Fine Arts Career Services

The end of the semester is approaching and I’m guessing everyone is starting to become more involved in their internships. I’m still cleaning but there are some new developments on what’s been going on here on 5^th street. On most of the occasion’s I’m here, none of the engineers are, so I decided to get a little creative with my time. With the go ahead from one of the engineers, we started to play around with the console. Basically what we did was start from scratch. We would set up a mic in one of the live rooms and attempt to record. The first couple of times we messed up the signal flow but after a while we got the hang of what specific buttons did. After that we started learning how to work the patch bay and how to connect the various processors and rack equipment. We would take turns singing into the mic and challenging ourselves by taking different routs in and out of the console. One of the engineers also took us aside one day and went over the complete signal flow the studio. What that means is how the sound gets from one spot to the next, and the priorities it takes getting their. Along with that we also went over the technical names for the various stages of signal. Along with the end of the semester comes the final project. We are thinking about getting some kind of ensemble together to record. Unfortunately it might be a little hard to do because of scheduling. What might be easier is just getting a pre-recorded project and mix it using the console ( these are just ideas). o and also, everyone liked the flyer i made so im workin on another to go on the other side of the poster, this is for lakeside mastering, a conglomerate mastering studio linked to 5th street.

So, for the most part everything is on schedule for the event. We are finalizing poster ideas this afternoon and printing them off tonight. Thus everyone should start seeing  advertisement for the event very soon. We have set up an agreement with the Daily Texan so an article will be written about our organization, and the event. We are going to get some ready time on KUT, and with the internet, and all the free opportunities on campus I think advertisment will be successful. We have come in contact with many students that are ready to help, so in the future there will be some amazing things happening on campus. I now see that there is alot more work that goes into event planning then I guess I actually knew. Yet for me too see something go from the beginning ideas to actually happen is a lesson worth the while. I learned many different processes of getting things done, and how to organize each aspect of the event. Whether that be sound, advertisement, contracts, public relations, and so forth I was involved. The biggest struggle with the event in my mind, was  coordinating the designs for posters/logos for the event. Each person had their own take on things, but I personally always found something wrong. Also I have made more conections to people, which will help me tremendously in the future with my career.

With the date fast approaching, there are many things that have to be done. We are bringing in judges that have done some amazing work with U2, Mandy Moore, Spoon, and many others. Mayor Brewester is also going to speak at the beginning of the event, because he is a large supporter of the arts, and an avid guitar player. There are many small details that I have to take care of, like reservations, contracts, and the issue of voting. We have decided to split the voting, giving the judges 50% and the fans 50%. The fans will have to go online summit their email to be able to vote, which gives AEU a large source of emails for publicity. If there is a dead even tie, the winner will be decided by the executive directors of AEU, and executivce director of CAG. We have alot of time taken up by advertisement. Creating posters and flyers to hand out, presenting at other organizations, talking to schools within UT to send out emails, and connecting with UT’s radio station for hopefully a few minutes to speak about what we are doing on campus. There are alot of people that are excited about what we are doing, and I think if we portray ourselves in a good way this first go around, then we will be successful. People will see the difference we are making, and we as students will have made something worthwhile.

Whew!  Well, I am done with the demographics project.  It was so interesting.  I must say, I learned a lot about Excel, and I’m glad to have learned it.  After putting all of our collective data into tables and charts, I made graphs so make the data easily understood, thus allowing interpretation of the data.  Depending on the type of information, I chose my graph type and setup to best illustrate its findings.  Then, after I finished working on this project for our most recent exhibition, I compiled data for the last seven exhibitions into one giant powerpoint presentation which shows trends and consistent or inconsistent figures.  I worked on setting these into an understandable set of images, and then comparing and contrasting them with themselves and with other demographic data.  It was truly fascinating, and I enjoyed the work very much.

My supervisor and I then brainstormed about my next project.  The museum has many new volunteers and interns like myself, and so now the need for a broad organization system of all of us is inevitably necessary.  So I get this fun job.  I’m going to make a communication board with everyone’s photo and pertinent information, so that we can all recognize eachother and know how to communicate among ourselves.  I’m also helping organize ideas for volunteer incentives, such as thank you gift certificates or tickets to shows.  This is a really fun job, as I love to organize, and really enjoy creating systems.  I think I will enjoy helping people put ideas together and be able to communicate effectively.  I’m looking forward to my new job!

