Mongolian Felt Making

This is a video of some Mongols making felt from start to finish, it shows rounding up sheep, shearing them by hand and the process they use to felt the wool into large sheets to wrap around their dwellings, called yurts.

Your Co-Workers On Set

BREAKALEGG instructs us on the different co-workers on set. Remember these are for film and television, but they still apply. Know what your co-workers do.

Lou Bou's Galore

examples of resumes

In all resumes, you are promoting yourself. So, your name should be first, and largest. You should also have what position you're going for, and your contact information--usually your permanent address (people in school, this may be your parent's address and your cell phone.

While you are still in school, you should put your educational experience first, then your experience. Notice how these people have many different sections which tell what they have experience in.


Branden Tucker's resume is nice because of the organization. There are recognizable columns which have the most important information: being position, company, show, year (listed reverse chronological--present year to earlier stuff). Curt's draws your eye to his name, and then to the fact that he's a scene designer. Again, columns are good.

Casey's resume does not have columns, however, you can still tell what he worked for because he has his different jobs listed by position.

Ginger's is the same as Casey's--Her experience is broken up into sections.

More columns, but divided up into relevant position.

Christopher's has reverse chronological listings by position.

Ms. Jackson's is thorough, draws your eye to her name, and gives "selected academic experience" with the professional experience. You will get to this point, but not now--you don't have enough on your resumes to be "selective".

I put this one in to show the difference paper makes. This was a textured paper, and the way that it copies is very ugly, and confusing. Stick to heavyweight paper, no texture.

Mr. Engle has a lot of information in a small space. However, notice how it's hard to find what you're looking for--same as Ginger's, above.

David's is a bit artsy, with the boxes and the large first letters. That kind of font is a bit distracting.

Thoughts on Resumes--R. Finkelstein

Thoughts on Resumes...
C. 2001 R. Finkelstein

RULES OF THE ROAD . . .
· Know your objectives, and know your audience! Join the trend in producing resumes on demand. A resume formatted for one specialization may be horribly ineffective when used for attracting attention in another specialization.
· To be effective, a resume will need to convey information in an efficient, concise, and effective manner. Work towards these qualities. A list of shows per se is useless. Who knows, the show you list may have come from your grammar school days!
· Be sure to include your address and phone number. An added plus is inclusion of an e-mail address and website location.
· There are different thoughts on resume length. Some feel that a resume should be kept to a page in lengths. Others prefer a more thorough work. Choose your own strategy on length with reasoned care.
· These days, the standard is for professionally typeset or printing on a quality desktop publishing system. Your resume will definitely stand out (in a negative fashion) if it is not representative of rather high quality printing. Hand written resumes are no longer tolerated.
· Padding a resume can frequently be spotted and can backfire severely. Don't lie. Even a little white ones can backfire.
· List names if they will illuminate the nature of their work. Giving the name of the director of a show you have designed is only useful if the reader is familiar with that director's work or would be likely to contact that director.
· It may be helpful to include some descriptive material to put your show listings in the proper positive context. Consider placing such auxiliary information, though on a separate sheet.
1. Did the show tour?
2. Did it receive particular notoriety?
3. Was someone important involved?
4. Was it presented under unusual circumstances?
5. Did it solve unusual problems?
6. Was it a union production?
7. Was it a premiere?.....
· Consider making a modular resume, so that different sections can be added or subtracted to suit your particular audience.
· Use of proper theatre terminology is vital! Talking about "play practice" will instantly place you in the company of high school students.....bad ones at that! Needless to say proper spelling and grammar is vital!
· Get "cute" at your own risk! The person reading your resume will NOT be hiring a puppy!!!!! Philosophizing can backfire. The reader may not share your philosophies. Do not do something as stupid as listing your star sign!
· A short section listing "allied skills and training" or unusual, useful, or interesting interests and hobbies can be useful. Continually strive to increase your repertoire of skills. Needless to say, the best such lists tend towards pertinence. Chances are your prospective employer does not care that you love sun bathing, or watching the clouds roll by!

