Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/716619
On Monday, June 13, the American Film Institute's Conservatory held its annual opening-night reception on the AFI's Warner Bros. soundstage in Los Angeles showcasing the talents of the students who are working toward an MFA in Production Design. The event featured the design work—from renderings to scale set models—of the Conservatory's First- and Second-year Production Design Fellows. Attracting artists from architecture, interior design, theater arts, scenic design and other related fields, the Production Design curriculum at AFI focuses on the creative process of visually and physically developing an environment that becomes an essential component of the storytelling process. Production Designers must possess a keen understanding of the story in order to create a believable and realistic world on screen. First-year Fellows learn to transform designs into reality on a soundstage or location, while adhering to restricted budgets. Fellows develop design skills through classes, workshops and practical set construction, learning traditional drafting methods as well as computer-aided design. Second-year Fellows design an entire thesis production, while completing an independent design project for their portfolio. The curriculum also includes more advanced classes on set illustration, drafting, model building, budgeting, color theory and the latest digital design. As part of their course of study, Fellows have the opportunity to meet Art Department professionals during campus seminars and visits to Los Angeles film sets. ADG Left: Second-year Fellow SHANNON WALSH (Class of 2016) earned her BA in theater design and technology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and completed a fellowship at the American Conservatory Theater. She worked as a properties artisan, scenic artist, design assistant and scenic designer on a variety of performance projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. She drew this Puget Sound attic by hand for STILL LIFE WITH WOODPECKER. Below: CLARISA GARCIA-FRESCO's (2016) designs for BRAVE NEW WORLD include this interior for the incubator room and the exterior of the hatchery and conditioning center, both drawn in Rhino® and Photoshop®. Clarisa graduated from the New York Institute of Technology with a bachelor of architecture and has been practicing that craft on many award- winning projects for renowned architects around the world for the past ten years. Her work gave her the opportunity to live in London, Shenzhen, Rotterdam, New York and Buenos Aires. Below: On June 13 and continuing through June 17, the AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles dedicated its small soundstage to a roomful of displays featuring the work of the First- and Second-year Production Design Fellows.