Trip to CalArts- pt. 2
Sorry guys, for not posting the second installment instantly. I wanted to, believe me- but I have been feeling not so fab lately. Like REALLY not feeling very well lately... Not one thing in particular really, just lots of things.
Lesse- where did I end off? Friday night? *scratches her head* So that means we are starting with ACCEPTED STUDENTS DAY!
Saturday morning came VERY quickly for me. I'd gotten about SIX hours of sleep so far during my stay and I was still suffering from jet lag. I showered, debated what outfit to wear to make myself look as "arty" as possible and crap- ended up wearing the shirt I had NOT intended to wear to meet all the people I'd been talking to for a year all because my shoes that matched the shirt I'd ~intended~ to wear wore my pinky toes sore & RED the day before. Long story... ANYWAY! Dressed and packed, I headed out the door around 7-ish? Accepted Students Day started at 9 AM and I wanted a parking spot! Day was much grey-er than Friday- which had been sunny and GORGEOUS! The weather was still really nice and cool, so I was fine with it! I stopped at the same Starbucks across the freeway for another chai- MADE MY MORNING! Was at CalArts WAAAAY early once again and made another phone call to my best friend. Chatted each other up (including ideas on how to sell more of my stuff for money) until I saw people moving towards the doors. I said bye and went in. The main area of the inside of the school, I guess I can call it a Commons?, NOPE! Nevermind! They call it the main gallery.
Anyway! It'd looked like ^that when I went in on Friday, only.... BRIGHTER!, but this morning, it was filled with hundreds of white folding chairs. There was a podium, you know! The whole "Welcome to our spiel" setup. I spied Libby Hux and had to grab a hug, but she was quite a busy girl, so I let her off the hook. I found myself a chair near the front and off to one side. I was one of maybe 25 people sitting. I tried to keep my eyes peeled once again in case one of my people showed up, but mostly, I sat and ate my breakfast. Then out the corner of my eye, I noticed someone standing in the middle of the aisle, looking down my row at me. I looked up and realized it was one of the Animated Buzz people! I got up and hugged and said hi to Cuttlefish (aka- Elyse) and her bf Paul. We all sat down and chatted a bit. (By the way- talking to someone online for a really long time before you meet them leaves you with sometimes nothing interesting to say! XD HAHA!) We waited and the room began to fill with parents and students. When the thing finally kicked off, a Balinese band played and there were gorgeous dancers! I tried to take pictures, but failed miserably. I noticed cuttlefish was drawing in her sketchbook- and seeing as how I'd not been to life drawing in a while, I grabbed mine and tried to draw one of the dancers. She sketched the people sitting still in the audience... hers came out better than mine... ^~^
After a while of the dancing, a lady got up to the podium and apologized for running the band off, but they were running behind schedule. She introduced the President of the school and he got up and was all like, "Oh, I'm going to make this quick, my voice is off today, sorry for not letting the band perform their last number, but we're running late and every time I do this speech I got over on my time and then the professors are mad at me because then they are running late- blah blah blah". He was actually a very good speaker and started telling some great stories. The one thing he said though that REALLY stuck with me was "This is not the school you go to if you only sorta kinda wanna do art for a living." And he really stressed the idea of finding what is unique IN YOU. He brought up a lot of things that I have been debating with internally for months!.... but suddenly he was no longer being brief! Off to his right (our left), down what I later learned was the music hall, some music started playing. The parents and students began to laugh. He even laughed- wondering if this was his Oscar speech warning music! XD So, instead of wrapping it up, he just kind of kept going.... Until the music started again, a little louder... Then around the corner come four musicians playing a Balinese cymbals or something.... and they were BUCK. NAKED! Turns out this particular group of musicians are called the Naked Gamelon! XD They were basically protesting being cut off of their performance. The President was briefly speechless! HAHAHAH! I was about to start rolling in the aisles! He joked about us being able to see the kind of communication between departments at CalArts! They walked out of the Main Gallery and the President wrapped up his speech, asking the individual schools to divide up and follow their people to their respective areas. When Film/Video got called, we all stood up and went to the Bijou Theater. Now, this was all the newly accepted Experimental Animation, Character Animation, Film/Video, and Directing students. They sat us all down and showed us some of their films...
