By Will Johnston
I have been a full-time VPC videographer and editor for a little over two years now, but a little more than four years ago, I started off as an intern during my junior year of college. I was looking for an internship that could give me exposure in as many areas of video production as possible. After my internship with VPC, I gained exposure shadowing established professionals at live events, while improving my editing and videography skills. With VPC accepting internship applications for the 2024 spring semester, I wanted to share my experience on the opportunities VPC provided that prepared me for work after college, what makes VPC’s internship unique, and what future interns can expect interning at VPC.
On my first day as an intern, I was introduced to the editing team, given my own office, and put to work to show off my editing skills in the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. I understood the basics of Premiere Pro but knew nothing about Adobe After Effects, the two main programs used by VPC’s editors. I was worried that I would be a slow learner and not be able to keep up to par with VPC’s expectations for me as an intern. Very quickly, those worries went away. Each member of the content team was fantastic in taking their time to show me how to work within each program, and making sure I understood what they were instructing and asking of me before leaving me to work. Before long, I was editing football highlights for the Ed Block Courage Awards, modifying graphic templates for Bridgetower award ceremonies, and even getting the chance to build my own motion graphic templates from scratch.
I spent most of my days at a desk during my internship, but I was also given plenty of opportunities outside of the office. Outside of the office, I got to work alongside our videographers on storytelling and documentary style shoots and gain show videography experience. Part of what interested me in pursuing an internship at VPC were its partnerships with sports organizations and foundations. Personally, I’m a baseball fanatic, so to see that one of VPC’s clients was the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation was very exciting. As an intern, I had the opportunity to go to the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation Aspire Gala, where I shadowed the director calling the show and the musical performance afterwards. I also had the opportunity to be a videographer during the opening of the Brooks Robinson Field at Frederick Douglass High School, where I had a chance to interview Bill Ripken and Orioles legend Brooks Robinson.
My field work wasn’t kept strictly to baseball events. I also had the opportunity to travel into Baltimore to film interviews for the University of Maryland’s Founders Week. And finally, I got to participate in the Ed Block Courage Awards weekend festivities. It consisted of an outreach day where NFL players visited Baltimore’s Courage House to spend the afternoon with kids. I had the opportunity to interview the players and film b-roll of them running around with the kids. Then, the next day, I went to the event in Baltimore and shadowed established professionals running the live event. What made the Ed Block event memorable, was that I had been working on this event in some capacity since the start of my internship. I was able to see the entire event be assembled from the ground up and see the end result, including the videos I had edited being played live for 1,000 people.
While the internship experience was memorable enough thanks to the amazing events I got to be a part of, it was the great work environment that really impressed me and made me excited to go to the office. Everyone in the office introduced themselves to me in my first week and by the end of my internship, I felt like I got to know everyone well. I was able to participate in an employee luncheon after the Ed Block Courage Awards and partake in an annual ping pong tournament where we partnered up and played doubles all afternoon. I may not have won the tournament, but I did get a trophy. Even though I was an intern in the office for only a few hours a week, I was fully taken in as a member of the VPC team and became a part of the positive and supportive work culture and environment.
There were so many great opportunities for me while interning back in 2019, but there are even more opportunities awaiting future interns. Along with working with the Ed Block Courage Awards Foundation and Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, there are also chances for future interns to work on NFL preseason broadcasts, Navy Football games, the Military Bowl and its dinners, the CIAA basketball tournament, university commencements, music festivals, comedy shows, award shows, and so much more.
If you are interested in applying for our spring semester internship, follow this link here to our application. The application period will close November 1st, 2023.