From Intern to Indie Filmmaker

What it means to be a creative who went from an intern to a Writer/ Producer of her own independent short, in 4 months

Joelle shares her experience with Five Fifty Five, and what it takes to take on such a project during an internship –

“Kate’s belief in me as a young female filmmaker was invaluable. The support Five Fifty Five gave me as an intern provided the freedom I needed to initiate projects of my own, and learn by doing how to freelance and produce films independently. From day one, Kate allowed me to work on real, creative projects. She involved me with every aspect of the company, inviting me to shadow her at corporate meetings and networking events, to help re-organize and streamline the team’s drives and social media, and to lead the research and design on, and even pitch to Care International, a commercial ad-campaign aimed at partnering big soda companies with nonprofits to raise awareness on the global water crisis. I am forever grateful for the level of trust Kate put in me, most especially to her believing in me as an aspiring writer-director. When she offered to read some of my work, I decided to write a couple shorts that seemed feasibly producible that summer. I was overjoyed when she offered to support Stripped. It was absolute madness, I had very limited time and budget to make it work, and had never been to London before so knew very few people. It was the absolute madness, and certainly best way to get to know the city and film-production. I could not have dreamt of a better first summer internship experience.” – Joelle