The Webby People's Voice Award goes to... By Victor Ituarte

The University of Texas-Pan American's Reel to Red Productions is known for its feats in video, which includes two Lone Star Emmy's, a Telly, and an Aurora award to name a few. However, when the group comprised of UTPA students set foot in the digital realm of Web design, one of the last things they expected was for their site, ReeltoRed.com, to be selected as one of five finalists in the Student Web site category for the 14th annual Webby Awards - Internet's highest honor.

The New York Times has deemed the Webby Awards as "the online equivalent of an Oscar." The awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), a 650-person group that judges the entries. The 14th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The academy's picks are based on content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity and overall experience.

What's different about the Webby Awards, aside from the traditional five-word acceptance speeches given at the ceremony in New York City, is the opportunity to win two awards for the same category: the Webby Award, which is selected solely by IADAS, and the Webby People's Voice Award, which is voted upon by the global community.

Reel to Red was in competition with two University of North Carolina schools, the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and a student out of Germany. The academy's pick for the Webby Award was andreaslutz.com from Germany, an interactive site that requires the use of a Web cam and a microphone to navigate its depths. However, it was Reel to Red that won the world over and garnered the most votes to take the prize of the Webby People's Voice Award.

"I was surprised and thrilled to find out when we were nominated," said James Hernandez, a Reel to Red team member and a senior journalism-advertising/public relations major at UTPA. "I'm glad our university has more exposure on an international stage."

Attempting to earn votes wasn't a walk in the park. The eight-member group hit the ground running the moment their nomination was announced on Tuesday, April 13. They pushed and campaigned for more than two weeks.

"We didn't waste any time. The morning I found out about our nomination, I sent a mass e-mail to all of the UTPA faculty and staff telling them about our nomination and included instructions on how to vote," said Chelse Benham, the director of Reel to Red.

Part of Reel to Red's proactive campaign included covering the sidewalks of the University with chalk advertisements, home-made T-shirts, balloons with instructions to vote, video pitches that were uploaded to YouTube, a marquee at the historic Cine El Rey theater in downtown McAllen, flyers, and requests to vote on the group's Facebook and Twitter accounts, but, Benham said, the largest portion of the votes probably came from sending e-mails to co-workers, family, and friends asking them to vote and setting up laptops in the Student Union at UTPA to guide people through the voting process.

"What was most memorable was that, after the first couple of days, people that voted knew us by name," said Oscar Garza, a long-time member at Reel to Red and a graduate of the English master's program at UTPA. "We were out there campaigning every day so a real feeling of a community on campus grew out of that."

And that hard work paid off.

On Tuesday, May 4th, the Webby Awards posted the Webby Award and Webby People's Voice Award winners and Reel to Red Productions was one of them.

"Our site is unique and our focus on the young, digital natives," Benham said. "The academy's decision of nominees were based on aesthetics, creativity, interaction, and content and we met all of that. Frankly, some of the other sites were typical CSS-style that you see on most sites. Our Web site devoted more attention on creative user interaction and design."

In their two weeks promoting at the Student Union and around campus, the group garnered great support from people on campus. Reel to Red acknowledges that they could not have accomplished this without the help and support of the UTPA community.

"It was inspiring having students walking up to us and telling us they voted with four e-mail addresses or that they got several of their friends to vote. We're not forgetting any of that. We are forever in their debt," said Alexis Carranza, a graduate of the graphic design program at UTPA and another Reel to Red member.

Even though their time in New York City may seem like a vacation to the Reel to Red team, Benham reminds them their work to represent, promote, and pay back UTPA will continue.

"I've made it mandatory to wake up early to make it to the outside of the Today show or Good Morning America with posters promoting UTPA," Benham explained. "Even at the ceremony with our five-word speech, we want to make a big impression on everyone watching. We're hoping to be featured on the highlight reel. Anything to continue to spread the word about UTPA."

The members of Reel to Red will travel to the Big Apple in early June to be a part of the festivities. They couldn't be more excited.

Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler and famed film critic Roger Ebert will be among some of the specially recognized attendees at the ceremony. Los Angeles rock group OK Go will receive the Artist of the Year Webby. Winners (and other potential attendees) in other categories include Jim Carrey's official Web site in Celebrity/Fan, The Muppets and Queen for "Bohemian Rhapsody" in Viral Video, and The Associated Press for their live coverage of President Barack Obama's inauguration in Events & Live Webcasts.

Although she may rub elbows with famous folk, Hilda Del Rio, one of the group's designers and a recent graduate graphic design major at UTPA, says she's more excited about mingling and dining with some of the most innovative minds of today's Internet world.

"I'm not so much about the celebrities that are going to be there, but more about the designers that worked on the Web sites," said the self-professed technology geek. "I would love to ask them about what they do differently during their creative process."

Benham said UTPA and Reel to Red will forever be saved in the collection of some of the best Web sites on the Internet.

"What's incredible is that being nominated is an automatic win because for the year of 2010, the only people that will be able to stake 'nominated for a Webby' in the student Web site category are the five of us that were in the running," Benham said. "If you look at the Webby home page, you'll find the names and links of the past 14 years of winners, some of which still get a lot of traffic. There's a sense of pride that we've left our mark on the Internet where, 10, 15, or 20 years from now, people can look back and see the name of our University."