well... they TRIED to show us some of their films! XD They had projector issues, but they finally got them resolved and we watched maybe ten films, including all areas- experimental, character and film. One I'd seen before. Another- called Wunderkammer- had the WHOLE ROOM talking afterwards! It was a BRILLIANT film! You guys should seriously just watch it! It is so compelling to me! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pC18HJ2I6Y
When the films were over, the professors all introduced themselves. Then they had us split again into separate programs. They said since Character Animation was the largest (with a whopping 45 students!- not all of whom where there), we'd go first. So we left and went to The Palace. The same room that I'd been in as a life drawing classroom, was transformed into a lecture-style room, filled with chairs. Up front, there was another row of chairs facing us where third-year students and professors sat to talk to us. A bunch of first-years were there to lend their insights on their start at CalArts, but they were shunned to the side of the room! XD hehe I did see one of our forum buddies though! I lost Cuttlefish and Paul here, so I sat by myself. They welcomed us, introduced themselves, including Ted Ty- an animator for Dreamworks, who'd just finished work on How To Train Your Dragon, but teaches fourth-years at night! He wasn't really supposed to be there, he was just there to pick something up, but when he heard all the noobs were there, he decided to sit in. I even watched him take pictures of all the scared-looking kids. There was a massive Q&A- where a lot of good questions were asked. I could seriously not think of a single thing to ask. But again, something they said really stuck with me. Dan Hansen, the head of Character Animation (I think!) said that the professors weren't going to hold the students' hands, weren't going to check that they did their homework, kind of thing. That, if you wanted something at CalArts, you had to be PRO-ACTIVE! You had to go out there and get it yourself! That REALLY hit me in the chest to hear it said. Because I feel that that is exactly what I have been trying to do for almost 2 years! So I held to that. Finally, one of the dads said he had two questions... 1) something I don't remember and 2) WHEN WAS LUNCH? XD Turns out we'd gone about 30 minutes over our time and people were starving! So they wrapped up and people began flooding out the doors. I was one of the last to leave the room seeing as how I'd sat in the front row. As I looked back at the front, there were the professors, including Ted Ty- still talking to a couple of students/parents. Suddenly what they said hit me like a ton of bricks. That- and Leigh/Melinda/my's saying about how "you will never get the autograph standing in the back of the crowd without a Sharpie"... so I marched right back up to the front and stood aside while the parents/students asked their questions and listened. Finally, when they wondered off, Ted Ty, who'd seen me standing there turned and introduced himself and I shook his hand and introduced myself. I chatted with him a little and told him how excited I was to be there and just *shrug* chatted! I wanted to introduce myself to Dan too, but he was busy.
I finally wondered off to lunch- had NO IDEA where they put it but finally found it someplace they call Langley something-or-other... Get this... They served "Texas BBQ"! I nearly died! XD It was baked chicken... hehehehe! With baked Mac'n'Cheese, salad (VERY YUMMY!), small corn on the cob and stuff. I wasn't about to EAT alone too, so when I spied Cuttlefish again, I called out to her. Turns out, she was heading to the buffet to get me! I sat down with her and Paul and was introduced to another of our forum buddies- theTam! XD We ate and chatted and talked about the Wunderkammer film. We identified other forum people sitting at another table and were later joined by some other forum people. By the end of lunch, we had about six forum people all at the same table! XD We came up with our Accepted Students Day inside joke (SOOO easy to remember and NO backstory, so it seriously IS an inside joke now!) and by the time everyone else was leaving, we were still there, admiring the purple table clothes when suddenly TED TY comes over and sits down at our table! @.@ <- I swear, I think we must have all looked like that! But there he was!- asking us what we thought of the films, the school, the program, and talking about how he'd originally gone to school as a LAWYER! Seriously, having him at our table felt like the coolest thing EVER!
