Internship: Day Nine

My mentor,(Tatiana) didn't grow up in San Diego. She grew up in Santa Cruz, she also went to UC Santa Cruz, (along with both the owner of the company and his wife). She originally studied to be a film editor, she is now a producer.

Either during a break from college or after she graduated, my mentor went to New York to, ironically, serve an internship at a film studio. Her mentor had a very similar job as she does now, which I believe is why she ended up becoming a producer herself.

Tatiana never intended on staying in San Diego for any length of time. She came to San Diego for a brief period of time and I believe she was just looking for a job that she could get a bit more experience from before going back Santa Cruz. But, she found a job at Bob Hoffman Video Productions and decided to stay permanently.

Also, she just got engaged.

Internship: Day Eight

Prompt 2: What new appreciations (for who? of what?) have you gained through internship that you did not have before? How did you develop these appreciations?

I never really took into consideration how by doing something that seems insignificant at the time can really help out a company in multiple ways.

What I mean by that is, my project at my internship site involves me creating and putting together the company's Valentine's Day mailer. Since I enjoy Photoshop and writing, I really didn't think of it as work to be completely honest, I thought of it as something fun to do that may hopefully be of use to the company. It wasn't until I went into the budget meetings, ran back and forth from my internship to the print shop that was making the cards for the mailer, got everything that was going in the mailer and put the whole thing together that I realized how much work I was actually doing.

What was really interesting was that I realized that normally the people at my site would either have to hire someone to put the mailer together, )which takes money) or put them together themselves, (which takes time AND money). Also, these mailers are an important part of their marketing campaign.

When I first started working on this project, I thought it was just convenient that I liked Photoshop so I could make a card for Valentine's Day. I now realize and appreciate the fact that these mailers are more than greeting cards. They go into the budget, time has to be made to create them, they are a huge part of the marketing campaign and it can actually take a pretty long time to finish. I'm really glad that this is my project because I feel that I am really helping the company out by making these cards, (mailers).

Internship: Day Seven

Internship site: Bob Hoffman Video Productions

Department: They don't really have different departments, so for right now you could say I am working in the financial\corporate department.

Project Title: Valentine's Day mailer

General Description: I am making a Valentine's Day mailer that they will be sending to all of their clients and associates.

Learning Objectives: I will, (and have been) learning about marketing, budgeting, (since we send out entire packets full of things with the mailer) organization and I will be further improving my Photoshop and writing skills.

Organization/Company Objectives & Benefits: This helps the company because normally they would have to either hire somebody to make the mailer which takes money, or they would have to make the mailer themselves which would use their time which would cause them to lose money. Also, they will be sending this mailer to hundreds of people and companies so this will be promoting their business and they can use the same mailer for years to come which would save them the trouble of having to make new ones.

Schedule: The schedule isn't set in stone but this is the general order of things:

-Search in the San Diego Business Journal for leads, (who we should consider sending the mailer to)

-Write rough drafts of poems for the cards

-Begin making rough drafts of the corporate-department's card

-Print drafts on different quality and colors of paper

-Management meeting:

-Who all should the mailer be sent to?

-What is the budget?

-What all will be sent with the mailer,(chocolate, business cards etc.)?

-Revise drafts

-Begin organizing a list of all of the people\companies that the mailer will be sent to

-Revise until a final draft with the poem added has been made

-Take card to the printers and get an estimate

-Have cards printed

-Print out mailing labels

-Get envelopes prepped for mailing, (put addresses and return addresses on them)

-Get cards from printers

-Stuff envelopes

-Repeat for social-department.

Academic Skills: For this I am using my writing skills, (the poem that goes on the cards) and some basic math skills, (budgeting, checks and balances etc.)

Technical Skills: For this project I am using my Photoshop skills, artistic skills, organization and speaking skills, (talking to the people at the print shop etc.)

Collaboration—Skills and Opportunities: I have already collaborated with my mentor and other staff members by working with them on the poem, (they took my rough drafts and created a final draft with them). Also, I will be collaborating with members of the staff during management meetings.

Exhibition Plans: I plan on showing my drafts of the cards and the final draft. Also, I will see if I can show what the original list of people that we were planning on sending the mailer to looked like before we cut it down, to show just how many different revisions we went through.

Schedule & Timelines: The schedule that I wrote out isn't set in stone. Already, I have switched tasks because one of the employees there wanted to show me something new or needed help on something. Also, since the mailer doesn't even have to be done and sent out until just before Valentine's day, I don't have to take time into as much consideration as I would usually.

Description of Work:

So far, the best part of the job has been learning about scanning slides. Even though it was tedious, it was interesting to look at all of the pictures one person had taken over a course of around 40 years. The pictures were from everywhere, Egypt, Europe, Asia, all of these amazing places and the photos were all really good too, so it was really interesting to look at!

