Journal Blogs

Journal Entry 01 Intro

I work At the Office of Image and Visual Communications Department at our School CityTech.  It is the In house for the school.  We are located on 16 Court Street Suite 600 6th floor.

Journal Entry 02 My Role

My Role at the Department is a series of different jobs. To begin, It is to make animated Shorts for campaigns such as the Gift Tuesday event which is next month. My other roles are  filming/taking photoshoots with my personal camera.  I help with assistance of the camera equipment, Making Pins for a campaign and props.  I manage to obtain this internship with help from the professor and at the same time being very consistent with the emails and making phone calls.  My interview was a one to one in person.  Having my own equipment was convenient for me,  Due to a limited amount of desktops in the office, and other equipment.  I use my Canon T5 Rebel camera, my Macbook Pro and my Wacom sketch pad.  As well as for my skill set which I am somewhat flexible with a little of everything except web. Fortunately I did not have to wait long at all to start.  The following day I was able to start my internship.  I am learning a lot and It is a fun exciting working environment for me.

Journal Entry 03  The Work Environment

The Work environment I am in is very quiet but fun.  It is a small office and we share it with a few other departments for the school. Their are usually about 3 to 4 Other Interns aside from myself and work-study students.  We all Chat with one another, but are focused on our work.  We have the option to dress formal or not.  I Choose to dress semi-Formal, which is casual jeans shoes a nice shirt or polo shirt. All Interns have their own given assignments from the supervisor or other co-workers, Sometimes I work with them depending on the project.  It is usually busy after Tuesday, So by Friday it can be very busy.  Our cubicle walls are not too big, so no matter which one you are in, we can see one another.  I normally Work 10am to 5pm. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday’s.  Wednesdays I start at 11am only if their is on site meeting for our internship class.

Journal Entry 04 Entries 

1)  Field Photoshoot, To promote the New  A (Atrium) Building for our school

This field photoshoot I was assign to take, was as much video/photoshoots as possible of the newly construct A Building for our school.  I took a range of close ups, medium shots, and many landscape shots.  I took some video of the new theater which looks incredible.   Here are a few shots i took.

 

Doing this field assignment, I am gaining experience of onsite photo  shooting and this will come in handy when I do a photoshoot for a company for a specific project of campaigning ads, graphics, or my specific study 2D/3D Animation for reference.

2) Puppet Animated Short for CityTech Gift Tuesday

This project I really needed to refresh myself how to use After Effects and Photoshop, because I needed to make a animated short of the Gift Tuesday event which is next month. This project is to promote the event, but also awareness of giving.  It was very challenging, However I am now more confident in using After effects.  I have a good understanding of use of timing, key frames and setting up the imagery for the animated short.

3)  Making Push Pins for Gift Tuesday event  

As much work I was doing on my Macbook, It was nice to get to do some hands on work for a change.  I was assign to making small pins together of all the majors for our school. The artwork was done by another intern, and their will be another series coming up of the physical names of the different major departments on them.  This was a interesting experience for me, Because I never used a handheld press to make pins.

4) In house photo shoot of products

Recently I was assign to do a photoshoot of the products that we would be giving away to the donors for Gift Tuesday. So what our campaign is about is, Raising money for students to get, books, school Supplies, tuition, and more. The goal is to obtain as many donations as possible, To help the students that are in need to support them in their classes and to graduate.  This event is for Gift Tuesday of November 27 2018.

Journal Entry 05 A collaborative project

As i mention before  I have done a series of different projects and for this specific campaign, which is Gift Tuesday.  Their was one Friday of this month where I was cutting out the shapes for the pins, and at the same time, Right after I was providing assistance with a photoshoot with my supervisor. It was of the students and faculty of different majors of the school.

Journal Entry 06  Self Evaluation 

In general, I have done ok with the projects. However I know I can do better.  My supervisor doesn’t mention it directly to me, but in his expressions I can tell when he’s impressed or not too impressed or concerned about a project.  I need to express my skill set and be more flexible with the projects, Each of them are challenging in a different way, and I intend to do a better job with the quality as well as the understanding of the tools of the Adobe suite.

Journal Entry 07   My Mentor

In my internship the only events I have attended, was one 2 special sessions that was of the photo shoot of students, and faculty at the school.  I would consider my Supervisor a role model,  Because I am inspired and encouraged when I receive a new project.  His push on me to challenge these projects, and really put skill sets that I never knew that I had to new heights.  When I get stuck with a project, He always helps me and suggests how to fix an issue with a project, Especially if it is software skill related.

Journal  Entry 08  Some Projects get abandoned

While I was working on an challenging animated puppet short called Comd 365, which was to help raise money for our department Communication Design. As part of the CUNY Tuesday Event.  I had run into a few complications along the way.  One of my other Supervisors wanted the animation done in a specific way, and where it was a character writing out 365.  I manage to figure out the drawing effect in After Effects which is where I was making the animation.  However when I was trying to line up the character with the effect, The timing was very difficult to sync.  I had spent so much time on it, That unfortunately we had to abandoned the animation idea entirely, and switch to a graphic instead. For the social media post.  At the same time I was actually flooded with multiple projects and use of different mediums.  It wasn’t a easy decision to debate which project needed more time and also some were more important than others due to deadlines.  If theirs one thing I’ve learned from this experience is that any program you use to design, Always brush up on your skills ahead of time and when you can.

Journal Entry 09 Independent Work, Confidence, Deadlines

I think I did a fare amount of work and decent jobs at my internship.  I was honored when I got the opportunity to do a solo Photoshoot of 2 events for the PDC (Professional Development Center).  Their was a lot of work and I was able to get an idea of what a photographer goes through, while choosing and the editing process of a photo.  I also feel more confident with Adobe After Effects since I now understand the basic controls, the render process of the video files, and resizing the content for web based sites such as social media platforms.  If theirs one major area of my skill set Id like to improve, Its the timing of completing a project.  I notice some small scale projects for example, I will claim I can finish it in an hour where in reality I usually need 3 or 4 hours maximum to complete. I must be careful, When mentioning when I can finish a project small or big.

Journal 10   End of the Line

My internship is ending very soon.  I have completed over 120 hours for the internship course, However I will try to stay till the end of the semester or unless they run out of projects for me to do.  I am staying to obtain more experience.  My supervisor has told me after the Thanks Giving holiday things would quiet down.  For the moment, I am helping one of the full time staff with Social Media posts for the CUNY TUES event that passed recently.  I am glad that I stayed, Because now I can expand my Areas of skills in other areas’s of the field.  Overall I have learned a lot from my Supervisor about photography and campaigning for a noble cause.  I hope to find another Internship before my final semester in the Spring coming up.  I really enjoy being a generalist from this current internship experience.  I look forward to my next adventure in another place of the field.