Historyworks is looking for keen history interns needed for an exciting new multi-media project working in partnership with a London production company called Ballista Media. We want a number of history interns to work on history apps for the iPad and other mobile devices following the successful launch of Timeline WW2 in association with TV historian Dan Snow . See http://timelineww2.com/ & http://www.ballistamedia.co.uk/

THE HISTORY RESEARCH AND THE PRODUCTION OF APPS

If you are successful in your application, you will be working as part of a team researching all aspects of content (text, image, video) for various history apps. The three that will be foregrounded this year are on the First World War, the Second World War, and Medieval Castles. The work will include writing and editing both text and commentaries for videos within the app. An interest and experience of multimedia content and apps is useful, but not essential. Excellent history research and writing skills are most important, but also good communication skills via email and phone are necessary for updating your team, and the ability to write briefing documents to share your work with a production team is an essential quality needed to do well in this working environment.

APPLICATION PROCESS AND TASK TO WIN INTERNSHIP

To apply for a history internship you must send in a brief CV (and include your non-university contact email address and your mobile number aswell as your University email if you have one) and send directly to Helen Weinstein at Historyworks (historyinterns@gmail.com)

As well as your CV, you must include a covering letter on two pages with the following three points clearly addressed:

1. Why you want an internship to research and develop multimedia history apps (and the circumstances that suit you to conduct the work – see below that we ask you to specify option A, B, or C)
2. What interests or skills and experience you can bring to the internship
3. Describe a recent History app (giving link to the product) and a TV history show/series (giving link to the show) and say in detail what made it good and what did not.

SELECT ONE OF THESE SCENARIOS AND SPECIFY WHICH SUITS YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES IN YOUR APPLICATION LETTER

Historyworks will manage the application process and we will expect candidates for these internships to be keen as mustard and to be self-motivated. Helen Weinstein and Dan Snow are keen to make this offer equitable and will facilitate and support the internships. So as not to make the internships inaccessible to keen applicants not based in London we offer the following three scenarios, and Helen will manage the application process to help you navigate the options:

• A. Bursary offered of £75 per week (to cover expenses) for history interns to be based in London for minimum of two weeks and maximum of four weeks on this internship scheme, and for interns to be in the Ballista offices on weekdays to work with the team, and to stay in London with family or friends to make this internship doable.
• B. Bursary offered of £75 per week (to cover expenses) for history interns to visit the offices in London once a week (if possible, either every Monday or every Friday) for briefings and to submit their work and get feedback from the production team, but otherwise to work at their own libraries in their own location for a minimum of three weeks and maximum of four weeks on this internship.
• C. Bursary offered of £75 per week (to cover expenses) for history interns to spend first week at the London production company, two weeks away submitting work and having feedback via email/phone, spending fourth week at the London production company.

Helen Weinstein @ Historyworks is very committed to making history internships a good training opportunity for keen historians and a stepping stone to translating research and writing skills from history degrees into production and multimedia skills. The internships are designed to test you and the production company to see if you are a good fit. It is envisaged that at the end of the three/four week trial that some interns will be offered work for longer, in which case Historyworks will expect that all interns will change their status from “history interns” to “production researchers” and will be paid accordingly so that living costs in London are met by salaried employment and no exploitation will be involved ! Good Luck with your application !

EVALUATION FORMS FOR INTERNS AND PRACTITIONERS

It is very important to Historyworks that interns complete an evaluation form so that we learn about your expectations.  Also, it is helpful to know what worked for you and what did not during your internship, so that we can improve and do things better.   We ask that practitioners also complete an intern form and this helps you to monitor your offer of a useful experence in your sector for interns wanting to learn about heritage and the media.  Many interns use their internship for gaining employment, so it is very helpful to have completed an evaluation, so that you have details to hand once you may be called upon by your intern in the future for references !

- click here for PDF for student intern evaluation form

- click here for PDF for practitioner evaluation form

Please complete and submit to Helen via email to historyworks.