He’s seeing the BIG PICTURE

While most kids his age spent the summer ringing up retail purchases or serving food, 16-year-old Luis Iniguez was learning the ins and outs of the film production business.

He served as an intern to Nikia Furman of Furman Pictures, a company based in Camas.

“It’s been a good experience,” Iniguez said. “It’s been fun going out to the field where we did a shoot. That was a new experience.”

Iniguez received the internship through nConnect, a Vancouver nonprofit, which seeks to increase student interest in science, technology, engineering and math fields.

It’s a win-win scenario, because nConnect pays Iniguez a stipend, and Furman gets help at no cost, other than the time needed to explain different tasks.

“It’s been really good and very helpful to have Luis here,” Furman said. “Especially while working on a recent project. It takes time to set up equipment and to log footage. His being able to do that has freed me up to work on other things.”

It was a first-time experience for Furman and Iniguez.

“It’s been great so far,” Iniguez said. “I took a year of video production as a freshman and really enjoyed it. My favorite part of this experience was going on-site to the project we were working on and setting up the equipment.”

Inguez said the most challenging part was logging the hours of footage.

“But it was good to learn new things and figure out how to set up a scene and different software use,” he said. “Basically, I’ve learned how to do everything.”

Furman said he was most impressed by Iniguez’s ability to work independently.

“I was able to give him tasks and he was able to figure it out on his own.”

He has owned Furman Pictures for four years and has worked on a number of local projects, including the Humane Society of Southwest Washington, Lacamas Community Credit Union and an independent film festival in Portland.

Prior to founding Furman Pictures, he worked at a television station in Walla Walla, Wash. for eight years. During that time, Furman won a number of national awards for his “Escape” series about outdoor sports.

His knowledge of the film and video industry is something he hopes to pass on to Iniguez, who will be a senior at Washougal High School this fall.

“I’ve worked with youth quite a bit over the years,” he said. “I like to give back to the community when I can. Luis has an opportunity to see what’s out there. He’s worked as a production assistant on a small local project and logging footage on a media project for one of the largest engineering firms in the world. That’s a start.”

Iniguez agreed.

“I’ve never done anything like this,” he said. “It gives me knowledge of how post production works, how to put it together and how you handle business.”