# Werd!



## xvshanissa (Jul 3, 2005)

Hey ya'll I'm Shannon, a soon to be BFA-3 Lighting Designer at CalArts up in Valencia, CA. CalArts is what it is, but there are some defenite good people there, and some good times to be had. It's a crazy liberal art school, so just let your imagine wander, and that will fill in the story of the school and all of it's glory. Nontheless, I go there.. LoL.

I'm a lighting designer by study, a photographer by trade, and somehow I hope to tie it all together. Oh, and I'm more partial to installation art with ligthing, as well as dance shows.. And, with photography, I'm partial to fashion photography, as well as artistic portraits. Primarily. Yes.

But, on a more important note.. 

Okay, so I need to figure out where the heck I'm going to go to grad school. I mean, I've got the next year to basically college search and solidify what exactly I want to study, because I'm actually still a bit up in the air about it all.. So..

I'm thinking I either want to continue to study Lighting Design for Theatre/Film, OR I want to study Photography.. However, what kind of photography, I'm not sure. 

I'm leaning towards Crime Scene Photography, just because I think it's interesting.. But, it's a little crazy.. So, Commercial Photography is boring, and just doing traditional portraits is a bit wonky.. Weddings are awesome, all of those "timeless" moment kinda things are fun.. But, really just Photography in general.. Like for specialized purposes, as in people needing artistic/erotic/personal photos.. Yea..

Part of me wants to say that I want to actually go back into Biochemistry.. But, I really doubt that. 

So, as far as Lighting Design is concerned.. I'm thinking about going to NYU. I'd go to Yale, but I don't want to be a cookie cutter. Other than that though, I don't know where else to look into. If Chris Akerlind gets his program running by the time I get out CalArts, then I'd like to look at going to Columbia.. But, that's still up in the air.

Now Photography on the other hand.. I have NO IDEA where to look at, so any suggestions or directions to go in would be greatly appreciated. Anyone out there in the world.. Help!


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## jonhirsh (Jul 3, 2005)

Hey i am going to calarts in september for light design if you want to chat you can email me at [email protected]. 

about grad school unfortuneatly i can not help you there 

sory 

Jon Hirsh


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## Peter (Jul 4, 2005)

Hey, welcome to controlbooth.com

Ya, sorry, I to am not much help in this department, I am just going to be a freshman in college next year, and realy have bairly thought about grad school! 

That being said, there just might be someone arround here who can help you, i hope so! In the meantime, feel free to look arround the site and read and post about what else is being chatted about! (alot of lighting stuff right now actually!)


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--The official welcome wagon (part 2)


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## ship (Jul 4, 2005)

Given what you presented in introduction, I would recommend first doing a search into schools. Think there is an internet portion of matching school to student as presented here in another post though it would take some searching. 

After that, and if nothing else get a list going of all the schools that MFA in this - all these types of things within your interest and E-Mail the instructors there to gauge each in private response. 

While you are open for final outcome at this point, it seems as if you have refined your design intent to a good deal so far and only private dialog with the schools will help at this point to get you where you need.

This all said, go for the money and steady income. You can always given what you express, design some store front or community theater or go back to design. Excluding this, the other fields of interest including crime scene type photography sounds like enough to pay your bills and have a past time.

Just a thought. While you should not give up study of the theater, there is nothing saying that it has to be your primary study even if it should become your primary field at some point. Take classes in it to be sure but also study other things.


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## jyenish (Jul 4, 2005)

Shannon,

Welcome to control booth. I am a recent member too, as it happens I am also lighting designer and a grad student to boot. 

The way I chose my grad school (Minnesota State Univeristy at Mankato) was by the opportunities that they can afford me. I am a fan of smaller colleges and univerisites, there you have more opportunity to have actuallized designs. Another thing to consider is what is the school going to do for you. Most grad schools have stiepents and tution cuts so take that into account. And last of all, tour the university. Talk to the members of the department get to know a few of the students and get their opinion. If your going for an MFA your more than likely going to be at that university for three years, (unless you find one with a two year MFA program like I did).

So, good luck if you have any questions private message me.


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## avkid (Jul 4, 2005)

Welcome to controlbooth,as for grad schools you might have some luck looking through the SUNY (state university of New York) web site.
www.suny.edu

-The OFFICIAL Welcome Wagon (part 1 of 2)
A.K.A. "Phil"


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## Foxinabox10 (Jul 4, 2005)

Try using a site like Collegeboard.com or PrincetonReview.com to search for colleges with the major you want.


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