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Last year, the student-made sitcom The BC garnered widespread acclaim and legendary status when seniors Joe Sabia and Sherwood Tondorf set out to create a Web-based parody of the popular television show The OC. The show, which centered on the midadventures of fictional Boston University reject Woody Atryan, aimed to appeal specifically to students at Boston College.
Although not affiliated with The BC, Jim Fields, A&S '10, is carrying on the newly established tradition with his rendition of MTV reality show Laguna Beach, The Real BC.
The startup television program premiered Friday night to a crowd of Fields' friends, supporters, and students hoping for something that could live up to the hilarity that was The BC. The event, catered by Odwalla and advertised on Facebook, drew a varied crowd to Vanderslice despite the sleet and near-freezing temperatures.
The Real BC follows a confused freshman, Jon, as he navigates his way through his first semester at BC. Jon faces a swarm of frightened freshman girls who ask him to kill a bug for them, a trip to the infirmary, a dodge ball game at the Plex, and rejection by hot upperclassmen.
"The plot appeals specifically to people at BC, but people everywhere can appreciate it" said Fields, who seeks to make the show less BC centric than its predecessor.
The show, lampooning the way Laguna Beach parodied The OC, is less of a reality show and more of a plot-driven sitcom. Fields considers it to be a combination of The Office and The OC fused with Seinfeld.
Stressing that The Real BC is not merely a continuation of The BC, Fields said, "the only real relationship between the two shows is their names. The similarities end there."
The show, cast solely with BC students, stars Patrick Knight, A&S '08, as the lost, young Jon. Other cast members include Joey Quiros, CSOM '10, as a character simply known as "The Anomaly" and Emily Vaughan, A&S '10, as the flirtatious Liz.
Actors and other crew members were chosen through an open casting call that Fields advertised on fliers across campus.
The interest expressed by over 70 hopefuls is a manifestation of the stir and spirit caused by The BC just last year.
With such high standards to live up to, one might wonder how, as a freshman, Fields was able to pull together a full-fledged sitcom with only a semester of BC experiences under his belt.
"It is valid to say that I don't have a perfect handle on what life at Boston College is like yet. That's why I talked to a lot of upperclassmen to get ideas. However, a lot of the incidents in the script are extracted from my own experience. The bug incident actually happened. And everyone's had some kind of experience with the Infirmary," said Fields.
The fact that much of the show focused on Upper Campus may, however, be attributed to Fields' freshman status.
"We shot a few things on Lower. The shot in Edmond's and the Plex. But yes, about 60 to 70 percent of the action took place on Upper, mainly because of the ease of recording and getting everyone together. However, we do intend to carry the show through Jon's four years at school, kind of like the Harry Potter series."
Fortunately, Fields is no newcomer to the world of production. As a high school student, he was known for his short films. One, Prometheus Unwound, won first place in the Bellarmine College Prep film festival.
When Fields came to BC, he was contacted by another Bellarmine graduate, Jonathan Lunetta. Seeing talent in Fields and potential in the atmosphere at BC, the founder and CEO of MyFilmU, a Web-based company for college-focused video entertainment, provided Fields with state-of-the-art filmmaking gear. This included a Canon XL-1, which was offered to Fields in exchange for the rights to anything that the donated equipment might produce.
The advanced equipment has allowed Fields to take the technical aspects of his show to the next level. While The BC was shot with a simple camera and edited on basic Apple editing software, The Real BC will feature scenes edited on Adobe Premier.
"What I have seen is terrific," said Lunetta. "The quality really rivals that of a real television show."
Fields and Lunetta also seek to take college programming into the next generation by broadcasting each episode online at www.myfilmu.com, where BC will have its own channel. Television shows produced at other colleges and universities will air on similar channels on the site.
"We're in an age of reality programming, and Facebook, and Myspace, [and we're seeing] in general a decrease in reliance on traditional media and an increase in user-generated content. The BC pioneered this type of media. It is clear this trend will only continue to be aggregated across college communities around the country."
For the less technologically inclined, Fields also plans to air The Real BC on BC programming.
Fields, who says that he intends to continue to work on The Real BC for the duration of his four years at BC, says that despite the 20 to 30 hours a week he puts into the show the experience has been worth it.
"Everyone tells me, 'It's not your duty to make this show for BC. Your duty is to be a freshman and get good grades.' But I've gotten pretty positive feedback so far. It was a good first episode. I really like the way this is going," said Fields.
For those absent at the premiere, The Real BC will be available for viewing online within the month.
Those wanting to get involved in production, acting, or screenwriting for The Real BC should contact Fields directly at fieldsjc@bc.edu.
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