Film 4495F/G Film Academic Internship

This course was instituted to provide students with the opportunity to put theory into practice: to obtain University credit for volunteer employment in a film or media related field. Third or fourth year students enrolled in a honours, major or specialization in Film Studies, who have a modular average of 75% are eligible for an internship within an approved media-related organization. The student must find a faculty supervisor willing to oversee and grade his/her final paper.

How

Interested students will find an instructor in the department willing to supervise their internship. It is the student’s responsibility to find an appropriate internship and complete the internship contract. The Internship supervisor will work with interested and qualified students to find a placement, and together with the workplace supervisor, to define a work project that benefits the workplace while developing the skills of the student. The proposal is judged according to the position's relevancy to Film Studies and the educational benefit it might provide.

Duration

Each internship is held for a period of one academic term, 13 weeks for a Fall or Winter course and 6 weeks for a summer course. Students are limited to two internships during the course of their studies at Western. The student is expected to work an average of 5 to 10 hours a week for an internship during the Fall or Winter term, and 10-20 hours during the Summer term.

Evaluation

The internship must be an unpaid position. The assigning of a grade will be done by the Faculty Supervisor and is based on the student’s monthly reports and a final report. Other components of the grade could include an interview with the student or an evaluation provided by the employer.

Student responsibilities

Once the student's position has been judged acceptable for credit, the student will provide the employer with the evaluation form which the employer will fill out at the conclusion of the student's posting. The student will also need to keep a journal which records daily activities related to the position which will serve as the basis for the reports the student will submit at the end of each month to the Internship Supervisor. These reports should be around 2 to 3 pages in length. At the end of the posting, the student will provide a more substantial report of about 5 to 8 pages, describing the work experience in terms of its positive and negative aspects, and some of the lessons learned through the work experience.