Where should I intern at?

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Nick Griffin] “…shouldn’t the best advice to quicksilver be to attend a college, university or even community college and progress from there?”

Yes, that would be the best advice but let’s hope that while at school, he discovers a real career. ;o)

This industry has become much like that of writing wherein everyone who has a word processor is capable of writing a novel; yet, there are few great writers, as the software doesn’t make the writer.

I subscribe to the Grinner Hester Principle which states: You do this because you have to, you’d be miserable doing anything else — if you do it for the money, you’ll be miserable waiting for it.

Sure, there are exceptions but even the people I know that are some of the most respected people in this industry don’t make a lot of money.

As 10CC (Kevin Godley & Lol Creme) sang so long ago: Art for art’s sake, but money for god sake.

Maybe an internship will cure ‘im, and get ‘im back in school — whatcha think???

Good to see you back, Nick.

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

[quicksilver8907] “I am going to a community college currently and working full time as a media technician for a planetarium and multimedia theater. I wish to keep that job, I just want to know what else I could be doing. I am from Central California.”

Where at in Central California? What school are you going to?

Ron Lindeboom

[Gary Chvatal]

I also agree that college is a good start. Thats where I got started…unfortunately I’m still making about the same amount of money as I made in college.

But its a good place to learn some skills and make some connections. Oh….and learn how to make potato salad or another side.

[Tyler Groom]

I am going to the college of the sequoias in Visalia,CA

[Mark Suszko]

First, tell the English department at Sequoias that you need a refund because you end your sentences with prepositions.:-)

There are paid and unpaid internships. Usually unpaids at least give you academic credit at the college or university that runs the internship program. Univerities tend to have the plum intern programs, with TV stations, advertising agencies, Public relations companies, major corporations that have video departments… you can see that there can be more video opportunities than you’d at first have guessed, from the internal com department at Lockheed to the in-house promo or training department of an ad company or food service corporation.

TV news stations and cable companies use a LOT of interns. There was a case a few years back in California where a producer intern took a station to court because it turned into basically a sharecropping/slavery kind of thing. No training, no pay, long hours and no expenses covered. And it is not supposed to be like that. You are both getting and giving something: they get cheap labor and fresh ideas and views, you get valuable training, hands-on experience and networking contacts. It would be interesting to find out how the lawsuits came out.

Some trade schools or vocational schools also have internship programs. In California, you should be able to find hundreds of programs, but then again, it’s California, where every guy behind the counter at McDonald’s has a script he wants to show you, and every waitress is also an actress. You have more opportunity in that state but also a LOT more competition for the openings. If you are a real go-getter, you might find a company that doesn’t have or use interns yet, much less an in-house media department, and offer to pioneer the program for them. This may turn into an excellent job opportunity later.

Super-short version of my college intern experience: we were based in Chicago, my classmates all got their internship assignments ahead of me, working for the big O&O ABC, NBC, CBS stations, and for ad agency giant J. Walter Thompson. I wound up with a tiny cable outfit in the ‘burbs a short drive from home for the summer. End of the internship, we get together to compare notes. The kids from the big TV stations had no hands-on with actual gear due to union rules. They did light office work, phones, and could make a damnfine cappachino. They also had nice letters of recommendation and help getting interviews from people like Bill Kurtis, but once in the interview, they had nothing much to show.

Came my turn to describe my experience at the non-glamorous fleabag suburban cable place (Continental Cablevision of Elmhurst):

“I was the segment producer on a daily half-hour talk show: I produced the entire Wednesday show each week. I found, booked, and pre-interviewed guests, wrote scripts and copy, field-produced and directed with a 3-man ENG crew and sometimes the multicam production van: I shot and edited videotape, I wrote and reported stand-up news segments in the field. On air days I sat next to the director and kept time and fed in chyrons or floor directed. I’m qualified on three different editing systems, three kinds of cameras, the Grass 100 switcher, the VP-2 Chyron, I can splice audio tape, I know how to operate every piece of gear in the place except the satellite dishes for the Head End. I have a demo reel here on umatic and VHS of nine shows I produced and several VSOT news pieces I made for those episodes. And I can’t even SPELL cappa, ugh, cuppo, ugh, whatever. Is that some kind of coffee?”

Of our class, only myself and one other student intern I knew of got industry jobs, it was on the strength of what skills we were able to achieve during those few weeks as interns. A fancy letter of introduction only gets you a meeting with the people that hire… but you have to bring them more than just a willingness to work and a great personality. You get out of an internship, and your college instruction in general, only as much as you put *into* it. And you can find great opportunities in out of the way places, or CREATE the opportunity if you have that kind of drive.

And I neither drink nor spell cappa-whatsis. Do you really think a guy like me needs MORE caffeine?!?!:-)

P.S. Paula Jolene Smith; thanks wherever you are for the fine and patient training you gave the Loyola Interns all those years ago. You taught me not ALL directors need 4-letter words to get the job done. 20-plus yers later, I’m still making a living doing this!

[Tyler Groom]

Well currently I work at a multimedia theater assembling “slide shows,” I am paid very well and we are going towards making everything digital video. I am gonna start working with after effects, and pioneer the place into a much more active video environment. I currently work full time but should I try finding a place that deals with after effects more, so that I can be trained instead of training myself?? I used to work at a production company, helping with weddings and dance recitals, but it just didnt pay very well. What should I do??? Thanks

[Mark Suszko]

My guess is it’s going to be hard to find a place that will pay you to learn AE when they can drop a free ad in Craigslist and get fifty AE trained guys a-runnin’, with demo reels ready to show.
That is, if your bosses *know* about the availability of such resources:-)

You can sign up for AE classes at some local place and use the student academic discount to buy a half-price copy of AE for home use or buy some training DVD’s and work the examples and tutorials at your own pace at home on the DL. Concentrate on creating large workspaces that can span several monitors or projections, in the same way you do slides now. Then spring your new skills on the boss at a convenient moment. Don’t advertise your new skill until you have actually GOT some skill to show, but for what it’s worth, I think you are on the right track. If you could find an internship at a graphics house that would be great, that’s not likely, so in your situation it might be as well to just be auto-didactic and homeschool yourself for the moment.

[Tyler Groom]

I am gonna buy after effects soon and some total training or Trish Meyers books or maybe classroom in a box. I will work at my own pace, whenever and wherever I can. Thanks for all the help guys. I really appreciate it.
Ty

[Del Holford]

The Public Television station in Fresno might offer internships and you’d have a relatively short drive to get there. PTV stations always need free help but also offer the chance for hands-on experience in various production areas.
We had several high school interns this past summer at my PTV station and a couple college students as well. One college student was back for his third summer and has learned a great deal from our Director of Photography who is a talented teacher as well as a very good DP.

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS3
Charlotte Public Television

[Tyler Groom]

would they get me real experience in after effects and other editing???