The Coffee Interns
Award-winning student video takes a light look at the road to success
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
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Durham, NC -- Life as an intern can mean peril and cutthroat competition. But is it true that getting coffee for your boss is one of the best ways to get ahead?
“No, it’s usually not like that in real life,” says Duke junior Yi Xiang. “My own internships have been very fulfilling.”
But the stereotype works well enough in the virtual world to earn Xiang and fellow Duke filmmakers first place and $3,000 in a Boston Consulting Group [BCG] competition on business strategies.
Xiang, Jeff Hu and Heather Guo produced the two-minute video “The Coffee Interns” for the firm’s StrategyTube competition. The video shows two young interns vying for their boss’ favor by racing to be the first to bring him a cup of coffee as the soundtrack of Strauss’ “Fledermaus Overture” plays in the background.
Xiang said the three student producers put the project together quickly over winter break, even though they were in separate cities.
“We were on the phone every night throwing a lot of ideas around,” he said. “The mental image a lot of people have about internships is you’re out there getting coffee for boss. From what we understand, BCG is not actually like that, but we thought we could play around with that idea and find the humor in it.”
Xiang recruited friends in Atlanta to act in the film. With Duke student Shang Gao directing, they completed the video in four days during winter break in Atlanta.
The three producers are members of the Duke Consulting Club, a student organization that helps connect undergraduates to alumni in the business world and to networking opportunities. Winning the BCG contest will give the students great exposure with the company and on YouTube, Xiang said.
Their winning project illustrates how a group of students interested in a business career also developed their enthusiasm for filmmaking while at Duke.
“The Coffee Interns” is the latest award-winning production by a film group started by Xiang, Hu and other students who first met while producing a Froshlife video for Wilson residence hall in 2006. That film, “Wilson, My Only One,” took top prize in Froshlife. Xiang said the success and friendships built during that project got them exploring how film could be useful in their studies.
Sweet and Sour Productions has since produced a variety of digital media products including short films and music videos.
In November, a Sweet and Sour Productions video directed by Gao and Lawrence Chen won a holiday video contest sponsored by The Streets at Southpoint.
A public policy major and an accomplished pianist, Xiang and others in Sweet and Sour Productions have used their Duke experience to combine their passion for art with other academic interests. He said that Froshlife experience was a great start down that path.
“Froshlife was the event that kick-started our interest in film,” Xiang said. “Since then, we've been able to hone our technique and cinematography, so what you see in ‘The Coffee Interns’ is a product of a learning curve that started with Froshlife.”
