Find out about Michaela Kenny - BA (Hons) Film Production student on placement as a Creative Intern at Disney.
Where is your current placement and what is your role?
In June 2022, I began my placement year as a creative intern at the Walt Disney Company, in London. Disney is a global company, housing numerous departments such as National Geographic, Disney +, merchandising, and many more. The London offices supply material to offices from across the world, in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
I work as a creative intern in the National Geographic Campaigns and Production department. In my role, I work both on and off air to promote the series that National Geographic and WILD show on their channels.
Tell us more about the Creative Intern role
My Creative Intern role is broken down into 2 main parts: linear content and social promotional content.
What do you get in involved with the linear content?
On the linear side of things, my role is to create 30 and 15 second spots to air on TV. Each month, I am allocated a particular show to promote on-air; the process begins when I am given a brief from the marketing department highlighting what the show is about, what assets need to be created, the target audience, and notable points amongst other details. I then create a pitch deck, proposing 3 concepts to my managers, who choose 1 to develop further, before sending off to marketing for approvals on the idea. Once approval is granted, I am thrown head first into creating the promo. This usually entails booking graphics time with a designer to fine-tune the concept’s visuals, and then booking a voice-over artist and audio engineer to record the audio for the promo. Once all of this is complete, and the promo has been signed off, I prepare the whole project for delivery to regions; I have to ensure the script and voiceover include the different versions for regions, make sure all the admin is in order, and collate the whole project so that regions can edit it in their own language.
This whole process has taught me a lot of different skills, as well as allowing me to put my university skills into practise. I have had to use scriptwriting for the voice-over’s, editing for the majority of the project, as well as producing for the admin side of things.
And the social promotion content?
On the socials side of things, my role is to create scene lifts, reels, and bespoke pieces to promote the shows and the channel on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. There are 3 main social assets that I create: scene lifts are the most common – for these, I watch new episodes of shows and pick out scenes I think are visually appealing, would capture a viewer’s attention, and sum up the show well. I then add the branding elements to these and ready them for regional delivery, similar to on-air delivery. For reels, I find a clip from the show that is full of suspense, has lots of cute animals, or could work well as a funny, short clip, and edit/add the branding to it. Finally, for bespoke pieces, I am given a show to come up with creative concepts for, which I then pitch to the social marketing team, and develop further – using graphics and audio time to create an original, informative, fun and engaging edit.
Highlight so far?
My highlight so far would be when Gordon Ramsay re-posted a video that I had made on social media to promote one of his shows! It’s such a surreal feeling seeing my creations on social media channels and TV, gaining thousands of views, comments and likes.
At Disney with other interns
What skills are you developing?
I have learnt so much about how social media works and how to optimise your content for viewership which is such an important skill to have as social media is becoming ever more popular. I have developed my confidence in pitching my ideas to stakeholders and in my abilities as an editor as well.
What other opportunities you had so far?
Not only has my internship offered me lots of opportunities to develop my filmmaking skills, it has also given me plenty of opportunities outside of this. I have been to the Promax Awards Ceremony, attended a networking event at Meta, volunteered for the Disney Make A Wish event, and so much more!
What advice would you give to students considering a placement?
To anyone considering this placement, I would say to just go for it! When I applied, I didn’t have much confidence in myself, but actually applying and getting over the fear of being rejected gave me the confidence I needed to strive in this role. Disney is an incredible company to work for; the atmosphere is amazing (I even met Mickey Mouse at the office!), the people are so supportive, and there are so many learning opportunities along the way.