Cody Lawrence

I was part of a 10-man team of interns who covered nearly 70 premieres, panels, and parties on camera over the 8 day duration of the LA Film Fest. We were fortunate enough to have Canon donate six top-of-the-line C300 cameras for our use during the festival. Additionally, I interviewed talent on the press lines for "Earth to Echo" and "Harmontown." After the festival was over, we edited together 2-5 minute long videos of the events on Final Cut Pro 7 for the festival's YouTube page.

This internship helped me to hone my interpersonal skills, as I was not only working with my co-interns, but also with a large number of festival officials, publicists, and celebrities on a day-to-day basis. Since the events we covered were unscripted, anything could have happened at any moment, and such conditions fostered an environment in which we had to think on our toes.

Below is a sample of the work I edited.

I carried out several duties for post-production executives and their assistants including but not limited to: compiling extensive document distribution lists and lists of post-production crew people, digitization of music cue sheets and licensing agreements, script breakdowns and coverage for post-production office use, and desk coverage for out-of-the-office executive assistants. Additionally, I performed standard intern tasks such as preparing boardroom meetings and receiving guests.

Through this internship I was exposed to the business and corporate components of filmmaking and my eyes were opened to the complexity of spearheading television and film projects. Of course in the office environment I also further developed my interpersonal skills.

See 2014 LA Film Fest Internship (above) for details. Below is a sampling of the work I shot and/or edited.

I remotely operated cameras in China and Scandinavia that provided live online feed of pandas and polar bears to explore.org, a globally-conscious nonprofit organization. When my shift was complete, I edited together a highlight reel of footage from the shift for eventual posting on the explore.org website.

From this job I developed on-the-clock stamina, as my panda shifts were 10 hours long, from 5pm to 3am (during Chinese daylight) and my polar bear shifts were 4 hours long, from 4am to 8am (during Scandinavian daylight). I also developed the ability to quickly choose the best shots and edit them together and meet my midday deadlines.

I was responsible for locating royalty-free music and imagery for use in advertisements the studio was producing. In addition, occasionally I was brought in to do minor touchups on ads using Adobe After Effects and Mocha. I owe a great advancement in my skills in both programs to this internship.