Summer Photography and Video Production Internship Recap

GVSU Summer Internship

This summer, we welcomed an intern from Grand Valley State University - Stephanie Kaszewski. Stephanie is studying to be a documentary filmmaker and wanted to utilize the internship program to spend some time 'in the field' with us. We brought Stephanie along on several photo and video productions while also providing her with weekly assignments and a final project.

Early in the internship our focus was on technique and fundamentals, with the final project serving as an opportunity to bring all of the concepts together. 

In her own words: 

Interning at Allied Productions was a great experience for me. The Allied team is an intelligent and resourceful group of people to work with. My goal coming into the internship was to strive to learn more about the steps to becoming a documentary filmmaker so that I could fulfill my dream of creating my own documentaries and sharing peoples’ stories. Throughout my internship I did various different exercises inside and outside the studio that helped develop my skills.

Every week I was expected to bring in thirty photos as a way to have daily practice using my camera and to show progression in my photo taking skills. The fundamental skills and knowledge that I gained through these tasks can now be applied to my ambition of becoming a documentary filmmaker and have also made me more comfortable in using my camera on a daily basis. 

Upon completion of my internship, I was assigned a project that involved me creating and directing my own short documentary on a topic chosen by the Allied team. After finishing the filming of my documentary at Hyzer’s I felt a complete surge of happiness. I proved to myself I  was capable of: planning a doc shoot, setting up interviews, figuring out types of shots for b-roll, and most importantly being able to tell the story of the shop and its owner.

I’ve grown as a person from gaining a lot more self confidence which is something that held me back from excelling in the beginning of the internship. I realized that if I want to progress in this industry I will need to fail and make mistakes and take those moments as a tool to learn and grow in expanding my art into something that is my own. I am fortunate enough to have been able to work with this extremely knowledgeable company. They really made me feel like a part of the team and were always happy to guide me through my whole learning process. I’ve gained a lot of knowledge through my experience at Allied Productions that I will continue to build on through my journey to become a documentary filmmaker.