Check out my last post for background on my internship at Shanghai-based creative agency NeochaEDGE.
I just completed my internship at NeochaEDGE last Monday. I'd been working there for a little over three months, and overall it was a refreshing and positive learning experience for me.
From my very first day at NeochaEDGE, my job has been to edit and touch-up posts on the English NeochaEDGE site, which runs on WordPress. In the beginning, this work was interesting. Each post I had to edit featured a few photos of fresh work from a certain artist, and a short description about that artist. As I worked, I loved seeing the art and reading the accompanying descriptions; some of it was really cool. However, after the first month or so of this routine, the work began to, at times, grow tedious. For hours every day, I was putting commas inside quotation marks, correcting grammar, and so on. It was still interesting and cool to see the content of the posts, and my boss was very flexible with deadlines, so I never felt stressed about it even at its most repetitious.
My favorite moments at NeochaEDGE were the times they assigned me tasks away from the computer. A little over a month ago, NeochaEDGE, for instance, started shooting a stop-motion animation for the GAP. They needed a ton of clothing from GAP for the shoot, and had to transfer equipment from the NeochaEDGE studio to the studio where shooting was taking place. They needed all the help that they could get, so I was assigned to go pick up clothes from the GAP, run equipment from studio to studio, and so on. The director, Anthony, once asked me to help him look up some music that might go with the theme of the shoot, and even let me help him move the clothes around on the canvas for the video. It was a fun break in the routine for me, going to help out at the GAP shoot once a week or so. The most exciting part was seeing and being a part of the shooting of the stop-motion video.
My second to last day was totally dedicated to going to the studio and helping Anthony shoot. I pressed the button on the camera hovering over a canvas as he moved a skateboard frame-by-frame below. Then he had me move the skateboard while he took shots. Flipping through the end result on his $15,000 canon was amazing; the shots looked great. My time at the GAP shoot is by far the highlight of my experience at NeochaEDGE.
From the beginning, I hoped that I'd be able to play an active role in the creative process somehow, and with all the work I was assigned related to the GAP shoot, I was able to do that. That was something that was really important to me, and it made my really happy that I was able to be a part of it.
All in all, it was a work experience unlike any I've ever had before. The office space itself was just amazing; it was a work of art in itself. And the work environment was very relaxed and accommodating, moreso than at any office job I've ever had before. My boss Adam was always very courteous and kind to me, as were the rest of my co-workers. The posts really did have some amazing pieces; NeochaEDGE is an amazing company, and they do truly amazing work. I'm glad I got to be a part of it, and got to help them out for the short amount of time that I did.