Crew With BDA Productions! (This program is currently not active)
In an ongoing effort to help aspiring filmmakers gain more practical real-world experience, Boulder Digital Arts offers an exciting opportunity to crew on shoots with BDA Productions! This program is designed to help participants build their portfolios by working on a variety of projects involving live event video production. Since the primary mission of BDA Productions is offering participants the opportunity to gain valuable on-the-job experience, you'll be trained in various facets of live event video production, most notably multi-camera shooting, along with live streaming, audio, lighting, pre-production best practices, and - if you're up to it - editing!
Once accepted, you'll be expected to attend and crew on a shoot at least once a week for several hours at a variety of Boulder (and some Denver) locations, and along the way you'll learn how to operate all of BDA Productions' equipment including video cameras, lighting, our Sling Studio live production switcher system, microphones, audio mixers and more. Your training will be a combination of in-person teaching and demonstrations from existing crew members, online videos and in-person classes, and mentoring with industry professionals, but the most valuable part of your participation will be constant practice filming live events - with our equipment! Stay on the crew for as long as you'd like to gain added experience, fun (if you like this stuff!), and the possibility of free classes and ocassionally making extra money on any commercial jobs we undertake.
Time Commitment
The time you'll spend each week depends a lot on how quickly you learn new skills and how much experience you want to gain crewing productions. We'd say that you should probably anticipate crewing on shoots somewhere around 4 to 5 hours a week, in addition to your self-learning using our materials. However, this depends a lot on your aptitude and how quickly you learn. Though there's no minimum time requirement, only participants who have been actively working on BDA Productions' live events will be eligible to attend BDA classes at no charge. Ultimately, you're learning a skill and you should be practicing with our gear as much as you can during this internship. Our analogy is that your goal is to learn to drive. To do this, we teach you how to use a car (our video gear) and the basics of driving. However, to become a proficient driver, you have to drive around a lot! You'll want to crew on as many shoots as you can to gain practical real-world experience, as well as the ability to successfully work collaboratively with a video crew, troubleshoot last-minute technical issues, and ultimately develop the confidence to film a live event smoothly and efficiently. We might have one to two shoots a week and they each run around 3 to 5 hours each how many shoots you choose to crew is up to you, but again, the more you drive the car, the better driver you'll be!
Benefits
- On-the-job training provided to help you become a better videographer.
- Learn how to live-stream events with a multi-camera production system.
- Gain experience, practical skills, and add to your video production portfolio of work.
- Use cutting-edge technology.
- Work on live productions with a video crew.
- Earn select BDA free classes and OnDemand videos.
- Potential opportunity to also learn editing skills.
Responsibilities
- Training, practicing, and operating our video equipment to obtain intermediate skill level as a video shooter.
- Planning, setting up, operating and tearing down video production gear.
- Pre-production and location scouting.
- Crewing in a variety of video production roles (videographer, technical director, producer, etc.).
- Working with our content partners to arrange and coordinate productions.
Qualifications:
- Excellent communication skills and ability to effectively engage and coordinate with BDA staff, production crew, and our content partners.
- Keen interest in video production and filmmaking with a drive to grow your experience and skill.
- Professional attitude and self-motivated, with the ability to work independently and under pressure when necessary.
- Some experience in operating a video camera, including manually setting exposure.
- Ability to learn and retain technical skills and information.
- Positive attitude.
- Flexible schedule, including the ability to crew shoots that are scheduled during weeknights and weekends.
Optional Editing Track
If you're more interested in editing than shooting, this is a great opportunity to develop and hone your skills as a video editor, as well as building up a nice portfolio of work you've edited. Select BDA Productions' participants will have the opportunity to take part in our optional Editing Track - if selected, you'll potentially be able to attend one or more of BDA's regularly-scheduled video editing classes at no charge, including our Hands-On and Certificate classes, depending on availability! You'll be expected to deliver finished, edited video productions using the material shot on the Sling system - but since it's already edited (live switched), you'll typically just be adding titles and some graphics, and then encoding in various formats for online delivery. Please realize that this optional Editing Track is a significant time investment (editing approx. one video per week), and the expectation is for timely and complete content, but with the satisfaction of your having created finished, final masters to supply to our clients, as well as boosting your portfolio's range.