Dahlia Saenz’s Camino Campaign Was a Fellowship Capstone

Dahlia Saenz created a video reel as an online marketing campaign for Camino, the Shadyside restaurant where she worked, and made it the centerpiece of her capstone project for The Warhol Academy’s Digital Content Creation Fellowship. The fellowship is one of two paid tracks offered each spring and fall through The Andy Warhol Museum’s Pop District initiative.

The reel features bartender Herminio Ramirez and Saenz in an exchange involving cod ceviche tostadas, a watermelon basil margarita, sizzling fajitas, warm tortillas, Spanish- and English-language dialogue, and Cinco de Mayo specials. Although the finished video lasts less than a minute, producing it took weeks of research, creative strategy, filming, and editing.

The digital content fellowship trains emerging marketers, storytellers, and content creators to develop strategic campaigns and social media for real-world clients, while the filmmaking fellowship immerses aspiring directors and documentarians in collaborative film production. The cohorts bring together filmmakers, photographers, marketers, actors, and self-taught creators, with applicants completing portfolio reviews, technical interviews, and in-person conversations before joining.

Fellows sharpen their Adobe Premiere skills, work with professional equipment, and receive access to gear, studio space, flexible lab hours, and transportation assistance when needed. The stated goal is to give emerging creatives the experience and confidence to turn creative ambition into sustainable work, rather than simply teaching them to use cameras or edit videos.

Dan Finegold, the filmmaking fellowship coordinator, calls filmmaking one of the most collaborative art forms, saying, “It takes a village to make a film.”