Friday, April 19, 2013

Boys of 213

I will be taking a break from writing about the usual juicy drama's that catch my eye on television and focus on a show that's a little more close to home.  Over the past semester I have been hard at work producing my very own ICTV show: Boys of 213.  Even though filming only began January 29th 2013 the show has been in the works since over a year ago.  (March 2012 to be specific) and has literally been my baby over the past year.





My co-producer and I were driving back from Connecticut to Ithaca, when we started discussing ICTV and what kind of show we would want to produce if we could.  I had already been thinking about this and came up with an idea to write about our lives.  I'm always told to "write what you know" so I figured it was only the smart way to go.  After discussing a few characters, more interesting plot lines, and a central theme....we had a show.  The next day we sat down and wrote 10 pages of episode 1.  The creative juices started flowing and before we knew it we were casting.

The show is about 3 very unique boys who, due to a housing mixup, end up living together in a 2 person dorm room their freshman year of college.  The boys are: sarcastic and playful Noah, snobby and dim-witted Wesley, and quirky socially awkward Liam.  The three boys get into trouble and find themselves among a crazy cast of characters.  The show is a single camera sitcom, which we use a Cannon 5D Mark 2 to shoot.  A unique feature of our show is that it's shot in a mocumentary style similar to The Office and Modern Family.  We thought this popular format would work well to create the realistic, and intimate comedic feeling you will get with our characters.


Another feature of our show is the dorm room set.  My co-producer lives very close to Ithaca and was able to pull together his resources over the winter break to construct our very own set that we put together each week in studio A of Park.  Luckily we have a dedicated and hardworking cast and crew to help us every week not only construct the set but decorate it as well.  We shoot it very similarly to a multi-camera sitcom because we don't include the 4th wall of the set - so it's like we're really peering into the dorm room of the three boys.

This semester has been a most difficult one but will prove most rewarding.  After many issues with scheduling and actor's outside conflicts, lighting corrections, music recordings, etc. I have learned to love producing. I think audiences will really enjoy the characters and stories we tell, and can really relate to the situations.

Boys of 213 will premiere in the Park School Auditorium on April 26th at 8:00PM an then every day on ICTV of that week at 10PM.







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