Jason Aupperle plays Jason Stark: a hard-nosed, womanizing reporter, whose activities consist of sleeping with a colleague's wife and throwing pencils at Ron the Camera Guy. Robert Imbs plays Robert Munroe: a self-described "weenie," adorned with a fake mustache and huge glasses. Erica Duggan plays herself: the rational, by-the-books journalist. Her secondary job is fending off Stark's advances with a slap on the face.
And somewhere in the middle of all this insanity is information pertinent to living comfortably at UB.
This is "Action News," the new TV show debuting on channel 28 in all of the campus residence halls and apartments. The show is set to premiere next week and run every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 and 10 p.m.
The program is the brainchild of Aupperle and Imbs, both seniors in the department of media studies. Peter Niland, assistant director of the residence halls, wanted to produce a program that was both informative and entertaining for students living on campus.
"We've been fooling with the idea of doing something different to highlight some of the programs and services we have available here," he said.
Niland asked his student assistant Ryan McGowan if he knew anybody that had talent in video and film. The idea was to create a show that would be more than an informational program. McGowan, who was acquainted with Imbs, recommended him after viewing "Real World: Flint Village," a fictionalized, UB version of the MTV show which Imbs filmed with the help of his roommates and Aupperle.
Action News is a mock TV news program, which "reports" on various campus services such as the Wellness Center and the Student Ombudsman. Interspersed is footage of Stark abusing Ron (played by senior media studies major Evan Cooper) and Stark hitting on Duggan, a UB graduate who now works for the residence halls.
"It was Jason originally (who came up with the concept), because he lived in Detroit," Imbs said. "His brother said that if you have an Action News in your city -"
"You have a dumpy city," Aupperle interjected. "You're going to have an 'Action News,' with all these explosions and stuff. Buffalo doesn't have an Action News, so we're like, 'We better make one.' You live in a good city if you have action news, not normal news."
For their first episode, Aupperle used his persona as Stark to film students moving into UB. Part of the premiere show involves Stark invading the room of an undergraduate, knocking over her possessions, ripping out her drawers and jumping on her bed.
"He's an a**hole," Aupperle said. "When I try to be Stark, I just try to be the most difficult person I can. Pompous, difficult, self-centered - like 'screw everyone.'"
The trick, Imbs said, is to become familiar with the subject beforehand. Of course, it helps if the subject happens to be the filmmaker's roommate's sister. But for the second episode, Imbs and Aupperle had to meet with representatives from the Student Ombudsman, the Wellness Center, the Student Health Center and the Counseling Center.
Splicing together real interviews with fake questions and comedic bits creates stories on Action News. Here's a sample of the dialogue produced by Imbs, after filming Stark's newscast with Dr. Veronica Lugris, a staff member at the Counseling Center.
Stark: "Do I even need counseling?"
Lugris: "Absolutely."
Stark: "I do?"
Lugris: "I think everybody could use counseling."
Stark: "Now there's no money on my side of the family, which means I'm just terrified of divorce. If my wife, Gail, leaves me because she finds out about certain things about me she's not supposed to find out about, can I bring her to you guys to counsel her to take me back, you know like force her, trick her?"
Besides manipulating dialogue, comedy is showcased with in-between skits, all performed improv. According to Aupperle, it's much easier than writing a script.
On the other hand, spontaneous attempts to be creative and humorous on camera have their own costs. One piece of footage where Stark chastises Munroe and sexually harasses Duggan required 25 takes. Imbs and Aupperle shot over nine hours of footage for their first two 20-minute episodes. For Imbs, one day's shoot feels like an overwhelming task. There's constant pressure to concoct interesting footage. For instance, while interviewing his sister, Imbs tries to come up with various questions to incite a reaction:
"Do you find that people have facial hair? Acne problems? You know, a large amount of the freshmen class have very small breasts."
"Since we work on improv," Imbs said, "right at the beginning, it doesn't matter who you're with, the first thing you're going to shoot is going to suck. It doesn't matter how well you know your characters. You just have to get going."
"By the end of the day, you're either drained and just can't wait to quit, or you're running out of batteries and tape, and there's so much more crap you could be doing because it's going so well," Aupperle said.
Imbs and Aupperle have been working together with a video camera since they were both in grade school in Williamsville. Past projects have provided the duo the chance to improve their material and assemble a willing cast of characters, including Evan Cooper and Scott Culver, a senior communications major. In their second episode, Culver plays James the Freshman, who Stark describes in his newscast as "a prepubescent, malnourished, wet-nosed mutt straight off the bus of small town Schenectady."
In this episode, the premise of the show has Stark walk with James as he explores various campus services. Although most of the individual skits are the result of spontaneous inspiration, the episodes develop a structure in the editing process, or more specifically, at Imbs's computer in his bedroom at Flint Village. While Aupperle is responsible for most of the acting and storyline of Action News, Imbs shoots and produces the show with his low-tech tools: Adobe Video Premiere and one hand-held Sony digital camera.
In some ways, producing Action News mimics the struggles of real journalists who have to pry information out of unwilling sources. Aupperle offered one observation he has come across while culling interviews from students, on-the-spot.
"You go into the dorms, people will be playing their music as loud as possible. Everyone's trying to get this whole image across that they're tougher than each other. Then Rob will go knock on the door. And it's some RA who looks like the biggest hardcore kid ever, and Rob will look like a weenie with these fake glasses and mustache, and he'll ask him straight out 'Do you want to do an interview?' And the person will be like -"
"Uh . no. I'm, uh, meeting with my girlfriend," Imbs said. "Or I'm being trained as an RA on my floor."
Despite challenges, they say the opportunity to create a program that will be broadcast throughout the university is worth the effort. "We're really lucky because internships with media, you'd have to go to news and radio," Imbs said. "You got to work hard to get recognized."
Once their fellow students get a look at Action News, getting recognized on campus w
