How about an INTERNSHIP in ANIMATION?

School of the Museum of Fine Arts: Artist Resource Center
http://www.smfa.edu/Student_Life/Professional_Development/Index.asp
A link listing for sites and information on jobs, internships and arts related resources.

The SMFA ARC Internships
• available to students enrolled in the Diploma, BFA, BFA in Art Education, and
• Combined-Degree programs.
• To receive college credit, you must formally register for an ARC internship.
• Registered internships require a time commitment of “60 contact hours” for each credit earned.
• An internship provider will need to provide an SMFA specified contract.

Why an internship?
An internship is incredibly valuable because it is like learning “on the job.” It is most only available while you are still a registered student. If you pursue a formal internship you will receive college credit as well as on-the-job training. Sometimes these positions can help you form professional connections that will assist you in the job hunting later on.

Paid or Not Paid?
A college-credit based internship will most likely not involve pay, or very minimal pay.
A post-graduation internship (very unusual) will sometimes offer pay, but low pay.
It’s up to you to decide if the experience sounds worth the effort.

What kinds of internships are there?
Some are actual production based and some are more general production assistant based. The latter means that you might do anything from filing papers to picking up lunches, to something animation related.
Some kinds of internships are very rigorous and are kind of like going to school. Pixar’s internship program is like this.
You need to ask the company internship liaison about the position description.

When hunting for an internship, you are supplying some very basic materials such as any job hunter might provide.

1) a résumé
2) a cover letter specifying your area of interest; includes your contact info
3) a portfolio (samples of traditional hand skills)
4) demo reel with a shot breakdown and maybe also slates on each shot. Include head and tail slates with your name, phone and email.

The shot breakdown briefly describes your contribution to each shot and the tools used.
Shot Breakdown Example: Shot 1: Witch Melting — animated the witch melting using Maya; created the textures using Photoshop. If you did everything on your reel, say so. Never claim anyone else’s work.

The internship provider knows that you are a student and they are not expecting you to provide a professionally accomplished resume or demo reel. But, make it look its best without overstating your qualifications.

See some good examples of cover letters here:
SCAD

Everything you submit should be labeled clearly with your name, phone number and email address.


WHO OFFERS INTERNSHIPS?

Individual, cool animation filmmakers?
Well, maybe. Some do, and if they are looking, they’re most likely advertising by word-of-mouth instead of in a trade website. In this instance, choose to work with a particular person because you respect their work and want to learn something about them and their process.

Small studios are more likely to give you a real handful of interesting things to do. Finding these smaller studios is the harder part. Here are some examples:

FableVision
Busy MA animation studio looking for interns in 2009!

Soup2Nuts
a very busy studio doing tv shows. Located in Watertown, MA.

Curious Pictures is a good example of this kind of small, diverse studio. A very creative “medium-sized” commercial animation studio in NY.

Animation Collective
Hires LOTS of recent grads and others. Located in NY.

What about major studios?
Generally, this will most likely be administrative style internships. Lots of taking notes, helping file, etc, but having a chance to watch the studio at work. Examples:

DreamWorks
have internship descriptions in “company info” section

Pixar
have a very rigorous and good internship program. Very competitive!

Disney
Professional education-style program.

Blue Sky Studios

Lucas Films


These links are to sites that regularly post information:

Animation World Network – online magazine
http://www.awn.com main page
http://jobs.awn.com/ page for jobs, internships. Do a job “keyword search” to help sort out all the stuff.

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
http://www.emmys.tv/foundation/internships.php
http://www.emmys.tv/foundation/internshipcategories.php

MTV Internships
https://jobhuntweb.viacom.com/jobhunt/main/internships.asp
http://www.onedayoneinternship.com/internships/mtv-networks/

What about when I get there?
Savannah College of Art and Design has info for HOUSING, for when you travel the country for your internship



JOB & INTERNSHIP LISTING SITES
Some of these are paid sites, some are free.

New England Film

Reel Jobs NY (mayor's office, city of NY listings)

Get That Gig

Intern Jobs

InternWeb

College Recruiter

The Film, TV & Commercial Employment Network

Mandy’s International Film and Television Production Directory

Media-Match

Maslow Media

Hollywood Creative Directory
(also hosts a job list)

ShowBiz Jobs

Independent Film Productions
Jobs and classifieds under the “Networking Center” link.

Entertainment Jobs

Entertainment Careers

Crew Calls - Jobs

Disney Jobs

Crew411.com