A Comprehensive Guide to Applying for UCLA's TFT Program: Insights from a Transfer Student

hi everyone it's Nikki again I am back with another video so I'm making this video because I just wanted it to be

helpful for those of you who are applying for UCLA this fall in 2020 for the TFT program or theater to film and

television I applied for the theater program with an emphasis on design and production and I'll be going over my

portfolio my supplemental just generally and my interview experience so I'll be getting into that right now I applied

for this specific emphasis because I had an interest in cosmic design I went to a community college so I am a transfer

student so I did I've been doing community college for the past I guess right now I'm technically in my third

year of technique technically in my junior year but I did hop from a film school to a community college and then

another Community College so yeah I jumped around a little bit which is why it took me three years but all that

matters is that I have a better idea of where I want to be in my career so the transfer process that I used in order

for me to be able to transfer to any UC successfully was the I get C or the iget see it's pretty common to use that I get

C in order to transfer to a UC or CSU etc because the courses that you take or that are you're required to take within

this process they line up with the curriculum of those colleges that you like to transfer to so I did that I got

that done I did take the inter classes is not only for the I get see but also for the for the you see to be able to

know that it's actually an interest of mine that I'm not just taking it here they're like they know that that's

something I want to be a part of the entertainment industry if you will the inner classes I took which are which is

why I transfer to a second Community College because they had a great theater program I took a costume beginning

costume class I'm currently taking an intermediate costume design class I took a stage career activity class which is

basically you're getting hours for working on school school theater productions and I took an intro to

theater history class I took intro to musical theater history class I believe that's it yeah yeah those are all the

classes that I took regarding theater specifically but way before that I did take a film history class so I guess I

have a little bit of knowledge everywhere about the industry so I thought that would be helpful to take to

continue taking all those theater classes again so the UC knows that that's what I'm interested in

you fill out the UC app as you normally would you have your essay questions you fill out all the necessary information

etc you have all that done but something that's really important is that when you're filling out what major you're

applying for and you want to be in the theater school as your number one that's the school I want to go to you even if

you're considering other schools even if you're considering an English major you have to put theater or film first in in

that first box for top priority or something of that sort you have to put it there or else the theater school will

not even consider your application so please make sure that you put theater or film whichever major you are applying

for put that as your top priority so just make sure you fill out your UC application by November 30th I did have

a tutor help me to proofread and help me brainstorm ideas for my essay questions that I answered just to make sure I had

all my thoughts down and that I was really articulate so she was a great help Taylor can watching this girl eye

your problem I probably you're probably not watching this I doubt you're watching this but

she was such a great help so yeah [Music] the next thing you need to do is to fill

out your theater supplemental or your film supplemental so when you're filling out your supplemental the first thing

you need to do is turn in your UC application and I did not know that until I tried to start my supplemental

during the month of November and it said I had to have it said that I needed to turn in my UC application beforehand

because you need the little you there's like a code or a series of numbers for your your user ID it's like a UC

application ID something of that sort you have to have that before you even start your supplemental so please make

sure you turn in your your UC AB beforehand so if there any if there's anything that you accidentally forgot or

that you accidentally skipped over when reading all of the requirements for a supplemental just just make sure you

turn in earlier I've said it a million times so just make sure you're turning your UC application early because the

supplemental is due only a couple weeks after you turn in your UC application on November 30th so you have to turn in

those personal insight questions from your regular UC app so just turn in like a regular document you have to have a

photo of yourself just like a simple headshot I literally just had my mom take a picture of me like I'll put it

somewhere up here like of what I turned in for my headshot and it's just a simple photo like it's not glamorous

it's just a regular picture of you so you have to have your resume in your supplemental so there is a required Fiat

Racal resume and there's also an optional other other experience resume so I did not turn to resumes I only

turned into one theatrical resume and I did include both my theatrical experience and my film experience

interning so if you have done any film experience on top of theatrical experience or even if you haven't had

any of the optical experience at only film put it in because any experience is you know is experience so it's it really

shouldn't matter that much in the next thing you need to include is your design approach you had to pick any work of

writing from that Shakespearean Ming dynasty's was at the Golden Spanish Spanish Age or the space sorry the

