MY FINAL EXAM AT CWS

This evening was my final exam for the Basic Modeling Course at the University of Classic With Style.  It has been a whirlwind month of daily classes and weekly evaluations, meeting new people, learning new skills, stretching, trying new things, and alternately feeling terrified and exhilarated.

I was as ready as I knew how to be.  The final was conducted by Janet Brink, the Dean of Students at UCWS.  I had been told to prepare a gown with appropriate styling, and to prepare 21 poses and a default.  From that I assumed that the walk would be the Styling Event walk we had learned.

No matter how well prepared you think you are, there are always surprises.  I was instructed not to say or ask anything during the procedure, only to answer the questions put to me and do what was asked of me.  There was one instruction I misunderstood, but -- oh well!  I did the best I could.

One of the exercises was to do a character test and photograph it.  I'm sure everyone in Second Life has seen this before, but to the left is the result of my character test.  At least I was in a pose, and not the dorky newbie stance!  From there, I was asked to do a quick change into a swimsuit outfit.  After a few more questions I was given a list of landmarks for the CWS runways and asked to photograph them and describe them here in my blog.  At the school building we worked with three different runways.  I knew there were a few more, but there were some I'd never heard of or seen.  Hence my description of these will be somewhat sketchy.

The first show I saw at CWS, when I had signed up for classes, was the Beach Runway.  It is set on a lovely beach, a wooden runway surrounded by comfortable wicker chairs and shaded by palm trees.  We trained on a replica of this runway at the school facility, and it is a linear walk, from a backstage A (at the right of the photo), to the dot to the right of the center stage, then to point A (at the bottom of the center circle), then B (at the top of the center circle), then one more stop in the center of the runway on the B side and into the B backstage area.

The next venue was the Ballroom Runway.  It has three walks all leading to the center stage, and is decorated in neon colors.  While I was there the colors of the runways changed, but I didn't stay to figure out the sequence.  There are two grand pianos, one on each side of the center runway, and very comfortable-looking seating for the audience.  Since I have never seen it before, any comments on how it might be used would be pure speculation on my part. 

The third location was the Black and White Runway - again, one I had never seen before.  Its runway has a black center aisle surrounded pools with swans swimming in them.  The flooring is black and white marble, with comfortable chairs in black and white for the audience.  Once again, I cannot say what the walk pattern might be.

 This is called the Blue Venue, although it certainly looks red and gold to me.  Perhaps it is so named because the backstage area opens onto the blue ocean. I have yet to learn about how this venue is used.

At the Dome Runway I am back in familiar territory, as we trained on a replica of this at the University building, and I saw a show here last week. This has three runways, of which the center is used solo, and the two side runways are walked by two models with poses in sync with each other. Again, it has  plenty of comfortable seating for the audience.

This is the Main Stage, perhaps the most familiar to me, as we trained on its replica at the school, and I watched two styling events and participated in two on this stage.  The way I saw it used was by a solo model in the center runway who poses on her way out, and around the main stage circle.  The dots on the side wings are for models to wait onstage until all have completed their walks

The Red Pageant Stage I saw when I did the blog entry on the Top Model Pageant on May 19.  It is formal and elegant in its styling, with "fleurs de lys" patterns on the main runway, surrounded by sunken red carpeted runways that were used for the finale with all the models onstage.  The seating is modern and comfortable, and the entire area is surrounded with red and gold satin draperies.  Very elegant indeed!

And with this I have completed the blog entry portion of my final exam, and I leave with fingers and toes crossed, hoping for a good result!