ERIN BRENNAN

ABOUT ME

 

Welcome to my portfolio site! My name is Erin Brennan, and I’m a student at the University of Pennsylvania studying English and International Relations. I made this website to document some of my work in film, writing, and photography.

 

My passions for film production and screenwriting stem from my high school's Film Conservatory program, through which I studied foundational filmmaking techniques and screenwriting in the classroom, organized film screenings and other events as Director of Events for the Film Leadership Board, and also participated in two extracurricular film production projects. In these projects, I helped direct crews of around twenty people to shoot and edit 30-minute films, which were then screened to audiences of 150+ at a local movie theater. Throughout my high school experience, I earned several film awards, including an IndieFEST Award of Recognition, Best Experimental Film at the DAFT Michigan Student Film Festival, and several All American High School Film Festival official selections.

 

At Penn, I am heavily involved in Bent Button Productions—Penn’s student filmmaking group—where I help develop and workshop scripts, fulfill various roles during production, and mentor new members. As we have worked to adjust to the realities of living in a pandemic, Bent Button has decided to shift some of its focus onto organizing community initiatives to promote engagement with the arts among Philly youth. As the club’s new Community Engagement Director, I have been heading efforts to develop a youth filmmaking workshop that we hope to implement once in-person instruction becomes feasible again.

 

I recently worked with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to develop a short-form video series for their social media pages, entitled Resilience in the Age of COVID-19. I also produced a series of vertical videos for the embassy's WeChat and Weibo pages as well as the U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou's new Instagram account. In the process of writing, translating, shooting, and editing the videos from my home, I have had the unique opportunity to practice my Mandarin while learning new filmmaking skills that I hope to carry into future projects.

 

I am also a passionate writer and have earned recognition from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the Scholastic Writing Awards, and others for my creative writing. I have a strong interest in screenwriting, and I recently wrote and directed a short film project for Bent Button Productions that was put on hold due to COVID-19.