Last summer, I discovered that the city of Boston is home to the Massachusetts Film Office, the office that helps all films shooting in Massachusetts find locations for their films. For the longest time, it did not seem like their office offered internships, and then one day, I discovered it, the treasured “Internship Application” tab on their website!
The interview process was relatively simple, and I had the chance to meet the many wonderful people that work at the Office of Travel and Tourism as well as at the Film Office. I ended up being offered the internship during the interview, and I quickly accepted, and the internship there has made my semester so, so amazing. Essentially, the goal of this blog post is to get other people excited about the Massachusetts Film Office and what they do as well as show you all one of the fantastic opportunities you could have as a film student at BU!
Working at the Massachusetts Film Office (or MFO for short) has given me a huge amount of real world experience that I would not have necessarily received otherwise. At my time with the MFO, I have learned to location scout, which is not necessarily something we get to utilize very frequently for our classes at BU unless you are producing a film. Being able to find locations and photograph them for potential filmmakers to use is a skill that will look very good on a resume, especially since it’s not something everyone has experience with!
At the film office, you’ll be doing a pretty frequent amount of script coverage. This is one of my favorite parts of the internship, as not only does it allow me to read developing projects, but I then get to create a script and location breakdown that could potentially aid in finding the right location for a filmmaker. Script coverage is also something a lot of people end of working with at internships and entry level jobs when they get to LA (from what I’ve heard) so it is definitely valuable experience to have going forward as a Film and Television student.
Many of the skills you learn at the MFO will be related to the job of a producer (pre-production, finding locations, etc). From what I have heard, many internships in Boston are production based, so for those of you looking to get experience with creative producing/pre-production/etc, look no further than the MFO! And for those of you interested in screenwriting, this is also a fantastic opportunity, as being able to consistently read scripts has allowed me to improve my own screenwriting abilities.
What’s even better is that the aforementioned skills I learned in this internship will be especially useful when moving on to other internships and when applying for jobs. As many of you Film and TV students know, internships are competitive, especially in Los Angeles, so any experience is good experience, and I think the things I learned while at the MFO will help me look like a better candidate when I go to LA next semester. You also make a lot of great connections when you intern for a company that has a presence in the film world, and those connections will help you in the future when looking for other opportunities to further yourself in the industry!
