Hello Interns,

Here is Blog Post #2.
In the book Careers in Media, you need to read/review the following:

1. Read Chapter 1 for an overview of the industry
2. Read the chapter related to the area in which you are most interested in working. This may or may not be connected to your current internship.
3. Throughout the book, there are Personal Profiles in which people describe how they got their job. You should read these whether they are in the chapter related to your area of interest or not. They provide helpful tips for job searching.
4. Read Appendix B: Employment websites

After doing the reading and reviewing the job search web sites, write an action plan for the next steps in your career based upon what you learned. If you are graduating, what do you need to do over the next two months in order to land a job? If you have a year or more before you graduate, what do you need to do to best position yourself to be successful when you do graduate?
Be specific. This should include everything from research you need to do on companies, to how you will improve your resume, to how you will put a plan together for networking within the industry. The more thoroughly you think about this (and then hopefully execute it), the more likely you will be to land the job you want. (You may bullet point your action plan, but the bullets should have some substance. For example, "Revise resume" is not an acceptable bullet point). If you have questions, come see me during office hours.
This blog post is due Monday, Nov. 3.

Just a reminder: You are receiving individual grades on each of your blog post questions based upon the quality of your engagement, reflection, and conversations with your peers.

Dr. Fuqua

Var's first post

My name is Vardanush Davtian and I am currently interning at Dana Dramov Consulting which is a fashion public relations agency based in the Flat Iron District. This is my first internship I've ever had and I am hoping it will be baby steps towards my dream job of being the head of marketing for a high profile clients in my near future. My responsibilities at this internship include sample trafficking (loaning out, tracking, delivering and picking up client samples), managing showroom inventory, scanning for and clipping credits, researching potential bloggers and publications we can reach out to based on the different clients' targeted audiences, managing inventory and organizing the showroom. 

Interning at Dana Dramov Consulting has taught me a few of new things that I did not know about the media and public relations industry. Prior to working here, I did not know what clipping credits was. Now, I am responsible for clipping all credits we come across in magazines and various publications. Clipping credits is a process in which I scan online and print publications to see if any of our clients' products have been written about or mentioned. Once finding a credit, I "clip" the title/logo of the publication, the headline, the author, the images of the products and a sentence from the written work which briefly summarizes the story the product was used for. I paste and arrange these pieces on a Microsoft Word page in a specific format and save it as a PDF. These clippings then get sent to the clients, get posted on their social media and on the Dana Dramov social media. 
Last week I began practicing writing my own press releases for different fashion clients we work with. I had previously practiced writing press releases in a school course I took, but I found it rather difficult to draft up a fashion press release. For a fashion client, a press release has to be very simple and straight forward, and not glitzy and glamorous as I originally assumed. When my supervisor handed my draft back with notes and corrections, I was disappointed at how bad I did. Now, I've placed "executing an amazing press release" as number one on my to do list before finishing this internship. 

Honestly speaking, this internship is unfortunately not what I expected to be. I expected to have a more hands-on experience but I feel it is falling quite short of that. Although I am responsible for filling out loan forms for samples, packing them up, shipping them out, going to publications to retrieve them, working on social media and other things like that, I feel I am not learning the fundamentals of the industry. With all the running around and doing errands all day, there is not enough time for me to learn significant and valuable things that would help me when I transition to other internships. 

In order to gain a more valuable experience at this internship, I think several improvements could be made to make my time there more worthwhile. This Friday my supervisor is going to take the other intern and me out for lunch to answer questions we'd like answered about the industry. I will ask her all the questions I have in mind and tell her that I'd like to be given projects that will teach me different things about the industry. I understand part of my responsibilities include sample trafficking which is a crucial part of the job, but I would like half of my day to include teaching and mentoring about the different aspects of their jobs and the industry. I think my experience can be improved once I am thought of less as just an intern for running errands but as student wanting to gain valuable knowledge about all things fashion pr and marketing. Being given time during the day to do this will improve my experience a lot. 

Everybody!

Our meeting tomorrow is in the upstairs conference room, G Building -- directly upstairs from the dept. main office. Please see the syllabus to know what to bring and what to be prepared to discuss.

