Student group finishes top 3 in MTV contest

The five-minute digitally animated movie took the group of about 20 Penn students three semesters to prepare. But, the extracurricular initiative proved to be worthwhile, as the team's short Dink! finished among the top three in mtvU's Best Animation on Campus contest.

Penn graduates Ray Forziati, Charles Adams, Omer Baristiran, John Primerano, Paul Kanyuk, Ju Hee Kwon and Jean Tsong were all listed as entrants in the MTV subsidiary's competition.

"Different people did different jobs," Primerano said. "Every job involved not having sleep for weeks at a time."

Although, according to Primerano, the group has been unofficially told it will not be receiving the $20,000 MTV Animation development deal -- which will instead be going to entrants from New York University -- the students still consider Dink! time well spent.

"It was very ambitious," Baristiran said. "Since we had to create this from scratch, it took a lot to model, to set."

Considering the length of time it took to complete Dink!, Baristiran considers it "remarkable that the project did not die."

Dink, a cockroach, is the movie's star character who, on his first day of college, attends a floor meeting. According to Primerano, the group members chose the cockroach due to the abundance of the insects in the UTV13 studios where they worked.

Most of the students involved were majoring in digital media design, which combines computer science with fine arts.

"It is exactly what we want students to be doing because it puts a real-life face on all the theory they have learned in their computer science animation classes," Digital Media Design Associate Director Amy Calhoun said.

Using equipment that Baristiran and Adams had bought after launching UTV13's animation wing a semester before, the group fashioned its piece as a completely self-motivated project.

"In the whole of thing we made so many mistakes, but we learned from the mistakes," Baristiran added.

Primerano, who was the writer for Dink! and graduated from the College in 2003, said the obstacles inspired him to take on new challenges. For example, the group composed and played its own music for Dink!, which Primerano considered so "hokey" that it prompted him to take up the piano, guitar and saxophone.

And the short's success has been somewhat surprising for the group.

"I don't think any of us expected us to be on MTV; it was just for fun," Primerano said.

Dink! was one of three contest entrants to make it to the final round of judging. Initially, out of nearly 100 entries, representatives from mtvU and MTV Animation narrowed the pool down to 10, which were shown in streaming video on mtvU's Web site the week of April 19. From there, mtvU audience votes cut seven from the pack, leaving three finalists, which were shown both on the Web site and aired on mtvU programming the week of April 26.

On May 3, the top three vote-getters were judged again by the viewers, along with industry insiders Seth MacFarlane, creator of The Family Guy; Pixar's Bud Luckey, animator of the Toy Story movies and Paul Dini, producer and writer of Batman: The Animated Series.

This is the first year mtvU has held the contest.

"The ultimate objective of mtvU is to really serve as a laboratory for the college student to give them the opportunity and place to show their talent at a national level," mtvU spokesman David French said.

Recognition from mtvU isn't the only accolade the group has received. Dink! has won an Association of Higher Education Cable Television Administrators 2003 Annual Student Production Award for best animation, a prize worth $500.

Dink! was also shown on rotation as part of the Educator's Program section of the 2003 Siggraph Computer Graphics Conference -- one of the largest conferences of its kind.

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