Spanish Golden Age etc and you had to create your own literally your own design approach how would you design

this this show so I picked a Midsummer's Night Dream so you can pick any period of time you can pick any setting like

you can do whatever you want of course with them you have to keep it within that's similar at least storyline but

how would you design the set what would the costumes look like well but the makeup look like etc so that's

what they are asking of for the design approach so after you have your a little design approach down you know what the

sets going to look like you know the setting is you know the period of time is you know if those costumes look like

etc you put that all in SA describing it make sure you are detailed and then the next thing it's optional

but you can create some visuals for what you were describing in your essay so for me I made a mood board including all the

characters and what I wanted them generally like the feel of what they were wearing like that's what I did so

it was essentially some a mood board or a character concept board so that's what I did to get visual representation cuz I

thought why not I have time I literally just did it on a PowerPoint page collage all pictures together and and that was

it like it was literally not easy so that's what I did and then the next thing you have is your portfolio of

course your portfolio yes my favorite part um so literally just compile all of the great work you've done I included

things that I did when I went to film school I went to when I first graduated from high school or after I graduate

from high school and I also included things that I had done recently with filming or like working with other film

students and then like for costume design and then I also included sketches and my sketches I will tell you because

I will also be showing you but my sketches or that great because I really started like you know frequently like

continuously sketching in the fall of 2019 so and I'm not like you know a like a great sketcher to just begin with so

of course with everything it takes practice it takes time and so I included my sketches regardless of if I thought

they were beautiful or not you know I'm saying cuz no we're but I did want to show my

progress and that's the important thing show your progress through your portfolio so you want to have something

you don't really like as much as the first one and you want to end it with what you think is the best thing about

your all the work you've done like I like I added in pants I made four I made four flogged gnaw for camp vlog now and

I'll put the picture up here I made these pants I made my own pattern and I included that in my portfolio

because I made a sketch of what I wanted my outfit to look like and the sketch isn't that great but it shows you what

my intention was with my design so that's literally again that is all of that matters they they just want to see

your progress Oh point A to point C they just they want to see it you know what I'm saying

and I'm not saying to pick something that you literally have no confidence about don't do that to yourself go into

it with confidence because you know you're putting all that energy into what you're submitting so make sure make sure

you're putting in those things that you do enjoy even though you're like oh man this isn't perfect and I'm a

perfectionist I get it I am a 1 million percent perfectionist and I'm like oh man I really don't like this sketch but

you know what it's not really not that bad and I have this sketch that I did a couple weeks later and it really shows

my improvement so put that in your portfolio the last thing you include is your

unofficial transcript or transcripts I had to submit two unofficial transcripts because obviously like I said earlier I

went to two different community colleges over the course of three years so that's what I included you have to include them

all so for the interview section of this video I was contacted four days after I submitted my supplemental application so

December 13th was when I submitted it so on December 17th I received an email stating that they wanted me to sign up

for an interview date the fee for an interview is seventy dollars I believe which is expensive but I know that you

they I think at that point when they contact you to schedule an interview you have to schedule an interview and also

as I've read and heard not everyone gets contacted for an interview but that does not mean that they are no longer

considering you for admission it just means that they feel like they've gotten enough from you and they either are set

and they're probably set on their decision about you and that does not mean it's negative that again that is

not a negative thing for an interview it usually means that they just want to get to know you a little bit more and either

that means they're really interested I mean it can go either way they're really interested in me and they feel like they

see all these things are like okay cool but there's something like we want to know a little bit more like there can be

something that they feel like is not exactly clear or they want to make sure that you know you want to be there at

UCLA so that's kind of what I for the reason why they don't contact everyone for an interview so we'll get

into it I scheduled my my interview for January 25th at 8:30 a.m. at the UC Berkeley campus so yeah that's what I

did to prepare for your interview all you need to do is literally just make sure you have all your supplemental

materials together because they want you to compile them into one like booklet I guess you could say like a booklet of

some sort I did that I went to Kinkos or FedEx whatever you want to call it and I like compiled it into this little

booklet here I'm not gonna show the front right now because it has like you know my phone number on it and stuff but

yeah so I print my neck Kinkos like I said I'm sure you can print it at like Costco or the drugstore but I really

wanted mine to look professional and I did I asked to get two printed and I believe was it was no more than 14 or 15

dollars to print out - so it was so is maybe seven dollars for each one and the reason why I print out two is because I

had no idea if I would have two people interviewing me rather than one or most of all I just wanted to have a copy for

myself just in case so I could be able to look over it after giving my portfolio to them at the check-in or my

supplemental information at the check-in so that ended up being very helpful for me getting to getting two of those made

