Intern Diaries: Gabriela at Miami

For some, summertime doesn’t mean downtime. It’s just another opportunity to travel, get an internship or otherwise move up in the world. But since you can’t do it all, INsite tracked down a handful of students in places from Thailand to Miami, New York to Paris. Every week, we share their experiences with you. Last week, you read about Jillian in Washington, DC. This week, we bring you Gabriela in Miami.

For the last two and a half weeks, I’ve been in Miami, working on video projects at The Miami Herald. At arrival, I was placed with Herald Studios, which does weekly business, entertainment and special interest shows. Since I got here, I’ve been editing, editing, editing.

Only two weeks in, and already I’ve been involved in various video projects. One of the largest so far has been the 30-year anniversary of the Mariel Boatlift. A colleague and I set up a booth at the Cuba Nostalgia festival where we video-interviewed 17 Marielitos (people who arrived to Miami via the boatlift). It was awesome to hear their stories of the dangerous trip from Cuba to Miami, escaping communism. We even spoke to a woman who was born on the boat en route to Miami! From these interviews, we have produced (and are continuing to produce) several videos that are being posted on a special Mariel section of the website.

On another assignment, I was able to accompany a Herald reporter to video-interview Connie Francis, one of the lead female vocalists of the 50s and 60s. Her 1960s film, Where the Boys Are, deemed Ft. Lauderdale as a popular vacation spot. Throughout her career, she has severely struggled with mental illness, and that was the focus of our video.

A videographer usually sits down to edit a video by him or herself, but with the Connie Francis video, that wasn’t the case. The reporter (and my superior) whom I had gone on the assignment with, who doesn’t have experience with shooting and editing video, stayed with me for three hours putting together the final piece. Although he didn’t know some of the standard, unwritten rules of video editing (and the piece didn’t turn out exactly how I had envisioned), I appreciated his interest/concern/teamwork.

It may sound cheesy, but I think the best part of my internship so far has been working closely with the Herald Studios team. I’ve been learning first-hand that two minds are better than one, and four are better than two. That’s how things work in the real world. It’s not about the credits, or about who did what. It’s about making the final product the best it could possibly be.

-Gabriela Izarra

Just in case you’ve missed any, here’s the complete series (as of yet):

• Jillian’s top 10 list of things to do in Washington, DC.
• Meghan’s adventures in Rome.
• Lane’s account of Paris.
• Allison’s excavation adventures.
• Sarah’s intern experience/self-doubts/panic attacks.

Return to the INsite website here.