News & Events
August 2008
A Cool Summer
Not every DI student decides to do a summer internship, but those who decided to do so this summer landed some pretty cool stints. DI interns worked for esteemed filmmakers such as Errol Morris and Barbara Koppel as well as with independent producers and National Geographic. Here’s what the students had to say in their “letters home.”
Lindsey Clark
I’m interning at National Geographic in Washington, D.C. in the editorial development department for television. My main task is research. Anything from finding fast facts on sharks to finding experts on Hainan gibbons. I am also participating, with a group of interns, in a talent search to find a new host for a new series.
Mike Nichols
I find myself as the oldest intern this summer at Emmy-award winning JWM Productions in Takoma Park, MD, working on an 11-part series on shipwreck exploration for Discovery Channel, slated to air in 2009. My duties include transcribing the enormous amounts of footage that pour in daily, navigating as courier throughout the DC area, and completing rigorously perfect research to keep the production crew happy. I really enjoy interning for such a motivated and hard-working production company, and know I’ll return to Gainesville with the practical production skills needed to make a mindblowing thesis film in the fall.
Carlos Torres
My internship at Cabin Creek Films has been everything an internship should be – educational, informative, valuable, and fun. Internships are so important because many doc students really don’t have a handle on industry standards until they spend time in an industry workplace. That’s why my experience here is just confirming that I’m joining the right workforce. I’ve learned over the last several weeks that this New York office is filled with a bunch of other Carlos-es! Working with an Academy Award-winner in Barbara Kopple has been a surprisingly natural process, leading me to believe that good doc filmmakers have to have some of kind of specific internal wiring – wiring that I hopefully have inside this thick brain. Right now Barbara (along with her associate producer and DI graduate, David Cassidy), is working on a few long-term projects. Stay tuned for films that will discuss America’s gun control debate, the current home foreclosure crisis, and the FDA’s procedure for putting prescription drugs on the market. So far, I’ve done some research on all three films. Barbara, David and the rest of the crew at Cabin Creek Films send their regards…
Joshua Woltermann
I am spending my summer in beautiful Cambridge, MA. Although living my life in between the brilliant minds at Harvard and MIT has highlighted my intellectual inadequacies, the knowledge I am obtaining through my internship this summer has done a great deal to bring me closer to that standard. Errol Morris had taught me an infinite amount about documentary before I had the privilege to meet him. His films have shaped my aesthetics and story-telling abilities for years. Having the chance to work so closely with my greatest influence has been an immensely educational experience. I am serving as his researcher and fact-checker on his blog ZOOM for the New York Times. The essays range in topics from documentary theory to American use of torture. My job basically consists of following rabbits down holes and seeing if any of them lead to places of interest. Usually, they lead to more rabbits, but that is the fun aspect of research. Check out the blog
« Shooting Begins on Ginz Film | DI Production Awarded Yavitz Foundation Grant »