I’m finished with my internships. The television show Numb3rs has officially rapped their 5th season. Through my relationship with Leo, the director on the show, I’m on my journey to becoming an actress. I’m working on getting into the union, which will take a lot of work, but I’m ready for it. Aside from acting, school has been really interesting. The class was given an opportunity to pitch a movie idea from some type of newspaper article, blog, book, or a story heard from a friend. I chose Assata. Aassta is an autobiography about a revolutionary in the 60’s and 70’s. The book impacted me so much, I cried the entire time reading it. Once I pitched my idea to the teacher, she was more excited about it than I was. This is a real opportunity for something big to come of this. I’m excited for the progress. Since my internships are complete, I’ve had a lot of free time. I’ve been doing a bit of volunteer work at a nearby center. I’ve also been focusing on performance art. Performance art is what I do in Austin and I’m working on my next piece. I’ve FINALLY gotten the chance to do some of my photography work. It seems like I’ve been set free to live the life I lived in Austin, in Los Angeles…and its feels like home.

Last week, thanks to both Miss Tanika and my boss, I was sick in bed with the flu.  This was great for a day or two, but after that, I felt so useless!  I really am getting used to working all the time. 

So, after I started on medicine and felt better, I dragged myself out of bed to a social event.  My roommate Suzanne invited me to a mixer held by the Young Professionals organization at Warner Brothers.  As my reach and experience has been highly limited by the small production company I work at, I decided it was now or never to start learning the all-powerful arts of networking.  Let me just say, I am not a natural networker.  I am shy.  I am quiet.  I do not like to be the center of attention.  So just the thought of showing up at an industry event with tons of people I don’t know is enough to make my insides crawl.  Baby steps.  So we went and found a small group of people to chat with. She introduced me to someone who works in marketing, who introduced me to someone who works in post/editing, who introduced me to someone who works in physical production, and the five of us sat in that corner chatting all night.  It was actually really fun!  We spent much of the time talking about our jobs and movies and the industry, but after a few hours, the bar had almost completely cleared out and we were on to talking about relationships and the differences between men and women. 

I may not have met tons of new people, but I really enjoyed this type of networking.  I gained new contacts of people that I actually liked and with whom I had had real conversations.  I had learned from their experiences, in addition to just having a really fun evening.  I hope to get out and make more connections with all the interesting, motivated, creative people living and working here.

This week wasn’t to busy for which I am glad for. I know that the next month is going to be really crazy, and I wont get any alone time, yet I have realized thats what it is going to take for me to succeed in anything. This week has been more of a waiting time, waiting for the ok for the organization, waiting for designer’s logo ideas, and just waiting for next week. This week has been more of a research time also, I have looked at the behind scenes of different organization and I have seen how they work, and the mistakes they have made. The other executive director and I have also made connections with other major organizations with hopes to work with them in the future. We have also clarified most of the specifics of what we can and cannot do as studnets on campus. For next week, my goal will be to set a date for the events coming, schedule all the equipment, get judges for the event, and start organizing the layout of how each event will be run. Although there are some events that are similiar to what we are doing, I think the connections and prizes we are offering are beyond what others have been offering. I believe seeing people that are successful in what they do, and realizing they want to help support others dreams, with that you cannot fail.

This week was a productive one.  The women from Conley Guerero and some of the other locations were picked to participate in a latin American art  show at the gallery La Pena on South Congress.  The opening was at 6pm. on Friday night.   Their was a mariachi band and some great mexican food.  I found this to be  a successful event for the women.  The ladies were overwhelmed with pride as were their families.  They have never participated in an event like this and were pleased to be experiencing something new.  I am proud to be involved with this program because I can see how therapuetic art can be and how it can bring people together as well as emit a sense of pride from the participants.  This art show has fueled the women to pursue painting and continue to explore their highest potential as artists.  The people we work with in the mobile art program are continously teaching me the importance of learning new things regardless of age.  I am inspired by these folks and can only hope when I am their age that I will have the mind to keep learning and enjoying life as they do.

After my flight landed in LA, things were bittersweet. My spring break was so amazing, it was hard to gather myself and get back to normal. Once reality set in, I thought about the reason for coming to LA, then everything fell into place - I thought of Leo, and going back to the set, that made me happy. But then I thought about my internship that I’ve grown to dislike, that  made me very sad. For about two weeks or more, I’ve realized that my internship isn’t teaching me anything. I am sitting in one chair reading all day. The only time I’m allowed out of my chair is for bathroom breaks. That is not my idea of a semester of learning abroad. And going to the set of Numbers only made the thought of sitting in an office worse. So before I left for spring break, I expressed to my boss how unhappy I was working there, followed by a one-week spring break vacation. The following Monday, upon returning to LA, I sat in class, and my phone rang. I didn’t get the call in time, but I checked my voice mail. It was my boss’s assistant. By the tone of his voice, I knew exactly what the call was pertaining to. So I called him, “Hey Nic, this is Dozier, I’m returning your phone call”. Nic couldn’t even get the words out…so I did for him. I said,” What you are trying to say, is that I am fired”. He followed up, almost in a relief that he didn’t actually have to say those words, “Yes Dozier, we will no longer be needing you here”. So I thanked him for my time there, and that was that. I’ve never gotten fired before. Even though I was relived that I no longer had to sit in the office, for a moment, I became a little sad. Sad of feeling someone didn’t need me. I’ve never been fired before, even if I didn’t like a job, I’d give it my all, and would be respected for it. So the fact that I expressed my unhappiness, and it showed in my work, I was disappointed with myself. But I though of Numbers; that’s were I wanted to be. The next morning I gave Leo a call. We spoke briefly and he invited me back to set this Friday, the 27th of March. So even though I got fired from one job, there was another one waiting right around the corner. (You win some you lose some. Comes with the territory). When God closes one door, he opens another

