Gaining Confidence

I am thoroughly enjoying this internship and I am very glad that since this placement is part of the BTTIP, that I will continue working with Bridge Agency until mid August. It feels really good to be back in the workforce. I’ve been very nervous about going back into the workforce into a new career. Being at this internship has helped alleviate some of that nervousness. I have one semester left, and I intend to start the job search process during my final semester this fall. Having nine weeks of internship experience to draw upon and learn from is a good confidence builder.

Continuing the Internship

Although this class is ending, my internship, since it is through the Brooklyn Tech Triangle Internship Program, will continue through August 13th. I am gaining valuable knowledge and experience on real-world projects. I love the fact that they are teaching me new programs and allowing me to learn new things as well as work in some of the programs I’ve learned at CityTech. I am enjoying it and looking forward to going to work each day. I’m glad that my internship is not yet coming to an end. In addition to the knowledge and experience I am gaining, I hope to receive a positive recommendation from Anthony as well as from Bridge Agency as a whole once I graduate and am looking for work. This is a wonderful experience!

Editing Photos

One of the tasks I’ve been assigned to a couple of times now, is to use Photoshop to cut out celebrities from the backgrounds of the provided pictures. When I was first assigned this task, I dove into it using the quick selection tool to either isolate the background or isolate the person (whichever seemed to be the quickest) and then put a layer mask on it. I would then go back and clean up any areas that needed touching up. Most of these were easy, shot on white or gray backgrounds, but some were extremely challenging, like a man in a dark pinstriped suit standing on a shiny black floor near a very dark grey wall, this one took a lot of time (this one would have probably been easier to do with the pen tool.) Anthony saw me working this way and felt that it was inefficient and taking too long, he also felt that the results were not precise because some of the people seemed to have halos around them when placed onto dark backgrounds. He asked me if I knew how to use the pen tool in Photoshop, I said yes, but that I wasn’t that good with it, he instructed me to use the pen tool instead. I’ve now used the pen tool for about six or seven sports players, most of them action shots rather than posed shots, and I’m getting better with the pen tool in Photoshop. Using the pen tool to create Bezier curves can be tricky and it is definitely an acquired skill.

Because I’m not yet very skilled with the pen tool, each image took me about 45 minutes to trace with the pen tool, but the outcome was more precise and there was generally less cleanup around the edges afterwards. It feels to me that using the pen tool takes more time per image than the quick selection tool. Depending on the color similarities within the image, it is more precise to use the pen tool since you choose exactly where your edge will be and the quick selection tool differentiates based on color differences, and when the colors are too similar, it will select portions that you don’t want selected requiring more time to select and deselect the subject. I’m also working on a photograph of a large group of people with one central image, I’ve been assigned to cut out the central person and then groups of people. This will be used in a motion graphics video for a club.

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1 large left group 1 lower left group 1 Upper Right Group 1 Upper left & Top faded group 1 Middle Left Group 1 main person 1 lower right groupAnthony has also pointed out to me that when I get into the field with a “real job” that I will need to use the pen tool for tasks like this. It is good to learn this lesson at an internship rather than at a “real job” in the field. An internship is also a good environment in which to hone the skills of the pen tool. I may need to redo some of the celebrities that I had originally done with the quick selection brush with the pen tool, he’ll let me know.

He did not ask me to redo any of the figures I’d done previously, but he did give me another image where he wanted me to cut out the dancers from their background. I spent several hours on this and am gaining more confidence with the pen tool. These he wants me to use in an After Effects composition that will be a part of the same video.

Simon Bolz, www.simonbolz.com

 

2nd Left Dancer 2nd Right Dancer Center Dancer

  Left Dancer Right Dancer

After Effects

It has become my habit and now an official protocol for me to go back to the After Effects tutorials whenever I am between assignments. The tutorials are my “official downtime project” whenever there isn’t anything more pressing for me to do. These tutorials are a great resource, and great to have as time fillers, this way I am never waiting around for the next project with nothing to do. However, this also means that some tutorials are interrupted so often that I don’t get to complete them. I am very much enjoying learning After Effects and the tutorials on VideoCopilot are interesting, they are very specific to how to do one type of technique or effect. I intend to continue learning After Effects even after this internship is completed. I find it very enjoyable and I’ve long had an interest in learning motion graphics.

