Communication Across the Curriculum hosted its fourth-annual Digital Media Festival awards ceremony Thursday, and this year was the biggest one yet. More than 150 students submitted entries representing almost every college on campus, said Rachel Spear, graduate coordinator. “I think it was phenomenal,” Spear said. “I was very impressed with the quantity and quality of the submissions.”
What started strictly as a short-film festival four years ago is now a culmination of all forms of digital media, including video, digital photography, animation and advertising campaigns.”We are reaching more students in more colleges,” Spear said. “We changed the categories to be more inclusive, and we pulled from the other studios across campus.” A panel of industry and faculty judges, all of whom are professionals in their respective fields, selected one winner from each category — film and video, information and promotional, technical and scientific, academic and extracurricular, creative animation and photography. Five  students received the Dean’s Scholarship Award, which was given to the student who received the most votes according to their college. The scholarships ranged from $150 to $300. Max Zoghbi, psychology senior, won the Dean’s Scholarship Award for the College of Arts and Sciences for his video entry “Menfuthlick Attini.” “It was great,” Zoghbi said. “It started out as a project just for fun, but then we pushed hard to make it something extraordinary.” Zoghbi said his inspiration came from Saturday Night Live’s digital shorts. “I wanted to have the SNL appeal but still be fun and appropriate,” he said. The video took 12 hours to complete, Zoghbi said. Crystal Bergeron, photography senior, won for the photography category and the Dean’s Scholarship Award for the College of Art and Design for her digital photograph “Abandoned.” Bergeron said she’s been practicing photography for four years. This was her first submission to the Digital Media Festival. “It felt pretty good to win,” she said. “It was a nice surprise.” Ben Clancy, graphic design senior, won in the technical and scientific category for his digital entry “Bob Dylan — Together Through Life.” “Bob Dylan was a big part of my thought process for the past four years,” Clancy said. Awards included a pen tablet, a Flip HD digital camera, a Best Buy gift card and a Nintendo Wii. In March, CxC was named the 2010 Program of Excellence by the Conference on College Composition and Communication. “This was the first year the conference has picked a single program,” said Joey Watson, Music and Dramatic Arts coordinator. “They said LSU raised the bar on academic programs and was deserving of being the sole recipient of 2010.” Sarah Liggett, CxC director, said she was pleased with this year’s submissions. “The entries were fantastic,” she said. “I was very impressed by all the finalists.” —————Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]