ORGANIZATION POSSIBILITIES
1. Chronological (usually from most recent)
2. Listing by specialty
3. Alphabetical listing
4. Listing by venue
5. Listing by importance
6. Columnar form
7. Paragraph form

REFERENCES
Including a listing of folks that may be contacted for a confidential evaluation of your work can be quite useful.
Continually cultivate your pool of references.
The most useful references will be those folks....
· Who have established reputations in the field
· Who are articulate and have experience writing and reading reference letters.
· Who are known to the widest possible audience
· Who have a reputation of only supporting quality work.
· Who know your work well.
· Who have worked with you or have supervised your work.
· Variety of references is to your advantage.
Separate from your list of references that your prospective employer can contact, try to maintain a body of reference letters that you can supply yourself.

HOW TO LEARN MORE
USITT Materials
Workshops
Review by practicing professionals
Learning about the work of those who have "made it" in your field.
Working in an environment that brings you into contact with practicing artists.
Conventions and conferences.
Reading other people's resumes - lots and lots of them. Get on a "search committee"! Go for an internship with a company that fields lots of resumes! Look at your friends'!

FINALLY
Keep your resumes continually maintained and up to date.
Keep copies at the ready! Sometimes jobs become available at the spur of the moment, available to those with their credentials at the ready that is! Keep your resume and portfolio close at hand always....even on vacation. Who knows who you will meet!
Keep records of your achievements. It is so difficult to figure out chronologies of shows years after the fact!
Save reviews, letters, testimonials, awards, religiously!

Holy Ghosts PR photo call

Design in action:
Costume Design: Emily VanDam
Lighting Design: Charles Rye
Set Design: Christopher Parrish

punkin carving--practicing sculptural skills in Tuesday Night Class

vytorin costume assignment

Tuesday night class
next assignment!

Before tuesday,

1. You need to decide on a couple of pictures of plates of food.
2. You also need to watch these videos of the Vytorin drug ad.
Vytorin Ad #1
Vytorin Ad #2
FINAL PROJECT: You will be designing costumes for a man and a woman for each plate of food.
So, if you have two plates of food, you will have four costumes designed.

HOWEVER,
for Tuesday, you are only bringing in IDEAS for the costumes and the pictures of the plated food.

IDEAS: This involves research-- 4-5 actual pictures of clothing

Look up the words "plated food" and then search for images.
I found this great website of nicely plated food webshots

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change

Hey, take a look at the bottom of the page!
New photos of the latest musical have been posted!

Marie-Antoinette’s Dress

a cool video about a MA dress being restored for the Royal Ontario Museum...
http://www.rom.on.ca/media/podcasts/display.php?id=73

Thank You, Arlene

Arlene had mentioned these shoes for my meuseum concept. I totally fell in love. THANK YOU

the duchess

the other day before class rance , arlene and myself were talking about the new keira knightley movie, the duchess. i found an interesting article about the costumes in the movie along with a few watercolor renderings by michael o'connor (harry potter and the chamber of secrets, last king of scotland, quills) which i think are really cool.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/main.jhtml?xml=/fashion/2008/09/21/st_costumedesigners.xml

and here are a few more concept drawings i found.

http://www.look.co.uk/galleries/index.cfm?page=1&galleryID=4883

Watercolour tutorial for costume rendering

Here is the link for the costume rendering tutorial.

Midnight Oil

MUTO, an incredible animation by Blu (audio included).

And work by Mark Khaisman. Packaging tape on plexiglas:

cochineal--and you thought lizard fuel was safe

Excerpt from Color: The Story of Dyes and Pigments, more specifically, The Red Dyes: Cochineal, Madder, and Murex Purple, A World Tour of Textile Techniques, 1994

A red dye worth rubies:
Until the invention of synthetic dyes, all the red colorants—archil madder, brazilwood, murex, and cochineal—were expensive and greatly prized. Cochineal dye has been in use since the empire of ancient Egypt. In the 1500s, discovery of sources in Mesoamerica brought untold wealth to the Spanish, who guarded the secret of its manufacture well.

