Design student wins award for music video

GV/AN View--Dean Pizzorato, a graphic design student at the Art Institute whose film was selected to be in the Dam Short Film Festival sits in front of a clip from his film, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2005.--View Photo Christine H. Wetzel

Dean Pizzoferrato's life experiences, his major in graphic design and his passion for music came together to create an award-winning short film that recently debuted during Boulder City's Dam Short Film Festival.

Pizzoferrato, a 20-year-old graphic design student at the Art Institute of Las Vegas, won the school's "The Best of Ai" showcase -- which included seven of the best films submitted from Art Institute schools across the country -- with his music video, titled "Seven Springs of Living Dreams." The showcase featured a variety of short films, including parodies, public service announcements, music videos and short stories that were submitted by students, alumni and faculty of the Art Institute.

A Las Vegas native, Pizzoferrato attended both Centennial and Durango high schools and started studying at the Art Institute about 1 1/2 years ago as a graphic design major.

Pizzoferrato first took an interest in graphic design because he needed graphics for his musical projects.

"That sparked my interest and I thought I would check out the Art Institute's programs, and I loved it," he said. "From there I started playing around with video as well."

Although Pizzoferrato has spent more than the past six years as a member of Lyrical Assassins, a hip-hop project he created with his cousins Allen and Danny, Pizzoferrato recently decided to put together a solo project. The song and video for "Seven Springs of Living Dreams" started as ideas for Pizzoferrato's first solo effort and came to life as an Art Institute class project.

"The piece is loosely based on my life, a day in my life," Pizzoferrato said. "It's the first in a series of seven songs that will make up this solo project. Eventually all seven tracks will be put out together with video, and the final running time for the whole thing will be 20 to 25 minutes."

Pizzoferrato has been making music for more than six years, and already has five or six of the seven songs that will make up the solo project. Recently he began working on the images for the next video in the series.

"Some of the best material I write comes from real, heart-felt feelings and events in my life," he said. "I wanted to put the music together with video, but I didn't want to just go commercial. I kind of try to make you think a little at the end of the day."

Pizzoferrato also he consistently tries to part with stereotypes through both his group and solo projects.

"I'm trying to break the mold and bring something new to the table," he said. "I'm a white MC, which is maybe a little unusual, so I try to always do something a little different."

In addition to his solo work, Pizzoferrato is also working on a new project with Lyrical Assassins and designing a Web site, but he said the most important thing right now is concentrating on school. He plans to graduate from the Art Institute in 1 1/2 years and eventually would like to have his own production company and studio.

"I'd like to have a studio that could offer a sort of one-stop shopping for album recording, video production and graphics," he said. "I'd like to eventually own a business and get into the corporate side of things, but I also have a passion for music and performance. I've always been very creative."

Pizzoferrato said he was very happy with the results of "Seven Springs of Living Dreams," which required a lot of compositing, overlay of video and work in Photoshop.

For more information about Pizzoferrato's work or Lyrical Assassins, visit www.hdshiphop.com.