This summer, I interned at Serious Grip & Electric as a Shop Intern with Ryan Gallo, the Rental Manager, as my supervisor.
As described on their website, Serious is “a user-friendly grip and lighting rental house… We are standing by, awaiting your call to go on location, work hard, and have some fun.”
I sought this internship because of my brief but helpful experiences with the company and its very positive reputation with local filmmakers. My typical day involves pulling/loading/unloading orders, checking equipment function, doing inventory on the trucks, and learning something new everyday!
The experience at Stevenson that has helped my most at Serious is my part-time employment as a School of Design Studio Assistant. That job pulls on knowledge learned in classes about grip/electric/camera equipment and compounds it with the function of a rental house. Still, on-set experiences in production-based classes have been incredibly helpful, too.
This internship, and all the things that led me to it, has taught me just how vital collaboration is in this industry. On set, that is a given, but it applies in every other part of it too. If not for the knowledge and opportunities that my upperclassmen shared with me, I would have never have gotten to where I am. Within the internship, I do most of my learning by asking for help from other employees of Serious. Everyone who has taken the time to share knowledge with me or collaborated with me has been critical to my success at this internship and in this industry. My advice for anyone looking for film-based internships is to never be afraid to ask for help.
