Fine Arts Career Services

The last few weeks have been intense.  I am happy to write I recieved the grant that I applied for, now I can get the ball rolling on the community based art project that I was hoping to accomplish.  With full support from my sponsor and the head of the Hertitage Park nursing home I am able to start reinventing their garden and creating a sactuary for the residents to enjoy.  With all this said I researched and found a private school to colllaborate with.  The Eco-School is a small school that I presented the project to in hopes that the children could be a part of the process.  I feel the children and the residents will benefit from each others company.  The school decided to become involved.  On Monday I will go to the school to introduce myself to the children, give a powerpoint presentation about the project , and talk about some of  their ideas.  This is an exciting project and feel very passionate about it.  I am hoping that the therapuetic effects of this multigenerational project will have an impact on the children and the residents throughout their lives and therefore they will become more attentive to the people in their community.

Hey guys nice to talk to everyone again. Spring break was awesome and not for the obvious reasons. As soon as I got back to Houston my band and I started to get to work, and although I was unable to go to the studio to work, I had my own small studio to keep myself occupied. After my band got to my house on Sunday we setup the mics on the drum set and started to arduous task of tracking drums. Having only done this once before at my house, we ran into a lot of problems. The first problem started when I realized we were short one mic stand, luckily, it was 6:30 and we had enough time to get to guitar center and get one. Upon arriving at home and setting up the mic stand, we realized we didn’t have a mic CABLE; this caused much frustration. We did what we could for that day; sound checked all the mics and went over a couple of songs. The next day we got a mic cable and spent the next 6 days tracking drums, we limited our session to about 5 hours because after that everyone wants to just rip each other’s heads off. We got everything done except one song. O and heres the kicker, that mic cable and mic stand we bought were for nothing because we were using a separate interface for that particular mic, and it crapped out on us so we couldn’t use it (we found this out after we recorded everything). Luckily it was a rid mic so we didn’t really need it to bad. Other problems we ran into get too technical and would take far to long to explain. Just know that daisy chaining two audio interfaced may get you more inputs, but it comes with its share of problems.

This blog comes at a strange time, when Spring Break has just ended and I’ve just returned from a long vacation.  I haven’t worked at AMOA in almost two weeks.  I thought I’d take a break from writing directly about AMOA and put down some thoughts about museums and the community, and what that means to me as I’m learning and working here.

I just returned from Boston, another city blooming with art and community resources.  I visit Boston often, and actually plan to move there this summer when I graduate.  This time I visited the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, as well as the MIT Museum (more of a science and industry museum than art - although the Arthur Ganson sculpture exhibit  http://web.mit.edu/museum/exhibitions/ga…) is incredible).  The Boston MFA is a giant spectacle; the building itself is absolutely huge and the collections are vast, varied, and expansive.  It’s quite a different experience than going to AMOA, a much smaller museum with galleries downtown.  However, I thought about accessability; the MFA was a destination trip; we planned our subway route and only visited the museum once we got there.  The MFA has a food court and glorious grounds full of trees and green grass, and even has the SMFA, its associated school, nearby in a separate location.  AMOA, on the other hand, is much more of a place one might pop into unplanned; its central downtown location makes it much more of an accessible, less overwhelming trip.  Though it doesn’t have the grounds, the space, the food, and the school right there, it feels more manageable, which could be more attractive depending on the visitor.  Its downtown location makes it more like a part of a day, as opposed to a completely separate and planned excursion.

Location certainly has a lot to do with these differences, but so does the way location fits into the idea a visitor has about the museum.  I liked thinking about this from a sociological and urban planning perspective, too.  I’ll be sure to make note of the way art and museums fits into a community in the future.

I recently had a job interview for a freelance job where I would be creating a company logo. I met the manager of Tinniest Bar in Texas on Fifth street recently and we began talking. First we were just talking about unrelated material and then the question, “what do you do,” arose. I told him that I’ve been working for the UT Printing Press as a graphic designer, for the past few months.  He instantaneously jumped on the opportunity to ask me if I could help them out with their marketing and advertising.

The following day I met with him and brought my portfolios to show him some of my work, that would relate to their needs. He liked the work very much and continued by giving me the opportunity to come up with some renderings and sketches for the bar. After talking, I sat at my desk and began thinking about the challenges of the project. One, the bar is breaking up into two venues and changing the name of  the bar to Tiny Bar and 5th Street Live. Two, my “interview” is not over, when we met it was only the first part. Now, I have to wow them with my initial sketches and have them buy the concept.

Because they are giving the place a face-lift their budget is small and would not be able to offer me very much money. However, in looking at the big picture, this has the possiblity of turning into a long lasting relationship where both parties will benefit. I figure that if I do the job for a small amount today, later it will pay off. My internship provided me with the materials I needed to go this internship confident and ready to make a deal.

