Has this experience been a rewarding one for you? Why or Why not? How has the reality of your internship matched or contrasted with your expectations? What is the most important learning you did during your internship?
My experience at URBN Media has been nothing if not rewarding. Through the weeks I’ve spent inside these walls I have grown immensely as a student, artist, and individual. Working at URBN Media has, possibly, changed the course of my life. Through the people I’ve met and the skills I’ve learned, I have been able to broaden both my perspective and my range of ability. I learned technical skills like using a video camera and editing video footage as well as interpersonal skills such as networking with professionals and navigating shifting office dynamics. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I began at URBN Media, but overall the experience has met and exceeded any expectations I may have had. While the internship has not been as hands-on-in-the-field as I expected, it has rewarded me in other ways. The reality is, not every day is filled with night shoots or drone flying during the Golden Hour: most of the time is spent in the office. And while at any other business that would likely bore me, a day rarely goes by where I am not engaged and enriched by the goings on inside of URBN Media. Everything I have learned is important, but the technical skills that I have acquired will help me significantly in the future. With video shooting and editing skills under my belt, I will have a way of supporting myself that will be more rewarding than bagging groceries or selling clothes. These skills are timeless, and I can continue to develop them after my internship. The possibilities are endless.
What have you seen or experienced in your internship that has inspired you the most on your own artistic journey? Has this experience changed your artistic ambitions? How?
A project came onto the URBN Media radar a few weeks ago that really affirmed my feelings about working as an artist. On the surface, Cold Crush appears to be a bar just like any other in Denver; it takes a second glance to see the vibrant counterculture that lives just beneath its surface. Less than a month ago, a man was shot outside of Cold Crush. It was labeled a public nuisance and shut down. In protest, URBN Media created a PSA honoring Cold Crush and highlighting the diverse community that it serves. Cold Crush is not just a bar, the video says. It’s a family, a community, a culture. As a person who does not fit into the mainstream in many ways, I saw this project as a beacon of hope: it makes me both thankful and proud that URBN Media is fighting to preserve a space that makes so many different types of people feel at home.
Of all the positive influences that URBN Media has had on my journey as an artist, this has resonated with me the most. One of my fears as I chose to use my artistic skills to make a living is that I will lose sight of what I care about. The Cold Crush PSA showed me that the skills I’m learning, both artistic and inartistic, will only make my ability to fight for what’s important stronger. I learned that creative business doesn’t mean selling out, it means putting power behind your art.
How is your internship project going? Describe the progress of your project. How did the conversation about your project go with your sponsor? Did they have good insights into how to improve or expand the project? How does your project bridge what you do at your internship and what you like to create for yourself? Has your relationship with your sponsor evolved as you have engaged in a creative dialogue about your project? Art there any challenges you are experiencing planning or doing your project?
My internship project is going well. My project so far has been a lot of learning. Since I need to acquire the tools I need to create my project, it is still very much in the planning stages. However, I am learning so much to prepare me for the making of my project. The people of URBN Media produce media all day long, so naturally they all have something to teach me concerning my project. My project has helped build the relationship between myself and Fa’al: as I grow more comfortable on editing equipment, his confidence in me grows as well, and I am often left to my own devices on a task. In this way, I have been able to slip into the symbiosis of URBN Media. My project is the perfect bridge between my personal interests and what URBN Media is all about. I am a fine artist at heart: I love portraiture in every medium, but most prominently, photography. Videography and photography are similar in many ways, I have found. Both forms exercise the same parts of my creative mind. My project was originally going to be a short promotional video for URBN Media, but as I start to really flesh it out, the more I see that this may not be as easy as I imagined. Some parts are actually easier than I thought: the editing software is very similar to the programs such as Photoshop that I have used in the past. However, the actual shooting of video may be a larger task than I envisioned. But that’s not to say that I’m not up to a challenge!
You know how they say that if you like what you do you’ll never work a day in your life? I have never seen that more apparent than at URBN Media. Everyone who works at URBN Media lives for their art. Not every day is full of creativity and artistic freedom, as is true for all creative businesses, but it is clear that even on those days the people of URBN Media are living out their dreams.
Working at URBN Media has shown me that a creative business is never easy but always fulfilling. You can’t always do exactly what you want, but that doesn’t mean you’re not doing meaningful work. Unlike personal art, creative business allows you to make connections while doing what you love; working at a creative business has the capacity to get you very involved in your community and expose you to people involved with all different things.
