Anyone who follows NYU Athletics on Instagram or has seen the department's online video content is familiar with the work of Quinn Dailey. A May 2022 NYU graduate, Dailey was discovered by the Department of Athletics after his film "Seeking Success" won an award at the 2021 NYU Sports Film Festival. A passionate storyteller from a young age, Dailey began his time at NYU as a member of the wrestling team. But, injury rehab led him to focus primarily on filmmaking and eventually step away from wrestling to devote more time to his visual projects.
Dailey worked for the past two years as a videographer for Athletics, shooting and editing ad spots, capturing sideline footage at home events and taking on special projects. His final semester at NYU was spent developing a documentary on former wrestling teammate Sean Lyons. "Sean Lyons: Mind Over Matter" is Dailey's latest and last project for NYU Athletics:
We recently caught up with Dailey to learn more about the process of developing the film, his experience with NYU Athletics and what he's been up to post-graduation.
What led you to pursue filmmaking?
I've always been interested in visual storytelling since a young age. I found myself always blown away by the visual spectacle. As time went on I continued to be amazed by movies' abilities to create new worlds and capture emotions. It inspired me as a young kid to create. I would make short action movies on those flip cameras with my brother when I was little. That same passion for visual storytelling followed me into high school, where I joined the new media program and got to learn a little bit more about the actual process of visual storytelling. The process was difficult and detail oriented, but I loved it and I knew there was nothing else I'd rather do. It's what brought me to NYU.
Describe your experience working with NYU Athletics.
My experience working with NYU Athletics has been a rewarding and fun one. I got an awesome opportunity to flex my storytelling muscles and meet more people in the Athletics community. It was interesting to transition from an athlete to a communications position. It let me see the thought and reasoning behind how NYU tells the stories of their athletes (from written articles to events to visual pieces). The strategic communications team was a great group of people who welcomed me with open arms and allowed me to have agency in what I created.
What inspired the documentary on Sean?
The inspiration for the documentary came out of being on the team with him. I was there, on the team with Sean, practicing alongside him. I saw him first hand taking down ranked kids and qualifying for the NCAA Championships. The intense, focused energy he had in the practice room was inspiring; he was definitely someone I looked up to. So, when the bad news of Covid arrived it was pretty agreed upon in the NYU wrestling community that Sean was robbed of a title he deserved. Being there day in and day out with him in the practice room and at tournaments, you felt the gravitas of the circumstances.
Like anything in life though, time keeps on ticking. I was asking around the NYU Athletics community trying to find a story that represents what it means to be a true NYU student-athlete. When I conferred with my friend and fellow wrestler Liam Drury, he mentioned that Sean had re-joined the team as an assistant coach. Knowing all that Sean had been through and hearing that he is still helping the team proved to me that he is a truly committed Violet whose story should be recognized, a story that was still unfolding as the season took place.
Take us through a bit of the process of working on the film. What were some of the biggest successes and/or challenges?
The hardest part of creating this documentary was organizing the graduated class of wrestlers who were on the team with Sean. Santino Pelusi, who I knew was close with Sean and was almost an older mentor with some season-ending injuries of his own, was someone I was very interested in sitting down and talking to. Due to Santino's law school commitments, he was unable to meet with me to sit down and talk in my given time frame. I was also very interested to talk to one of Sean's drill partners, Evan Drill. He was fairly hard to reach though.
I did manage to get interviews with both (head) coach Bruce Haberli and (senior assistant coach) Corey Luce, who both gave great perspectives on the whole situation, as well as Sean's friend, wrestler, and current roommate Donny Albach who had some great stuff to say as well. They helped put the portrait I wanted to paint together and I couldn't have done it without them. I was lucky to get in on this story early enough to see Sean coach athletes on the team and watch him coach at the NCAA regional tournament in Massachusetts. It was hard to lug my equipment from Manhattan to Springfield, but worth it to capture such a full circle moment in person.
What are your plans now that you've graduated?
Now that I've graduated I'm looking to write, direct, and produce as many high quality visual stories with humor and heart as much as I can. I'm currently freelance directing while working on TV pilots and feature scripts. I just finished a commercial shoot in Puerto Rico for 787 Coffee and live coverage of a speaker event which should be going up on Telemundo 47 on August 27th.
