INTERNSHIP PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Welcome to the Charter Communications’ CommunityVision 21 internship. You have chosen to explore one of the special attributes of the CTV-21 training experience. This course is designed to provide participants with practical and principle knowledge of community television production and empower them to use equipment and facilities to create programming for CTV-21 and assist as a volunteer during productions. Different from custom training, which we also offer, the internship provides local residents, ages 16 and up, with community television production training in a 4 month (18 week) 50 hour program. The internship is unique in its approach, in that participants agree to commit to a minimum number of hours (training, producing or volunteering) in exchange for an experience that is comprehensive, organized, and rewarding.

Interns who graduate are confident of their skills and often stay with CTV-21 as regular producers or on-call volunteers. The internship is open to anyone who resides within the Charter franchise area (and to those outside the area, on a space available basis*) who would like to contribute to the advancement of local programming on CTV-21. A cross section of any intern group displays a variety of individuals in age, experience, and background.

The internship is held 3 times each year, sessions are held in January, May, and September. 20 interns are accepted into the program regardless of their level of experience. The 50 hour commitment is a goal achievable based on the intern’s ability to contribute an average of 3 hours each week by producing, volunteering and attending classes. The intern sessions are held on a rolling basis with the new session beginning as the previous one ends. This keeps the level of activity growing and maintains a volunteer base for productions. Potential interns must consider their availability before committing to the internship schedule as well as what their goal is for participating. The Internship can often be adjusted to accommodate increased participation based on the requirements of an intern receiving educational credit.

The course schedule has been designed to allow a week in between each training module in order to provide time for interns to practice skills learned in the previous classes. Interns should be prepared to schedule a visit to the studio for one of the 3-hour time blocks during these practice weeks.

An intern can maximize their experience by considering a short or simple production as their first project (in week 8 this will be part of an assignment). By attending the required classes, keeping current with weekly hours, and volunteering whenever possible, an intern can exit the internship fully confident to produce more advanced productions. *Intern Non-Resident agreement 2009.

  Upon completion of the program the Access Intern will receive a certificate of completion.