Inside Boston: "Making the Sitcom, Part 2"

butv10's "Inside Boston" will be running multiple segments this semester on the on-going process of creating our show. Watch more "iB" clips as well as other butv productions at www.butv10.com.

Casting My First Show

Hello Cyber World! My name is Susanne Dahl and I am the Casting Director for Res. Life. It is my job to work with Res. Life's Director, Patrick Sullivan, and fill the roles of the script with the type of actors he invisions. Though, I have some previous casting experience I called on a few of the pros at BU including Professor Paul Schneider who has directed several films and TV series including a few episodes of "90210" as well as meeting with the Assistant Director of the School of Theater at BU's College of Fine Arts, Paolo DiFabio (isn't that the most amazing name you have ever heard?) for more direction.

After taking in all their words of wisdom, I set out to cast my first show. Res. Life had a lucky advantage. BU has an incredible School of Theater and were able to find our four leads and some smaller roles from their large pool of talent.

The daunting task was to cast the other featured roles of Res.Life including the mom, dad and 10 year-old sister of the main character, a disgruntled middle-aged sercurity guard and about 10 more college-aged males and females to fill the other RA roles. We posted an open casting call on Craig's List and New England Film. From those two publications, about a dozen other casting websites picked up our posted and added it to their own website. We also designed a flyer through the help of BU's AdClub and contacted our fellow casting directors and acadamia for recommendations. From there, I spent about two weeks scheduling and contacting actors.

We held the open call over a weekend in February and auditioned over 100 actors to fill 13 roles. In the real world, I would have had dozens of eager casting interns to assist me, but since we are a student production, our fablous crew stepped up. Where else are you going to see the DP, producer and head gaffer doing errands, organizing actors, filming auditions and food runs for the casting director. It was kinda great. Not gonna lie:-)

The most interesting (and at times draining) auditionees were the 10 year-old little girls. We had over 30 young actresses walk through our door with each audition lasting about 5 minutes. That doesnt seem like an excessive amount of time, but for a hand full of college students who are used to communicating with their peers and intellectuals (well most of us anyways:-) ) bringing our verbage down to a ten year old's level was quite the challenge. We were amazed by some of these young girls and their enthusiasm for their crafts. Some of them already had more impressive resumes than my own. One little girl even had her own TV show! After going through all 30 girls, we picked Miss Kara Doherty. She is a very sweet and charasmatic girl and we are so excited to have her on set.



By the end of the weekend, I think all of us involved rethought going into the business (a very common experience in this business I've heard). However, I was completely recharged the next week when I notified the actors we chose to cast. They were so excited and greatful. We are still in the process of extras casting which is a little less stressful, but equally important to the overall film.

I think the moment I am most excited for is when I get to see the cast on set for the first time. It will make all the millions of e-mails, runs to Kinkos and meetings completely worth it.

Inside Boston: "Making the Sitcom, Part 1"

butv10's "Inside Boston" will be running multiple segments this semester on the on-going process of creating our show. Watch more "iB" clips as well as other butv productions at www.butv10.com.

Zen and the Art of Camera Maintenance

So apparently writing a blog entry with a witty title is the cool (“hip” if you will) thing to do… So allow me to introduce myself: I’m Dave Runkle, First Assistant Camera. I am also the token techy/geek/leetzor-haxxor on set. Basically, I get to play with a bunch of really expensive toys (and hopefully not break them). I work closely with Leo, the D.P., to make sure the camera is set up correctly for each scene and adjusted just how Oscar, the camera operator likes it.

After shooting is done, I’ll also become an editor – but that’s a ways off still so we’ll save that conversation for another day… Until then, keep safe and if you understand this: LFG CoT/TK/KARA, then look me up…

~Dave

So this guy walks into a production office...

