not able to direct
...occasionally there is justice in the world.

Char5lie

[bdkdesigns]

I really enjoyed Long Beach up until I did a site visit. They are really having a lot of struggles right now. The idea behind CalRep was interesting but their struggles to find a space are rather chaotic. I don't know how much of what they told me was true but it was rather unfortunate how they lost their space.

After I came back, I was pretty set on going to Montana until I got another call from FSU. I originally wanted to totally leave Florida but I decided to make a visit to make sure. What I originally really enjoyed about Montana was the people. Not only was the expectation level high, but they were easy to talk to and open to new ideas.

I cannot even begin to comprehend to level of rudeness that I encountered searching for grad schools. Now I am open to new ideas, new styles, etc etc etc however so many people were "this is how we do things and you will learn to conform to it." I felt that to be rather restrictive and would hold me down from growing. Thats what I enjoyed about my undergrad. They let you take your own paths and would guide you along the way. Everyone has a different process, they just offered suggestions on how to improve and presented several different angles of approaching tasks.

So when I finally arrived at FSU (my first visit was postponed after I got about halfway there and the wildfires shut down the road), I got that same feeling that I got from Montana. I really felt comfortable and it really made it a tough decision for me. In the end I obviously chose Montana however I really did enjoy my visit there. I probably went back and forth for a week. And while I did meet a lot of bad people along the way, I also met a lot of great people as well. Several of which I still talk to even though I've only met them once. I also highly recommend going to URTA but don't just stop there.