From Summer Student to a Semester Away

Erin Delaney is a visiting student from Kenyon College. She started taking classes at Tisch during the summer of 2013. This semester she is studying away from her home school and spending her fall semester at Tisch focusing on cinema studies. She s been up to some pretty exciting things while in New York City. Here s more about Erin: You took classes at Tisch the past two summers and now you're here for the fall semester. What keeps bringing you back to Tisch? I ve taken cinema studies classes at Tisch the past two summers, and they have been some of my favorite classes I ve taken thus far in college. I love the blend of writing and film that the major offers - I didn t even know it was a major until I started taking classes at Tisch. After my first summer, I designed my own course at Kenyon using some of the knowledge I gained at Tisch, a sort of introduction to film history including some basic elements of film criticism and theory, and was able to get the syllabus approved at Kenyon. That allowed me to get my basic cinema history knowledge into place, and now that I ve given myself a good foundation, I wanted to come back to Tisch to take more advanced classes that I would not be able to teach myself. How do the courses you are currently enrolled in differ than your area of study back home? The film department at my home college is only a few years old, and is primarily production based. I m an English and film double major and am primarily interested in blending the two, which cinema studies allows me to do. Oddly enough, I prefer writing about a film to either viewing a film or actually writing a film. I think there are great overlaps with film theory and literary theory, and I believe in the potential of analyzing a film as a text. I think of cinema studies as a logical extension of my English major that combines something I m good at (writing) with something I love (film). You're also earning credit with an internship this semester. Please tell us about where you are and what you re doing. I m interning for a small film production company, Saetre Film. I was trying to figure out what I would intern in this summer, and Tisch has a great career development website you can register with when you are enrolled here. I decided to take advantage of that and figure out if film production is something I would potentially want to go into, or get an internship in this summer. Turns out, I m happiest when I m writing about film rather than developing it. Now that I know that, I think I ll have a better chance of finding an internship I enjoy this summer. Last month you participated in the CMJ Music Marathon. What was that like? How were you involved? At my home college I m the General Manager of our radio station. CMJ (College Media Journal) holds a music conference and festival every year where General Managers can get a free badge to talk to other college radio staff and industry personnel, which our radio station (WKCO 91.9, Gambier, Ohio) never gets to attend because the conference is so far away. Luckily for me, the conferences are held at Kimmel and the showcases for bands labels want to show off are scattered around the Lower East Side and Brooklyn. I got some valuable insights talking to other radio staff and label representatives, and got to discover some great new acts that I ll be spinning when I get back to Kenyon second semester. What advice do you have for students thinking of studying away from their home school? Make sure your credit transfers, and budget everything very carefully. Try to learn the geography of the city as soon as possible, and definitely take advantage of the half-priced movie tickets at Ticket Central. What's next for Erin after a fall semester at Tisch? I m looking forward to getting back to our radio station and taking charge there. I ve already registered for my classes next semester, but am developing a syllabus that I am going to try to get approved for fall 2015 which delves into Queer Cinema with a heavy supplement of criticism and theory. Hopefully I ll be getting an internship I care about this summer using the experience I ve had with my internship this semester.