Jovany Grande

My internship experience with Stoneman

Goodbye Stoneman

Since my internship came to close, I have been focusing more on my schoolwork. I have learned so much. A few days later after closing the internship, my supervisor called me up for a favor shooting a doc style vlog for an important event for her. I said yes of course and went on a beautiful trip upstate to document. There ended up being some great footage that hasn’t been edited yet. I was told that after an internship ends it is always a good idea to ask if theres any loose ends to complete or a great gesture to help on assignments that they might need help in. I also assisted in editing some additional super 8 content that could be beneficial on her social media platform.

I have learned many things during this whole ride! I will definitely keep in touch with the friends that I have met. The video below is the director’s cut for the Citizen M “Citizens of the Bowery.”

 

Self-Evaluation

My internship came to an end about a week ago. It has been a hell of a ride and I’ve learned so much through this experience. I messed up a ton too. I remember on the first month of the internship, we had a shoot with a musician and two models. I was in charge of BTS filming of the process. Unfortunate for me… well for everyone that worked on it, I lost the footage for the first half of the shoot. This was a massive mistake. I felt terrible, however I learned a huge lesson off of it. I had a long talk with my supervisor and it never happened again. I worked on my communication skills with my team and will continue doing so with whomever I work with in the future. I ask a ton of more questions like never before, never being too careful! My work ethic has increased I believe and I am on time for most of my appointments, which wasn’t the case before. I became more responsible since the start of this internship. Collaborations are essential in my life now and I have realized more than ever how crucial it is to know people to attain good desirable jobs! I hope to continue to grow with the people that I work with and am super appreciative to have worked with Stoneman!

 

The Aftermath

 

After the huge citizen M shoot there has been a good amount of down time from major assignments. Days have been slower and the pictures for the overall project had been printed and mounted on to the windows.

 

 

The photos were beautifully backlit. There was a big celebration the day they finished the installation. I couldn’t make it unfortunately. Aside from the photos there was also a short of the making of the project. I met a few of the people that were photographed, all of which are amazing people.

The following days of the internship were easy going. I helped out with some minor video editing and photo touch ups. I took the second photograph above. I also assisted taking down some of the pictures the day of un-installment.

 

  

Citizen M Photoshoot!

The time has come! Once we finished all the pre-production nonsense, the day came for Citizen M’s photoshoot. 65 portraits in 2 days. 65 PORTRAITS IN 2 DAYS!!!  That is stressful. I am lucky I was only assisting with what ever I could. My main job was to take BTS images of the process. They were both long days but pretty organized. The models were great and patient. They signed their release forms, waited for a bit, talked and discussed with the photographer and got their picture taken. Once they were paid, which was right away, the next guest was up. Here were a few of the images from the shoot. We got many interesting people. NYC and it’s diversity!

 

   

The Monster Project!

In the beginning of the internship during our introduction, the interns were told that there would be some slow days and some very intense shooting days. This was the beginning of the biggest project the team worked on. Enter Citizen M.

There was a new hotel located in the Bowery, it was 20 something flights, and it was going to be opened up to the public very soon! They reached out to Stoneman for some pictures representing the neighborhood of the Bowery in downtown NYC. Portraits are what they were looking for. Here was the massive twist. They wanted to produce them in gigantic formats covering everyone of their massive windows overlooking the streets of the Bowery! Here is what the hotel looked like before the project.

 

We were told to start working right away! We did research on portrait styles, portrait lighting, studios neighborhood businesses and people. That was our first order of business. We later found that we the project goal was to create photographs of the people who influence the neighborhood or who have been influenced by the neighborhood. This was CitizenM’s way of giving to the community for their massive opening. In total there were to be 60-65 people being photographed. During research work we were also asked to assist with casting! Me and my partner never had done this in our lives so it was pretty exciting. We were asked to interview people and give out information regarding the project. We casted about one third of the guests which was massive and got some very interesting people in the process. This was just the beginning!

Heavy Discussion

Some time has passed since our last group assignments.

A really amazing woman had a meeting with us in the studio through skype. Our supervisor knew her from back when. This woman owned a footwear brand in Brooklyn but also is a major influence in the skate boarding world. She mainly focuses on pro women skaters and influences women to take charge in the rights issues. The brand is called Heavy Discussion.

