Executive Summary

Rebecca Faith Rinker
Summer Internship


Introduction

Rutan Productions
503 Bridge Street, Suite 12
New Cumberland, PA 17070

Supervisor:
Chip Rutan
President and CEO, Rutan Productions

Learning Objectives:

To work as a producer on television and promotional video, taking on problems as they arise on set and coming up with creative solutions.

To write project proposals for clients, including coming up with several ideas from scratch and pitching them to the clients, then writing the finalized idea into a script.

To write audio/visual scripts for TV spots and web-based promotional videos that will fit the needs of the client and time allotted while being creative/interesting, upbeat, and sharing the most important information.

Work/Projects

As an intern at Rutan Productions, I got to experience every aspect of production, starting from an inintial client meeting through conceptualization to scripting, shooting, and editing.  I wrote scripts for television spots; acted as an on-set manager for shoots, making sure we got all the shots we needed while interacting with clients, crew members, and interviewees; I conducted interviews for testimonials; I acted as a grip/production assistant, setting up lights, changing batteries, switching camera lenses, putting gels on lights, carrying equipment, and giving opinions on shots.  I also wrote out project proposals and concept ideas.  I helped maintain the office and I did daily tasks as assigned, such as putting DVDs in sleeves, writing out music cue sheets, looking for royalty-free songs for videos, and more.

Learning
Provide specific examples of what you learned.
Future Plans

This internship has been an amazing learning experience for me, but it's also thrown me head-first into the field of professional video.  It's stressful and exciting to me.  Since this internship marks the end of my undergraduate career, it's come at a very pivotal time.  I have begun applying to full-time jobs in my field.  Luckily, writing scripts is something I have gained skill in, and that's a great place to start as a media professional.  I want to continue working as a writer, but I also want to keep working as a producer.  I worked as a lower-level producer at Rutan.  My boss, Chip, was the main producer for most projects because he is the one with the client history: He meets with them and the clients know and trust him, so he usually is the one who sets up the details for a project.  I would love to do that.  I enjoyed meeting with clients and I have a knack for connecting with most people quickly.


Explain how this experience has impacted your future plans for study and work.  Revisit the first reflective paper and
detail what you have accomplished regarding new competencies you identified, or what you still need to develop.

Preparation/Recommendations

The production classes that I have taken at Messiah were most helpful, but it had been a while since I had worked directly with much of the equipment that I used at my internship, and it would have been nice to go into a production internship with more production experience.  The type of writing I did at Rutan was much different than any writing I had worked on at Messiah in the film department, but that's because it was broadcasting.  I am wishing that I had taken a few broadcasting classes and other types of media writing classes.  Messiah and Temple classes helped me become a strong narrative script writer, but I was thrown into the world of broadcast writing with little background.  I think it would be helpful to advise film students to take some broadcasting classes.  Often, we want to separate film and broadcasting, but the industry does overlap.