BBG Junior Program is a 6-month program in which 10 participants are learning more of filmmaking by attending different lectures, visits to multiple production houses and working part-time as interns with the Gang. Each participant gets to focus on a specific area of production or gather knowledge overall in projects and departments during this time. All participants attend 10 + lectures of production process, work safety and basic duties of assistants in the field. Besides these, they’ll be joining our teams for approx. 5-10 days in our office and 5-10 days in film / commercial / TV shoots.
This blog post is written and photographed by our Juniors
Last Saturday marked the last lecture day for this spring’s Juniors. As always, the day was packed with learning and great conversations.
First on the agenda was Iiris’ thorough lecture about her work as an 1st Assistant Director. In addition to telling us the hard facts, she challenged us with tricky cases from her career. She asked us: “Facing a situation like this, what would you have done?” This exercise gave us some more perspective on the kinds of challenges 1st ADs regularly face on the job.
Next up was our second LinkedIn workshop in this program. It was time to get everyone’s profile to reflect their professional growth during this spring. It was super helpful to have your profile looked over by another person.
After a well-deserved lunch break we split into pairs for a thought-provoking exercise on communication. We alternated the role of listener and teller. It was enlightning to hear how you were percieved by the listener based on your body language etc.
We ended the day looking at the results of a feedback survey about the program which was sent to Juniors. The thoughtful conversation gave everyone a chance to voice their opinion and to evaluate their actions and experience. The valuable feedback will also be put to use when our mentors Emma and Iiris plan out the upcoming Junior Program Fall 2019 edition.
One of our Juniors, Anttoni, described his experience: “So the program is ending. It’s making me kind of emotional because this has been an important and a very useful thing considering my plans and hopes for the future. I really have enjoyed this spring and learning with and from these beautiful people and I look forward to working with all these people in the future.”
Still to come is our elegant graduation party / BBG’s 5-year birthday which will take place later this month.
BBG Junior Program will be back next fall when new participants will gain knowledge and experience needed in this ever-changing industry.
Outi BBG Junior Program Participant 2019
Learn more about Outi:
“I recently graduated from Tampere University of Applied Sciences where I studied in the degree program of Film and TV. I majored in production and screenwriting. This spring I have attended Blockbusters Gang’s Junior Program, which has given me the tools to start my professional career off on the right foot. I have gained a lot of new contacts from the field and learned what’s needed to become a better production freelancer.
In the media industry I am most interested in good content, taking care of teams and humans while learning to work in an entrepreneurial way”.