URBN Media has taught me that you really can make your passion your career. All my life I’ve wanted to be an artist, and all my life I have been told that I will never make a decent living as an artist, that if I do, I’m doomed to a life of unsustainability. Up until recently, I was struggling to find an area of study that I was willing to commit my life to that would be a “viable career path.” Up until recently, I believed that the only way to be creative and be successful is to be a fine artist, selling art in galleries. URBN Media has shown me that creative business can satisfy both my financial needs and my artistic needs.
How do people at work treat you? How does it make you feel? If you have in intern one day will you treat them the same? What have you learned so far from your co-workers and sponsor?
As time progresses and I get to know the people at my internship better, my relationships with them have grown significantly. While I used to feel a bit out of place in the URBN Media family, I now feel like I have a place in both the workflow and the community. A rhythm has been established: I come in and I know more or less how to proceed with my day. I am treated more like an equal at URBN Media, I can see that they are coming to trust me and I am very grateful for that.
This week, for example, I did an entire video project for a client almost completely on my own. The client was coincidentally a friend of mine, so we were able to work together amicably and efficiently on the project, completing a ≈18 minute short film in a little over two days. This project really pushed me to learn how to use the Adobe Premiere editing software on my own: with only a few questions about technical details, I assembled the project from video footage and old photo scans, independently. For most of those two days, everyone else at URBN Media was either busy working on their own project or simply not around. This forced me to problem solve on my own, which I believe will help me in the future.
If I have an intern in the future, I will base my treatment of that intern largely off of my experience at URBN Media. I feel like the people at URBN Media have created a balance where I feel free to ask questions and learn everything that everyone has to offer, but at the same time I feel like I am a part of the community as an artist.
How do you feel like your internship is going so far? What are the highlights and the “lowlights”? Do you feel like you are making connections with your co-workers? What can you do to improve your experience?
My internship has been an extremely informative and invigorating experience. I have learned so much about the ins and outs of being an entrepreneur (not including how to spell entrepreneur). My internship has revealed the good, the bad, and the ugly about this way of life, for which I am so grateful. The highlights of my experience so far has most definitely been my internship project. I feel like this project will really allow me to show URBN Media my abilities as an artist. While I don’t question their faith in me as an intern, I am excited to be able to relate to them on a creative level. I believe that my project will help to build connections between myself and them.
The lowlights of my experience are few and far between. Periodically, no one at URBN Media has a job for me, so at times I end up with what feels like a remedial task. That being said, I always feel like I’m contributing to the work environment, even when there is nothing major for me to do. At times, I have time to work on whatever I need to, and even at these times I don’t feel out of place working independently. I believe my experience will continue to improve as my relationships with my coworkers develop. I will start to collaborate closely with my sponsor as my internship project develops, and I am very excited to learn from him directly.
What are you responsible for at your workplace? What do you think is your main contribution to your work site? What do your day to day duties look like?
At URBN Media, I have taken on the role of assistant. I don’t have a set of ‘daily duties,’ per say, more of a list of people to ask for tasks. I often end up with things to do that, while not vital to the function of the business, make everyone’s jobs easier. I am an extra set of hands for whoever happens to be in the office that day. It is in this way that I am able to contribute my skills and assets to the environment.
This week, I started my internship project. Or rather, I started gathering the tools to start my internship project. This week I was introduced to the video editing program Final Cut Pro. Celia walked me through her creative process in order to give me a sense of how to go about thinking like a videographer, and I have found that my own skills in photography will be very applicable. As I played around with the software, creating a mockup of what I wanted my final product to look like, I found that Final Cut Pro was not as scary of a program as I had imagined. My familiarity with Photoshop made learning Final Cut Pro relatively intuitive. Despite this, I still have some time to go before I am ready to really begin my project. I have to learn how to use actual video equipment, which will most likely prove to be more of a challenge. Regardless, I am excited for the coming weeks when I am able to continue to build upon my knowledge and learn to really think like a videographer.
How do your actions affect your workplace? Do you contribute positively? How do your co-workers’ actions affect your internship? Which co-workers are you connecting with?
