Field Notes: The Media School Travel Blog

This isn’t how I imagined doing this program. Originally, I was going to London in summer 2020, and I was all set with my visa and my internship. But a year later, I am fortunate enough to be working for the same company I was planning to last year. 

There are a lot of aspects about this experience that are different from past internships I’ve had. For one, being virtual, I’m working in the guest room instead of a studio with other colleagues. I can’t socialize with the people I work with outside of Zoom calls, but we have learned to talk while working and get to know each other that way. I now have a standing invitation to look them up if I’m ever in the U.K.

I am studying narrative filmmaking, while the company I work for makes promotional videos through a journalistic storytelling approach. Still, this internship has given me a lot of knowledge that will be tangentially useful in my field. One lesson I’ve learned is how the branding is different on ads depending on who owns the television station it will be placed on. I’ve also learned the process an ad has to go through in the U.K. in order to air on television, and have processed a few of those ads myself.  

The hardest aspect of this internship, I would say, is not the fact that it was virtual, but the time difference. By the time I was up and working (8 a.m. for me), it was already 2 p.m. for my colleagues in the U.K. If I had any questions toward the end of my work day, odds were they wouldn’t be able to answer them until the next morning. Also, there were times when I wasn’t able to attend meetings I helped prepare for because they took place in the morning.

Overall, I am grateful that I still had this opportunity, and I think anyone who is considering doing a virtual internship should go for it.