Its been some time since my last post (There was a one week break from school, and upon my return, I was unfortunate enough to catch an extreme case of the flu virus. Good thing I’ve just recovered). So many things have happened. Some students from the UTLA program were selected into small groups to go on the CBS lot, to go on the set of the television show Numbers. Wednesdays are my day off, so I attended Numbers in the 11th of March. Its so hard to express in words everything that I felt being there. It was so fascinating; the lights, the cameras, the people, the crew, everything happening right in from of my eyes. The UTLA coordinator and the rest of the group were so fixed on taking there pictures with the celebs, and preparing there memories, I think they forgot to live in the moment. While they were off in a huddle with flashes going off, I was straying off to myself; just absolutely fascinated by everything. I just glared at the ceiling, and at the cameras, and looked into the directors eyes as he gave his orders to the actors. I said to myself, “Thats who I need to talk to”. I finally joined the group, and as I did, my eyes locked with one of the main stars of the show. She smiled at me, and shortly after, walked over to introduced herself. We had a short, yet friendly conversation, and afterwards I was on a conversation friendzy. I made conversation with everyone in sight, all the while with my goal of speaking to the director in the back of my head. Before I knew it, the coordinator announces that we are about to leave….my heart dropped. I knew that I would possibly never be able to come back here again, and I couldn’t accept that. I’ve never seen anything like being there in my life. It was absolutely the most exciting day of my life (goes to show how boring my life is :)). So we left. I didn’t get to talk to the director, and I beat myself up about it. There was nothing I could do. I had work the next day, and there was another group schedule to go to the set the next day. But I was determined. I needed to find a way to get to that set…I just needed one more day…just to feel that fascination one more time…..and most importantly, I needed to talk to the director. I deceived my way out of work the next mourning (because this is being read by people of importance, I’d rather not say how I got out of work), and I forced my way into the already over booked group of people going on the 12th of March. (So now its Thursday, the 12th of March). We get to the set of Numbers, and this time it was different. It seemed as if we were rushed. The cast and crew were so busy, it seemed as if we were just flies on the wall. Lucky for me, I had met everyone the day before, so once again, as the student gathered in a group, I strayed. I talked to everyone that I had met, which was I great conversation starter, “Hey, haven’t I met you before”. I’d smile, and we’d talk from there. After talking with most of the crew, I spotted the lady that came to introduce herself to me the day prior. She walks up to me, and gives me a big hug. We talk for a while, then she says, ‘Its so good to see you”. I felt happy that someone knew me :). Then I saw the director. I knew I had to speak to him of all people, but he was so busy. Then I saw him by himself. I walked over to him….then he walked off. (Missed my opportunity). So I stand by the playback monitors. There were 4 other crew men surrounding me, so it made the monitors hard to see. The director must have seen me struggling to watch, because he came over to me, put his arms around me, and walked me over closer to the monitor. He says, “There….thats better”. Before I could even think about saying anything to him, the coordinator announces that we must leave. I said goodbye to the director, and we all walked out. Because, we had done all of this the day before, I knew that he was only taking everyone to view the rest of the lot. So when everyone went to view the lot, I snuck back onto the set. The director saw that I came back, so he made friendly conversation with me. We talked for about 5 minutes, by the end of that 5 minute conversation, we had exchanged numbers, and he invited me to stay at the set until they rapped. i gladly accepted the offer. My class found me, and I explained the situation to them, and they left. (That was the first time I felt so happy to be on my own. The director, Leo, took me under his wing. The remainder of the day, he showed me how everything worked. I had conversations with the actors, the writers, producers, crews, caterers,….everyone. The director even sat and had lunch with me. The day couldn’t have gotten better. The set raped at 10:15, which means I stayed there for 8 hours…(too bad I wasnt on the clock haha). Leo took me home. The entire ride there, we talked about my dreams and aspirations….he offered to help in every way that he could. Too bad my flight to Houston was in the mourning. He told me to give him a call as soon as my plane landed back in LA. He would allow me to come back to set….:)