From pitching a new tv-show idea, to sitting in on a brainstorm meeting with script writers to think about the plot for a new murder mystery: every day at my internship was different. Safe to say that my time at the fiction TV- and film production company Hollands Licht was very diverse.
Since the start of my bachelor, I always hoped I could do an internship somewhere in the film industry. I didn’t really care where exactly; I just wanted a glimpse into the world of filmmaking. I would advise everyone looking for an internship to choose one as close to their interests as possible. This made my internship a very fulfilling experience.
The first company I approached ended up being my internship company, Hollands Licht, which is part of Warner Brothers International. I began my first day with zero expectations, because I literally didn’t know anything about the industry. Nevertheless, from day one I was welcomed as a “real” colleague, and everyone was always ready to answer any questions I had. My colleagues were all incredibly nice. So nice that I thought it was almost too good to be true. But thankfully it was true, and I am very grateful I got to learn from my experienced colleagues for four months.
It is difficult to describe only one day from my internship, because every day was different. Well, almost different except for the amazing free lunch every day that was catered in our office building.
My favorite thing about my internship(besides the lunch) was probably the research I had to do. For context, during my internship I mainly focused on the early stage of a new film or series. So, working from a vague idea a colleague had, and researching its potential to be turned into a film or series. I would also pitch some of these ideas to the team. I really enjoyed doing this research, and now I know a weirdly specific information about the most random things; from rich families in The Netherlands to murderers and football players in the eighties.
Furthermore, I also helped with making pitch documents to pitch our ideas to streaming services. One of my favorite things to do was making a mood-board for a new series, based on the scripts and made up of stills from other movies and series. This was a lot of fun to do, and I learned a lot about how to process creative feedback.
However, I also had a few more basic tasks. For example, I translated scripts and pitch documents, I analyzed the current market of the industry and I researched what extra’s had to look like in a TV series and aided costume design. In the end, these tasks were also very interesting to do.
Nevertheless, I still had hard times during my internship, also because it was my first time working at an office full time. However, I got used to it quite fast, and once I had a solid routine my internship was over before I knew it.
Probably the best thing about my internship is that because I was involved in quite an early stage of production and research, I will be able to say I had a small part in almost every TV-show and movie that gets released by Hollands Licht for years to come.
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