A Collaborative and Creative Experience at PBS

By Dean’s Intern Molly Page at PBS

After spending this past summer at PBS Headquarters as their Multi-platform Production and Content Intern, I can confidently say that my skills and knowledge within the film industry have soared far beyond my expectations, and I’ve gained an incredible amount of experience that I am immensely grateful for.

Almost immediately upon starting at PBS, it became very clear to me that this internship was not your typical internship: there was no such thing as doing busy work, getting coffee for superiors, doing random administrative tasks, etc. Instead, I was given a full plate of producing projects, assisting the head Multi-platform Producers with creating show pages and deliverables, negotiating with streaming services, and producing my own set of programming client shows at PBS with all of the tasks that entailed (including fixing, editing, and/or creating show logos, previews, and extended trailers; writing show copy; uploading episodes to streaming sites after performing thorough QA; communicating with outside production studios and producers, etc.). However, being that PBS is an immensely collaborative and creative environment, my day-to-day tasks were not limited to producing – I also was fortunate enough to work on several other projects, including fully managing and running PBS Arts’ online and social media presence; interviewing filmmakers, editing video assets, and creating promotional material for the 2019 PBS Online Film Festival; working alongside PBS KIDS content creators in the animation and video game design realms; and assisting documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and his PBS team on producing the “Country Music PBS” website for his upcoming film.

Perhaps the greatest surprise during my time at PBS was our impromptu intern visit to WETA’s station, where we were offered the chance to sit down, ask questions, and talk thoroughly with the head host of PBS’ NewsHour, Judy Woodruff, and international correspondent Nick Schifrin, while also getting to go through a mock-broadcast in the NewsHour studio, in which we learned how the lighting, camera, and broadcast teams all function together for a live news broadcast recording.

Overall, my time has been absolutely wonderful at PBS, and I wish that I never had to leave!