Students
Students and the ALD
The Michael Northen Student Design Bursary 2010
Students and the ALD
By Nick Moran, Senior Lecturer in Lighting Design and Production Lighting and practicing lighting designer.
"As a teacher of lighting for performance, I think all students interested in lighting should become members of the ALD. And if you are studying lighting full time at an institution that is a member of the Conference of Drama Schools you can enjoy sponsored member-ship for at least two years of your program of study.
The most tangible benefit of student membership is Focus. Put simply, it provides some of the best writing about and by working lighting designers available in this country. As well as the articles aimed at the general membership, in recent years Focus has featured articles on ways into the profession, and from young LDs working on their first big shows. It has including notes from “big name” LDs on what they expect from an assistant, articles written by students, and interviews based on questions submitted by students.
Recent articles on photography and on marketing, written by people working in performance lighting, are at least as useful to students practitioners as they are to seasoned professionals. Whatever the level of your interest in lighting, Focus provides insights into the people and practice of professional lighting design. It covers the kinds of shows many students might be lighting while still studying through to the big shows they may aspire to get a placement as assistant on, and many different kinds of shows that may never have considered. It is not a showcase for the latest hi-tec kit (but membership of ALD entitles you to a subscription to other journals where you can read all about that). Focus has articles from real world lighting designers working with the kind of equipment students use in their schools and colleges, solving the problems all of us have to solve every time we start to light a show.
Finally, Focus is one of the few places where you can see good quality photographs of performance lighting rather than shots displaying products or close-ups of famous faces on stage. So, if you are studying lighting design for performance, join the ALD, and make sure you read your copy of Focus – at least ten times a year!"
The Michael Northen Student Design Bursary 2010
The Michael Northen Bursary 2010 will be awarded by the ALD in conjunction with ETC and The Mousetrap Foundation.
This prestigious award which is open to all students and not just ALD members.
The Michael Northen Bursary was set up by Michael Northen shortly before he passed away in 2001. It takes the form of a £500 prize awarded to a student who shows exemplary talent in lighting design. The award is to be judged on a project that the student has produced within the past academic year (July 2009 – July 2010). This award was originally made in conjunction with the White Light Bursary and since 2004 the ALD has administered the scheme and the presentation of awards as a fitting tribute to Michael who was a founding member of the ALD and a previous President. The fund itself is held by The Mousetrap Foundation, an organisation committed to encouraging young theatre practitioners. The ALD therefore awards the bursary each year in conjunction with The Mousetrap Foundation. The Michael Northen Bursary Award winner will receive £500.
This year the ALD prize is to be renamed in honour of an ALD Fellow whose long career has encompassed being a designer, lecturer and author in the use of light on stage and in performance. The Francis Reid Award will be presented to a runner up of the main bursary and they will receive £250. Once again we are pleased that ETC continue to support the competition and the ETC Award winner will also receive £250.
All three winning submissions will be displayed on the ALD stand at the PLASA10 in September, where the prizes will be presented. The judging will take place by a panel of industry professionals. Previous judges have included Rick Fisher, Paule Constable, Mark Jonathan and Paul Pyant.
Applicants are asked to complete a submission form (downloadable from link below) as part of their application which will demonstrate the development and processes of a successfully realised lighting design performance project. Additional material to support the application such as photographs, storyboards or plans are set out in the guidance notes of the submission form.
It should be emphasised that this is a design bursary and the ALD are not looking for wonderful project management or equipment lists. The submissions will be judged on an imaginative design and creativity in lighting. Students should therefore consider carefully how to communicate their concept for the lighting design and how their ideas were realised in performance.
• Submissions must be received at the ALD office (address below) by Saturday 31st July 2010
• Judging will take place in August 2010. Submissions should not be larger than an A4 envelope.
• Entrants may submit work in an electronic format on CD, but must ensure that files are printable and in a common format (i.e. Word, Excel, Jpeg’s, Bitmaps).
If electronic entries cannot be viewed by the judging panel then the entry cannot be considered.
Send entries to:
Michael Northen Bursary
Association of Lighting Designers
PO Box 680
Oxford
OX1 9DG