Cochineal: the gold that did not glitter

A color plant, a mollusk, or a scale insect does not announce, through its leaves, fruits, or glands, the presence of any dyestuff. Only the dyer knows that through his chemical manipulations, brilliant and hardy colors can be derived from the often unattractive natural materials. One day in the middle of the 1700s, the crew of one of the Caribbean’s most feared pirate ships learned that both colorful and pecuniary riches could be hidden in very humble dress. They sighted a large Spanish ship outside the coast of Honduras with a presumed load of gold and silver intended to enrich the Spanish crown, a circumstance of ownership that they decided to change rapidly by catching up with and boarding the ship. The Spaniards were quick and managed to avoid their pursuers. In their haste to escape, the longboat was left behind and was captured by the pursuers. The pirates’ disappointment over having captured only the longboat filled with worthless bags of dried brown grain quickly changed to happiness when they realized that the contents consisted of the “scarlet grain”—the fabulous, expensive raw material for the red dyestuff carmine!
At the time of this event the origin of the “scarlet grain” was still unknown in Europe. However, rumor had it that the Spaniards got it, along with other precious goods, far away in the mysterious countries on the other side of the Atlantic.
The areas of origin and the early use of cochineal
The valuable but outwardly insignificant small grain was nothing other than dried females of the insect family Dactylopius, long called cochineal. Despite the fact that cochineal had been introduced to Europe before the end of the 1500s, uncertainty about the true nature of the dyestuff reigned long into the 1700s. The cause was simple enough. For the Spaniards, the sought after good was of the greatest economic importance and they did everything they could to keep its existence and production a secret. Various written Spanish sources from the 1500s give evidence of the sensitive nature of the substance. Early works kept silent or were directly misleading about actual conditions. Later, what were for the most part correct descriptions, remained unnoticed or not believed. In fact, the Spanish authorities encouraged this lack of knowledge, making it more difficult for foreigners to gain a collective picture of the manner of production and work methods used in cochineal factories.
The cochineal scale insect originates in South and Central America, where the Indians already used the carmine color for dyeing textiles in 1000BC. When the Spaniards went to Mexico in the early 1500s, the dyestuff became frequently used. From Mexico its use spread to other countries, including Peru. The old Aztec term for the color was “nochezli”, which the Spaniards changed to “cochinilla”. Eventually the French form of the word, “cochenille”, became the most used.
Red from the other side of the ocean.
The Latin American countries’ original production of cochineal should have been limited in scope and only intended to meet the needs of domestic textile production. After the Spaniards arrived, large-scale production of the valuable dyestuff was introduced and it eventually became one of the most important sources of income for the colonial power, aside from the export of silver. It has been calculated between the years of 1758 and 1858, no less than 27,000 tons of cochineal were shipped out of Mexico. The picture of the extent of cochineal production becomes even clearer if data about the size of the plantations is considered. Each plantation consisted of no less than 50,000 cactus plants. The increasing demand was partly because the European and the Asian dye works discovered that Mexican cochineal had a higher content of actual dyestuff than the Polish and Armenian color scale kermes insects which had been used up to that time.
Thus, export was to Europe alone. In the 1580s, cochineal was transferred with loads of silver from Acapulco on the Tehuantepec isthmus to Manila on the Philippines. The dyestuff was also found in China from the time of the emperor Kang-Hsis (1662-1722). This far-sighted ruler was not only the promoter of the first great Chinese map and a great literary encyclopedia of over 5,000 volumes, but he was also the one who gave the French and British the right to conduct trade between China and the Occident. He was aware that “Ko-tcha-ni-la” was a product of a Latin American insect and that it was introduced by the Europeans. The carmine color went (and still goes) under the name of “foreign root”, Yang Hung. Yang actually means ocean, so the expression could also be translated as “red from the other side of the ocean”. Compare this to our word ultramarine (the blue gemstone lapis lazuli, from the other side of the ocean).
The spread of the cochineal scale insect to new areas
The Spaniards brought the dried cochineal insect to Europe where the carmine dyestuff was then extracted, packed and sold to waiting consumers. To ensure sole right to the product, the Spanish government prohibited all forms of import of living scale insects to the European continent. Despite constant prohibitions that included a ban on exporting the mother strain of cochineal from Mexico to bordering Latin American areas, by the end of the 1700s, breeding had spread across the borders of the country to Guatemala, Brazil, and to the Indonesian island of Java. Later, plantations were also started on several of the West Indian islands, in Algeria, and on the Canary Islands. The monopoly that the Spaniards had ever since Cortez conquered Mexico in 1519 was thereby broken, and the consumers could be supplied with the cochineal dyestuff from a number of different markets: the French from Veracruz, the Dutch, from Java, and the English from India.