Canada’s Hipster City Plays Host, Again

Held in the elegant Edgewater Casino, the 2011 Canadian Film Festival is one of the best that Canada has to offer. It showcases all of the top international films, from shorts to student films. However, the best part may not be what you see inside the Vancouver casino on the big screen. That’s because Vancouver is one of the more hip cities around – rivaling even nearby Seattle. Even better yet, huge swaths of Vancouver underwent massive renovations to prepare the city for the arrival of the Olympics. Combine a hipster edge with contemporary updating, and the recipe is created for a perfect setting in which to host an event as stylistically oriented as the Film Festival.

For those who come from outside the city’s boundaries and are unfamiliar with the happening venues around the city, Canada 411 is the ideal solution. Plugging into everything from the most popular pubs – where you just might see some of the filmmakers and actors – to the most cutting edge restaurants is as easy as sitting in your casino chair and absorbing a thought provoking film. Whether you need to fill time before the Festival of after the last movie has screened, Canada 411 can hook you up with what’s going on, and let you know where it is, too.

From world-class shopping venues to a quick shot of pick-me-up espresso at the local hangout, it’s all just around the corner in Vancouver. And between here and that corner? You’ll find a vibrant, contemporary city populated with friendly Canadians who’ve got more style and edge than you might have expected. Maybe that comes about from being constantly immersed in the vibe of a place that still offers up the amenities that attracted people from all over the world for the Olympics. The fabulous dining and nightlife options didn’t leave once the athletes pulled out of town!

Filed Under: Careers, The Arts Tagged With: , ,

Performance Companies – The House Team

You have the talent.  You are not quite ready for Hollywood, but you are getting there.  You have been doing local theater for years.  How do you break out from that mold?  Most small theaters, especially in the area of comedy, have open mic nights, or troupes or teams that perform at these venues on a regular basis.  Sometimes these people are in a troupe of their own, which they bring to the venue, pay for the opportunity to perform, and if they are well received and good enough, may eventually end up making money at this venue.  Most of these venues, at least in the New York area, have their own “house teams” or a group of talented people that work together regularly.

If you are performing with your own troupe, you might just get recognized by one of these “house teams” and be asked to join them.  This being the case, you can still perform with your own troupe in the beginning, as well as spending rehearsal time with the house team, getting to know them and making what you are bringing to the group stand out as well. While you perform with a group, you want to be the one everyone remembers.

Often in these small venues there are competitions, where the audience is asked to vote for whom they thought performed the best.  This obviously another great way to receive recognition for your hard work.  Once you are on a house team, there is always the possibility that one night an agent or talent scout might just be in that audience, might be there just to see you, as the buzz told him that you were somebody to keep an eye on.  This is the way most famous people get started.  With the age of broadcast talent shows springing up everywhere, the competition is fierce, but this is what you have trained for, to let them know you are the one.

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Setting Up an Online Presence

Developing an online presence is important in today’s industry. It’s an easy way for potential employers and other colleagues to gauge your experience and skill. Three ways you can do that is to create an onliine portfolio, join social networking sites, and keep tabs on what the online community is saying about you.

Build an Online Portfolio

The first thing you want to do is build your online portfolio. If you’re a visual arts major, scan and post your work in a slide show. You can include before and after shots, as well as images of the final projects. If your field of study is performing arts, then you should include a head shot, and some photos of your performances. Videos would be better if you can manage them, and if you’re a musician you can post music files. Don’t forget to ad links to any reviews that have run in the local media, as well as links to galleries where you’ve shown and theatres where you’ve performed.

Do Frequent Searches on Yourself

Keep up with what the internet is saying about you by doing frequent searches on yourself. You might be surprised at what you find because sometimes different media outlets will pick up a story that’s run on the campus website or in the newspaper. People will also do their own reviews in their blogs, and various organizations will mention the events of their members.

Put Social Networking in Your Favor

Join Facebook and Twitter, and start to develop a following. You can tweet about rehearsal, about the art project you’ve spent all night working on, as well as thoughts about your career and where it’s going. On Facebook you can post links to reviews or videos related to your field or interests. You can also add yourself to the friends list of various art galleries, coffee shops that regularly show art, theatres and entertainment publications. Don’t forget to ad a link to your portfolio.

Filed Under: Careers

How to get Your Foot in the Door

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 05: Sir Peter Bl...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Join the Campus Newspaper

There are a lot of advantages for an art student to be on the school newspaper. You’ll have a chance to cover all the local art events, you’ll be able to conduct interviews with cast members and artists, and you’ll develop a close relationship with the people in the art community. Plus, the more articles you write the more your name gets out, and soon you’ll develop a following.