After lunch, Paul, Cuttlefish & theTam and I went around and did various things in the school. One- they picked up their portfolios. We finally got to see the mystical PORTFOLIO ROOM- where all of the portfolios for consideration are stored during Reviews! I chose not to pick mine up since I didn't want to take it on the plane. (I am SO getting a photo of this room when it is filled up this December/January!) After that, we tried to find the cubes. Well, this is only partially true- Paul & Cuttlefish live in Valencia, minutes from the school. They know very well where the cubes are, even where specific people's cubes are, since they go there all the time. However, even now, in the middle of the afternoon, almost no one was there. Turns out, they were all ASLEEP! XD HAHA! We did bump into two girls- they welcomed us. We tried to find two people we knew off the forums, but were nowhere to be found. On our way out, we came across one of the third-years that had been in the Bijou theater. He asked us if we were incoming, we said yes. He said, "If you are looking for the exit, it's right there." OUCH! I felt like he seriously wanted us out of their area, especially since we are NOT supposed to be in the cubes unless we have an escort. Then we headed to the Student Store- which was PACKED. While Cuttlefish and theTam shopped, Paul and I looked through theTam's sketchbook! XD I am so bad! I really liked it though! When it was over, they all left and I was left to wonder. I ended up going back towards the Portfolio room and talked to Financial Aid. They gave me some good pointers and relieved some of my stress and made some of it worse. The BEST thing they told me though, was that I could contact my program and apply for additional MONEY! I went back downstairs to the Portfolio Room and laughed with a mom (there with her daughter) who asked if the Naked musicians had been part of the "planned" itinerary. After they left, I was STARTLED when the girl who'd been swamped previously, said that she'd pulled my portfolio earlier when she'd seen my name tag the first time we'd been there! @o@ I hadn't even gone up to her desk! She asked me if I wanted it, I said no, but took my sketchbook. Man! Did I miss that stupid little book! So, she gave me her card and to let her know if my plans changed at all. We ended up talking too. (I SWEAR, EVERYONE in this school talks to you like they've known you all year!) I finally left and made my way back to the Student Store, which was thankfully free of a crowd. I finally managed to purchase my CalArts shirts and a hoodie. The Store lady was also terribly sweet!
Guh! And I am calling it a night here... this is SOOOOO LONG! The rest soon, I promise!
Lesse- where did I end off? Friday night? *scratches her head* So that means we are starting with ACCEPTED STUDENTS DAY!
Saturday morning came VERY quickly for me. I'd gotten about SIX hours of sleep so far during my stay and I was still suffering from jet lag. I showered, debated what outfit to wear to make myself look as "arty" as possible and crap- ended up wearing the shirt I had NOT intended to wear to meet all the people I'd been talking to for a year all because my shoes that matched the shirt I'd ~intended~ to wear wore my pinky toes sore & RED the day before. Long story... ANYWAY! Dressed and packed, I headed out the door around 7-ish? Accepted Students Day started at 9 AM and I wanted a parking spot! Day was much grey-er than Friday- which had been sunny and GORGEOUS! The weather was still really nice and cool, so I was fine with it! I stopped at the same Starbucks across the freeway for another chai- MADE MY MORNING! Was at CalArts WAAAAY early once again and made another phone call to my best friend. Chatted each other up (including ideas on how to sell more of my stuff for money) until I saw people moving towards the doors. I said bye and went in. The main area of the inside of the school, I guess I can call it a Commons?, NOPE! Nevermind! They call it the main gallery.
