Has it been that long?

Wow, your eyes are not deceiving you, I am back, still surviving and here to tell you about my internship at Palm Pictures

Palm Pictures HQ Entrance

I have been here almost for three months now, all of them have been unpaid and voluntary, at most I am entitled to watch as many of their DVDs as I like and once my boss bought me lunch which was nice.
It is usual for many graduates in this city to assume that a degree and a hard-working positive attitude will secure them a job right away but this is nit the truth. The majority find that they have to cut their teeth and attain often up to a years worth of unpaid work experience just to be considered for employment when cold-calling and applying for advertised jobs. That is to say that most of them are forced to hold down one or two extra part-time jobs jobs to sustain themselves while they get the important experience working in the field of their choice. It is the hope that somewhere down the line, our hard-working students will have proved their mettle as interns before being seen as a valuable asset that is worth a payroll and full-time wage.

This is the position I find myself in. In fact coming to the end of a three month stint with Palm Pictures where I have been a market researcher, envelope stuffer, data enterer, sales support monkey, video editor, creative writer, newsletter, graphic and website designer. It’s been the first time I’m able to goto work and look forwards to finding out what I will be working on that day. I find myself thriving when there is creative variety.

This is opposed to the times where I have been a kitchen porter, washing the dirty pots and pans for seemingly endless hours. No fun at all. Even my night portering job at the Henley Hotel was a little better but soon became dull with the repetition. I come to the conclusion that variety is very good, repetitive menial labour is very, very un-good. Mmmmm

So let’s show you the office space a lil’, there is is a laid-back corporate feel to the place, no dress code and relaxed working hours and breaks. It was suggested that I turn up for an 11am-7pm which suits me just fine, I really am not a morning person at all. You can take a break any time and grab some food or go outside, they are pretty trusting here that you will get on with your work and produce good results at the end of the day.

Palm Pictures Office Panorama

So here on the 11th floor of 72 Ninth Ave, is the main space for Palm Pictures trusty workers. Cubicled-corporatativeness ahoy. Surrounding this area where us monkeys and chimps work, are the upper el echelon of employees that have their own offices and comfortable sofas. Towards the back there on the left is the ‘Mac Area’ for design work and a Screening Room on the right where we watch movies every Friday with complimentary bagels and orange juice. The office of CEO ‘Chris Blackwell’ is also in that direction. He is the guy who discovered Bob Marley if you’re interested and is always away in exotic places, in fact I have never been introduced to him.

The view is rather stunning, I catch myself staring at it, especially as the sun goes down and the city skyline lights up. Peekaboo Empire State Building

NYC Skyline Sunset

Of note, below us on 4th Floor are Google NY, which is pretty snazzy.

If am am doing officey type tasks like data entry or providing sales support for people with corrupted DVDs then I work at this cubicle here, somehow my cubicle neighbour has wandered into the shot too. She’s is rather fun to have next door with a zaney sense of humour.

Computer Cubicle and Scary Doll of Doom

Lately I have been working on the Macs for much of my time doing various design work and websites, in fact I was put to the task of designing a new rating card for one of our more extreme movies, it got some interest from the blogging communities:

http://thezenspace.blogspot.com/2007/03/mpaa-announces-newest-rating-sfu.html

(watch out for pink extremities)

My latest project is to design a trailer website for our film acquisition ‘Ten Canoes‘. This is probably the most high-profile job I am working on at the moment as it will go onto www.apple.com/trailers when complete.

Here is a sneak preview of the progress:

Ten Canoes Trailer Website Design Preview

So hip, hip hurrah for my internship. It is coming to an end though, in fact tomorrow I talk to my boss to find out about my future there, maybe they would like me as an employee or maybe there is no room for me. All will be revealed tomorrow, I’m quite anxious.

It is always late and dark when I leave the office, often I am one of the last to leave, maybe it is my reluctance of re-entering the Manhattan streets outside and inserting myself back into the brash, real world of stress, hassles, corrupt capitalism, prostituted health care and rapidly draining funds.

Exit