Brian Storm is the President of MediaStorm, a multimedia producing studio based in Brooklyn, New York.

VS: What are the expectations of your interns? Have those expectations changed over the years?

Storm: “I’ve been working with interns since the mid 90s and have always had the same goals:

- I want to find people with whom I can build long term relationship
- I want to expose them to an environment that is about passion, purpose and a love of the craft
- I want to learn from them and their fresh perspective

At MediaStorm, our interns are expected to be able to work both independently and collaboratively as part of a small team. They need to be inquisitive and willing to step out of their comfort zones. They need to care about the work that we do.”

VS: How is your internship structured?

Storm: “We receive hundreds of applications for our internships. Jessica Stuart looks at every applicant in detail.

The structure of our internships varies based on the specific skills of the intern. We have producers who focus on creating cinematic narratives in Final Cut Pro and Interactive Designers who work on both design and code. We have the interns partner up with our existing team at the start of the internship and hopefully by the end they are working independently. We look at our internships as collaborative experiences- we want to teach them and help them grow, but we also want to bring in people with complementary skills so that we can learn from them as well.

At MediaStorm, we’ve had three super talented interns – Tim McLaughlin, Tim Hussin and Alba Mora-Roca who everyone called Tim as well. We have a fourth intern, Maisie Crow, starting in mid September.

The Tim’s both created Behind the Scenes pieces about our workshops during their internships and all of them have been heavily involved in projects working closely with producers Eric Maierson and Bob Sacha.”

MediaStorm workshop participants reflect on the seven days they spent working with MediaStorm to document, edit and produce a multimedia story. Watch it at: http://mediastorm.org/workshops_0008.htm

VS: How have you been able to keep your internship from being cut? What value do you place on your interns and the opportunity to offer internships?

Storm: “We haven’t cut the internships because it’s a mutually beneficial experience. We see interns as part of our organization and hope to create an important stepping-stone for their future in multimedia journalism.

One of our goals is to help usher in the next generation of multimedia storytellers. Interns are total digital natives, but often need some seasoning in the storytelling process and that’s really our passion at MediaStorm.

Bottom line, we love the profession and want to help see it grow. The more skilled practitioners we have in the industry, the more quality multimedia work we will see and the better people will understand the complex stories of our world.”

VS: Can you talk about how you were influenced or shaped as an intern/young professional?

Storm: “My first real experience with quality journalism came in 1993 when I started my graduate work in photojournalism at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. I think at that time, there wasn’t a better place to learn about visual journalism. I was inspired not only from the professors, but also from the students in the program.

At 24, immediately after graduate school, I went to work at MSN News, which a year later turned into MSNBC.com. I spent 7 years there working with some of the absolute best people in the business.”

VS: What have you learned from interns?

Storm: “They ask good questions. They want to know the essence of how and why we do the things that we do. You never really know something until you have to teach it, to articulate the how and why.

We pretty much throw them right into the fire and expect them to work on real world projects. Each of our interns has helped shape the narrative and voice of our projects.

They also usually know where the good parties are in the city.”

VS: In the past, candidates have been passed over, or selected interns have been let go from their positions, because of conduct during or prior to the internship (i.e. legal, ethical or professional). What expectations for professional conduct do you place on candidates and interns that you select?

Storm: “We expect our interns to uphold journalistic ethical standards. We haven’t had any problems in this area. I don’t think they’d want to answer to Jessica.”

VS: What is the deadline for your internship and how long does it last?

Storm: MediaStorm offers paid and/or class credit internships throughout the year in areas of design, animation, motion graphics, programming and production.
Internship Application Deadlines are:
February 15 – Summer Internship (May – August)
June 15 – Fall Internship (September – December)
October 15 – Spring Internship (February – April)

More information at: http://mediastorm.org/about/careers.htm

VS: What is the address for application to your internship? How do you prefer to be contacted?

Storm: “Please send email with resume, references and cover letter (discussing why you want to intern at MediaStorm and what you hope to get out of the experience) to care...@mediastorm.org

Please include:
- Links to pieces you’ve produced/collaborated on (please indicate role in each)
- Available start/end dates
- Hours/week available
- For Multimedia Producers: Familiarity with Final Cut Pro, SoundTrack Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Aperture,
- For Interactive Designers: Familiarity with Flash, After Effects, Motion, CSS, XML PHP, etc.”