Anyway! It'd looked like ^that when I went in on Friday, only.... BRIGHTER!, but this morning, it was filled with hundreds of white folding chairs. There was a podium, you know! The whole "Welcome to our spiel" setup. I spied Libby Hux and had to grab a hug, but she was quite a busy girl, so I let her off the hook. I found myself a chair near the front and off to one side. I was one of maybe 25 people sitting. I tried to keep my eyes peeled once again in case one of my people showed up, but mostly, I sat and ate my breakfast. Then out the corner of my eye, I noticed someone standing in the middle of the aisle, looking down my row at me. I looked up and realized it was one of the Animated Buzz people! I got up and hugged and said hi to Cuttlefish (aka- Elyse) and her bf Paul. We all sat down and chatted a bit. (By the way- talking to someone online for a really long time before you meet them leaves you with sometimes nothing interesting to say! XD HAHA!) We waited and the room began to fill with parents and students. When the thing finally kicked off, a Balinese band played and there were gorgeous dancers! I tried to take pictures, but failed miserably. I noticed cuttlefish was drawing in her sketchbook- and seeing as how I'd not been to life drawing in a while, I grabbed mine and tried to draw one of the dancers. She sketched the people sitting still in the audience... hers came out better than mine... ^~^
After a while of the dancing, a lady got up to the podium and apologized for running the band off, but they were running behind schedule. She introduced the President of the school and he got up and was all like, "Oh, I'm going to make this quick, my voice is off today, sorry for not letting the band perform their last number, but we're running late and every time I do this speech I got over on my time and then the professors are mad at me because then they are running late- blah blah blah". He was actually a very good speaker and started telling some great stories. The one thing he said though that REALLY stuck with me was "This is not the school you go to if you only sorta kinda wanna do art for a living." And he really stressed the idea of finding what is unique IN YOU. He brought up a lot of things that I have been debating with internally for months!.... but suddenly he was no longer being brief! Off to his right (our left), down what I later learned was the music hall, some music started playing. The parents and students began to laugh. He even laughed- wondering if this was his Oscar speech warning music! XD So, instead of wrapping it up, he just kind of kept going.... Until the music started again, a little louder... Then around the corner come four musicians playing a Balinese cymbals or something.... and they were BUCK. NAKED! Turns out this particular group of musicians are called the Naked Gamelon! XD They were basically protesting being cut off of their performance. The President was briefly speechless! HAHAHAH! I was about to start rolling in the aisles! He joked about us being able to see the kind of communication between departments at CalArts! They walked out of the Main Gallery and the President wrapped up his speech, asking the individual schools to divide up and follow their people to their respective areas. When Film/Video got called, we all stood up and went to the Bijou Theater. Now, this was all the newly accepted Experimental Animation, Character Animation, Film/Video, and Directing students. They sat us all down and showed us some of their films...
well... they TRIED to show us some of their films! XD They had projector issues, but they finally got them resolved and we watched maybe ten films, including all areas- experimental, character and film. One I'd seen before. Another- called Wunderkammer- had the WHOLE ROOM talking afterwards! It was a BRILLIANT film! You guys should seriously just watch it! It is so compelling to me! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pC18HJ2I6Y
When the films were over, the professors all introduced themselves. Then they had us split again into separate programs. They said since Character Animation was the largest (with a whopping 45 students!- not all of whom where there), we'd go first. So we left and went to The Palace. The same room that I'd been in as a life drawing classroom, was transformed into a lecture-style room, filled with chairs. Up front, there was another row of chairs facing us where third-year students and professors sat to talk to us. A bunch of first-years were there to lend their insights on their start at CalArts, but they were shunned to the side of the room! XD hehe I did see one of our forum buddies though! I lost Cuttlefish and Paul here, so I sat by myself. They welcomed us, introduced themselves, including Ted Ty- an animator for Dreamworks, who'd just finished work on How To Train Your Dragon, but teaches fourth-years at night! He wasn't really supposed to be there, he was just there to pick something up, but when he heard all the noobs were there, he decided to sit in. I even watched him take pictures of all the scared-looking kids. There was a massive Q&A- where a lot of good questions were asked. I could seriously not think of a single thing to ask. But again, something they said really stuck with me. Dan Hansen, the head of Character Animation (I think!) said that the professors weren't going to hold the students' hands, weren't going to check that they did their homework, kind of thing. That, if you wanted something at CalArts, you had to be PRO-ACTIVE! You had to go out there and get it yourself! That REALLY hit me in the chest to hear it said. Because I feel that that is exactly what I have been trying to do for almost 2 years! So I held to that. Finally, one of the dads said he had two questions... 1) something I don't remember and 2) WHEN WAS LUNCH? XD Turns out we'd gone about 30 minutes over our time and people were starving! So they wrapped up and people began flooding out the doors. I was one of the last to leave the room seeing as how I'd sat in the front row. As I looked back at the front, there were the professors, including Ted Ty- still talking to a couple of students/parents. Suddenly what they said hit me like a ton of bricks. That- and Leigh/Melinda/my's saying about how "you will never get the autograph standing in the back of the crowd without a Sharpie"... so I marched right back up to the front and stood aside while the parents/students asked their questions and listened. Finally, when they wondered off, Ted Ty, who'd seen me standing there turned and introduced himself and I shook his hand and introduced myself. I chatted with him a little and told him how excited I was to be there and just *shrug* chatted! I wanted to introduce myself to Dan too, but he was busy.
