This week, my semester abroad was turned upside down as the first term of classes came to an end and our internship placements began. I am interning at Toy Soldier Films, a small film production company in the Brick Lane area of London, known for its vintage shops and curry restaurants. I even walk through a whole “Bengaltown” on my way to the office every day.
Here’s a brief synopsis of my four-day work week, full of ups, downs, learning moments, forgetting my coworkers’ names, almost falling asleep, the whole shebang.
Tuesday
My 6:30 a.m. wakeup time was traumatically reminiscent of high school. I even packed my own lunch! Even though I tried really, really hard to beat Apple Maps’ estimation, my commute took about 40 minutes.
I quickly learned that all my coworkers are, in fact, male. I immediately forgot their indistinguishably British names because they kept arriving one right after another. It does help that two of them are named George and two of them are named William (although one goes by Billy). There’s an American, too, from Missouri, which I am just now realizing is a real place with real people.
These guys (or “boys,” as they collectively refer to themselves as – more on this next week) were super stressed out because, as one of the Georges put it, they had a “f–ing awful” shoot for the rest of the week at a corporate conference where they were expected to film and edit concurrently for an event video to be shown on the final day.
So, after I had my supervisor reset my email password because I forgot it (super great first impression, I know), I got to work being the office siren of their dreams in my business-casual black jeans. I produced call sheets, media release forms, and schedules for the shoot, as well as printed everything under the sun. They said they didn’t know what they would have done without me on such a hectic day.
“Maybe I actually will be a boss at this corporate stuff,” I wrote in my journal that night.
Wednesday
Remember all the printing I did? I got a frantic text from my supervisor saying they couldn’t find the folder I had put together at the conference venue. They never told me if it showed up, but I am choosing peace. They were having a stressful time, too, as one of their tires blew out en route, and they were forced to arrive right as one of the speeches they had been hired to record in full was beginning. Needless to say, my supervisor was not in the office that day on account of triage.
I spent the entire day researching guests for Billy’s film podcast, Half the Picture. It was, unfortunately, really difficult to find interesting conversation pieces. Especially because one documentary director, Oliver Murray, happens to share a name with a very prominent religious influencer in the UK, so it was a real pain to get past his videos to find literally any clip of my Murray. And when I did find a useful podcast, it was really boring and almost put me to sleep.
I was also asked by my supervisor to join a demo call for a new podcast software we are trying out. I asked questions about the software’s capabilities and how exactly some of its AI features work, and later expressed some of my concerns with my supervisor, like how the data’s reliance on YouTube Shorts audiences assumes perfect audience interest carryover to other platforms. He said he had thought of the same flaws.
The last (and most hilarious) thing I was instructed to do that day was to change my email signature to “Assistant Producer” so that any podcast guests that I reached out to would take me seriously.
Thursday
The Tube was so busy this morning, it was insane.
Every day when I walk down the long halls of my quasi-deserted office building, I can’t help but think of Severance. I mean, the extremely green bathroom, the people I see walking by once but never see again, the half-open doors revealing people hunkered over sewing machines. What is this place?
I caved and bought a dirty iced chai from the coffee shop right outside the office complex. Huge mistake: it cost me a whole six pounds. For you Americans, that is akin to over seven dollars. Never again.
They launched me into editing a reel of podcast footage, cutting down an interview Billy did with Juno director Jason Reitman, on his relationship with actor JK Simmons. I added a few clips of Simmons in one of his most popular roles, the abusive music teacher in Whiplash. It was especially entertaining because I haven’t actually seen the whole film, but I think it’s got to be on my list now!
This editing process genuinely took me all day because I was re-learning how to use the Premiere Pro editing software while also trying some new editing methods my supervisor wanted me to test and report back on. I was happy that my coworkers were more than willing to show me a few editing tools that I wasn’t able to pick up on in my film classes. Editing is definitely not something I consider to be an easy skill for me, but I think this internship will be a great way for me to learn on the go.
Friday
Public transportation worked against me again today as my train terminated one stop away from where I needed to be. I had to find the correct platform and wait a few minutes for another train to save me. I was only a little bit late to work.
I feel like I understand why Fridays are so precious now that I am sitting in an office all day, every day. It hardly compares to school, where there are more organized blocks of time. During my internship, I can easily spend three hours working on editing. No wonder we barely got anything done in my one or two-hour-long film classes in high school!
I spent the morning working on my super cool reel; I’m sure it’ll go viral on YouTube Shorts. They posted it in the afternoon, and it already has 1.2K views, which I think is great given their most-viewed reel is only like 5K. Am I the star film student they have been awaiting? Smash that like and subscribe button.
We had to leave the office in the middle of the day to allow Billy to record his interview, so I checked out some nearby vintage shops. I love how artsy the area is; even walking down the street reveals lots of colorful graffiti and even Banksy’s swinging monkey mural (but that’s been power-washed, and a really depressing, faint silhouette is all that remains).
In the afternoon, I spent some time setting up my next editing projects, but was also able to talk to some of my coworkers about truly relevant and corporate topics such as myths, language evolution, and alien invasions. Maybe working in a male-dominated office is going to be entertaining?
I have loved the first taste of my London internship and can’t wait to see what exciting projects are in store for me in the coming weeks!
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