URBN Media is a company that allows for its employees to function both as individuals and as a team. My job as the intern is to essentially to bolster the work of my co-workers. The people at URBN Media are dedicated to their work, and I am able to positively contribute to the environment by doing the simple, yet imperative tasks. For example, this week I spent a day at URBN Media reaching out to people on Linkedin, and found Carlos three prospective clients. Earlier in the week I attended an event part of the Denver Startup Week as a liaison for URBN Media. URBN Media does its best to cater to each of its employees’ strengths, and these assignments are perfect examples of things that are important to the success of URBN Media, yet designed perfectly for an intern. Though my co-workers do designate my jobs, there is no sense of hierarchy between them and me. I feel respected as an artist and a person, despite being subordinate. I feel like I am connecting with all of the major members of URBN Media, but in the past week, I have connected especially with Carlos. I cannot say that I know exactly where I am going in life, but I can say that if I end up where Carlos is, I will be happy. He operates his business in both Spanish and English, which is something I would love to be able to do in the future. Ultimately, the week has been fruitful.
What was the best thing that happened this week at your internship? How did it make you feel? What else makes you excited about your internship?
The second week of my internship has been an eye-opening experience for me. URBN Media is made up of entrepreneurs, and for the first week of my internship, I was seeing their lives through rose-tinted glasses. The best thing that happened to me this week was also the worst. I walked into URBN Media on Wednesday to a room unsettled. In my absence, an obstacle had thrown itself in front of URBN Media’s road to prosperity; URBN Media was going to have to find a new location. The conversation that unfolded before me as I silently entered data into a spreadsheet gave me a new perspective. I learned that staying afloat as a young business is not as easy as one would expect. The parents of URBN Media created everything they have from nothing, and in the face of danger, it was easy to slip into as mindset of flight-or-fight. But as I watched the three pillars of URBN Media — Fa’al, Carlos, and Celia — brainstorm solutions, I saw the resourceful, methodical thinking that has made these three successful. Watching this situation caused me to feel many things, but most predominantly, I felt pride. My first week at URBN Media showed me that entrepreneurship is a valid path, that it can be unbelievably satisfying. My second week has shown me that it isn’t all as easy as it seems, and to be successful in this field, you have to be prepared to have the rug pulled out from under you at any time. I am proud of Fa’al, Carlos, and Celia, because they aren’t going to let one problem tear them apart, both as a company and as a family. I’m excited to see how these issues will be solved, and I’m excited to be part of the solving.
What did you learn from your internship? Did anything surprise you? Who did you meet and what do they do? Did you engage in any codeswitching?
URBN Media is a place like no other. URBN Media is more than a co-working space: it is a family, and I feel honored to have been invited to be a part of this family. In my first week of working there, URBN Media has accepted me with open arms. In my first week, URBN Media has taught me more than I ever expected to learn. I’ve learned technical skills: how to upload to and manage a YouTube account, how to navigate LinkdIn, and the various ins and outs of Craigslist. These experiences forced me to engage in codeswitching. I learned to tailor my, as well as URBN Media’s, online presence to attract the people that will, in Celia’s words, vibe the best. I learned — and I am continuing to learn — about life as an up-and-coming entrepreneur. This led me to the most important discovery of this week: when I sit in URBN Media and watch everyone do their thing, I can’t help but think, “this is where I see myself.” I’ve always known that I wanted to find a creative career, but I never thought to make one. As I sit at my computer watching the people around me work, I see that this is more than a job: this is their lives. This came as a surprise, I have never seen anyone so involved, so committed to what they do. The people at URBN Media live and breathe their work, and I aspire to do the same.
Let me introduce you to the members of the URBN Media family that I have met. First, there’s Fa’al. He and Celia (you’ll meet her next) are the mother and father of URBN Media, which I say tentatively since there is no feeling of hierarchy in the space. If I were to pin Fa’al down to one label, I would say he is a media creator. He loves his cameras and his son with all of his heart. Next, there’s Celia. She is a woman of straightforward (yet undoubtedly creative) logic and hair spun by angels. She does everything from branding to web development, but if I had to label her, she would be the behind-the-scenes specialist. Carlos is the third member of URBN Media. He is very business oriented, very methodical. What I appreciate about Carlos is the way his cultural background has influenced and bolstered his career; he operates his business in both English and Spanish. My fourth and final major acquaintance at URBN Media is David: the web designer and photographer. My brief interactions with David have shown me that he is incredibly smart and incredibly efficient. Everyone at URBN Media has an individual skill set that both overlaps and stands alone such that they all function together seamlessly.