Over the past two months, interning at Born in Brooklyn Media has been a crash-course in the nonstop world of media production. Each day provided a new project, each with a challenge that flexed a different storytelling muscle - one week revolved around crafting a set of social media campaigns for a merchandising company, while the following focused on editing a series of videos for the Lymphoma Research Foundation. Through it all, I’ve had the opportunity to write copy, learn graphic design, teach myself the basics on a whole slew of different software, and pick up a camera and go shoot (my favorite). But, no matter the task, story stayed king. For a filmmaker, an experience like BIB teaches that there are narratives hidden away like pearls in everything you create - this summer was about learning to find those hidden stories and bring them to the surface for our clients.
Alright, enough of the résumé builders - on a personal note, Born in Brooklyn was home for me in a way that no big company could be. Leslie, Joe, and Kenton made the transition from grad school to the industry an exciting one, but they also helped a kid from Upstate figure out how to live in New York, and that’s no small task. Over dozens of cups of coffee and more than a few lunches, it was clear that they cared about each of us as if they’d known us much longer than a few weeks. Rushing around Brooklyn in Joe’s car to get footage was something I won’t soon forget. I’m looking forward to keeping in touch with these friends as I move forward, and I have BIB to thank for giving me an amazing start to my career.
-Ryan Charland
