(2020) ⚘Day in the Life of:A film Intern @ Home☀

By: Clarke Hamilton (Lead2Change)

Hello, I’m Clarke! As a rising Junior, I am also in my second year as a film intern at Lead2Change. This year is a bit different than last year with the pandemic controlling the way things are executed, restricting me from exiting the door of our loft. Participating in Perspective Media, the film crew at Lead2Change, remotely may make filming physically harder for me, but thankfully, I have excellent communication skills and am able to help with scheduling and editing film and photoshoots, as well as control parts of their social media platforms.

You may be wondering what my day may look like if I am restricted from going out, interviewing people in person, and editing together with my other peers. It is an extremely different experience, and I am thankful for the opportunity to participate in the midst of a pandemic. So, how does my schedule look? 

Let’s take a look:

7:00a.m.☼

[*Bon Bon Chocolat (Marimba Cover) and my Google Home alarm plays in the distance*]

Me: “Stop” 

*Google alarm stops immediately*

Ah yes, this is the hour that I dread as I go to bed only 8 hours before I wake up again (a bad move on my end). Half asleep, I cling to my pillow hoping the ringing of my phone alarm will stop on its own, but alas, I open the blinds with the blinding bright light shining through with the view of downtown Milwaukee and lazily drag my feet down my ladder (I have a loft bed) to turn of my phone alarm. I plop down onto my chair at my desk and give myself 30 minutes to wake up before I go about my day. I scroll through Twitter to see what I missed while I was asleep and then browse on Youtube to find new content from different music companies. When I’m satisfied, I go on my way and prepare for the Zoom meeting at 9 or 10:30a.m.

9:00a.m☀

Let’s say for today that the meeting is at 10:30a.m.

By 9:00a.m, I have on a sweatshirt or top from my closet with the contrasting pajama pants. I turn on my MacBook Pro and make my way to Gmail.com where I check on my personal email, school email, and Lead2change email for any inquiries about interviewees’ schedules or any information sent by Mr.Sims or Ms.Grayson about different events or files they need me to keep.

*Blood Sweat and Tears (Marimba Cover) plays*

This is also around the time where Mr.Sims gives wake-up calls in our Film Crew group chat about what we will discuss in the Zoom meeting at 10:30. Let’s see what our tasks are today!

10:30a.m☼

We are now on a Zoom call that may range from a discussion about what our roles and schedules look like to a simple check-in about how our groups are working on the different projects. My group of three people is working on the Apprentice Project; this project is the major project of the entire summer for the interns at Lead2Change. We have to set up interviews for the four businesses, the main curator of this project, and create spreadsheets of the interview schedules. I am sometimes asked to stay on the call after the other's leave in order to talk about the different schedules or emails I need to send out to multiple interns and organizations to set up interview times or to notify them about an event at Lead2Change and the times and locations. I take notes of what is going on during this session of our daily meetings. I am now off to email and wait for responses for the rest of the day, answer the many questions of my peers, or, if requested, sit in on the main call and give information about media days.

Caption: These may be some of the notes I revise and create during our Zoom calls. I usually rewrite these notes or draw the storyboard a few times before I continue with the rest of my work.

11:30a.m☀

There are 30 minutes left until I take my hour break, so I quickly draft up emails and send them to the other interns and businesses. I make sure there aren’t any more tasks at the moment that need to be completed urgently before I take my break.

Caption: Drafting emails and sending them to my supervisor for approval!

12:00p.m☼

*Breaks for ramen and watches TXT’s To-Do on Vlive*

2:00p.m⁕⁕⚘⚘

I begin to receive emails back from the different interns and businesses and respond to them quickly. I may also be drafting storyboards to use in the future to help plan out the editing portion and the filming portion for those that are able to physically film the interview. This is my wind down of the day and before I clock out, I make sure to relay information I received about scheduling to Mr.Sims and make sure he knows what is happening on my end.

3:00p.m⁕⁕⁕⚘⚘⚘

I AM FINISHED! I fill out my timesheet and then take a deep breath. I am finished with work for today until tomorrow. I may receive a few emails at this time as well, but then I work for an extra 30 minutes to make sure I accommodate the clients and the other interns as well; I plan until 3:30.

The initial challenge of being an intern for Lead2Change’s film crew was that it was hard to communicate or be hands on. In the summer of 2019, I was able to travel, help edit if my peers were stuck on something, and even conduct interviews easily without supervision of Mr.Sims, but this year, I have had to record a narration myself and communicate more over email and text than I had before! I don’t know how long the organizations will take to respond and I have to keep up with them and follow up with the organizations this time. There is a sense of responsibility and organizational skills that I have to apply in my work ethic.

Caption: I keep a to-do list to make sure I stay organized each week and remember my main tasks!

Each day may bring about a certain task that I may have never attempted before or it is out of my comfort zone, but to stay in action and grow more as a person in my work ethic and confidence, I take on each challenge. 

[Bonus]:

Hi!!!Here are a couple more pictures of my work space and how I organize myself!

Caption:(LEFT) My MacBook Pro that I mentioned earlier and (RIGHT) some of the notes I have taken on the calls or doing my research. Here, I am looking up a website for free downloads of Lower-Third packs for editing later.

Caption: A little crumpled, however, I keep the drafts of the questions that my team comes up to ask the interviewees. I also have written out a planner sheet for the different business interviews as I collect information communicated via email. As I am updated on dates and times, I write them down and then later on create a spreadsheet to keep a schedule that may change if rescheduling occurs.