Get a Job at the Theatre or Art Gallery

A great way to keep your finger on the pulse of the local art community is to work at either the theatre or the art gallery. You’ll have first hand experience with how the back end of these businesses operate, plus you’ll have a chance to meet the professionals in the industry while working one on one with artists already in the field.

Enter all the Contests You Can Find

Local radio stations will often sponsor battle of the band events. It’s a good idea as a musician to submit an audition tape to compete. Likewise, visual artists should try to enter all the contests that are available. There are art organizations that put on contests to help develop student artists. By competing in these events you’re exposing your artwork to the community you want to be a part of, and also getting your name out there.

Volunteer at the Arts Festival

If you check out the websites for the various art festivals in your area, you’ll be able to find contact information for the people who are running them. Shoot them emails explaining that you are an art student and want to volunteer to help in any way you can. Even if all you end up doing is fetching water, by helping at these events you’ll be able to meet a lot of people, and you’ll develop a reputation as being very eager and motivated.

Filed Under: Careers, The Arts

Becoming an Excellent Jewelry Designer

Gold Plated Jewelry
Image via Wikipedia

Do you want to be a jewelry designer? You can be, as there are very few physical barriers to entry. If all else fails, all you need are some simple tools, access to the more expensive casting equipment (which can be rented on an hourly basis, or bought second hand), and the vision and patience to do the job well. But just so you know, there is mighty competition out there. And some of these competitors literally have the creation of high-end jewelry in their veins. After all, jewelry has been adorning people’s bodies ever since someone first tied a piece of twig with a rock on it around their necks, as a sign of personal distinction. It is a custom that has existed everywhere, and that you might have something great to contribute to.

Take the Chopard family, for instance. For the past 150 years, they have been designing and crafting gorgeous jewelry for the best clients. And they have done more than just “put a little twist” on the same old concepts in jewelry making. Constantly perfecting the craft, the Chopard brand has forged ahead with truly innovative ideas. For instance, the family was among the first designers to integrate animal themes into their pieces. They are also known for the concept of free roaming diamonds, in which tiny diamonds flow in the watch’s face like water over its falls.

While you may not have thought of the free roaming diamonds the face of a watch, you still have something valuable and innovative to contribute to the art form. Of course, you should have more than just the desire; but the right tools and creative ideas. Finally, you must have the perseverance that is necessary to pursue a jewelry designing career. If you have these qualities, a career in jewelry designing is the right one for you. Find a school that prepares for jewelry designing, and taps into your creative talents. From there, you can obtain an internship with a jewelry brand or start your own collection if you’re feeling ambitious. Do not let this talent go to waste. There are a lot of opportunities out there to jumpstart your jewelry designing career.

Filed Under: Careers

How to Build up Your Performing Arts Portfolio

Category:Photographers who committed suicide

Image via Wikipedia

Get Head shots

First you want to get some professional head shots taken. You can do this several ways. If you’re lucky, the production you’re in will have a photographer come by and take pictures. If not, then you can talk to a photography instructor on campus and volunteer as a model during one of the portrait taking classes. Your third option is to go down to the mall and have some pictures taken at one of the portrait studios. Some of them will have prints ready in a few hours, while other send them to an outside lab. Ask beforehand how long it will take to get your pictures back.

Hire a Photographer for Your Performances

You’ll want to hire someone to take photos of you while you’re actually performing. While you can get away with some photos during a rehearsal, pictures taken during an actual stage performance are better. You can talk to a photography student on campus (don’t forget to remind them that they can use these images for their own portfolio), or you can talk to the school newspaper and find out if they’ll be covering the show. If they are, ask if you can buy prints from them after the paper has already been published.

Keep all Your Programs

Show programs for performing artists are like bylines for writers: they help document what productions you’ve been a part of and show a time line of your work and experience. You want to make sure to collect all the programs your name appears in. Also keep an eye out for reviews in the local newspapers and on the various campus websites. Print and clip these out, and include them in your portfolio. All of these items will create a history of the work you’ve done and can be used later  to help you find a job in the industry.

Filed Under: Careers, The Arts

Creating a Portfolio

As an art student, having a portfolio is key to finding employment once you finish school. You won’t have much work experience in the industry of your choice, but you will have a lot of time spent in classes, working on projects, or in the theatre. While you might not have been paid, you still have experience you can take with you into the world outside of academics.

Literature and Journalism

When you’re gathering items for your portfolio, you’ll want to include articles and stories that have been published. Anything you wrote for the campus newspaper, the school website, the semester’s literature compilation, or anything that might have been picked up by the local media makes a good clipping. If you can get an electronic tear sheet you can post that online or send it as an attachment when applying for a job. Otherwise, be sure to include the publication’s info with your clip.

