Spring Break
Student-created soap opera begins filming and production
Omkar Baxi
Issue date: 5/23/08 Section: News
"Lights! Camera! Action!" These words were heard on the second floor of Ross Commons and throughout the University as students from the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design began filming and producing the University's first dramatic series, "University 101." Throughout the winter and spring terms, students in the Westphal college wrote and filmed a soap opera following the lives of six students at the fictional Dexter University, according to Zeek Weil, director of communication and events at the Antoinette Westphal college.
The idea of a student-created soap opera arose "as a means of getting students involved with Drexel's television station, DUTV," Allen Sabinson, dean of AWCoMAD, said. "We also sought to create a learning experience in television series production that would mirror the kinds of professional experiences our students would encounter in the industry."
According to Weil, the show is a composite effort of students from various majors in the Westphal College. For example, film and video majors will be filming episodes written by scriptwriting majors. The set is created by interior design majors while fashion design students have created the character costumes and music majors have created the musical score.
The overall production is a professional-quality TV series created by the Westphal College as a whole, according to Melissa Menago, a junior music industry major and composer of the "University 101" musical score.
The Professionals
In order to make the series comparable to professional TV shows, the Westphal College invited a pair of well-known individuals from the TV industry to teach the classes developing "University 101," according to Weil.
Lorraine Broderick, a six-time Emmy-award winner and head writer of various soap operas including "All of My Children," taught a special class focusing on soap opera screenwriting during the winter term. According to Broderick, the final product of the class was a script for the series entitled "University 101," completely written and conceived by the students in the class.
The idea of a student-created soap opera arose "as a means of getting students involved with Drexel's television station, DUTV," Allen Sabinson, dean of AWCoMAD, said. "We also sought to create a learning experience in television series production that would mirror the kinds of professional experiences our students would encounter in the industry."
According to Weil, the show is a composite effort of students from various majors in the Westphal College. For example, film and video majors will be filming episodes written by scriptwriting majors. The set is created by interior design majors while fashion design students have created the character costumes and music majors have created the musical score.
The overall production is a professional-quality TV series created by the Westphal College as a whole, according to Melissa Menago, a junior music industry major and composer of the "University 101" musical score.
The Professionals
In order to make the series comparable to professional TV shows, the Westphal College invited a pair of well-known individuals from the TV industry to teach the classes developing "University 101," according to Weil.
Lorraine Broderick, a six-time Emmy-award winner and head writer of various soap operas including "All of My Children," taught a special class focusing on soap opera screenwriting during the winter term. According to Broderick, the final product of the class was a script for the series entitled "University 101," completely written and conceived by the students in the class.
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