Light, camera, laughs

Our scene opens on chaos -- students mill around in groups, chatting about the latest films and discussing the day's schedule. Adjunct Professor John Winninger quiets the room -- albeit briefly -- with a shout. He dismisses groups of students to the care of other students: writers go upstairs to discuss sketch ideas with senior Jodie Reminder; actors join junior Carrie Owen in the props room to go over lines; and producers and editors remain to build sets. \nSound like Hollywood? Actually, it is T436, Advanced Production workshop, a telecommunications course designed to give students hands-on experience in the production and creative process of television. The 36 students put together the sketch comedy TV show "Slow Children at Play." \nThe shows they produce air all at once after each semester is over, either on campus cable or WTIU. They also produce a live show toward the end of the semester. Two and a half hours of last semester's efforts, including a rerun of the live show, aired Saturday night on WTIU. \n"The last time we were on at midnight," said senior Andy Murphy, the show's student executive producer and associate instructor. "We're working our way into primetime -- this time we were on at 10!"\nHe wasn't kidding. This semester's live show will air at 8 p.m. April 29.\nIn Studio 5, also known as Room 127 of the Radio and Television building, students pound away on flats -- large wooden panels that serve as the walls for this make-believe world. The flats have been painted and decorated outside of class, the same way much of the work is done. Only the actual production and filming is done during the class, which meets from 5:45-10:30 p.m. every Monday. Writers have to produce scripts and bring them to class; actors must have their lines memorized beforehand; and editors do their magic after class.\nSome of the materials they use are available through the telecommunications department, and some are paid for by the students. Because the students have no books or exams, they each pay a course fee of $30, which allows for paint or unusual props the students can't provide themselves. This pool of money doesn't pay for everything the students would like, but it pays for the necessities.\nWinninger, who also teaches the class that produces WTIU's student news forum show, walks back and forth from the studio to the editing room, checking light levels, camera angles, anything that needs to be checked.\n"(I'm) just the honcho -- I put out fires and kick their butts, if they need it," he said.\nEngineer Stephen Parker, who also works with WTIU, adjusts the cameras' color levels and checks the equipment in the editing room.\n"I've been doing this 18 years now," Parker said. Gesturing in the editing room, he continued, "This is more or less my living room, and (the studio is) my backyard." \nIn Parker's "backyard," the students have quickly erected three sets: a dentist's office, a kindergarten classroom and a dorm room. These will provide the setting for the first three skits of the show's third season. \nOnce the chaos has passed, sudden quiet fills the room. The cameras are in place. All the lights are dim except for those on the set. The actors in the first skit, having memorized their lines, wait until it's time to rehearse by singing Prince's "Kiss" loudly. \n"(When ) these kids get relaxed, they get crazy -- watch out!" laughs Parker as he pulls a camera cord across the room.\nThe cast of this sketch (each sketch has a different set of actors and producers and a different director) rehearse a few times so the producers can adjust the camera angles, lighting and sound to best capture the scene. The floor director then calls for quiet, and the only sound is that of the actors delivering their lines. \nThese are the cream of the crop. The class' executive board auditioned 27 students to be on the show this semester and chose only nine. Even so, each skit requires several different takes to make it ready to air, despite few problems with lines.\nIn the editing room, everyone is on task, watching monitors and adjusting cameras. The director speaks to the floor director through the headsets. From there, the floor director tells the producers and actors in the studio what to do.\nCut to the writers upstairs, going through the various sketch ideas that were the class assignment for this week. They laugh at some and write down others, discussing the possibilities. They come across some suggestions having to do with toilet humor, and there are mixed feelings on the subject.\nThe writers are required to submit a script before they are accepted on the writing staff. Sometimes comedic genius is a hard thing to reach, but they have a pretty good idea of what their viewers will find humorous. \n"We've all grown up watching TV. We've all watched 'Saturday Night Live.' We know what's funny," senior Kevin Brezette said.\n"And, if it's not, we have eight other writers ready to criticize us," said junior Lauren King.\nMeanwhile, the cast downstairs has shifted to the next sketch. The "kids" sit on the floor playing with their toys, reciting their lines for the fifth or sixth time. The actors and producers not involved in this skit sit on the bed set up for the dorm room sketch and discuss the philosophy of comedy. \n"The only things that are funny are the things that are true," freshman Sam Shahrani said.\nAfter several takes, everyone is exhausted. Someone announces that the pizza has arrived, and everyone runs for the hallway outside the studio, where they line up to eat and chat about life. The break ends, and the chaos returns to the studio with the actors and producers. \nJust like any TV show, the writers have to deal with censorship. One student wrote a sketch involving sexual devices, and Murphy had to explain why they could not produce it.\n"You just can't air this on PBS," he said. "We can write things that are very funny, without using the sex stuff or without showing someone that's drunk or high."\nWhile not everything that ends up on the show turns out as well as they'd like, each semester improves upon the last.\n"It's a big step up from last semester," Reminder said of last semester's episodes. "I'm hoping we can compare to other college-age shows, like 'The State.'"\nJunior Paul Molin said "Slow Children at Play" is similar to the national sketch comedy shows, just on a smaller scale. \n"I was just really surprised with our writers. Our writers are really good," he said. "'(The) Kids in the Hall' -- they have a bigger budget. If we could play around with that, the stuff we could do would be awesome. I think people who like '(The) Kids in the Hall' would like us."\nAt the end of the night, the whole class reconvenes in the studio to receive congratulations or constructive criticism, to hear announcements and to discuss the next week's schedule. Afterward, everyone leaves en masse, except for the executives, who stay behind for a meeting. Finally, they're finished (for now, anyway), and everyone trickles out of the studio. Fade to black.