Welcome, Class of 2023 students, families, and guests, and thank you for being here today. I’m David Tolchinsky, the very new dean of the Media School.
On behalf of the faculty and staff of The Media School, including several who are here today, I’d like to congratulate our students who are graduating today.
We are so proud of all of you — many of whom will go on to a wide range of careers — in advertising, film and TV production, film and TV studies, journalism, public relations, sports media, game design, and more.
And maybe this will be the last time you have to listen to a professor pontificate, so thanks for your patience (this is only a few pages).
As a Media School student, I hope you have been taught (and because I’m new I’m not sure) to be creative, resilient, and persistent. And yes, many students have reflected to me that it’s the wash of creativity and the hands-on experience which is what makes our school unique and amazing.
Indeed, The Media School takes pride in providing a learning environment where several disciplines across media are in conversation with one another – allowing for innovation and forward thinking. I hope you’ve been encouraged to dream, to put things together in new ways, whether they be words, images, or sound.
I hope you’ve been taught not just to make or study media but to ponder about what media could be. By looking at the past and considering the future. Because the past used to be the future. And old technologies often become new again.
And I know you’ve been taught to create a network — no you’ve made friends, you’ve formed communities, you’ve met the people who will stay with you for years to come – offering a couch to sleep on, an ear, some food, maybe a plan to keep working together, maybe offering you a job.
So not a network, that sounds like it’s all about business (although forming a network is a necessary skill). It’s more about how life and friendship and business interact when everything works the way it should. When core unchanging values are foregrounded — like ethics (the why of what we're doing and who is helped and hurt by what we do), like the need for diverse voices to be represented (and I’ve heard from students we need to keep doing better and we will), like the importance of foregrounding mental health, like the importance of forming kind, creative, and intellectual communities, like the importance of protecting and disseminating fact-based truth.
Alas, I don’t have to remind you of what you’ve lived through while at college:
- Covid
- Conflict
- Climate change.
It’s no wonder that mental health is a concern for all of us. And yes, I’ve heard from students here that it is a key concern. I promise you we will lead in teaching how to use media to foreground mental health, to change the conversation about mental health and hopefully to normalize mental health.
I also don’t have to remind you of the good you experienced —
The professors who will stay with you. Who didn’t ramble like me but inspired you in a profound way.
And:
- Your involvement with student media
- Your club
- Your internships
- Your study abroad (and for me, seeing the world is a key part of any education and it is my dream to make sure ALL students can do that because some of my own most profound moments and learning have come while traveling).
And some advice (again thanks for your patience) —
Continue to make media, study media, write media, record media because it’s what you love to do. Because you’re curious about how it will end up, because you’re curious what your character will do, because it’s important to you and because maybe you think it’s important to the world. And because maybe it keeps you up at night because you must figure out how it needs to end or because you can’t wait to reread what you wrote or hear what you recorded or see what you shot.
Don’t concentrate just on selling, on seeing your name in lights; that is partially out of your control, but making the work – that you can do.
And keep learning. I love being a dean because I feel like I’m a perpetual student — learning from all of you and the amazing faculty in this school. So, keep being a student.
And don’t do just one draft — do a draft, get feedback, think, and then revise. And revise until it’s the best you think it can be. And then move on.
Because I guarantee you — in a year or two you will return to that work with new eyes and will know exactly what it should be, so —
Create some things on deadlines (and that’s a great skill to have), but have some things take the time they need to take to simmer. My spouse and sometime collaborator has been working on a documentary series on memory contamination and the criminal justice system for seven years, and she just screened one of the episodes for the first time, and the response was amazing. Trust me, it’s worth it. Things take the time they take.
Be prepared to fail more than once but know that out of failure comes great success. The artists I’ve hosted at Northwestern (where I was before IU) – like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Stephen Colbert, and George R.R. Martin, and so many others – have talked about their failures being so important. Because it taught them what they really want to do or what they should have been doing or taught them humility.
And failure teaches you how to keep going during the highs and the lows. If you get stuck, how will you move on? Call a friend? Take a run? Meditate? Call a therapist? Walk along a lake? Call a friend. Watch a comedy. Call a friend. For me, as a horror filmmaker I watch psychological horror films, just because I’m weird and find them deeply inspiring and comforting. And I’d call a friend.
And we’re back to the most important thing I hope we gave you here – community.
And mostly know that life is looooong and all kinds of things can happen. Some of you think you’re going to do one thing but then an opportunity presents itself and you find now you’re not a filmmaker but a podcaster not a game designer but a painter. Not a print journalist but a TV reporter. Not a writer but a producer ... you get the idea.
And it’s great to be 21 or 22 — you can experiment, you can try things. I had an agent who told me people only remember the good work you do; nobody remembers the bad work. It’s true. So, experiment.
Make some media. Study some media. But also go eat a nice meal. Go to Indy and to Shapiro’s like I just did; go to Kenya if you can like I was just lucky enough to do. Meet somebody. Fall in love. All that is as important as making media.
But media is important especially these days and that’s why you so should be so proud.
We hope you’ll stay connected with the school and come back and visit often.
We look forward to hearing about all that is in store for you.
Finally, thanks to all the families and friends who have supported our students during their college career and will continue supporting them in this next stage in life.
OK you made it through my remarks and through college! Congratulations.