The idiosyncratic world of Dunder Mifflin's paper supply company has been given a Coors Light, decked in flannel and tossed into Baxter House to create the newest addition to the BCN's Thursday line-up: "The Dorm Room."
The show, created and produced by sophomores Chris Adams-Wall and Lenny Pierce, is a spin-off of "The Office" that hilariously amplifies college life to create Bowdoin's own version of the popular NBC comedy.
"We thought up the show because we had become huge "Office" fans and started to realize that a lot of the stuff that goes on in this house is similar to what goes on in 'The Office,'" said Pierce.
"We all met for dinner in February and came up with the idea, but we really wanted to execute it well if we did it," added Adams-Wall. "Everyone else seemed to think it was a good idea too, so we started scripting in early February and Lenny finished the script over March break."
After Spring Break, filming began in "The Office's" traditional "docu-reality" style. Sophomore Cliff Webster does almost all of the filming, while Pierce does most of the writing and Adams-Wall the editing. According to Adams-Wall, the editing for the first episode took over 12 hours, but was "well worth it." Both Pierce and Adams-Wall agree, however, that the most crucial part of the show is the actors.
"We asked people to be on the show, and they were willing to be a part of it, which we were incredibly happy about," said Adams-Wall.
"Part of the really fun part, especially in the beginning, was fitting people with different characters," said sophomore Alex Williams, who plays a Jim-like character in "The Dorm Room." "For example, Chris is a big loser so we knew he would make an excellent Michael. Plus, he's the president of Baxter anyway, so it ended up working perfectly."
Other characters roughly correlated with members of "The Office" include Lenny Pierce as Dwight Schrute and fellow sophomores Matt Bruch, Skye Lawrence, Morgan Estey, and Justin Starr as Andy, Pam, Roy, and Creed respectively. Other actors include sophomores Kim Naton and Chris Rossi, whose parts are not explicitly based on any characters in "The Office." Nonetheless, all characters are called by their original names in the show.
"The character dynamics are really fitting and work well with everyone's personalities," said Pierce. "Alex gets along really well with Skye Lawrence's character and the two of them play off each other perfectly, the way Jim and Pam do in 'The Office.'"
"Some people just totally fell into their roles," Adams-Wall added. "For instance, we had the camera out one day and Justin came up and said something really bizarre into the camera and we were like, 'What?! Wow, that was so weird and random...he would make a perfect Creed!' And then Rossi has been amazing and he totally made his own character, which inevitably ends up sitting on Kim in pretty much every episode."
The first episode aired two weeks ago on the BCN, beginning with an intro that greatly resembles that of "The Office" in its use of video montage. It includes clips from the interstate sign leading into Brunswick, the Bowdoin campus, Baxter's façade, and shots of different characters, all set to the sound of the Gin Blossom's song, "Follow Me Down."
The episode then progresses for 30 minutes, establishing Adams-Wall as the incessantly idiotic and controlling house president, Pierce as the arrogant bio-chem major convinced that everyone thinks he's the man, Bruch as the clueless newcomer who's under the impression that Bowdoin is an Ivy League school, and Williams, Lawrence and Rossi serving as the level-headed members of the house unsuccessfully trying to temper their absurd house-mates.
An invisible documentary camera crew (Webster) follows the action within the house and takes on its own personality and agenda in "Office-like-style," traveling through the halls of Baxter and capturing every last smirk, wink and "behind-the-scenes" moment in a way that is incredibly professional and purposeful.
The first episode is centered on three main topics: character introductions, the controversy of who puked in the oven the weekend before, and the arrival of the disillusioned, sports-coat clad transfer student from Bentley, played by Bruch.
The episode is peppered with house meetings that operate in much the same way as those in "The Office," with Adams-Wall unsuccessfully attempting to command the respect and attention of other house members until the insufficiency of the gathering drives everyone into frustration and leads housemates to come up with their own plan of action.
"The house meetings work really well, because we get to play with that element in "The Office" where everyone's like, 'Why the hell am I here right now?'" said Williams. "We also use Baxter's common room to do the confessions typical of 'The Office.'"
Adams-Wall's confessions to the camera regarding his self-professed nickname "A-Wall," that "stuck ever since childhood," and Skye Lawrence's frustration at Adams-Wall relentlessly referring to her as "Vodka" are only a few of the humorous aspects of the show's debut.
"We first aired the episode in front of members of the house, and we were pretty nervous about how they would receive it," said Pierce. "Ultimately, though, they all seemed to really like it and we were pleased. This entire process has really served to bring our house together behind the project. We've gotten to bond with a bunch of people throughout the house that we didn't necessarily know very well before."
"Yeah, the project has definitely brought people together," Adams-Wall said. "And thankfully the show has been a success both inside and outside of the house. I don't want to sound conceited in any way, but thus far I've heard only positive reviews of the show."
The second episode, which aired yesterday and will continue to play throughout the coming weeks on the BCN, will focus on further developing characters and will continue to follow the growing relationship between the Dwight-like character, Lenny Pierce, and the oblivious and disillusioned new member of the house, Matthew Bruch. While Lenny is initially angered by Chris' decision to assign Matthew as his roommate, he quickly grows fond of Matthew, a guy who feeds Lenny's own egotism.
"In the second episode, Matthew looks up to Lenny and tries to use him to climb a social ladder that doesn't actually exist," said Williams. "Pretty soon they form a duo that successfully annoys the entire house."
Although all of the producers and many cast members are studying abroad in the fall, plans stand to continue the show in the next academic year. Either way, at least the first three episodes should be available on DVD at the end of this semester for students to enjoy.
"Our hope with this show is that it will apply to people's experiences of college, and that others can relate to the interactions that occur in this show," said Pierce. "We want to create a show that resonates with our audience, because that's what it's ultimately all about."