|
After each episode finishes production, I will do a news update highlighting the development process the episode went through (similar to the Batguy: Starts Production Notes). I believe this will give everyone a look into the development process of Roomies and is a good way to keep track of what we did to get to the finished product. Also be warned there are minor spoilers in this article. So, without further delay, here are the production notes for Episode 1. Episode 1 finished up production early this week. With a delay due to bad weather the week before, production needed to be carried over to the week of Spring Break. However, even with the delay, we wrapped up Episode 1 in a timely manner. Production started on Thursday, March 2nd in the Dickinson State University Bookstore. We filmed only one scene that day, and it was the scene where Joseph (Josh Nichols) goes shopping for books and comes across a shady character (Scott Rojic) willing to sell him products at a very reduced price.  
The underground book salesman (Scott Rojic) tries to get Joseph’s attention. I estimated this scene would take an hour to shoot, however it took it nearly two and a half hours. This was mainly due to us filming in an actual bookstore… and who knew people would actually come into this store? The store has a sensor, so every time someone enters, the bell would go off. So, there were many times during production where we had to do retakes due to the “ding dong!” noise chiming in the background. But, this was a small price to pay for the manager allowing us to film there, and we thank her for it. Another factor that came into play was the fact I shot the scene three separate times. I did this to get three separate angles of the action: a close up on the book salesman, a close up of Joseph, and a shot with both of them in frame. There were also quite a few bloopers during this session (it’s a complicated scene) and that added to the duration. However, in the end, it was all worth it, for the shots turned out great. And the actors did an excellent job. 
Joseph (Josh Nichols) signs a contract with the shady dealer. When Sunday came, we were unable to film the outside scenes we had planned (due to the weather being bad) so we just went ahead right to the indoor shots. First up was the Cold Open shots. This went fairly well. It mainly featured Chris (Ivan Mazala) getting a suitcase, Joseph talking to his off screen mother, and Steven (Bennett Gackle) saying goodbye to his beloved girlfriend. From there we filmed the opening montage sequence of the three guys getting ready for their adventure. Again, there were no hang ups here, except maybe having Bennett do his shaving scene like five times (due to various blunders on my part). Ivan had to leave early and we forgot to do a couple shots of him in the opening, but we picked those up later on, so it was fine. 
Steven (Bennett Gackle) falls asleep in the kitchen after a night of heavy Cheese Goodum consumption. Monday was an interesting day for everyone. The Line Scene, in which Chris waits forever to get his schedule, was filmed on this day. Problems arose right away and I was unsure if we would be able to complete the scene. The first problem being that there were people in the office we needed to film at. The next being less than half of our extras showed up that we had scheduled. We scheduled to start at 6:00 PM and didn’t get underway until close to 6:45 PM. Luckily we were able to grab people to be line extras and we also did some fancy tricks (like switching clothes, putting on caps, etc) and recycled actors throughout the line. The last problem came with background people in the office. This wasn’t problematic until the end when a certain individual decided to be cute and act like a dumb ass for the camera, but this was fixed later on in pickup shots. Overall, the line scene went well, but man, it was scary there for a while. 
Chris (Ivan Malaza) eagerly waits in line. After filming the line stuff, we needed to do some shots of water related incidents that causes Chris to run to the bathroom. First, we had someone slurp some water from a fountain. Next we had a creepy janitor slosh his mop in a bucket. And finally we had someone “make love” to a bottle of water. This is where things got a little problematic. I first had Erich Bartz do this making love to the water thing. It required him to just pour water all over him and act like he was really enjoying that damn water. But as I started to record this, my battery died! So he got wet for nothing and then I had to assume the role and do it myself. And yes, I got wet. 
Chad Troftgruben enjoys his water. After these antics were done ensuing, we went to film the dorm scenes. First up was the girls’ dorm room scene. Basically Steven walks into a room, he assumes it’s his, and after an incident involving soda and Cheese Goodums, he gets kicked out of the room. This went fairly fast and the result was pretty humorous. However, we didn’t have a female to play a certain part at the time and that had to be picked up later on. But we got it, and that’s all the really counts. 
Steven gets a surprise visit during an awkward moment. We then filmed the final scenes in the same dorm room (yes, the same room is used for two separate rooms in this episode). This is the scene where the three guys meet and get acquainted with each other. This was also the time we filmed the infamous dirty mattress shots. Basically what happens is, Joseph and Chris encounter a tainted mattress. When they try to fix it, they just end up making it worse. We also filmed the closing when Steven gets a surprise visit from his girlfriend. And the final shot is priceless (I don’t want to state what it is, I feel it should be a surprise). 
Chris and Joseph discover a defect in the mattress. On Wednesday the parking lot scene involving Steven and the Teacher was shot. We weren’t able to pull all the stunts (like Steven doing a 180) that we wrote in the script. However even with the limited angles, the result was good. We also filmed Steven driving to the University and the girl opening the door shot we needed for the girls’ dorm room scene. Then on Monday we filmed some remaining pickup shots for Joseph, which mainly involved him talking to his mom outside of the school. And on Tuesday we filmed the final pickup shots for Chris (such as close ups of him in line, and some stuff for the opening montage). After that, we shot a car driving down a road, some stuff for the opening credits, and just some minor pickup shots for Joseph. And that was it! Episode 1 was all done. 
Steven prepares to get the last parking spot. All that remains now is for it to be edited and broadcast. Tune in to the DSU campus channel on March 27th for the premier of Roomies. Or stick around on this website and download the first episode (also available on the 27th). |
