Will and the giant rideable paper airplane
My Name is Will Weisz, I am a rising Senior double majoring in Economics and Art with a focus on photography. This summer I have had the opportunity to work as an intern at Strategic Productions LLC. In this internship I have been the Lead Filmer and Head of Production for a YouTube channel with over 600K subscribers. The YouTube channel specializes in turning engineering into an extreme sport, which always give me something unique to work on and figure out how to problem solve daily.
On an average day at work, I could be doing anything to help get ready for the next video. Somedays I am working alongside my brother, Louis Weisz, figuring out the best way to build whatever crazy contraption is going to be the main focal point of the next video. In the past few months, I have worked on figuring out how to rig a thermal camera up to FPV, first person view, goggles for a video titled “Living 50 Hours in thermal Vision”. I have also worked on making a golf cart fully remote controlled using an Arduino, rc controller, and many different servos and linear actuators. In addition to making the golf cart drive I was tasked with figuring out how to make the golf cart look like a huge, 8ft tall, boulder. Once we finish these builds we then travel to a location where we must shoot the videos. On an average shoot day, I am responsible for preparation and operation of all cameras, 2 Sony mirrorless cameras, 2-8 go pros, and iPhones. This involves charging all the batteries before the shoot, managing the storage on SD and CFexpress cards to make sure there is enough recording room for 3 days’ worth of footage, and making sure we have all the accessories for the cameras like, microphones, lighting, gimbals, tripods, and drones. While not on a shoot or building, I have worked to land sponsorship, and product deals with companies that would be interested in working with the YouTube channel. This has been anything from cold calling companies looking for product to make the next build with, to creating sponsorship tapes for Louis to send to companies that he would like to represent on the channel. While working on these edits and before going on shoots I report to the Video Editor to talk about shot planning and ways to better tell the story of the video. Finally, I have been most recently working on getting my commercial drone license for and upcoming shoot at the Bonneville Salt Flats during Speed Week, so I can capture high speed FPV drone footage.
Red Bull Flugtag Event in Milwaukee
One project that we just wrapped up was creating the world’s largest, ridable “paper” airplane for the Red Bull Flugtag Event in Milwaukee. This was by far the most exciting shoot that I have been on, and a very time intensive build process to get ready for the event. Being based in Ohio we had to figure out the logistics of getting a 16ft by 24ft airplane all the way to Milwaukee. Once we were able to figure out how we were getting the plane there, we had to start building the plane which we only had a week to do. During the entire building process, I had to also film the whole build process, as that is a key component to telling the entire story in the video. Once we had finished the build we headed to Milwaukee so that Louis could fly it. Once we got there I started filming and shooting photos for the 2-day event. I was able to manage shooting on two cameras simultaneously, one video camera, and one camera for shooting photos. While at the event I acquired a media pass which enabled me to capture the best possible angles for photos and videos. The pass got me access to the media boat which would take you out on the water to be able to shoot photos and video of the event with the 30,000-person crowd in the background. This also got me access up onto the runway where we were able to get some behind the scenes shots before the event started. This shoot was the most exciting for me because I had the opportunity to work in close proximity with members of the Red Bull Media House Team and Hangman Productions to see how Red Bull events and similar events are produced and captured on camera. Events like Red Bull Flugtag and other similar events are events that I am hoping to shoot professionally following graduation from Whitman and this experience was an amazing opportunity to see what it will look like.
Experiences like Will’s are made possible by the Whitman Internship Grant, which provides funding for students to participate in unpaid internships at nonprofit, some for-profit, and government organizations. We are happy to be sharing blog posts from students who were supported by either a summer, fall, spring, or year-long grants at organizations, businesses, and research labs all around the world. To learn how you could secure a Whitman Internship Grant or host a Whitman intern at your organization, contact us at ccec_info@whitman.edu.