Bell Fund internship program seeks ‘hustlers’

Coinciding with its 10th anniversary, the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund unveiled a $50,000 national internship program last week. In what it hopes will continue as an annual initiative, the Bell Fund is reaching out to industry newcomers for the first time in an attempt to develop the industry from the bottom up." comes out of this deep-seated belief that we need to seed the industry," says Andra Sheffer, executive director of the Bell Fund. "The board really sees their legacy as being ability to, through the Bell Fund, create a really skilled, internationally recognized industry. To do that, you can't just keep on funding the same old players, you really do have to give the breaks to new people and give them opportunities." Although the Bell Fund has sponsored and held workshops, seminars and other training initiatives in the past, these initiatives have always catered to existing professionals, not industry neophytes. Not only is eligibility for the new internship program restricted to students enrolled in a post-secondary new media program in 2007, preference is given to students with limited professional new media experience."This is the whole concept of seeding the industry and giving students their first big break," says Sheffer. "So we want people that can really benefit from this rather than people who are looking for a 12-week job."Ten $5,000 internship grants will be distributed across the country - three in Ontario, three in Quebec, two in British Columbia, one in Atlantic Canada and one in the Prairies. And interns must partner with a production company that is developing or producing a multiplatform project with a television component prior to submitting their application. The fund researched many existing internship and mentoring programs for guidance, but it ultimately decided on a more original format for finding its interns. Instead of partnering with schools and letting them pick the students to be placed with production companies - which Sheffer says is the way most internship programs are run - the Bell Fund is leaving it to the students and production companies to find each other."In this case, the production companies get to interview anyone who arrives at their door who is eligible," says Sheffer. "They get to pick the person that they want and they get to hire someone in that position that can really help them." This format also puts the onus on the candidates to search and find a production company that is working on an eligible product, to which Sheffer adds: "Those are the hustlers we want in this business anyhow." Ideally, those who are selected for the national internship program will go on to have promising careers in the new media sector.While the Bell Fund does not receive any monetary return on its investments, it does evaluate the success of the projects it funds. In the case of the internship program, Sheffer says success will be measured by the number of interns who are absorbed into the industry. "Especially if they have a portfolio piece and work on some projects that we're interested in, then we've got a whole new network of people out there who know how to do this," she says.Applications and supplemental documents must be submitted to the Bell Fund office by May 1. Forms can be found at http://www.bellfund.ca/.

Bell Fund internship program seeks ‘hustlers’

Broadcast | April 13, 2007

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