A New Year and New Challenges: Interning on Human Traces

It seems unbelievable that it is nearly the end of February already.  Classes are started up and projects are kicking off.  I haven't actually had the chance to go to many of these classes yet though, because I've had something pretty exciting to work on.  Since last Wednesday (11th) I've been Interning on a test shoot and trailer for Human Traces, a feature film that will hopefully be shot later in the year.

Human Traces is being produced by Nadia Maxwell of Overactive Imagination.  Nadia has worked as a Producer and Production Manager for many years on short films, documentaries and television commercials which have been broadcast on TVNZ, TV3, National Geographic, FilmFour (Channel 4 UK) and Al Jazeera International channels.  Human Traces is written and directed by Nic Gorman, who has been long involved in the creative industries: theatre, fiction writing and film.  Nic and Nadia worked together on a short film Here Be Monsters which won Best Short Film, 2013 Rialto Channel New Zealand Film Awards; along with many of the same crew involved with Human Traces.

For this internship, along with Lee, I took on a role as a production assistant/ runner.  This was my first internship, and because of my animation background, only my 4th film set that I had been on.  This also meant that a lot of the film talk went over my head, and my inexperience showed itself many times.  As it worked out Lee did most of the heavy-lifting production-wise, while I did more running and helped out Ruby with Art Department.  On the days leading up to shooting I found myself doing a few data entry type tasks, as well as arranging for rental cars and hotels.      

I feel that this worked out well for Nadia who was the producer on this test shoot as it played to the strengths and knowledge that both Lee and I had already.  Lee knows a lot more about producing than I do, so was able to take more of the pressure of Nadia.  Whereas because I have less knowledge I was better suited to clearly defined tasks.

While on set I was mostly responsible for making sure people were comfortable, that they had stopped to have a drink and snack or had sunblock on if we were outdoors.  The sole difficultly I had with this, was picking a moment where I wouldn't be interrupting the flow of things.  It was really difficult to tell from my station outside what stage the actors and crew were at inside the building, and whether it was a good time to enter.  I was really aware that by choosing the wrong moment I could throw the crew and actors off there game, or even ruin a shoot.

I learnt a lot on this internship, both from observation of how things were done on set, and also a few personal achievements.  One thing that I had been really nervous about leading up to the internship was the prospect of having to drive unfamiliar vehicles in an unfamiliar area.  This nervousness about driving is something that I experience often, as I have barely driven for the last 3 years and feel out of practice.  I also have a notoriously bad sense of direction, and had never driven a van before.  Needless to say, I spent a fair bit of time during the days before filming pouring over maps of the area.  We had a few issues with trips to get things (including lunch) taking longer than anticipated due to road conditions.  I think if I were to be a runner again I would try to be more aware of this and try to leave additional buffer time. 

I was really lucky that my first internship was with such a nice group of people, who were really understanding towards my mistakes.  I think that for future internships in this same position, knowing more about production would make things a lot smoother, and allow me to be more useful to the internship providers.      

I came across this article that mentions the test shoot, and also about Lee and I interning on it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/66159350/Southland-a-playground-for-filmmakers

Internship Hours: 80hours.