So far I haven't really had any challenges. The biggest challenge was when I first started I didn't have much to do. Now that I have officially started my internship and I now have a project to work on that problem has been pretty much resolved.

I haven't had to work with others much just yet, but on the occasions that I have worked with others I feel it has gone well. I am shy, since I still feel like the new kid, but I am slowly becoming a more active member of the community there, so working with people is getting easier and easier.

I didn't expect them to have so many clients. I was amazed when I saw that just one person had over one thousand clients for the month alone! Since it is a smaller company I wasn't expecting that, so I was pretty amazed.

It has been very exciting, but very nerve-racking. All of the people there are really nice and they are taking the time to help me out as much as possible, but you still can't help but have the "new kid at school" feeling. You don't really know anybody there and you're not as knowledgeable as some of them, so it can be intimidating. But for the most part, it's also really exciting. You are doing projects that are strangely similar to the ones at school, so you have a certain level of comfort which is nice, familiar. The longer you are there and the more you get to know people, the more comfortable you are.

Internship: Day Six

I would like to know more about how my mentor ended up at BHVP. I know that she didn't always live in San Diego, and I only know a bit about my mentor's life before BHVP. I would like to know more about her education as well, what school did she go to, did she feel it was the right school for her etc. Also, I would like to know more about what all she has in the film industry, (I think she used to be an editor but now she's a producer).

I have already scheduled a meeting with my mentor for tomorrow so that we can go over what all I should be doing for my official project. I think that wold probably be a good time for me to get to know my mentor better. Unfortunately, I don't have any way of getting an audio recording of the interview, but I will probably be able to write the whole thing down, (I've done that before).

Internship: Day Five

Project title: It hasn't been decided quite yet.

Project description: It hasn't been decided quite yet.

Project schedule: My mentor has been fairly busy for the past few days so we haven't been able to discuss what my official project is going to be yet.

Materials & Equipment needed: Probably a computer with Photoshop or Final Cut Pro, but I won't know for sure until I know what my official project is.

Project documentation: Most likely my final project will have something to do with a film being made for a specific person, (or multiple people) in which case I don't really think I would be able to "keep" my final project or document it in a way that I can share it with people. If I'm not doing that, I will probably have print-outs of the drafts of my work, (ie. all of the drafts I have for the Valentine's Day mailer).

Internship: Day Four

I am already having to use just a little bit of math and accounting since I have been assisting my mentor with bills and bank statements. Also, I have used my writing skills a little bit when trying to think of things to write on the company's Valentine's Day post-card.

I could work as an editor's assistant, (watching the final film to make sure there are no mistakes, making minor edits etc.). I already have worked with one of the employees when I helped them sort out slides and scan them. Also, I have been working with multiple people on the Valentine's Day mailer.

I have already used my Photoshop skills a lot at my internship. Also, I know quite a bit about Final Cut Pro which is a commonly used program at my internship site. I'm sure that there are several other skills that I could use there, but these two are probably the most useful.

I can definitely improve my film editing skills. I know how to edit pretty well, but I was never actually taught how to use Final Cut, everything I know about it was self-taught. Also, I think I can learn a lot about the pre-production stage of film, since a big portion of the film work I have done in the past was post-production.

I'm not actually sure of what my official project is yet. Most likely it will be on the computer, (ie. a film or something on their website etc.) so because of that I might be able to showcase my work on the computer, online, or possibly even on a television screen.

I have already made their Valentine's Day mailer, (since I know how to use Photoshop pretty well). Also, since I do know quite a bit about editing, I might be able to do minor edits to one of their projects. Hopefully I will be able to do something along those lines.

Internship: Day Three

I would like to get a few more business related skills. Since I plan on opening up my own film company one day, I need to know how to run a successful business. I already know quite a bit about film making in general, so learning a few things about business would be helpful, (ie. book-keeping, getting necessary resources for the company etc.)

I am interested in pretty much every aspect of my internship. People are editing, producing, and doing pretty much everything film based which is everything I love. I would be happy learning about and working in any area of my site. As I said before though, since I do know the most about film making already, I think that it would be good for me to learn more about the business side of the company.

Since I do know quite a bit about film editing and photoshop, I could probably help out on smaller projects or I could work on smaller parts of projects. Also, since I do know quite a bit about photoshop, I have already helped out by creating a basic design for the postcard that the company will be sending out for Valentine's day.

So far, my mentor and I have only talked a little bit about my project, but we are currently thinking that I might be able to work as an editor's assistant or a producer's assistant. That way, I might be able to edit a film more than it would have been originally, but we haven't talked about that very much yet.