Hey folks! Welcome to the Firecracker Blog! My name’s Francesca, but you can call me Fran. I’m one of the interns at the Firecracker Department, and I’ll be taking over this blog for the time being! What’s this blog about, you ask? Well, I’ll be talking about Firecracker Department of course! I’ll talk about what’s going on, experiences I’ve had, and what I’m up to as an intern. This sounds like fun right? Think of it as an inside look at what it’s all about. Before I catch you up on that last month and a half, let me introduce myself.

We did the name thing in the previous paragraph, so we can move on from that. I’m coming to you from Centennial College’s Broadcasting in Film, TV, Radio & Digital Media Program. I’m in my 6th and final semester- the internship/field placement. I was always interested in film and tv as a child; I knew that was the world I wanted to be in. After getting out of a program that was definitely not for me, I found the Broadcasting program at Centennial. When I say not for me, I mean it. I was in an Investigative/Security program at Humber College- if it wasn’t for the Ontario college faculty strike, who knows if I would’ve gotten out! So far, writing is what I’ve gravitated towards most at Centennial. No shocker there, I’ve always loved writing and knew I wanted to incorporate it into my life in some way. Funny enough, writing and producing go hand-in-hand, so producing is another thing I’ve grown to enjoy as well. I’ve had the opportunity to produce two short films during my time at Centennial College- one of them took place a few months ago, so navigating a shoot while implementing Covid-19 Protocols was a very new experience. After that last assignment, I came here to FD.

I found the Firecracker Department from a posting in my portfolio class. My teacher (Karen Shopsowitz) urged me to check it out because she felt it would be a good place for me to intern with. I took her advice and took a look at the posting, then did some of my own research. After learning that the Firecracker Department was not only a podcast, but an international community for women and non-binary folx to create, educate and support each other by giving a platform to our stories I knew I found an amazing place! I whipped up a cover letter, polished up my resume and sent it off. Before that, I decided to get involved with the community a little earlier by joining the Facebook group and going to weekly events- Thursday Writing Bursts & Sunday Brunch being the main two. I also checked out what the Script Department was up to (live readings take place 4 times a year.) These events are just so great, and it’s awesome to be surrounded by such lovely people.

I’ve also had some great experiences with the people I’ve met! Alissa Abeler, who’s part of Sunday Brunch, is part of a music group called The Daily Fare was nice enough to help me out with music and tones for my short film for school. It was super nice of her to do, especially with the short notice and turnaround times we were working with. Her music turned out amazing (no shocker there) and really helped bring so much more to the film- short film coming soon. So if you’re reading this Alissa, thank you again! I appreciated all of your help so much.

Let’s get to my duties. I bet you’re all waiting for the inside scoop, so wait no longer! Since there are two interns: myself and Saba Dolati Miab (from York University) we get to split the work amongst ourselves and work on things together. I’ll be working on this blog, our monthly newsletter, supporting the Writing Department, and a bunch of other awesome tasks that I’ll share later on.

When you read this, I will have been a FD intern since January 18, so I’ve been up to a lot! Who knows, maybe some of the top secret stuff we’re working on will have launched by now! If not, don’t even worry about it. You’ll know soon!

Well, I hope this first entry was a hit and that you’ll be back for more. Until then, it was great talking to you. We’ll catch up next month, same time!

Talk soon,

Fran

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Here’s a fun screenshot from our TikTok session with Naomi. Follow FD on TikTok to see the final result!

Introduction to our blog- welcome!