Hello and greetings from COM 223E! I am Res. Life's production coordinator Rich Kearney, not to be confused with key and dolly grip Rich Kearney, I can't stand that guy. Always cryin and moanin, "oh i need more tools", "oh this wrench is the wrong size," "i wanna four foot piece of track" Waaah Waah Waah, shut up already. Sorry I go on tangents, but ANYWAY, as production coordinator I run the official Res Life production office. It's a magical little place with shelves, bulletin boards, filing cabinets, shelves, and even a computer (with the Internet on it)! (I'll be sure to include a photo next time!) From our office I maintain our master and weekly schedules, as well as contact and crew lists, and send them out to whomever it may concern on a semi-regular basis. Production Coordinator is by and a large an organizational and detailed oriented position that operates as the communications backbone of the production managing the flow of information between the various departments. At least that’s what I read on Wikipedia. But ANYWAY, in layman’s terms, I write a lot of emails. My daily activities include fielding compliments, bothering Professor Schneider, smacking around our archaic printer, waiting for these meddling kids to get off the darned computer, facebooking, re-delegating tasks, disseminating information, gumming up the works down at the copy room, answering all of Elyse’s requests with a resounding ‘I’ll put it in my queue,’ stuffing everyone’s mailboxes (virtual and physical) with various items, and occasionally ordering take out. Oh yeah and I got us some sweet office supplies too, like an erasable wall calendar, and what Professor Schneider called “the nicest 3 hole punch I’ve ever seen.” (pics to follow!) I’m in the office all day on Wednesdays and sporadically during the week. If you wanna chat some time gimme a call on the office line at 617-353-5971 (please no seamstresses, carpenters or methodical planner types). And beware of that grip guy, he stole my name, he’ll steal your gloves.

The Sound and The Fury

Greetings, lovers of the world wide web! My name is Alex Swanson, and I'd like to give you little taste of what I do on the grand production that is Res Life. Like many members of the crew, I have multiple yet equally involved positions. First and foremost, I'm what you might call "the sound guy." The fella with the headphones on, fooling around with various knobs, buttons and blinking lights on a small mixer and forcing Elyse to work her rump off, shifting this way and that as boom operator - that's me. Essentially, I help make sure the audio of this show is clean, clear and appropriate for the scene at hand. I have to say, it's been quite fun to fiddle around with the sound equipment, learning the ropes and praying that nothing gets broken or tangled up. The real pressure for me in regards to this particular position hasn't really set in yet, but come shooting time, my ears will have never been so alert!

My second task is that of 2nd assistant director. Right now, this job allows me to sit in on various production meetings, soaking up bits of information involving budget, transportation and casting. From there, I help out with all of these areas of the production in as many ways as possible, from making up transportation maps to making breakfast runs. All in all, it's a great experience, and will be highly beneficial on this production as well as future films and shows.

Well, that's my intro for now. I'll be back soon to give you updates of a more "in the moment" fashion. Do it to it.

Alex

Propmaster: Not as Mystical as it May Sound.

Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Chris Maggio and I am the prop master/ set decorator on the television progrum Res.Life.

While I might not be able to provide an incredibly interesting blog entry full of animated .gifs and fun flash games, I can at least describe to you what my role on the show is. As you may be able to figure out, I am responsible for obtaining the items we need for props and to decorate our sets. With this responsibility/honor in hand I am also allowed to determine some of the artistic look of the show alongside the help of numerous other crew members.

Although my job is quite extensive and time consuming, when it comes to our Monday preproduction meetings my role is quite reminicent to that of the boy picked last in a game of dodgeball. Much like I would sit in the corner and be bullied by the rugged sportsmen in my local gymnasium, I sit to the side during the camera tests, only occasionally being called on to stand in as an actor. While this experience is much more pleasant than my days in gym class (the absence of "swirlies" being a big factor), it is really our Friday production meetings that bring me the most involvement/joy.

Watching the camera crew practice is actually really cool (I would be lying if I didn't say I was proud and really impressed at all their hard work), but my role is usually a bit more involved at the end of the week. On Fridays we usually sit around a big table and talk about who we have to get in touch with and how we can solve problems plaguing the production. Basically, the two production meetings during the week allow the whole crew to work on different problems, while we all strive to reach the same goal...and as the shooting dates fast approach, this teamwork is insanely necessary!

All we have to do now is figure out how to get our content onto cellular telephonemachines.

-Chris

Director's Update #2: Casting Updates and Webisodes

As you may have noticed on the right hand side of our blog we have some new additions to the Res. Life cast.

Those listed under "Cast" have speaking roles in the pilot episode to air on mtvU. There are still speaking roles to be cast and we hope to be wrapping up our efforts shortly.

Those listed under "Featured R.A.s" have landed themselves an exciting gig. Each of the actors will be featured in the TV pilot as the episode takes place on the first day of R.A training. In addition, however, we will be utilizing their talents (along with our lead actors) to film short, comedic episodes for the Internet. These "webisodes" (which we hope to also translate to "mobisodes" on cell phones) will introduce briefly the characters seen but not heard in the pilot and flesh out the world of Res. Life with unique stories, with many drawn from real Boston University R.A.s.

It's an exciting challenge to be entering the world of online and cell phone video as we shoot our pilot episode, but it's one we're up for.

More to come soon.

Pat

Film/TV Student at BU? Good. We need help...

MTVU Pilot Production Needs Help

Interested in audio, lighting, camera, or grip work? Want to help out on a real television set?

Res. Life, a new pilot to be aired on MTVU is a completely student run production that is looking for production assistants for all areas of production.

Shoot Days: April 14, 15, 21, 22, 27, 28, 30 and May 5, 7, 8. All days will be approximately from 7am to 7pm. We will accept PAs for any amount of days.

*Directed Study* credit is available for students who can make a serious commitment to the project. Credit will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

If you are interested in helping out please email your name, contact info, and dates of availability to newtv@bu.edu. If you have questions about credit please contact Professor Paul Schneider at paulsch@bu.edu.

Location Managing: Pretty Much The Coolest Thing Ever, Besides Being A Pirate

Here’s the thing about blogs:
There is the obligatory pressure to sound interesting. All the cool kids are doing it. And yet, I am by no means a cool kid… so how did I gain access to this snazzy blog? Valid question.

My name is Darcy Forlenza and I secured my blog-worthiness by becoming Location Manager & Best Boy/Best Boy Grip for this fine production. My job is both as easy and as difficult as it sounds. The locating part is easy enough – it’s the securing of those locations that kills. For example, barging into a stranger’s dorm room while they’re eating a delicious sandwich and somehow convincing them to let me return multiple times with a group of 10 to 30 other people to measure, photo, and leer, set up cameras, lights, and props…is not always easy. So thanks to all of you who invited me in and/or currently resist the urge to run in fear when we pass on the street. To those of you who said no or were a big jerk, I will assume you were having an off-day.

So far I’ve gone through the script and determined all of the required locations. After brainstorming with Pat (director) and Chris (props) about the desired “look,” I scouted a bunch of dorms, meeting rooms, lobbies, and restaurants on and off BU campus, taking photos and talking to various head honchos for info on how to reserve the spaces. As a class, we visited the areas a couple of times, and now we’re in the finalization stage. I also have to think about where craft services (food) and wardrobe/makeup can set up, where the circuit breaker boxes are in all the buildings, elevator/loading dock access, parking for actors and crew vans, parking permits for shooting on a public sidewalk, the logistics of creating a closed set in active university common areas, and other fun stuff like that.

My job is pretty cool, because it involves talking to people (which I like) and convincing them to be generous with nothing in return but my hearty handshake, unending adoration and the chance to see their high school tennis trophy in the background of a scene on mtvU (a formidable challenge). And also, as a lighting and grip assistant, I get to light things (always good) and grip them as well (a favorite pastime).

Thank you for reading my blog. I won’t let it go to my head.