The SVG Intern Experience

Hi – I’m writing to you now as Evan Sanderson, Skillman Video Group’s intern for the winter/spring 2013 period, and I want to talk a little bit about the intern experience here. I came into this position through an interest in film production, and a desire to gain to some skills outside of my normal toolset. I’m an actor by training, and I haven’t done many internships in the past – I certainly haven’t done any others with production companies, and I came into the job with only the most cursory knowledge of production and all it’s various applications.

The real focus during this internship was telling stories, and that’s something I have some skill at. Because SVG is a relatively small and young company, there is flexibility to make the intern experience suit the intern. In reality, it’s really reflective of the mission of Skillman Video Group and a microcosm of how Christina and crew work with clients. As I got more familiar with how SVG works, and Christina got to know me more, we worked together to find the best way to apply my skillset. At the same time, I gained first hand experience working at shoots, sitting in on meetings with Christina, and learning about what it takes to run to a successful production company. I learned tools for executing search engine optimization (which is actually a lot more interesting than it sounds), and got a chance to really stretch out my thinking when working with a wide range of different organizations – from the city of Gloucester, to a local Hebrew language center.

So in a sense, there’s a dual track you get when working with Christina and Skillman Video Group. You learn a great deal about production, yes, but you also learn about how to develop stories and how to work collaboratively to turn those stories into realities. I come out of this internship as a much more confident writer, with a new toolset based in the language of video production and online marketing. The next intern will, I’m sure, have an entirely different experience in many ways, but one thing will be constant – a focused and indispensable integration of you as a person into SVG’s continuing growth.