Find out about Corey White BA (Hons) Film Production student on placement as a Creative Intern with the Walt Disney Company
I am currently on placement as the Social / Digital Intern in the National Geographic sector for The Walt Disney Company.
How did the Creative Careers team help you find your placement?
I found out about my placement at The Walt Disney Company through the Creative Careers service here at the University of Portsmouth. The service was very helpful in giving advice surrounding CV’s and E-portfolios, of which I then applied to my own work in preparation for any application process I would undertake.
What is your advice to students to be successful in placement applications?
For any student that is considering applying for a placement in the creative field, I would strongly suggest showcasing the creative work you’ve done. There are plenty of Film and TV students out there across the UK. Show them how you stand out. However, do bear in mind what creative work you showcase and consider what impression that leaves of you. That college film that was shot on an iPad? That comedy video that once was trendy, but is now full of outdated jokes? You may like it because of the memories attached, however if you put this on your portfolio, you are essentially telling the world that this is the work you are the most proud of. If you can do better than those old videos, then that may not be clear to employers, as that is what you are showing of yourself. In short, showing the few best pieces of work is better (in my opinion) than a “content dump” of every video you’ve ever made. Most of the time, employers won’t have time to watch everything you’ve done.
What do you as a Creative Intern for National Geographic?
I am the Social / Digital Intern in the National Geographic sector. My role primarily consists of generating social media content that will be distributed to our target audience. This can be tricky, as National Geographic’s target audience is a lot older than myself, therefore sometimes I have to take myself out of my head and think from the eyes of a middle-aged man. This however, has taught me a lot about playing to a target audience. Going back to my point about the old college films on the iPad - a lot of the time as students, we make content that will appeal to people our own age. This has pushed me out of my comfort zone to think hard about what will appeal to other age demographics. This is a good skill to have in the creative field - not everything you make is for people your age!
What projects have you been working on so far?
I have just finished re-versioning a promo for a popular National Geographic show, The Incredible Dr. Pol. Re-versioning is when you get a TV promo from somewhere else in the world and change it to fit the Broadcast standards of your country. What day of the week a show comes out on in the U.S. isn’t always the same as here, so I needed to get a voiceover artist in to change the TX date (which is the date the show is released). The script from the U.S. was also full of innuendos, which meant that my manager gave me the task of re-writing the script for the promo. This was a lot of fun and utilised one of my strengths, which is scriptwriting. Any opportunity to write a script for a promo and I am there!
What are you going be working on in the future?
Two exciting upcoming projects I have on the table are a social media piece for an upcoming show (which I can’t name yet for legality reasons) which is full of adrenaline and tackles climate change, a topic near and dear to my heart, and a Highlights Reel which is a sixty-second advert promoting five different shows. I get to write the whole script, edit the whole thing, choose the VoiceOver artist, the lot!
My role at Disney is a lot of fun and I look forward to my next six months! It’s great being able to add my splash of creativity to the corporate world and sometimes I wish it could go on forever!
What advice would you give to students considering placement?
I suppose I should consider myself lucky that Disney took a liking to me, as I procrastinated over my other applications meaning I missed their deadlines, and ended up only applying to Disney in the end. I suppose since Disney was the placement I wanted, this didn’t matter in the long run, however I would not recommend procrastination at any cost. Placements are highly competitive and again, I am lucky. Procrastination only limits your opportunities. You may tell yourself you’ll do it later, but you never know what may pop up later that will deter you from your applications again. Get it done in good time and don’t do what I did!