My first video animation can be viewed here on my Vimeo channel (there is no sound).

Chef’s Cut Demo Recap

I was assigned to create a single sheet demo recap for a company called Chef’s Cut Real Jerky. Chef’s Cut is a new line of jerky that has two flavors of beef jerky as well as a chicken jerky and a turkey jerky. The company currently is doing demonstration promotions in grocery stores. I was given pictures and text and asked to create a demo recap sheet. By the end of the day, I turned in three versions. The following day I asked which version was sent to the client, I was told that the client preferred the second version (the one with the black box surrounding the text). Anthony pointed out to me that my text was quite close to the margins of the black box, I agreed. I obviously forgot to add more margin when I placed that box behind the text. If I am allowed to add this to my portfolio, I will correct the margins.

Demo Recap Boston1


Demo Recap Boston2


Demo Recap Boston3

I enjoyed this project because I was able to complete it within a few hours, this was rewarding for me especially because my first idea for the layout design wasn’t working. When I would have this problem with class projects, I would walk away from the project for a few hours or days if I was really frustrated with it. I couldn’t do that in this particular case, I had to complete it by the end of the day. There were a few times while I was working on it that I felt it looked awful, but then I minimized the number of pictures I was working with and scrapped my first layout idea, then it slowly started to come together. As the design started to come together, I felt more “in the zone” and enjoyed it more as I continued to create it.

Self Starter

At Bridge Agency you need to be a self-starter and able to work independently. There have been several times when none of the partners have come into the Media Center and the other intern and I have been left to work completely on our own, assigned to projects via Asana and instructed via email if there are questions or clarifications needed. This is not a problem for me, though sometimes when asking for guidance it would be easier if Anthony were there to show me rather than try to explain it via email. For the most part, the other intern and I do not collaborate on projects; Anthony has us working on completely different projects or different parts of the same project, she has used the photos that I’ve cut. We have had to exchange a few files on one day when we were the only two people in the office. Because I subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud and I was able to download After Effects I have been given the opportunity to learn this program and work on motion graphics projects with and for Anthony.

I am usually the first one there, and I get in between 15-45 minutes early depending on how the busses are running. I take two busses to get to the Media Center, and because they are sometimes unreliable, I allow myself an hour and a half to get to the office in the mornings. I have decided that it is simpler to go into the Media Center and start working than to kill time in the area before going in.

Video Editing

At the beginning of my second week I started to learn how to edit video using Final Cut Pro, a software I have never used before. I was taught how to “scrub through” (look through) video and mark the sections that I thought were useful for the project. This was interesting and I enjoyed it. I scrubbed through somewhere between 75 and 125 video clips I think, I do not remember exactly how many there were. I worked directly off of an external hard drive, so I no longer have direct access to the files. I chose the segments of the video clips that I thought would work well and where the people looked good, and marked them. I think the longest video clip I was given to work with was two minutes long. I thought that I would be putting the video together the next day under Anthony’s guidance and instruction, but there were more pressing matters for the agency to complete so I was put on another task.


I’ve edited my first video. Anthony put me back on the project I’d started earlier in the internship. This was a fun project and I learned a lot, and I can now add programs to and skills to my resume. In all the video took me about two and a half to three days to create my first video. I chose which clips whet in and which order they went in. I edited the video to go with the music, and after a while, I got tired of the music, but it was a great experience.

I dragged the markers from the video clips that I had chosen earlier onto the timeline, and imported an audio file that was given to me. The clips were added based on the time codes of when they were taken and the labels I had given them when I originally marked the clips. I started editing the video with the keyboard shortcut commands that Anthony taught me. He told me to render out the video at the end of each day so that I could keep track of its progress; I like this idea, and did so each day.

The following day I continued editing the video using some of the keyboard shortcuts Anthony showed me as well as figuring some out on my own and Googled a shortcuts cheat sheet. I needed to edit down over 14 minutes of footage to just 2 minutes. Throughout the process of editing in Final Cut Pro, I had to solve problems that came up and figure things out on my own, as I was often alone in the office. I determined that I could cut the audio track in the same manner as I cut the video, and finally cut the audio at the 2-minute mark.