Visual Arts

Try to include as many varied examples of your work, as well as your best pieces. If your pieces are structural, like ceramics or wood working, ask a photographer friend to shoot them for you. If you’re doing before and after examples for retouching or restoration, make sure they are the same size so they’re easy to compare.

Performing Arts

Photographs of dancers and actors while they’re performing can be a great addition to a portfolio. If you ask a photography student to photograph you, not only can you use those images for your work, but the photographer can use them as well. If you’re a musician, then record some files of your music that you can send to potential employers or post to your website. Don’t forget to clip out any positive reviews of your work, and also include programs from any shows you’ve done on campus.

Filed Under: Careers, Education

Entertainment on Your Computer: Choosing the Right Software Is a Must

apps
Image by FabioHofnik via Flickr

It will be difficult to enjoy good quality entertainment unless you install the right software applications on your computer. Most people fail to understand that the choice of software application has a huge impact on the quality of entertainment. There was a time when the role of a music player or a video player on a computer was restricted to simply playing the audio or video file. However, this is no longer the case.

Today, there are numerous options available that help you not only view the file, but also carry out minor changes to improve quality. For example, having a software application that helps you upload subtitles directly into the entertainment program will simplify the process of watching foreign movies.

Any good quality audio player should help you convert the sound file from one format to another without any difficulty. You should be in a position to restore the audio file to a high quality high-size format, or reasonable quality low-size format, as per your needs and requirements.

Many people presume that it is unreasonable to expect all of these features in a free software application. However, most audio and video entertainment software applications offer numerous features in the free version and additional features in the premium version.

Hence, do not make the mistake of concluding that you cannot enjoy all these features on your computer. As long as you have sufficient space and are prepared to search and experiment with different programs, you can easily locate the right solution on the internet. The best part is that you can do all this and more for free.

Just make sure that you have good quality antivirus and anti-spyware software applications installed on your computer when downloading and trying different programs. The last thing you want is to end up infecting your computer with viruses by relying on the wrong software downloaded from the wrong website.

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Student Guide for Arts Education and Careers

The Attleboro Museum, Center for the Arts, can be thought of as a student guide for arts education and careers. The Museum offers a variety of classes in a range of age groups so there is something for everyone. Many times a student will know that he or she has an interest in the arts, but doesn’t really know which direction to take when pursuing a career. That is where the classes offered by the Attleboro Museum come into play and can give the direction that person needs to be successful. Sometimes prospective artists don’t even realize that they have talent and the Attleboro Museum can be the avenue that exposes these artists to their calling. Classes are taught by professionals in eight week sessions. This allows the time for plenty of direct instruction and guidance in technique. While classes are designed to be age-appropriate for children, teens and adults, teenagers are allowed to enroll in adult classes if certain criteria are met.

Lights, Camera, Action is a resource site for dancers, singers and actors that keeps its finger to the pulse of the entertainment industry. Whether a student is interested in dancing, singing, acting, or all three this is a site that pulls together all of the necessary resources in one place. When a prospective arts student lacks the funding to further his education this is the place to come to for guidance on financial aid. Lights, Camera, Action has the inside scoop on which arts specialties are doing the most hiring and which ones the student might want to steer clear of. They know which schools the student would get the most help from for his chosen career path. This site can help students choose which school would be best for a particular field. Not all arts schools are created equal and Lights, Camera, Action knows this.

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Education for any Location: Online Programs

Paradise has been found, and it’s just as enchanting as you imagined. You spend your hours among the forest miles and rivers, the valleys that seem endless. Each day becomes an exploration, an adventure in the wild. You have abandoned the dull stone and glass towers; you have refused the cubicle suffocation. There is only the desire to indulge in life and its many meanings. You will give yourself fully to every single moment.

But such a philosophy proves to be difficult. You cannot sustain yourself with happiness alone. Money is instead vital and the funds needed to remain in paradise seem always to elude you. Your career doesn’t provide relief. It merely offers the minimum wages and meager benefits. You need a better job (and the subsequent better payment). Achieving that with your current resume, however, seems like too much of a challenge.

You need to improve yourself. You need to show ambition. Online programs become ideal for such things.

Education isn’t defined to the typical classrooms, the stifling schools. It can instead be accessed from any location — even one so remote as the one you’ve chosen for yourself. Remain content among the trees as you learn. Craft a schedule that suits your desires and earn the degree you once thought to be impractical.

Through an online university you can find the classes that are tailored for your goals. Work toward a doctorate from the comforts of home. Refuse the once tedious campuses. You can learn what you want, when you want, wherever you want. The decision is yours and it’s an easy one.

You left the frantic city streets behind. Now, however, you realize that you still need the boardroom wages. They can be found. You simply must deem yourself worthy of them through an extended education.

Paradise and career ambitions can exist together. You’ll be proof of that.

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