I finally wondered off to lunch- had NO IDEA where they put it but finally found it someplace they call Langley something-or-other... Get this... They served "Texas BBQ"! I nearly died! XD It was baked chicken... hehehehe! With baked Mac'n'Cheese, salad (VERY YUMMY!), small corn on the cob and stuff. I wasn't about to EAT alone too, so when I spied Cuttlefish again, I called out to her. Turns out, she was heading to the buffet to get me! I sat down with her and Paul and was introduced to another of our forum buddies- theTam! XD We ate and chatted and talked about the Wunderkammer film. We identified other forum people sitting at another table and were later joined by some other forum people. By the end of lunch, we had about six forum people all at the same table! XD We came up with our Accepted Students Day inside joke (SOOO easy to remember and NO backstory, so it seriously IS an inside joke now!) and by the time everyone else was leaving, we were still there, admiring the purple table clothes when suddenly TED TY comes over and sits down at our table! @.@ <- I swear, I think we must have all looked like that! But there he was!- asking us what we thought of the films, the school, the program, and talking about how he'd originally gone to school as a LAWYER! Seriously, having him at our table felt like the coolest thing EVER!
After lunch, Paul, Cuttlefish & theTam and I went around and did various things in the school. One- they picked up their portfolios. We finally got to see the mystical PORTFOLIO ROOM- where all of the portfolios for consideration are stored during Reviews! I chose not to pick mine up since I didn't want to take it on the plane. (I am SO getting a photo of this room when it is filled up this December/January!) After that, we tried to find the cubes. Well, this is only partially true- Paul & Cuttlefish live in Valencia, minutes from the school. They know very well where the cubes are, even where specific people's cubes are, since they go there all the time. However, even now, in the middle of the afternoon, almost no one was there. Turns out, they were all ASLEEP! XD HAHA! We did bump into two girls- they welcomed us. We tried to find two people we knew off the forums, but were nowhere to be found. On our way out, we came across one of the third-years that had been in the Bijou theater. He asked us if we were incoming, we said yes. He said, "If you are looking for the exit, it's right there." OUCH! I felt like he seriously wanted us out of their area, especially since we are NOT supposed to be in the cubes unless we have an escort. Then we headed to the Student Store- which was PACKED. While Cuttlefish and theTam shopped, Paul and I looked through theTam's sketchbook! XD I am so bad! I really liked it though! When it was over, they all left and I was left to wonder. I ended up going back towards the Portfolio room and talked to Financial Aid. They gave me some good pointers and relieved some of my stress and made some of it worse. The BEST thing they told me though, was that I could contact my program and apply for additional MONEY! I went back downstairs to the Portfolio Room and laughed with a mom (there with her daughter) who asked if the Naked musicians had been part of the "planned" itinerary. After they left, I was STARTLED when the girl who'd been swamped previously, said that she'd pulled my portfolio earlier when she'd seen my name tag the first time we'd been there! @o@ I hadn't even gone up to her desk! She asked me if I wanted it, I said no, but took my sketchbook. Man! Did I miss that stupid little book! So, she gave me her card and to let her know if my plans changed at all. We ended up talking too. (I SWEAR, EVERYONE in this school talks to you like they've known you all year!) I finally left and made my way back to the Student Store, which was thankfully free of a crowd. I finally managed to purchase my CalArts shirts and a hoodie. The Store lady was also terribly sweet!
Guh! And I am calling it a night here... this is SOOOOO LONG! The rest soon, I promise!