Anthony had me convert it to an MP4 file format using MPEG Streamclip (I followed a tutorial on Vimeo to do this). Full video is over 6.5 minutes long as Anthony told me to keep the extra footage in case the client wanted to see different shots. He said that it was very good for a first-ever video edit. His advice was that in the future I should keep the clips shorter and he’ll show me how to speed up the time on some of the clips.

The intent was to make it 2 minutes long, and because the audio track was much longer than that, both the video and audio end abruptly. The entire video is 6.5 minutes long, though the intended time was 2 minutes. I had moved the “extra” footage to the end, “off to the side” so there is about a 20 second break between the video and the extra footage. Then when the extra footage ends there is about two minutes of audio without video. I was told to leave this extra footage in in case the client wants to choose from these other clips. He will be showing this video to the client as a sample of what Bridge Agency can do for them.

Vimeo will not allow the video to be shown because it detected that the song used in the video is copyrighted.


As of July 22nd, I am working on another video, this one is for a real estate company to showcase the sale of a $4M house on Long Island.

Website Modification

I was assigned to upload pictures as demo for a product listing and also change image on the home page after being given the login information. This website was powered by Shopify.com and I was unable to find the homepage. I left without being able to modify the homepage, as the day came to an end, and I was told to leave and we could figure it out on Monday. I started working on this immediately upon coming into the office to figure out why I couldn’t get to the homepage, it didn’t seem to make any sense. The Shopify interface is very similar to the WordPress interface, so it puzzled me as to why I couldn’t find the home page. After some searching through their help pages I determined that we needed to purchase a store and choose a theme before we could have a homepage for the site. Anthony gave me permission to purchase the store for $20 per month, charged to the credit card on the account. Once the store was purchased and a theme chosen, new controls appeared on the interface and I was able to access the home page and make modifications to it. This site is still under construction and password protected, therefore I am not allowed to reveal its domain name.

First Week on the Job

My first week on the job at Bridge Agency has been great. Bridge Agency uses a web service called Asana to organize and assign tasks to members of the company. I created an account and have been receiving assignments from Anthony through this service. It is a good tool. For my first tasks Anthony had me “grab cool ads/pictures” from the Internet so that they could talk about them on their social media channels. Later in the day he assigned to me and the other intern to review a request for proposal from a major company that is looking for a marketing campaign for a new project. He wanted us to individually brainstorm and come up with ideas for the project and then send them to him via Asana.

On my first day Anthony asked me if I knew how to edit videos, and I told him that I didn’t. He then asked if I wanted to learn how to do that, and I told him that I did, he told me that he would assign me tutorials. I downloaded Adobe After Effects and he assigned be a set of basic training tutorials, which I watched and practiced with through Monday and Tuesday. After I completed the basic training tutorials Anthony assigned me two specific advanced tutorials on Wednesday and then asked me to create my own 3D room with a title using what I’d learned. Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning I created my own 3D room in After Effects using a photo that I’d taken a few summers ago. With Anthony’s help and guidance I rendered out the video, it hadn’t worked the first time when I tried to do it myself on Wednesday afternoon, because my file was way too large. After I rendered my video, he walked me through changing the codex using Adobe Media Encoder so that I could change the file type to upload my video to Vimeo. I now have my own Vimeo account and my first eight-second 3D video is on line. My video can be watched here. I’m looking forward to learning more about Adobe After Effects and assisting Anthony with video editing for the companies projects throughout the summer

Worksite Culture

Bridge Agency is located in the Made in New York Media Center in DUMBO. The Media Center consists of 20,000 square feet of space and houses many small startup companies. The incubator space is a very large open work area consisting of many long tables with surge protectors in the center and small signs on stands that state the company name.

