Elon in Los Angeles Spring 2022
Along with taking classes in Los Angeles through Elon University, I also had the opportunity to complete two internships.
Afterhours Productions
Documentary Development Intern
When I was looking for internship opportunities for this semester, I knew that I wanted to find something that would give me experience in the field of documentary filmmaking. I was very interested in Afterhours' previous credits and their focus on true crime content, which aligns with my research focus and own filmmaking expertise.
During my time at Afterhours, I completed a wide variety of tasks on as many as seven projects. My internship was fully virtual, and I worked 16 hours per week on Wednesdays and Fridays. I communicated with my internship supervisor and other team members via Slack.
Some of my duties included:
Pulling archival images and video for use in promotional materials, pitch decks, and sizzle reels
Drafting copy, checking for spelling and grammar, and creating graphics in photoshop for pitch decks
Performing and organizing research for potential projects in development such as making lists of potential participants, writing explanations of complex topics, and compiling general information about related topics
Organizing archival materials, general development documents, and budget spreadsheets in google drive
Taking notes on a pre-interview zoom call with a potential documentary participant
Drafting summaries and loglines for episodes in development
Creating a prototype style guide for a project in development
Collaborating with three other interns and about ten team members in the company
Overall, I learned a lot about the documentary industry and about myself during this internship. It was very rewarding to do hands-on development work with projects that are being pitched to major streaming services, and it was an interesting inside look at how professional filmmakers develop and market their projects. I learned that I enjoy development work but overall prefer post-production, and still love the documentary genre (though true crime can sometimes be a bit intense for me despite my interest in it). I hope to be able to continue finding opportunities in the realm of nonfiction filmmaking and will take the lessons I learned with me into my career.
Blockbusting with Jay Light
Podcast Production Intern
I gravitated toward this internship opportunity with the podcast Blockbusting with Jay Light because of my background in comedy and my interest in the medium of podcasting. As an intern, I was responsible for helping the production and post-production process run smoothly. My duties included:
Setting up the background, 3 cameras, lighting, and microphones for podcast recording
Taking notes while the podcast is recording and ensuring cameras keep rolling
Synchronizing footage and audio
Selecting 3 15-60 second clips out of each podcast episode
Designing, captioning, and in some cases animating clips for distribution on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Over the course of my internship, I was able to see real improvement in the view count of the podcast. Over my three months of work for Blockbusting, the clips gathered over 20,000 views on social media. Here are a few examples of the clips:
