By Holly Anderson
During my time in Florence, I have been interning under videographer Kirsten Hills as her sole production assistant. Kirsten works with several organizations to document events and tell stories through her films.
During my third week in Florence, Kirsten and I worked on a massive project together for a travel company named Tauck. They held a week-long event in Florence to celebrate 100 years of the company and helped their staff and clientele immerse themselves in the rich history of the city.
Working alongside Kirsten to document this massive event has become a core memory abroad for me and gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation for the city I get to call home for four months. Kirsten and I worked with a team of three other professionals in order to successfully cover each massive event. With over 800 participants in the celebration, our video team often had to split up our responsibilities, giving me a much bigger role than I was expecting in my internship.
While I had worked in film before, I only have experience documenting things on strategically planned-out film sets. Filming events in real time was a completely different experience, one that was extremely challenging to jump into, but also super exciting and rewarding in the long run.
Through this internship, Kirsten has exposed me to different sides of the film industry that I have never experienced before. While it has certainly been a challenge jumping into a new field of work in the midst of a major project, with Kirsten’s help I have learned how to quickly adapt to new situations and acquire new skills, as well as how to remain professional in high-stress situations. These soft skills are some of the most important things I have taken away from my abroad experience in Florence.