Intern Experience: Leonor Bettencourt Loureiro
Here at Synopsis, our interns Mark Haskins and Jess Lindsay are almost at the end of their 3 month Video/Media Production Assistant internship with Leonor Bettencourt Loureiro. Guided by Leonors’ decade worth of freelance film directing experience, Mark and Jess discuss their time working alongside Leonor and Project Manager/ 1st AD Rita Vieira. In this informal interview, we take a dive into their creative experience as a whole.
Leonor has lived and worked between Lisbon and Porto, founding a community-oriented cultural project, Corrente, in Arroios. She belongs to a new generation of multitasking creatives and entrepreneurs, looking to the world for inspiration that often leads her to projects following a do-it-yourself ethic. Mark and Jess’s roles were to aid in editing videos on Adobe Premiere Pro, assisting with logistics/production related tasks and helping the Image Team. Whilst Jess wasn’t available for the video interview, she sent me her answers of her experience, check them out below!
L: What has been one of your highlights working for Leonor?
J: One of the highlights for me so far has been travelling with Leonor for a work trip. We travelled to Algarve to shoot a fashion campaign for a big Portuguese clothing brand. I met some wonderful people and while I fulfilled my role as Video Assistant, Leonor gave me the responsibility of utilising my work skills from home being a film set decorator and asked me to help with props and set decorating for the shoot. It was a really fun shoot.
L: How have you had to adapt your creative process to suit the needs of the company?
J: We’ve worked really hard together to create a creative process that we all understand and are all happy with. Like any new job, at the start there were some teething issues as we all had different processes and strengths, but over time as we got to know each other and our styles and techniques, in the end having different strengths was our gain as it gave us new perspectives. It made us a strong team that could tackle any obstacle that came along!
L: What have you produced that you have been most proud of?
J: I’m so grateful to have been a part of so many great projects with Leonor. One of my favourites was a campaign we did with fashion designer Joao MGHLS. Not only was the shoot so much fun as we got to bring some of our friends, it was a great sunny day and the designs were amazing! The film we produced was screened at Lisboa Fashion Week! Surreal!
L: What have you learnt from your experience that you can bring to your next creative opportunity?
J: I’ve been able to build up on my own skills and techniques and have worked in ways I haven’t before and will definitely be able to carry those over to any future opportunities. One of the main things i’ve learned was broadening my ideas in more creative ways, nothing is too outside the box and there’s always multiple ways to look at things. I was also able to expand on my more technical skills in camera and lighting assisting and in video editing also.
L: Lastly, if you could change one thing about your time here, what would it be?
J: I honestly can’t say that there is anything I would change about my time here. I’ve have the perfect balance of working, learning, and gaining experience. As well as exploring the city and having a great time. I would only say that I wish it was longer!
