Learning on the job

SYLVAIN-JACQUES DESJARDINS | Marlo Miazga says the best way to learn is on the job and her internship with a documentary film production company last summer taught her things she just couldn't learn from books. "(Interning) was a fantastic experience," says Miazga, who graduated last year from the cultural studies program in the Department of English. She is one of about 60 students from the program who, over the past five years, have apprenticed in their field thanks to efforts by the University's Centre for Research on Canadian Cultural Industries and Institutions (CRCCII). "Universities do not believe it is up to them to help students get jobs," says communications professor Will Straw, CRCCII's director. Straw agrees that supplying students with a first-rate education is job one, but believes universities should also look for ways to lend students a helping hand on the employment front. "The internship program was created to help build bridges between the department and filmmakers." The centre funds many of the eight-week summer internships it secures for about a dozen students at the end of their studies (since many of the organizations that take in McGill interns are small and can't afford their $7 hourly wages). Straw notes the CRCCII typically solicits smaller companies for internships because they often provide students with more responsibilities and a wider variety of assignments than they might have at larger firms. And possessing versatile experience always looks good on a résumé, he adds, "since people with arts degrees often find it difficult to find employment after graduation." Internships, Miazga agrees, are an excellent way to gain experience. And, she says, they can also help students determine if their field of study is as fulfilling as they imagined before actually working in their métier. "You can be quite green when you finish your studies," she says. "My internship allowed me to search out different paths that I wanted to take in my career, and those not to take, which can be just as important." While interning at Necessary Illusions Productions (NIP), a three-person documentary film company, Miazga had a chance to do research and film publicity. She also assisted the directors of a NIP documentary film called The Quebec-Canada Complex, televised by the CBC last January. After her internship, Miazga stayed on at NIP as a part-time employee and found other employment, on a contractual basis, as a music video editor for another local company. Peter Wintonick, a NIP producer-director, says his company will hire another intern this summer, because internships offer emerging filmmakers an effective way to make contacts and gain tangible job experience. "It helps give them a chance to find work as we did when we came out of school," he says, adding most interns are eager to learn. "We're also helping to save their souls from working on big- budget commercial films," he adds, laughing. "And we like to hire interns because we never know, they might be hiring us when we're out of work." Monica Mak, who will graduate from cultural studies this June, was also hired part-time after completing her internship last summer with Morag Productions, a documentary film company where she did mostly office work. "This internship gave me a realistic look at all that goes into producing a film," she says. "Studies are just a base and until you actually put what you learn into practice, it remains theory." Some of the notable organizations that have participated in the CRCCII's internship program over the years include CKUT, McGill's campus radio station, the Toronto International Film Festival and Alliance Communications.