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It also has conference rooms and offices around its perimeter, a small 72-seat theater for screenings, and a café (with a ping pong table) that is open to the public. Multiple companies share the tables; I think there is about ten of these long worktables, I haven’t done an actual count. In addition to this workspace, there are a few tables by the front windows, which are called the community co-working space. Throughout both the incubator space and the community co-working space are small couches and tables that I’ve seen used by members as impromptu meeting spaces. Within the incubator space there is a mix of computers and/or just monitors at the workstations of the individual companies, for the most part people bring their laptops. Within the incubator space there are also what I call “the modern day phone booth” these are small rooms with a stool and a shelf and a plug. Anyone needing to have a private phone conversation, can bring their cell phone in, the shelf is available if you wish to bring your laptop.

The table workspace that Bridge Agency rents is right by these “phone booths” there are three other companies that share the worktable that Bridge Agency occupies. In my first week, only one of the partners has been in the Media Center, this is Anthony who is my direct supervisor. I expect to meet Jason next week, he was in Germany on business this week. I do not know when I will meet the other partners of Bridge Agency but I am looking forward to meeting all of them.

Anthony has a monitor at his station, which he attaches to his laptop. I sit next to Anthony and bring my laptop to work with me daily.

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IMG_8063culture at Bridge Agency is very casual, Anthony has worn shorts and a t-shirt to work each day. I have worn business casual to work, black pants and a nice blouse or tank top, I have a light sweater cover-up that I keep with me and have worn when it the air conditioning is hitting me in an unfavorable way. I am allowed to take my lunch hour whenever I wish, since I work 10-6, I usually take it around 2:00 or 3:00 pm, whenever I get hungry.

One day when Anthony had not yet come into the office and I was having difficulty with the Wi-Fi Internet connection, I emailed him to inquire if he was coming into the office and explained that I would like to move over to his workstation to connect to the hardwire Ethernet connection if he were not coming in. He said that he had emailed me earlier to let me know that he wouldn’t be in but I never received that email.

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He gave me permission to move over to his workstation. I took advantage of his monitor and displayed After Effects on his monitor and the tutorial on my laptop’s monitor. This made working in the tutorial easier since they were on two different screens. I like having Anthony in the office to learn from, but it is also nice to be able to use his monitor. Hopefully I will have more opportunities to use his monitor during the internship.

 

 

Job Search Process

I am a Graphic Design intern at Bridge Agency Anthony is my direct supervisor; he is the Media Producer and Digital Artist for the company. I was placed at Bridge Agency through the Brooklyn Tech Triangle Internship Program (BTTIP). BTTIP is a highly competitive program internship program that is an exclusive opportunity for CityTech students. For the summer program, they received over 150 applicants for a total of 58 positions.

The Brooklyn Tech Triangle Internship Program was started in June of 2013 though the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), as a partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, and the member organizations of the Brooklyn Tech Triangle (The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, DUMBO Business Improvement District) and CityTech. Its goal is to connect CityTech students with companies within the Brooklyn Tech Triangle, many of them startups, for semester long internships. The interns are paid through the CUNY Research Foundation instead of the host company.

Through the BTTIP program I applied to positions that I was interested in, Bridge Agency was the second one I applied to. Bridge Agency was not able to attend the BTTIP speed interview session at CityTech, so I did not have the opportunity to interview with them. I did interview with three companies at the speed interviews, and I networked with five additional companies during the networking hour. The businesses were able to choose the interns that they preferred and ultimately the BTTIP coordinator places the students using the input from the companies. I received notification of my placement at Bridge Agency eight business days after the speed interviews, and six business days before the start of the internship class. I am happy to have been chosen for this highly competitive program.

About Bridge Agency

Bridge Agency is a four-man team all of which are partners in the business, Jason, Mike, Quan, and Anthony. Jason is the Account Manager and Brand Builder, Mike is the Strategist and Planner, Quan is the Content Developer and Copywriter, and Anthony is the Media Producer and Digital Artist. This summer they have two Graphic Design interns of which I am one. They are located in the Made in New York Media Center, for witch they do the branding, the Media Center is at 30 John Street in Brooklyn. Bridge Agency is a full service digital and print media marketing agency with high-profile clients such HBO’s Game of Thrones, ESPN, Lil Wayne, Trukfit, and CoverGirl. Bridge Agency is a young startup company that is about a year and a half old. I am working as a Graphic Designer under the direct supervision of Anthony. I will work 24 hours per week at the job site.

I was unable to find any news articles about Bridge Agency.