Best,
Prof. Fuqua

Joe Dunham - Comedy Central PA

            Hello everyone, my name is Joseph Dunham. I am a senior pursuing a double major of media and film studies. For my internship, I am working as a PA on the Comedy Central program, Inside Amy Schumer. My responsibilities as a production assistant range from office work (making calls to other businesses for services required such as paper shredding), to doing stand-ins for mise-en-scene before 1^st team enters, and of course getting coffee for lots of people (which I’m sure you all are familiar with). My primary responsibility though, is within the production department – doing lock ups, runs for equipment (drop-offs and pick-ups), and essentially being the extension of the 2^nd 2^nd AD while on set.
            I’ve learned so much about media production that it practically changed my outlook on the entire industry. For starters, the unions (procedures and initiation) - Within each department there is a union (except for PA’s). This includes the DGA for directors, SAG for screen actors, Teamsters for drivers, and so on. There are procedures on set that must be followed strictly or else certain departments receive compensations, or “penalties”. For example, when it is time to break for lunch, it is the production department’s responsibility to make sure every other department head acknowledges the lunch break; one day, the grip department was notified about 5 minutes after we called lunch, so the union representative was alerted and everyone working in grip got paid X amount of money on top of their paychecks as a production penalty. Also, there are requirements for being accepted into certain unions such as initiation fees. The average workday for productions is anywhere from 12- 15 hours (our longest day was from 6:30 AM till 9:45 PM).
            The internship is what I expected, plus more. I feel so fortunate to have been granted an opportunity like this – to learn all aspects of production and find my place within the industry, to work along side professionals, top notch comedians, and people who are passionate at what they do. It was a competitive hiring process being that there were only 12 PA interns hired. It is an eye-opening experience, learning tricks of the trade and essentially altering my path in production. One lad from the camera department (DIT) told me wisely at a wrap party that “there are some PA’s on set that have been working as a PA for years – don’t do this. Find out what you love, and go for it. It’s that simple.” Although, it can be daunting to know how hard it is to rise through the ranks of the camera department to DP or the directing department, you shouldn't let that deter your ambitions. I have actually reconsidered my position and thought about writing more scripts.
            My approach to this internship has been quite simple – work hard and fast, don’t complain, smile and learn as much as possible by asking questions at the appropriate time. It seems that on every set there is gossip that goes around and it is important not to get tied up in that drama or goof around while on lock up duties; it is unprofessional and a bad look for future opportunities. Unfortunately though, since it is a union gig, it is not as hands on as I would like it to be – but hey, you can’t jump from school projects to DP without putting some work in between.

Allied Integrated Marketing- Gillian Doupé

My name is Gillian Doupé, I am a Media Studies major and a Drama/Theatre minor. I am currently interning at Allied Integrated Marketing, and this is my first internship!

1. What have you learned about working in the media that you did not know before your internship? Include here processes and procedures, job titles, you never knew of, how companies interact with other companies, and so on.

There is a lot I did not expect when entering a field of marketing, especially the amount of responsibility that my internship hold on interns. I find it very exciting that we are able to work on our own projects, and the deadlines for my internship are much more extreme than my deadlines for papers in college. Although in college my grade in assignments means a lot to me, if you mess up a project at Allied or make a small mistake like forgetting to call a company to pick up a package, it could ruin an entire event. I have learned to organize my reminders in a better way. I am usually good at remembering what people ask me to do, and remembering the assignments I have but I have realized during this internship that I need to write absolutely everything down that is expected of me to get done.

Allied has many different offices throughout America, but the NY office specifically handles movie promotions. I did not realize how many huge production companies Allied represents. I knew of the major ones, but there is so much more beneath the major companies. Not only does Allied promote the films, but we are also responsible for doing “Topline Reports,” which are screening reports for films. Some reports are even as detailed to write down reactions from the audience of major scenes. All of the interns are split up in teams, and I am with Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, and Universal Home Entertainment. I did not know what “hard-passes” (passes on paper for a screening that are not printed out online) for films were or what “R.O.E” passes were (passes printed online) until I started becoming familiar with all of the small nicknames for tickets and screenings. 

It is still hard to tell who exactly is who within the office since I am still just getting to know everyone, but I know that my supervisor is a Publicist, and you can also tell because she’s the only one not in a cubicle J Allied is an extremely friendly environment, the graphic design department in the office gets along with the promotional department, and everyone seems to work together.

2. Is the internship what you expected? Why, or why not?

The internship is surprisingly way beyond what I expected. I expected an office-like busy work job, and it is nearly the opposite. I just finished my own project organizing an event for the new film THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL with Twentieth Century Fox and it feels like one of the biggest accomplishments in my college career. I had to seek out a Bollywood Dance School in the city to see if they would host an event based on the soundtrack of the film. After many phone calls and making sure people follow up, it happened and my supervisor was excited so I was extremely happy :) (pictures below!) My supervisor places a lot of trust in me which is overwhelming at times but is absolutely amazing. We also do not get paid, which I knew, but I didn’t know that we could offer our time to do reports on screenings, and work at events at night or on the weekends in order to get paid. There are usually at least 3-5 events going on every week between all of the promotion teams with each studio. My supervisor also found out that I enjoy photography, and has paid me to photograph two events since. There is so much room to grow rather than make copies and tickets all day.

