Why is Manta problematic?

Usually doing leads is pretty easy, just click the link, do your research, get your information, repeat.  However, when Manta decides to be annoying, it gets a little more complicated.  Today, for instance, if your list had multiple pages, Manta refused to go past the first page, so longer lists were pretty much impossible to do today.  Luckily, Laura came to the rescue!  A new technique for finding leads, where we basically just started from one business in a town, Google mapped it, and look around the map for more businesses.  Took awhile to adjust, but once I found my groove (by starting from the center point business and spiraling out) it turned out to be more interesting and less monotonous than using Manta.
We also had another epic intern meeting with Ron, where we learned about Joseph's Team, which is an autism group, and how they have comedy shows that the interns can volunteer to help with.  We also learned about resume building, and the importance of targeted resumes rather than general ones.  The easiest way to keep up the resumes being what Ron calls "modulating," or making lists of everything we've done, boxing up each individual thing to keep it easy to change up the resume when need be.
I also reworked one of my posters a bit:

Makes it seem a little darker and scary, but my text is still an issue I need to work on, but as soon as I'm happy with the text I think this poster will be completed.

Hello again

Not much to report today about yesterday, did more leads as always.  Though in our intern meeting, we did discuss a new project, collecting contact information for high schools, junior high schools, police and fire departments and hospitals to try to get Becca doing some anti-bullying presentations.  Seems easy enough so far, though I'm still only on my first town.
I also learned about the fanart that we can do for Becca, which doesn't seem like that difficult a thing to do, I just never thought of it.  Already have an idea in my head for a piece, will post some pics as soon as I get it out of my head and into an image.

What I've been up to

So last week, as always, we worked a bit more on leads, and then were split up into groups to do some research on a few different things.  In my group, we researched kickstarter.com to see if it had any potential for the One Night Stand campaign, which it turns out, it didn't.  Kickstarter requires that a project have a definite goal and end, and that an actual product be made from it.  It does not allow charity or cause funding, so that kind of automatically means it won't allow this particular campaign.  After that, we worked on learning more about crowdfunding on the Music Think Tank blog, which gave us a lot of in depth information to work with. 

I also got an idea for a new anti bullying poster -- kind of going along the rather morbid lines of school shootings, taking it from the perspective of a first person shooter video game.  The wording needs work, but my general idea is to talk about how 'experts' blame video games for the violence, but that most students say school shootings are motivated by the desire for revenge against bullies.  Soon as I have a rough draft, I will post it for feedback.

Activities lately

So, yesterday I wasn't able to come in due to a cold, but I still did a few leads from home before going into a cold medicine-induced coma :)  Today is much a better day, got plenty of leads done, worked on the anthem list a bit more as well.  And, finally posted the next draft of the "Fix You" video:

Will still need plenty of work, I'm sure, but can't wait to get some feedback!

Last Week at Esente

Last week, I found myself still working on the same leads list, there are so many construction companies in Boston! 
One of the things Ron tasked us with was to write up a short paragraph about what we want out of the internship, as far as the sorts of projects we felt would benefit us most and what our interests were.  I found this to be particularly helpful for me, to just sit down and write out just what I want -- almost like a bit of soul searching.  Basically, I wrote out about what my dream job would be, and what sorts of projects I could do that relate to it.
I also got a new project, basically setting up a list to put email addresses into.  It was simple enough, just set up an Excel workbook with different sheets for different groups of email addresses, depending on how Ron knows them.
I also got the second draft of the "Fix You" video put together, just need to get a couple more photos in it before compressing it.

Yesterday

Nothing too different to report as far as yesterday went, worked some more on leads, the media list, and the national anthem list.  I think I can confidently say I'm getting pretty good at researching various things now, especially websites -- as Laura said, you really do become a "website snob" when working on leads, which is annoying when you find a website that is a very good candidate for an update (as in, it's an awful website) but there is no usable contact info.  We also had another intern meeting filled with great quotes from Ron, like "build bridges, not walls," meaning build up a network of contacts, and don't ever let those contacts go because you never know how knowing a particular person could help you out. 
As far as artwork goes, I did make a still of the character from my animations to be used in the video for a special transition effect:

 

Can't wait to get this video together, and I'm sure all the other interns who have worked on it with me are probably anxious to get it done as well.

Yesterday

Did some more work on leads, then Ron invited all of us over to his loft for some homemade soup (which was delicious) and pizza :)  Also worked some more on the list for the national anthem locations, as well as a bit more on the "Fix You" video.  Said video still has plenty of tweaking left to do, but all in all seems to be coming along nicely, even now its very different from the first draft.  It is all over the place right now, so I won't compress it and post it, but as soon as I have something ready for polishing it will go up.

What I've been up to...

Valerie Nelkin

St. Lawrence University ‘10

2013

Graphics Intern

Worked more on leads, so many in Boston!  Also worked on the anthem list for Becca, and learned a little more about why we are working on it and what the plan for it is.  As far as my artwork goes, I worked more on the last animation for the "Fix You" video, here are some stills from it:

 

I also adjusted the crying animation a bit to make the tear at the end a little more noticeable:

Yesterday...

Yesterday at the internship, tons of leads!  Helps to have an awesome list to work from.  

We also had a bit of a critique for all the graphics interns, where everyone walked around from computer to computer to see the posters that everyone has been working on.  I found this particularly helpful, as it gets difficult to find what it is I don't like about my own posters after staring at them for so long.  I especially needed help with the text for both of my posters, so getting the feedback from everyone will help me get my posters a little cooler to completion.

After lunch, we again split into teams to work on lists for potential events that Becca and Jayna might be able to sing the national anthem at, such as games for professional sports teams, minor leagues, colleges and high schools.  So far, this has been a fun and challenging list to work on, as we each try to figure out just what contact info we need and how to go about finding it.

Sparking and other tasks

Yesterday, after working more on leads for Boston, Ron had an intern meeting that focused on what he calls "Sparking."  Basically, in this digital age, if anyone wants to know anything about anyone or anything, all they have to do is check it out on the internet.  This could be good or bad, depending on the reviews that are up online.  In the case of youtube, music artists can use this to their advantage, posting their own videos, and having many people (family, friends and fans) at many different IP addresses commenting on the videos positively, because if there are more comments (and views) on the video, even more people will watch and comment (this is how things go viral).  This also works for companies trying to be internet savvy, if they have their own PR people helping out and commenting or reviewing them positively from different IP addresses until their name or reputation is known, and then the internet machine takes care of the rest.  Its this PR people beginning the conversation that is the "spark."  

We also had a bit of a teamwork exercise yesterday, where we were split up into groups.  In my group, we had a series of random objects that we had to find a source for, online, in a physical store, wherever they were available.  This was to mimic the random tasks that people have to do in the music business, ie. always know exactly where and for how much you can get  a musicians particular brand of cologne in any city.  It was a fun exercise.

Last time at my internship...

Valerie Nelkin

St. Lawrence University

2013

Graphics Intern

Last time, I worked more on the leads list, learning more about how to tell right off if a lead is going to be good or not.  We also had an intensive meeting with Ron about future plans, and the power of our own will - "Impose your will! Make it happen!"  One of the best quotes to live by that I have heard, thanks Ron!

I also worked more on increasing my own web presence, updating my Behance portfolio as well as creating my own blog to get my name out there in more places.

A new revision of one of my anti-bullying posters so far: