At first DePaul University sophomore Paul Hennessy wasn’t going to enter an Amtrak video contest because he was so busy with schoolwork and figured he wouldn’t win.

But, after thinking about it some more, he figured, “Why not?”

Lucky for Hennessy he reconsidered. With more than 3,000 votes, Hennessy won Amtrak’s TRAINsportation Video Contest and was honored during the recent National Train Day ceremonies at Chicago’s Union Station.

“It feels fantastic to win. I had a lot of support from friends and family, which helped a lot,” said Hennessy, a sophomore digital cinema major in DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Cinema (CDM). Hennessy said it took him about three days to complete his music video, “See America-2.0,” (http://www.AmtrakTrainsportationVideoContest.com), which was chosen as the winner by a panel of industry experts. Open to all college students in Illinois, entrants were asked to submit the best original train travel-related video. Entries were judged based on originality, composition, emotional appeal and values/benefits of train travel.

“Creative and full of energy, this is a video that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it works,” said judge Lori Rackl, travel editor at the Chicago Sun-Times. “It illustrates the fun side of train travel, and the funky music and lively main character make you want to hop aboard.

“It communicates a lot of Amtrak’s selling points (leg room, checked baggage) and has a nice ending,” Rackl said. “The camera work is skillful and the song is surprisingly catchy.”

Matt Irvine, assistant professor in CDM’s digital cinema program and Hennessy’s faculty advisor, said it was a well-deserved honor.

“He obviously loves what he’s doing. You can see that in the video,” Irvine said. “We encourage our students to do this kind of thing and use our equipment for outside projects to gain more experience and get more exposure. It makes you a better filmmaker.”

Hennessy said the digital cinema program played a big role in his competition success. “The digital cinema program at DePaul allows students to borrow cameras for free. It’s very convenient for students, and also provides a hands-on learning experience,” Hennessy said.

“I have also taken a production class and an editing class, and these helped me decide how I could make the best video possible and edit it to tie it all together,” he added.

Hennessy and the other finalist received complimentary roundtrip travel aboard Amtrak’s California Zephyr to capture their footage for the contest. Their videos were available to public nationwide judging on the contest website. Hennessy said he lobbied family and friends to vote.

Hennessy wrote, sang and recorded the video’s song, and fellow DePaul student Mark Carroll helped record the video and made an appearance in it as well. His contest winnings include more than $3,000 in prizes, an iPad, a high-definition video camera and two roundtrip Amtrak coach tickets.

It is not the first time Hennessy has been recognized for his cinematic talents. In 2009, Hennessy and Carroll’s video, “Getting to Know DePaul University,” won the Audience Choice prize in the “This is DePaul” student video contest sponsored by the university (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brmca8N4kTA).