WEBVTT

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As I said, my name's
Danielle Harris.

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I'm a senior here at
Mount Holyoke College.

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I'm studying critical social
thought in film and French.

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And now film.

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So my focus was in language,
culture, and conflict.

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So I applied for, initially,
internships in public policy.

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I got to the third round in a
bunch of different internships,

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but nothing panned out
the way I wanted to.

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So I had to rely on my
personal networking.

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A little-known fact about
me is that when I was a kid,

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I did hand modeling.

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And one of the photographers
that I worked with

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was Jim Kuhn.

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And so my family had
remained friends with him,

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remained friendly with him.

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So on a whim--

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I had always been interested
in film and photography--

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I asked if there was any
chance I could work with him.

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And he said, I'm not sure what
you can do, but definitely.

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So I went.

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So what did we do
about Jim Kuhn?

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Jim Kuhn is an editorial
and advertising photographer

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and filmmaker.

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He has been an independent
businessman for 20 years.

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He actually has a master's
in European studies,

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was a professor,
didn't like it, left,

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and started his own
photography company

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with no experience
in photography.

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Since then, he has worked
with companies such as Aetna

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and Reebok, and they
have paid for him

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to travel
internationally to work

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in a lot of their companies.

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He started film and
photography when film--

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the actual medium, film--

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was still the
medium that we use.

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So he was developing
photos for everybody,

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and now he's had to transfer
into the digital age,

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and he's transferred his
skills as a photographer

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to become a filmmaker.

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So he's really gone through
some really interesting changes

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as a professional that
made his knowledge really

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accessible to me.

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And it was really
just me and him,

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which facilitated a very
interesting work technique.

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So here's a photo of Jim Kuhn.

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This was on one of our
projects in East Hartford.

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We were doing the tourism video.

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So when I say
photography and film,

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automatically a lot of people
think, ooh, Vogue and fashion.

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We were going into factories.

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We were going into
people's offices.

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And we were doing things
for their websites.

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We were doing tourism videos.

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We were doing Sears catalogs.

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We were doing very
business-oriented

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creative work,
which was different

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than I ever expected it to be.

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It was actually
incredibly creative

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and incredibly enriching.

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So here, what he have is
that we sent this camera,

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we have mics-- we
use lapel mics--

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and we have the whole
staff for the mayor there,

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and they were holding up
a little iPad script app,

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and they were just having
her read off of it.

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And my job was to put--

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was always changing.

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So again, here's another
example of our clients.

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We worked with a company
called MedOptions,

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which is a company that
contracts physicians

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into senior living facilities.

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They wanted to completely
redo their website,

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including their videos.

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So Mr. Kuhn and I
worked on location.

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The first thing we did was
about a week before the shoot,

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we went to their offices and
we did location scouting.

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In an office, what
is location scouting?

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It is going to each room and
looking for a pretty window.

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And then from there, looking
at lighting, and looking

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at how we can get the camera.

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So we have a doorway
just like this.

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Jim was in the middle of the
doorway holding his camera.

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All of the lighting
equipment is on the side.

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And I'm talking
5-feet-by-5-feet office.

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Very, very tight.

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We bring in all
of our equipment,

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and we set up two
lighting machines.

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We test the microphones.

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And then I sat there,
and I would speak,

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and I would be basically the
lighting model, the test model.

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In addition to setting up all
of the lighting equipment,

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setting up all of
the sound equipment,

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and being in a constant
dialogue with Jim,

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I started in this internship
not even owning a camera.

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I did not know the first thing.

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And so I was
constantly like, hey--

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we became first name basis--
hey, Jim, what is this?

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Hey, Jim, what aperture
are you studying?

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Hey, Jim, what are you doing?

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And because it was
just the two of us,

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there was always this
constant dialogue

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that really allowed
me to learn and become

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very comfortable working
with clients as he did.

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He was very generous, and we
would always walk into a shoot,

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and he would say,
hi, I'm Jim Kuhn.

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This is Danielle, she's going
to be working with me today.

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So I always from the get-go had
a connection with the clients.

