My Internship Experience at a Storytelling Agency
From Intern to Producer
Bibi Gonçalves was an intern at our Storytelling Agency in Bogota, Colombia, She was so great at her job, that we made her an offer to become a full-time producer.
Bibi’s Story
In 2018, I was finishing off my Bachelor's degree at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and I wasn't sure where I wanted to go next. Should I do a gap year? Should I start a Masters degree? Should I start working? I sat down with my student advisor to talk over my options. She noticed that I was lost and advised me to do an internship. It seemed like a good idea, so I got in touch with an alumna, and she recommended a couple of options in Colombia.
To rewind a bit, during my Student Exchange Program in Guanajuato, México, I met my Colombian boyfriend, Salomón. After having been apart for over a year (long-distance relationships suck), an internship in Colombia seemed ideal. So during a holiday in Colombia towards the end of 2018, I scheduled an appointment at WhereNext, a visual storytelling agency based in Bogota. That was the beginning of my adventure.
I officially moved to Colombia the following February, after a disastrous journey from the Netherlands that included an unscheduled overnight stopover in a snowy and freezing Toronto. I arrived at the WhereNext office at 9 am sharp on my first day. Punctuality, by the way, is not a forte in the Colombian community. I was assigned my own office, and Sandra Eichmann, WhereNext's Executive Producer & Accounts Manager and my internship supervisor, gave me my first assignments.
My first team lunch was when I got the chance to meet all of my new colleagues for the first time. We sat outside on the patio, where we ate together on a door-cum-table. It was a very cozy and family-like environment. I sat back quietly and took in everything and everyone that was around me. After lunch, I continued working on my assignment, and before I knew it, it was the weekend since I had started work on a Friday.
One of WhereNext’s famous office lunches, prepared by our own Master Chef, Nohemy
Bibi explaining what goes into a traditional Ajiaco soup to Lael Wilcox, the world’s best ultra-endurance cyclist
My first big assignment for WhereNext was on a project with CAT Footwear. We would be working on the launch of their new product, Advanced Walking Machines (you can check out the video for the final campaign below). I was assisting Sandra in everything, starting with pre-production. We began with a location scouting trip to the historic and business districts of Bogota. This gave me an excellent excuse to get to know some more parts of the city in which I'd be living.
I also had to conduct my first ever model casting. I had to find potential protagonists for our video on social media and through mutual friends and then hold a casting shoot at the office. I must have met with 25 people in five days.
After three weeks of stress and running back-and-forth, we finally shot the video over two days. Our schedules were full, but everything ran smoothly. Like my mother's boyfriend says: quality comes from preparation! It was my first time working on a video production project. There was a lot of running, improvisation, and desperate effort to stay calm! For instance, on the first day of the shoot, we had arranged breakfast for the cast and crew at a Mexican restaurant at 5 am. Of course, no-one from the restaurant showed up, so I got my first experience in trying to sort out breakfast for twenty hungry models and videographers with ten minute's notice. It was a bit of a baptism of fire.
Breakfast timing issues aside, the shoot went smoothly. And what an experience: meeting new people, managing actors, and crew, learning about laws in a different country, learning about a new culture both professionally and personally, and learning how I responded to pressure. I learned more in those three weeks than you would in three months at most jobs.
The post-production process was equally eye-opening. There's so much more to it than I had imagined. I learned how to mold a collection of disparate images into a compelling story. I discovered all the work that goes into graphics, coloring, and sound. Just making sure that no other brands accidentally appear in the video background is an entire job in itself.
Although my degree didn't have much to do with the kind of work I was doing, I speak fluent Spanish, so that got me halfway there. With the right attitude and determination, you can get far working for a visual storytelling agency like WhereNext. My hard work and positivity paid off, and I had the fantastic opportunity to work on another CAT production in Valencia, Spain. Slowly I started to be granted more responsibilities: communicating directly with clients, delivering products, and putting together proposals. I felt trust from my bosses, and that only gave me the confidence to work harder. I was learning new things each day.
Read more about Bibi’s productions: Spin the Globe: Creating the Most Important Campaign in CAT Footwear History
The cast and crew of our CAT Footwear campaign in Valencia, Spain
Although I was learning and growing on a professional level, life was also happening at the same time. I was living on a new continent with all the struggles that come with such a dramatic change. I was very glad for the vibe at the WhereNext! It's a very chilled place, where people work hard but always find time to play. Everyone on the team cares for one another. We have lunch together in the office three days a week (WhereNext even pays for it!). The office is full of cyclists, so they loaned me a bike that I started riding to work every day. Since the Netherlands has such a strong cycling culture, it made me feel at home.
At the end of May, my mother and her boyfriend came to visit. We spent some time traveling through different parts of Colombia, but first, WhereNext arranged a 'meet the parents day.' Everyone's parents came to the office to get to know where their children worked and eat some pizza. We played a fun game where each parent had to explain what they thought their child did at WhereNext. It was funny to see where everyone got their looks from.
More WhereNext Intern Tales: “Interning in Colombia for a Film Production and Marketing Company”
Parent’s Day at WhereNext: can you match the parent to the WhereNexter (you can use our ‘About Us’ section for some help!)?
The team also arranged a BBQ and party for my birthday in July. The editing team even surprised me with a bunch of presents. They had noticed that I was using the bike more and more, so they got me a new helmet and bike light. The gesture really touched me, and it brought tears to my eyes. It reflected the family spirit that is such a big part of why I love working for WhereNext.
My experience as an intern came to an end soon after that. Although I was 9000km from my home, and sometimes had to work back-to-back 12-hour-days, I couldn't have asked for a better internship experience. I arrived at a busy time for the company, but what better way to learn than by doing!? And I must have done something right because at the end of my internship WhereNext offered me a job. And, in a beautiful example of a story coming full-circle, I am currently helping to settle in our new intern Elisabeth, who is also Dutch. I can only hope that her time working for this visual storytelling agency is as fun, fulfilling, and life-changing as mine has been.
Bibi and the rest of the WhereNext team after a fun night in Bogota with Lael Wilcox
Interested in an internship with WhereNext? Get in touch with our Storytelling Agency Team here.
WhereNext’s new intern Elisabeth Tops gives us the lowdown on her first months working for our visual storytelling agency in our Bogota, Colombia office.