3. Is there any way you could improve your internship experience? Explain how.

I believe that the only way my internship experience can get better at the moment is to volunteer for as many events as I can. It is hard to balance between classes and work, but they are truly so much fun and it helps in order to talk to more employees at Allied and get to know how they got to where they are now. Since I really enjoy the environment I’m in, I want to make it show that I am passionate and dedicated. I also have to constantly remember that this is a big stepping-stone into my career, so that I can set aside what is less important and just focus solely on this for the next three months. Being at Allied is an exciting journey, and I can’t wait to keep on learning there J

Kathleen's first blog post

My name is Kathleen Ryan. I am a media studies major interning at Chron NY Inc. It is an independent film production. This is my first internship for my major.

1.      What have you learned about working in the media that you did not know before your internship? Include here processes and procedures, job titles, you never knew of, how companies interact with other companies, and so on.

In filmmaking I did not know there were so many assistant directors. On this film production there are 3. I’m still a little confused as to what the 3 of them do. I also learned how they hired one person who was in charge of arranging and finding all the locations where scenes for the movie would be shot, also known as the location manager. It seems like a pretty interesting job to me, as you get to go into a lot of building in NYC that you would otherwise probably have no reason to go in, or might get kicked out of them if you tried.

A procedure I found out about through the internship was that the script has to be taken to lawyers. The lawyers then search through the script for anything that may get the film into copyright trouble or another sort of lawsuit. I got to read it and it was really extensive. Character names were checked to see if there were other people who had those names who might sue the film.

When it comes to interacting with other companies it is mostly the secretary or the production coordinator who handles that. Though I do handle research projects related to the other companies or have to pick up things that are bought from other companies. One project involved me doing research on truck parking. I would have to find out how much space they had in their lot, how much it would cost to hold the trucks etc, but they the rest had to be handled by the production coordinator or secretary who then handed the options to the line producer.

2.      Is the internship what you expected? Why, or why not?

This internship was and was not what I expected. A part of me expected to be able to see more of what was happening on set, maybe do some Production Assistant work on set. Something else I didn’t expect was that I would get to meet and talk to the director and one of the producers. Those were positions that in my mind seemed very high up that they would only talk to you through someone else who would then tell you to do the task. I guess I underestimated how much of a collective work film is.

In a lot of ways the internship is just as hands on as I expected. I do a lot of what a Production Assistant for the office would. I do research projects, run errands, do paperwork, log incoming and outgoing shipments. It is a behind-the-scenes, day to day less glamorous work that people might not think about when thinking about the making of a film. When I was interviewed for the internship that is what I was told it was going to be mostly doing and I appreciate learning the aspects of it.

3.      Is there any way you could improve your internship experience? Explain how.

I could be able to improve my internship experience by talking to more people I interact with. As a Production Office intern I tend to have to run tasks all around the city involving the film. So sometimes I could be picking up sound equipment and other times I could be dropping off something at the set. So I have spoken to some on set Production Assistants, who working in the freezing cold, told me about their experiences. I think getting different people’s perspective on filmmaking is really useful and I think a lot of it is up to me to ask the questions. Still I think there is something to be said about using judgment as to when to ask people because when they are busy they are really busy, which could be said for working in an industry.

Hearst Digital Media

For the past month I have been working for the Hearst Media Corporation in the digital media department. The office that I work for is responsible for producing videos for the online versions of Hearst owned magazines as well as the magazine YouTube pages. My primary responsibilities have been to act as a production assistant on video shoots as well as to create rough cuts from video footage so that the main editors do not have to sort through all of the material.

What have you learned about working in the media that you did not know before your internship?
I had never realized how many different teams are involved with the production of one short online video. For example, last week I helped with the production of a video called "Clueless guys Answer Basic Questions about Disney Movies" for the Cosmopolitan YouTube page. First, the Cosmopolitan.com office contacted my office to tell us that they wanted the video made. We then contacted another office in the building in order to aquire some supplies that would be needed to shoot the video. The Cosmopolitain.com office sent us a representative to act as an interviewer. While editing the footage, we needed to contact the art department to supply us with a title card for the video. After hours of tiring work, we ended up with a nice, short, funny video which we uploaded to youtube.

Is the internship what you expected? Why, or why not?
The internship Is exactly what I expected. I am getting hands on experience in dealing with real video equipment as well as editing software. I am learning more about Adobe Premiere then I have learned in any of my undergraduate classes. I even get to see the results of my work when I go on to YouTube at home and look at the veiw count on videos that I helped make.

Is there any way you could improve your internship experience?
I am currently very happy with my internship. I don't see any way to improve it further. My hope for my future carrer is to join the field of educational, children's television. Although this internship gives me plenty of production experience, the child oriented aspect that i hope to work with does not exist in this job. Hopefully my next internship will be more geared in that direction. For now, though, I am definitely happy with what I have.

Here are some other videos I have helped make: