Co-op student takes bold approach to internship
Cassie Gill, SFU communication, 310.924.1980, csg@sfu.ca
Dixon Tam, SFU PAMR, 778.782.8742, dixont@sfu.ca
(Note: Cassie Gill is a Vancouver resident.)
Many co-op students reach for the stars when searching for their dream internship, but the stars Cassie Gill had in mind weren’t in the sky. The fourth-year Simon Fraser University communication student went looking for TV stars in California and landed herself a job with the soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful.
“I’ve known that I wanted to do an entertainment-related internship in Los Angeles for about three years, so it was a fair amount of research and pre-planning. The two areas that interested me the most were entertainment news shows and soap operas,” says Gill.
The internship counts as credit towards the SFU communication co-op program and Gill is simultaneously doing correspondence classes. She started with the soap opera last September and plans on remaining in Los Angeles until at least June. If all goes well, Gill hopes to stay on through to August.
“Interning with The Bold and the Beautiful relates to many of the concepts I’ve been exposed to through SFU’s communication program, particularly with regards to public relations, production, and new media,” Gill explains.
“The topics of daytime television caught my attention in a few undergrad courses and has led me to work the topic into a few papers over the years. For that reason, I was fairly well researched on the soap opera genre before starting here.”
A typical day for Gill and the other interns is spent in the show’s production office and on the set. They assist the production coordinator with directors and actors and – like many interns – do whatever is necessary to get the job done. A fun experience Gill had was producing some behind-the-scenes content to facilitate a live stream of The Bold and the Beautiful’s 6,000th episode celebration.
“One thing I’ve learned is that every job in our office counts. From photocopying scripts to doing runs – interns are a big part of keeping our well-oiled machine going,” she says.
But the most exciting opportunity so far was being an extra in an episode, something Gill will never forget.
“I’m not an actor, so I definitely had to pay attention during blocking (setting up for a scene) and rehearsal to know what my marks were. It was exciting to watch the episode when it aired,” she says.
Gill graduates this fall and plans on returning to pursue her dream career in the City of Angels.
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