For the first time in Ball State history, three unrelated departments have converged in an effort to spoof reality television in a live broadcast.
The Department of Theater, Department of Telecommunications and Center for Media Design will air "Reality TV Bytes" live at 7:30 p.m. tonight on Channel 57. The show will also air on www.bsu.edu/realityTVbytes.
About 75 students, four classes and seven staff members collaborated to make fun of television's "Survivor," "Trading Spaces" and "Blind Date" by creating three new shows to air tonight called "Survival," "Changing Spaces" and "Hot Date," said Jennifer Blackmer, assistant professor of theater and artistic coordinator.
"We set up shots and allowed actors to say what they wanted to say, even through the process of editing it, which changed what viewers see in the characters," Blackmer said. "Editing is where the story's pulled."
By watching how the departments put together these reality shows and seeing the quirks in each character, Blackmer said she hopes students can question the nature of what reality television is. "There isn't really anything real about it," she said.
Journalism professor Larry Dailey said never before have different departments come together to complete such an unusual project.
"You've got lots of different folks and lots of students who normally don't work together coming together to accomplish a project, and (they're) using the strengths of others to make their project better," Dailey said.
Blackmer said tonight's spoof will include three segments, the first of which is a film students who were skilled in improvisational comedy created using footage they shot at the Ball State Duck Pond, Scheidler Apartments and in the Atrium gallery of the Art and Journalism Building in March.
The second portion of the show, the live broadcast, will include a talk show to be staged before a sold-out live studio audience at Strother Theater in the Arts and Communication Building. The actors will serve as moderators and will review each of the film's three acts.
The third portion, the Web site, will allow students to vote off characters online, and they won't have to wait a whole week to see the results, Blackmer said.
"It's real-time activity," Blackmer said. "This is immediate. In a minute, you find out how your vote changes the story. You can submit a vote up to one minute before the announcements are made."
The Web site will complement the live portion of the broadcast because students will determine what endings they want to see, Blackmer said. On the site, students can also play six interactive games featuring the characters, read character biographies and view all of the alternate endings not seen during the broadcast.
"If a person voted for someone else and they wanted to see what would happen if they had been voted off, they would be able to see it," Blackmer said.
Funded by the Center for Media Design, the project is interactivity, taped programming and live programming all in one theatrical experience, said Dan Lutz, associate director of Ball State's Teleplex and coordinator of the interactive Web portion of the broadcast.
Junior theater major Bobby Richards, who played three roles in the film, said the most important thing to realize is that all characters are a reflection of the performers.
"Basically, we created our characters," Richards said. "We gave them a genesis, physical traits, back stories, everything."
It's crazy to see how all our creations have come to life via game designers, film students, other actors and other innovative minds, he said.
Sophomore theater major Maggie Kubley, who has a minor in digital media, also said it was exciting to see the nonscripted project come together.
"It forces you to be on your toes and always thinking so that the comedy comes out organized and well-timed," Kubley said.
Dailey said he has grown as a teacher because of the project. "I think we're all pretty proud that despite the vast differences between the departments, we get together and build something and have fun doing it," he said.
Blackmer said she looks forward to doing similar projects in the future.
"This is the first time we've had collaboration of this magnitude on the Ball State campus," Blackmer said. "We want students to see this and enjoy it and find ideas of their own."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
