Superintendent’s Artist of the Week: Erin De La Mota

Warwick Valley High School senior Erin De La Mota has been on both sides of the video camera, as a performer and as a producer. She’s an all-state singer and a valuable member of the WVHS video production team.

While Erin has been singing since kindergarten, her interest in video production started with a class last year taught by Daniel Cecconie.  After receiving a positive reaction on her first project, she knew that creating videos was what she wanted to do.

“I created this music video of Marvel, because I’m a huge fan of Marvel movies,” Erin said. “I remember when it was shown, Mr. C. said this is the kind of work that you would see from a college-level student, and I got so excited. I knew right then that this is what I wanted to do.”

Erin’s most recent project with the video production class was covering the 2021 Homecoming Parade. Erin and Arianna Cruz co-hosted the show, which was posted to the Warwick Valley Television YouTube channel on Saturday afternoon.

“Announcing the homecoming parade was a lot of fun,” said Erin, who is a member of the National Honor Society and president of the National Technical Honor Society at WVHS.  “It was a really cool experience to have almost a professional job. We learn how to run audio, run cables, use lighting and Teleprompters so when you go into the real world, you know every single skill. I’m so excited to have all this experience to use when I’m off to college.”

Erin also produced the intro video and the news story on the float building that were shown before coverage of the parade itself. The WVT crew showed up at 9 a.m. to set equipment up for the noon parade and then broke down and packed up everything afterwards.

“Erin is a very dedicated and results-oriented student,” Mr. Cecconie said. “She understands the importance of preparing in advance and reliably serves as a role model for all of the other crew members to emulate.”

Erin plans to major in film and media in -0college at either New York University or the School of Visual Arts. First, however, she has a number of events and projects to complete at WVHS. Erin is playing Dora Del Rio in the Drama Club’s fall production of “Suite Surrender.”

Erin is very excited to be performing at Radio City Music Hall later in the fall with both the Meistersingers and the Treble Choir. She’s also planning to produce a film for her Senior Project.