The new project was to pitch a logo design for the brand. We had a couple of ideas. We wanted to logo to be abrupt, subliminal and modern. Me and my partner sketched and jotted notes. This was a collaborative project with me, my partner and supervisor. We received influence from the skate world and women’s products. We thought of using the idea of women’s period blood of the in your face feel but kept it clean leaving it to the modern world. We looked at band design, skate design but went for a cleaner feel. Here was our progress with the logo design and the many directions we took.

 

  

 

Diane Arbus

Time passes, and we are assigned a bit of new experimenting with photography. While I researched a photographer whom I have learned a lot from. My partner did her own. For this upcoming assignment, we ended up switching photographic styles with each other based on the research each of us did. She had produce photographs similar to my photographer, Viviana Sassen. I had to work on Diane Arbus, a famous street photographer from back in the day. From the research that my partner did on Diane, she produced a style that was very raw. The people that she shot were very different, the freaks and the geeks from the mid 1990’s. All her pictures were shot on film and black and white with minor color tints. I unfortunately did not have access to a film camera so I shot on my digital.

 

For this project, I called up my friend/model whom I have worked with in the past. We dressed her up in a ridiculous outfit and shot around Brooklyn. It was a very early morning, and my birthday. We ended getting really good shots. Here is an example of Diane’s work alongside one of the pictures that I took. Diane top. Mine is bottom.

Stoneman Culture

I think one of the reasons why I love the creative industry is that people are very laid back when the pressure of completing a huge project was off. During the beginning of our internship, that was the case. We would work on minor assignments such as assisting in retouching images, scanning, printing documents and then our regular lunch. I mainly worked with our supervisor and one of the other interns. We worked closely together and joked while focusing on a couple of assignments. We organized photo files, negatives and stored them. Some days were slow and some were pressure intensive. On the pressure intensive day, we would be doing lots of research on specific topics and lots of googling images to create pitches, decks and mood boards. These decks were then reviewed by our supervisor and then pitched to clients. These decks were for big projects too. We pitched to FaceBook, Puma etc. Some decks were for smaller fashion companies located in NYC.

Aside from the studio days, there were also high intensive shooting days. Massive photo set ups were prepped, sometimes we would help with the set up. Call sheets were given and many people arrived. Producers, models, musicians, designers, etc. I shot photo and video bts during those days. Sometimes me and my partner would be assigned different assignments during these days. We met many people.

 

This is one of the BTS images during a heavy shoot with multiple clients at Milk Studios.

 

Viviane Sassen Creative Project

Continuing the research done on Vivian Sassen. After writing papers on the photographers that were assigned to us we are asked to develop a concept and create photographs mirroring the style of our studied photographers. This was very exciting to me, I love taking pictures and the reason why I wanted this internship in the first place. I studied a few more photographs from Viviane Sassen’s work. I noticed her use of geometric abstraction in her work using human bodies. I found this so amazing. There is tons of contrast in her color and shadows. In many photos that she produced the faces of the people photographed were covered in high contrast shadow.

 

 

I was up to the test. I photographed my friend with high contrast lights in an indoor environment. My goal was to create high contrast shapes while revealing as minimal detail as possible using a human body.  These photographs were my first attempt.

 

 

 

Apparently the style used was not reflective of Viviane’s style. I was asked to correct the assignment and re-shoot later that week. I received feedback regarding lighting and how I should experiment with natural lighting and the use of shapes as opposed to interior shots. This was my second attempt!

  

My shots were received much better this time around and was proud of them. For the first photograph I took a massive foam board and planted my friend for the shot. We also experimented with an umbrella onto an interesting background. The middle shot was behind glass blinders. I loved experimenting with photography in a whole different way

 

Enter Stoneman 2018

Hey all! So I was looking for an internship for a while. I stumbled upon a couple of interviews but wasn’t satisfied with the work and the pitches of the internships. I achieved an interview with Stoneman later on. Stoneman is a start up produced by a well known photographer in NYC. It deals with mainly fashion, music and cultural projects involving heavy photography, video and design demands. We started in a small studio that was located in the lower east side in Manhattan. It was me, two other interns and our supervisor.

 

Our first day was great, we met each other and discussed what was expected during the duration of the internship. We were told we were going to collaborate with each other assist in shoots, client pitches, video production, design and studio management. We were expected to work with name clients. Since our supervisor was a professional photographer and the internship was big in photo projects, our first assignment was to research and write about a chosen photographer. I was assigned Viviane Sassen. I researched her and loved the aesthetic of her work. Her photography resembles much of a graphic design profession. Her use of shapes really make you appreciate her work. I wrote a paper on her, describing her style.

 

                 

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