PMA Shooting

Assisting on a shoot — a documentary shoot at that — is something that I had very little knowledge of before Wednesday.

My job, of course, was to do whatever I was asked. Yes, I did get everyone coffees. Running errands is the best part of being an intern. Isn’t it?

Actually, I have been doing some pretty cool things. I have been in charge of release forms and make-up. The release forms are good because I get to chat with the interviewees, and all of the people we have spoken to are extremely interesting. The shooting is for The Year of the Plague and consequently, doctors and other experts have been our subjects. While we started out with interviews at the McGill studio (black backdrop, great lighting, focusing on what is said rather than what’s going on), we moved on to the Children’s Hospital to shoot the microbiology labs and then up to the General to interview another doctor and nurse in the ER. The PR woman for the hospital was also really interesting and I got to chat with her about what she does — another interesting job in the field of communications. It’s incredible how many possibilities there are in this field!

Today I’m not at the shoot because Kenneth needs me to work on the Emily Carr show. I am going through itand taking note of the names and dates of each painting that was used. This is labour intensive. I also have to find a chronological list of all of Carr’s paintings which is proving easier said than done. However, I do get to look at Carr’s pictures and read about her in the process. I’m very pleased that I chose this industry. And that I managed to land an internship at PMA. There is nothing better than enjoying one’s work.

Two hours later, I did end up going to the shoot this morning because I was needed for make-up. Michael Bliss had some extremely interesting things to say. I’m really excited to see this film take shape!