Bahar Salehpour, Video Intern

BaharBahar’s focus this summer has been documenting partner project stories through visual media. Bahar became interested in film and TV production during high school after taking an introductory course in film/TV. She learned the basics of editing, lighting, sound and cinematography and had the opportunity to make her own 10-minute movie from scratch. She enjoyed it so much that she decided to take the follow up course in grade 12, which encouraged her to direct one of her school’s monthly broadcasts. From that point on, she knew that small scale film production would be one of main hobbies. Last summer she made a short video of the FEATHERS project in the CARIS Lab at UBC’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. She thinks that the g.e@UBC internship is an exciting opportunity to expand on her experience and knowledge of film production.

Can you tell us about your internship? What is your role?

I am a video intern with the g.e@ubc program at UBC. My role is to videotape and/or photograph any events, sessions or presentations involving g.e@ubc projects and then editing those videos and pictures for various uses. These pieces are either published in the monthly newsletter or put online on Vimeo for the general public or our funders.

A big aspect of your internship involves behind the scenes work. What creative strategies or approach do you use to guide our audiences through video or photography?

I get my ideas and inspirations from my surroundings. Sometimes a well lit room is all I need to create a good piece of video. During editing, the first thing I do is I pick the piece of music I will be putting on the final version of the video. The music always guides me in terms of where the cuts should be made in the video and what pace the video should have.

For photography, ideas and inspirations always flow from the environment. I try to be as creative as possible when choosing my angles and I decide on the spot on how to represent the subjects. When doing photography, I usually don’t have a set plan in mind beforehand. I let the surroundings guide me. I believe the best photographs are the instantaneous ones that you don’t plan for.

What are the aspects of your internship that you enjoy the most?

I truly enjoyed the “field work” that I ended up doing towards the end of my internship. It was an amazing experience to go outside of the presentation rooms that I usually work in on campus and be out on the field. I particularly enjoyed photographing the Bee IPM project because it was such a different setting than I was used to.

What are the three top skills that you acquired during your internship, that you will most likely utilize in future employment or future studies?

Time management is one of the skills that I improved on. There are many details that you have to worry about when you work on a video editing project and when there is an approximate deadline, you learn how to adapt your speed and manage your priorities to get something done on time.

I also managed to improve my filming and editing skills. I used the camera that we had available in the office and although I didn’t have experience with that particular set of equipment, it was a great learning opportunity for me. I tried to learn more about filming techniques and working with natural light to enhance the quality of the captured image. The research that I did in order to prepare for filming of sessions improved my videography knowledge quite a bit.

It was my first time working in an office environment and I think that experience is quite valuable. You learn how to interact with your colleagues in an office environment and the organizational and people skills that you acquire really stick with you forever.

Can you share with us some interesting or funny stories from your work with g.e@ubc?Bahar 1

This is something that happened very recently and although it was a miscommunication between the members of our team, it turned out to be a very fun experience for me. We were planning on filming an interview in downtown Vancouver and we had forgotten to bring our own filming equipment and by the time we realized that we have no equipment, it was 25 minutes to the interview.

That is when we had to really demonstrate our teamwork skills. We managed to find an equipment rental store and literally run to it, pick up a camera and tripod, run to get a taxi, get stuck in traffic for a bit and run again to our filming location.

It was all a great show of teamwork and crisis management, but it turned out to be one of the most fun experiences I’ve had at work!

If you had to give advice to other students looking for experiences outside of school, what would you say to them?

I would really encourage students to get out there and try new things. Video editing and photography are my hobbies and I was grateful to be able to find an internship that would utilize the skills I already had, at a higher level. This was an opportunity that was recommended to me by one of the organizers of a previous internship position I had had and I am so glad I got recommended and was able to work with g.e@ubc.

I also recommend to anyone looking for experiences outside of school to just go for the new opportunities that come their way because you never know where they’ll take you.

Can you share with us three fun/interesting/random facts about yourself?

Random fact #1: I have been involved in ballroom dancing since I was 15 years old. I am now at the silver level in latin and bronze level in standard. I currently dance socially for the most part but I would love to get back into competing sometime soon.

Random fact #2: I have been doing watercolour painting since I was 12 and I am mostly interested in drawing landscapes. I think that is one of the reasons I got interested in photography. However, I think with painting, there is always a possibility to create something that is even more beautiful than the real scenery you are painting. You can use your imagination and add small details to elevate a picture even more.

Random fact #3: I am a student at the computer engineering department here at UBC. I am a geek when it comes to computer hardware and I am mostly responsible for fixing computers, DVD players and anything else in between when my friends need help. There is a real joy that comes when you manage to find a solution to problem. I’ve always loved that.

Here are some examples of Bahar’s work:

Lean Launch Pad Mentor Profile: Peter Payne from UBC UILO on Vimeo.

Tyler Dergousoff – AdapTree Research Assistant Intern from UBC UILO on Vimeo.

Principal Investigator Steven Hallam on Entrepreneurship: “I want to be in charge of my own destiny” from UBC UILO on Vimeo.

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