Niagara University I.T. Media Production

Fall 2016

When I took up the opportunity to work with Niagara University’s Video Production department, there was an element of blind willingness involved. Without much thinking I clicked on the link posted in NU’s Communication Studies page on Facebook and impulsively applied. I impulsively interviewed and sure enough, I was their newest intern. Coming into the fall not knowing what to expect was exciting and made coming back to school after a long summer very enjoyable.

For the first few weeks or so, a majority of what I was doing had to do with building up and breaking down sets, assisting in video shoots and cutting together simple videos mainly for the school’s usage. As the semester progressed on, I was able to learn more and do more creating an environment that promoted an intuition to learn as well as a need to get the absolute best job done that I could possible do.

Working on the NU’s theatre crew for The Macbeth Insurgency was one of the most enriching experiences that I had this semester. My duties during this (on top of creating promotional videos for each other production) were to make sure that all of the live video being shot during the show was working properly and that we had the best possible video quality. I was put in a position to work directly with the actors as well as the director coordinating how certain scenes would be shot as well as what techniques and camera practices could be used to yield the most effective show.

Shooting the actual videos themselves was one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever had, mainly because I’ve never had the opportunity to make my own video. Working with professionals in my department, I was shown how to create a high-quality shot and what techniques I should use to obtain the most effective shots (in this case B-Roll). I learned common things to know when shooting a video like this. For example, getting a variety of different shots instead of two takes of the same shot is more important since the visuals in the video are only aids as to the actual content, therefore it is different than film shooting due to its non-repetitive nature.

Interviewing members of the cast was also a great way to learn how to work with people. I also learned how to give an effective interview that will produce good answers and quality sound bites making the post-production process less strenuous. Interacting with these actors/actresses as a film student also taught me a lot about the theatre lifestyle and the types of day-to-day activities that are found to be commonplace to them but not to the average student. I’ve also spoken to many of these students about potentially starring in films that I intend on directing in future classes in the department.

The amount I learned behind the camera is incredible. Never before being someone who was overly-passionate about technology, I was very intimidated coming into this program knowing that I had never worked extensively with video before. Thankfully, it was very easy to pickup on as I was shown a lot of shortcuts and explained everything very simply in a way that was easy to understand. As far as shooting the actual shot, I learned different techniques concerning focusing, white balance, ISO, etc. These had all been things that I was not familiar with prior to this program but now am. I’ve also learned about the world of audio and what the common standards for audio are, which are much more looked into than I had previously thought. Having done a majority of work on Adobe Premiere, I became very familiar with that in a relatively short amount of time. With this program I was responsible for not only cutting together the theatre promotions, but I was also in charge of editing and cutting together all of the men’s basketball and hockey commercials for NU that have been aired throughout the area over the past few weeks. Thanks to the many shortcuts found in the program, I was able to learn how to put out a quality video in a short amount of time. Thanks to this, it was helped prepare me for a job in the professional workplace.

There weren’t a lot of drawbacks with the position. A lot of the drawbacks had to do with boring days and monotonous work, but those two negative factors are a necessary evil found in anyone’s job. There’s a large self-teaching aspect behind this internship which I personally benefitted from. I would recommend this internship to a friend for a few reasons.

1. Self-learning is fun, you get to make mistakes and learn from them in the most effective way possible. This is absolutely vital to being prepared to enter the workforce.

2. Just the other day I received a text message from the person I was working directly under. In the text message was a link for an internship this upcoming spring having to do with video production. Over the course of the semester I was constantly talking with my advisors and bosses about potential career paths and internships.

What I’m trying to say by these two points is that it’s the perfect formula for success. It makes the student take it upon him/herself to make an effort and help themselves first by showing intuition and getting an internship. As soon as those I was working with saw that I was serious about my work, they made every last effort to expose me to every opportunity they could find.