and make sure that not only you compile your supplemental materials that you but you also have to review it look over

that girl look who that dude like you know like look over that read through what your

experience was look over your resume look over your design approach look over your visual representation of your

design approach if you chose to do that make sure you go into your interview knowing what your work is knowing what

you're talking about that's very important so you're not tripping up and on your words you're like oh wait did I

include that am i portfolio like make sure you're reading over it and that's again why at least for me in my

experience I suggest at least having like even if it's like a cheaper copy of the nice copy you're turning in to check

in make sure you have a copy for yourself to look over while you're waiting to go in for your interview if

you have some downtime I got there 15 minutes before they asked you to come in 15 minutes early to check in to make

sure everything's cool especially because it's not just you coming in is probably around like 50 other people I'm

coming into that because it includes the only design of production it's acting integrated studies musical theater so

you have all these students we're all over coming in for their appointment coming up for their interview as well so

I turn to my little supplemental booklet and kept you know the extra room for myself just in case if I had downtime

you go into a room and there is an informational session for one hour so I had my mom come with me just so she

would be able to listen in as well if she had any questions I ended up having a couple of questions regarding

transferring and what my classes would look like etc if they happen to know the professor leading the informational

session was very personable he was funny and he actually ended up interviewing me which I didn't realize was going to

happen and quite funny because he remembered me from my multiple question question but

anyway and I waited about 40 minutes for in order to get in for my interview so from 8:30 to 9:30 was an

informational session they gave us a bathroom break after the musical theater and acting kids like you know they were

already in their movement where so they just went off to you know do their audition stuff but there are only seven

of us sitting and waiting for our interview and of those seven of us two of us were design and production and the

other five were integrated studies so integrated studies is like directing writing etc and you get to compile all

the things you're interested in basically in a certain plan and you're able to focus on that for your time at

UCLA I was the last one to go in and there were about four I think there are four interviewers I was at UC Berkeley

for probably no more than two hours 15 minutes maybe because my interview was actually quite short I did not expect

that my interview was probably that maybe around 7 minutes long why did you transfer from Community College a to

Community College B if this question applies to you do you want to do costume design for only film and TV only theater

or both or in general in which areas film TV or theater do you plan on working in would you be interested in

taking classes outside of costume design or in general would you be interested in taking classes outside of your main

career focus does your resume include all of your total theater experience I always ask

this question because my resume included mostly film work rather than theater work what are examples of tasks that you

have to fulfill while working on theater productions relevant jobs etc how are you fulfilling your transfer credit

requirement earlier I explained that I kept see that's how I fulfilled my requirements but this question will

depend on if you are a transfer student when did you gain interest in costume design or generally when did you gain

interest in your desired career the questions that they ask are not to trick you they are very much catered to your

work your resume your design approach your portfolio it's all about you they want to get to know your personality

they want to know your background they want to know why you're interested because they want to make sure that you

know what you're applying for they want to make sure you you know in your gut that you want to be there and they do go

over that in the or he did go over that in his informational session at the beginning they don't care about the

academics at this point you know they just want to get to know your theater experience your film experience etc they

want to know that entertainment industry side of you because you know your UC app is about the eken academics and the

extracurricular stuff like that this is about the exact major that you want to be in the industry that you want to be a

part of I just want to insert this a little clip from one of my other videos and I just

want to give you guys an idea of the outfit that I wore to my interview all I did instead of wearing the top the

turtleneck tank top I wore a long-sleeve turtleneck still black turtle knack with those same shoes same pants I

want to give my outfit to more business casual look because I assumed that's what the attire would be across the

board and it seemed to be that way when I arrived at my interview so there you go little styling tips if you're curious

and to give some more examples of outfits for all genders you can do as simple button-up shirt with some nice

trousers a sweater a nice shirt etc others were wearing dresses or dye skirt but make sure to keep it business

casual there's a long one here oh the long video and that is the end of this video I hope this was helpful and if you

have any questions at all those comments put those comments down below let me know if you have any questions or if I

even helped you at all that would be so great to know because I love helping people and since this was something like

this was not available or out there when I was trying to figure out what do I do like what do I wear like oh my gosh like

what I have to have my portfolio etc so I'm hoping that this will be of great help to any of you guys out there

applying for UCLA in the future I hope you guys have an awesome great day and please stay safe out there and I hope to

see you guys time by [Music]