-Julio

The past few weeks have been crazy for me! With SXSW and all the task that are coming along with the organization and event.  Link Austin during SXSW was a success, we had 100’s of people come in and out during the night, and had some amazing artists play; there were also alot of connections made. The name for the new student organization is Austin Entertainment United. Which will focus on bringing giving artists opporunities and using studnets majoring in related fields a chance to put their gifts to work. We are working on a logo for the orgnization right now, and talking to different bands for next semester. The Singer/Songwriter Contest is well on its way and everyone will hopefully see flyers within the next two weeks. Its going to be held either at the end of April or beginning of May (before finals). The winner will recieve a large amount of money which as the minds behind the event we will convert the money into recording time for the artist to make a professional CD.  This will not only help solidify our organization but will give the school a performing artist backed by real industry professionals! The next two weeks for me will consist of deciding on the exact date and time, creating a logo for the organization, and designing posters and flyers for the event and disspersing them out into the community.

These last few weeks I have been learning a bunch about stage lighting.  I have made about 100 stage pin cables, which connect lights to the dimmers.  I also made 48 par 64 cans.  A par 64 can is the most common type of stage light which has a 575 watt par 64 bulb in it and you can put any number of gel on it to change the color.  Gels are sheets of plastic paper that get put into an insert and then clipped on the end of the can to change the color of or diffuse the light.  There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of different colored gels made by several different companies.  Also, you can put stencils on the gel to make a pattern of light on the stage.

This week I got to hang a lighting truss in the new Jr. High building and put the par 64 cans on it.  I learned what good mounting points are (in the ceiling) and how to correctly mount the light to the

Last Wednesday I checked my personal email during my lunch break, just as Phil Nemy (the head of UTLA) sent out an email inviting us to visit the set of the TV show, Numbers.  Well!  Since Scott Free produces that show, I knew I had to go!  I immediately emailed him back and reserved my spot.  I got one of seven spots for this coming Thursday, March 12th.

So, the next day I was chatting with Laura, who works in the television division, and I told her that I would be visiting the set.  She thought that was a pretty cool opportunity — she hasn’t even been to the set yet!  Then it was as if lightning struck - she suddenly remembered something, and she pulled me from the kitchen to the lobby. 

“If you’re going to be visiting set, then you should meet Julie!”

One of the writers from the show was sitting right there in the lobby!  So we talked, and I told her how Numbers was my brother’s favorite show, and she seemed so grateful that I was excited about the opportunity to visit the set.  After a few minutes of chatting, she had to go into a meeting, but as she left she said, “See you next week!”

I just feel like I am in the right place.  I’m constantly learning new things and getting to meet working professionals.  Just the conversations I get to hear and the notes I get to read teach me something new about the industry every day.

This week, by far, has taken the most out of me. Between the short film that I am shooting, “Joey and Mr. Bubbles”, my internship (and all the work outside of the actual job), school, my performance art piece that I am working on (that will be complete sometime in May), and helping my professor with his book….I am beat. So much so, sleep seems foreign to me. But on a much calmer side, I believe I’ve aced my midterm in my writing class, and I made an A on a writing assignment in another class. But the best part of all was in my music class. My professor called some of his closest friends in the music industry to come and sit with us. I’m talking, everyone from Sheldon Reynolds (from the Commodores and Earth Wind and Fire), Fred White (Diana Ross, Micheal Jackson etc), Nick Lane (trumbonist), Terry Wood (countless commercial ads), David Leach and of course, famous vocalist Will Wheaton. He even called up Jamie Deanton from Desperate Housewives. This was such an amazing experience for me. I still can’t believe it now. But that was basically my week in a nutshell…..Lets see what great new things next week brings…

So this week has been busy busy busy. My internship allowed me to pitch an idea, and to my surprise, they seemed very interested in it. So over the course of the next two months that I am here, I must write a screenplay/ script and hopefully this will be a start to a great career in the “business”. Also, because I am a Photog major, I went around town taking pictures, and ran into Garret Morris. He is an old time actor from the 90’s. I talked with him for some time and he told me all about how he ‘made it big’. In class, we had a guest speaker who is a well known director; he taught us a lot about the directing side of the industry. Later that evening, courtesy of internship, I got free tickets to the House of Blues to see Raphael Saadiq perform. It was so amazing. After the show, I ran into a guy who has a production company in downtown Los Angeles, so that can be a potential contact. So my lesson for this week, is you never know who and when you’ll meet someone….you just never know.

Last week really got me down.  There were no cool celebrity sightings, no seemingly insurmountable tasks to overcome, no unique experiences.  It was what most people refer to as a “normal work week.”  I have been so spoiled with exciting challenges and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities lately, that a normal week of boring work seemed unnaturally painful.  All week I had a bad attitude and dreaded my 9 hours at work (tried not to let it show, of course).  I make endless copies of (sometimes the exact same) scripts, compile lists of directors and writers, make coffee, scan copies, and count the number of times that I cheerily ask, “Anything else I can do for you?”  Especially since I have been promoted to working in the producer’s office, my whole body stays alert and tense all day.  Things are no longer new and exciting, they are now just stressful and tedious — everything an entry-level internship is supposed to be.

In fact, when I step back and look at it, I am still incredibly blessed.  I may be just making coffee, but I am making it for SIR RIDLEY SCOTT.  I may be shuffling through lists of thousands of directors for hours on end, but that will enable my superiors to choose 1 that will direct the next big film.  Trying to keep all of these things in perspective has been so vital to enduring the tired, bruised legs, the throbbing headaches, the blistered feet, and ultimately, the stifled creativity.  Hopefully this perspective will enable me to relax a little more around the producer, and just be confident in my abilities.