A team of students representing the Animation Game Design (AGD) program at Kent State Tuscarawas walked away with the Audience Choice award at the recently-held Short.Sweet.Film.Fest at the Atlas Cinema in Cleveland.
The filmmakers included students Morgan Campbell, Rae Lumley, Damianna Johnson, Carly Butler, Mya Coblentz, Quinten Jones and Madalina Chiveri. Voice actors were Payton Martin and Rocco Grassi (a psychology major).
The short animation film is the result of an AGD senior capstone project and was submitted for judging at the film festival by Justin McCrea, associate lecturer for AGD. He and fellow associate lecturer Tim Fritz encouraged the students to participate in the event as a way to showcase their talents.
The Kent State team’s production, “Fish ‘n Chips,” is about a young fry-cook who finds himself being responsible for a seafood restaurant for a day but can find no fish to prepare for his customer.
The team also produced “Magic Havoc” which was an official selection at the festival. McCrea noted that this is the fourth year Kent State students have submitted work to the festival.
“This festival allows students to push their work out to a broader audience and network with people in the industry,” he said. “This helps the students gain exposure for their work and, in this case, these students started an animation studio with five AGD founding members. It’s called Studio Star Charm.”
The Short.Sweet.Film.Fest is held each year to highlight the work of student to veteran filmmakers from all across the country. Teams are challenged to make a five-minute short film in 33 days, based on a random “prompt” they select in advance of the festival.
The team received additional support from fellow students Anna Spagnola, Holland McNamara, Mikah Thayer and Ian Riccillo, along with alumni Charlie Helms and Destiny Peterson-Lee.
View the animated films:
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