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From there, I was often
working in release form.

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I was in charge of making sure
that the next person we're

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filming is on deck.

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Everything that
Jim needed to have

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done so he could stand
behind the camera

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and focus on the product.

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I was just running around like
a chicken with my head cut

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off trying to make
sure everything

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was in order for him.

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So part of the internship
that Jim and I decided to do

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was to develop my own portfolio.

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As I said, I had not
even owned a camera.

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He gave me my first camera.

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And I had never worked
with editing software.

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Feature model,
Lacey [INAUDIBLE]..

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[CHUCKLING]

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So what did I have to do to--

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he taught me that the main
thing the clients are paying for

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is an artistic eye.

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Understanding what
looks good to consumers.

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So the only way to do
that is to practice.

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The first 10,000 photos, he
said, will be your worst.

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So what did he teach me?

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He taught me about
putting weight--

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as in with the example
of Lacey-- putting it

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on the right side, because
we are trained to read

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from left to right.

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So where do we put our focus?

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At the end, on the right side.

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See I broke that rule here, but
I think it still looks good.

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[CHUCKLING]

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To have some certain
depth of field.

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So with these vines,
it's a really cool shot

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because your eye travels.

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Then he was saying--

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I also wrote this
rule here-- you never

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want to do 50/50 skyline
because you see that everywhere.

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So you want to do
something different.

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You want to do
something interesting,

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and you want to
communicate a story.

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But above all, you want
to listen to your gut,

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and you want to have
this click feeling.

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When you're editing a
photo, you feel a click.

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And that was the hardest part
of this internship for me,

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was having him there and trying
to learn the artistic listening

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skills of listening to myself.

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Because I'm very used to writing
a paper enforcing the grammar,

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enforcing the ideas,
enforcing, enforcing.

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And this is supposed to be,
in his mind, a very meditative

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process of listening
to your mind,

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and listening to your ideas.

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I also had trouble finding
models for my own photography.

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So my solution to that
was to use myself.

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I would set up a tripod,
and I would set up a camera.

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Then I would set up
lighting fixtures.

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So in this example,
I'm in my garage.

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I had my dad's industrial lamp.

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I put on a really pretty dress.

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And then I just
started to experiment.

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What this did is
that I have been

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able to put this on a
collaborative production

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company's website
named HitRecord.

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And people who are
professionals in this industry

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have commented on my photos
saying, great lighting,

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interesting ideas.

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And they've been able to get
direct feedback, which really

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helps me understand what
looks good, what works,

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and maybe what
doesn't work as much.

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Here's another example.

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I also went to a lot of event.

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I even was able to work with a
band, [INAUDIBLE] Latin band,

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for their website.

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I just showed up at their
website and was like, hey,

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can I take some
photos of you guys?

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And they were like, yes, please.

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And it was a really
great experience

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to be able to work
with different people

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and understand how
to market myself.

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From that, what were the skills
I gained in my internship?

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The main thing, as
I discussed before,

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was an artistic eye
in creative thinking.

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That also ties into
working with a man who

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has done his own business.

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So I also learned
networking skills.

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I worked with
creative directors.

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I worked with
setting up equipment.

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But the main thing
I got was being

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able to create
structure for yourself,

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being able to listen
to your own voice

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and develop that voice
through practice,

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and how to create new ideas
and have creative solutions

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to everyday problems.

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Looking forward, I'm currently
working on a documentary

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on Charlie Hebdo.

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And I'm also filming
for that tonight,

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interviewing students who
have personal experiences--

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because I was in France for
the last year-- on what it was

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like to be there and to have
an Islamophobic experience,

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even if you're an American.

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I'm also doing a
YouTube channel.

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I work on the school paper,
and I'm also doing photo shoots

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with people like Lacey, anyone
who will let me work with them.

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Finally, I'm also interested in
working in a startup business.

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I've come up with
a business plan,

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and I'm meeting
with professors now,

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exploring what it would
be like to do that.

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Just exploring and figuring out
what works and what doesn't.

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And that's the main thing
I got from my internship.

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Thank you.

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