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: