A terrific Yahoo article about unpaid jobs and abuse in the biz

[Ryan Mast]

Thanks guys — that helps a lot.

Walter — how do you evaluate students at the end of the internship? Who sets the goals?

Mark — do you have any kind of contract or agreement with the interns or the school ahead of time now?

Do any of you have any kind of agreement or guidelines for interns about what they can take for showreels, what they’re allowed to photograph, etc?

—
Meteor Tower Films
Video creations for music, art, & theater.
https://meteortower.com/

[Mark Suszko]

I work for state government in Illinois, and the high schoolers apply thru the IGIP, the Illinois Governmental Internship Program. They can apply thru their high school guidance counselor’s office. We don’t see applicants or take applications directly, not until they’ve first gone thru all the hoops of the State Board of Ed and our HR department. They have to already have a B average or better, they will take a semester off from school in their senior year for the program but continue to do school work while in the program and if they come down to the capitol city they will also be living with volunteer house parents, working office hours and classes Monday thru Thursday and going home on 3-day weekends. They can apply to work in ANY state agency, not just ours, so if they are on a science/medicine career track, they could go intern with EPA or Public Health, if they like engineering or aviation they can intern with IDOT, criminal justice, state police, Attorney General, or corrections, finance, treasurer, etc.

They don’t get paid but they do get academic credit.

When they work for us, we encourage them to create some portfolio work so they leave with some kind of demo reel. We teach them camerawork, lighting, editing, and anything else they are interested in, but they have to take an active, participatory role; otherwise, if they sit back and never push, never take initiative, they only get grunt and office work and not much of a recommendation letter. Some of our past high school interns have gone on to become Fullbright scholars, to work at Fox TV Chicago, DC comics, and I hear one is on staff at The Daily Show now. I don’t know much more: They never call or write back, (sniff).

[Bob Zelin]

I have not read all the replies to this post, but I will throw in my 2 cents.
When I recall all the S.O.B’s that I worked for early on in my career, I often forget the
incredible opportunities that I was given (that I should not have been given) because these
guys were simply too cheap to hire someone qualified to do the job, so they let me do it.
I was the head tech for the original Panavision Panacam (for General Camera) in 1981 in New York, and I had NEVER even touched a professional camera in my life. Was I financially abused by my employers at the time – sure I was – but the opportunities and exposure I got from doing this job allowed me to start my own business by 1982.

Bob Zelin