Y. 'Lemmings' jumps high

PROVO — A digitally animated short film produced by Brigham Young University students not only won recognition at film festivals but has opened the door for six students to work in the film industry.

"Lemmings" tells the four-minute story of a cartoon lemming that persuades other lemmings not to jump off a cliff.

The idea for the film was pitched by former BYU student Craig Van Dyke. He was looking through books on animals when he came across lemmings.

"Typically, stories come from animals and animation," he said. "And this animal already has a built-in plot."

Van Dyke said the plot involves the common — but incorrect — belief that lemmings willingly commit suicide by jumping into water or off cliffs as a means of curbing their population.

"The film had to be short and sweet, and this film is a good story that allows you to jump right into the action," Van Dyke said.

One of Van Dyke's classes required students to create an animated film. Fifteen story ideas were presented, and the class chose to go with his lemming idea.

"It wasn't just my project," he said. "It was a team project."

Tom Mikota, who was in the same modeling class as Van Dyke, was assigned to detail the characters' fur. He used rabbit pelts as a reference point in developing color schemes and designs.

"I had to do a lot of research," Mikota said. "It took me six months before I could even use the computer program well. It was a computationally intensive process."

It took the students a year and a half to produce the festival-winning film. "Lemmings" was shown at BYU's student film festival, Final Cut, in the fall and won first place for best film.

Mikota credits BYU donor Ira Fulton for making films like "Lemmings" possible. Foulton donated the super computer used to design the fur.

"Without him (Fulton) we wouldn't have been able to do anything," Mikota said.

A core of a dozen students, with another dozen helping, plus musicians, helped to produce "Lemmings."

"We weren't film majors," Van Dyke said. "We were industrial design majors with the precursor to animation. We showed the college (BYU) that there was in interest in animation."