Becoming a Digital Production Intern

22 May 2019

Malik says...

"So, onto pastures new. It’s been exactly six months since the powers that be of the STEP program decided to free me of the shackles of retail, hand picking me from the thornbush that is a certain central London department store and placing me in the content production office at London College of Fashion. My new role: Digital Content Production Intern. My responsibilities: provide technical assistance with production and post-production duties, take an active role in learning how to perform these duties, be prepared to work off-site. Calm.

When interviewing for the role, I had tried my best to inflate all of the skills I had written on my CV. Adobe Premiere Pro experience - Check. Used a camera before? You bet. While thankful some of my pretend confidence had massively paid off, my first few days saw me overcome with a heavy case of imposter syndrome - would my new employers find out that I was… a fraud?

A seemingly commonplace condition among us young, arts-inclined Londoners had chosen me as its latest victim. Each morning as I walked into the university building, a stones throw from the shop I had so miraculously been saved from, I prepared myself for inevitably being told that I wasn’t good enough, that my services were no longer needed, that I could dust off the cheap black suit and get back to selling prescription glasses. To my surprise, that day never came. Actually, I’d received quite the opposite - mentorship, encouragement and a genuine interest in what I was doing, all at a place of work. Well, I never!

From very early on, I was made to feel at home, paraded around the building as the new intern, the one who’d be tagging along with the vastly experienced videography team. They sent me off on a couple of courses to get me back up to speed with the software, and I was thrown into the deep end, operating cameras at fashion shows, setting up all the equipment at the start and being there at the end to clear up. I found myself enjoying it too, being paid to work on an actual craft I could hone, and being around colleagues that wanted to help me reach that goal.

By the end of my placement, I had seen projects go from conception to completion, become a video-editing whizz, filmed at London Fashion Week, made a couple of backstage fashion show videos, and made a video that got onto the Forbes website. It’s been quite a ride. There are no real negatives I can think of, apart from the fact that I have to leave and move on to my next placement.

However, my mum has a saying - every disappointment is a blessing. I guess my blessing is that I get to go to a position that I’m really looking forward to, as a radio assistant at Worldwide FM. Here I shall concoct my plot to take over the airwaves and land myself a radio show, but not without fulfilling all of my new responsibilities and learning the ropes first. Settling in a new environment is going to be tricky too, and I hope to do this quickly as there is much work to be done.

Signing off, goodbye London College of Fashion, you were a pleasure. Worldwide FM, here I come! World of retail, please never call me again, I think I’ve found my preferred line of work now."

Photos courtesy of Malik Fields