Students bring friendship, campus life at UCLA to new web series

Four UCLA students filmed the first episode for their web series at Powell Library on Sunday afternoon.

It took Armando Berumen at least five tries to catch a crumpled piece of paper – the paper will be edited to include Berumen’s name on it for the opening credits of the series, “Predominantly White Institution.” Giggles erupted from the cast and crew amid Powell Library’s book stacks each time the first-year undeclared student missed the paper ball.

Meanwhile, first-year psychology student Gisselle Horta only needed one take to film her scene for the opening sequence of their mockumentary web series. For her scene, she pretended to sleep in the middle of the book stacks.

The pilot for “Predominantly White Institution” is slated to come out during week 10 on the YouTube channel, “PWIOfficial.” The students plan on releasing two more episodes in winter quarter 2018.

While the writers noted UCLA was more diverse than many campuses, the title of the series comes from a desire to depict people of color leading regular lives as college students in schools with large white populations.

The plot for the series is influenced by the creators’ own personal interactions and friendships, Negussie said. Their real-life dynamic contributed to the authenticity of the series – a web show about various groups of college students of color finding themselves in humorous situations, she added.

“In this first episode we wanted something to release during finals season so people will watch and forget about all the troubles … (and) just have a good time watching it,” said co-creator and writer Andres Esparza, a first-year English student.

Feven Negussie, a first-year English student and co-creator, writer and actress for the show, said that the purpose of making this comedy series was to depict both college students and people of color in a normalized and comedic way as such characters are not seen on television often enough.

The show’s style is similar to that of series like “Parks and Recreation” and “The Office” in that the humor aims to allow audiences to forget their surroundings and troubles and immerse themselves in funny plots and characters, Esparza said.

However, one stylistic element that’s different about “Predominantly White Institution” is its flashback scenes, which will be featured in the show as rewinds, Esparza added. Such scenes pause like a VHS on screen to show how much time has passed since the present day and then resume as a flashback. Each episode features a different cast of characters playing students on a college campus with specific references to UCLA, like the dining hall swipe system and locations on campus, including certain classrooms and the library.

The pilot is about three friends. One character loses a fake baby for a school project and the other two friends frantically help him find his baby, unaware it’s not real, Negussie said.

On Sunday, the crew filmed a flashback scene in Powell Library. In the scene, Negussie and Horta’s characters sit across from each other and argue about whether pineapple belongs on pizza and lament over the dying bee population. At the same time, Berumen’s character throws his fake baby – played by a red drawstring bag – high into the air in one of Powell’s private study rooms.

Negussie said the flashback proves Berumen’s character’s point in the present time that Negussie and Horta’s characters never paid attention to his baby.

In the middle of shooting the scene, Horta started throwing bits of orange peel at Negussie’s head to get her attention to add more friendly banter to the scene. While not scripted, the incident became an add-on to the original scene. Berumen said on-set improvisation happens often, which makes the process more enjoyable.

“We don’t really try to be very strict and try to get everything on point, so it’s very ad-libbed and free flowing,” Berumen said. “Even when we mess up sometimes, we just start laughing. And if we do something as a mistake, it sometimes ends up being blended into the recording.”

Since the four filmmakers and actors are all friends outside of filming, the process is more relaxed and natural.

“I love it when we just gather and film together,” Horta said. “We just bounce ideas off each other even if there’s no direct script sometimes.”

Negussie said many of the situations – not including the baby incident – have happened to some of them in real life. Many of the conversations included in the episode are ones they have had in real life, like when they make references to the film “Get Out.” She added she wanted to portray a real college environment and have characters with authentic personalities.

After filming scenes for the opening sequence and the baby flashback for an hour and a half, which Horta remarked was a short stint for the crew, they wrapped up for the day, talking about their disdain for their upcoming tests and the tiresome Los Angeles heat.

These kinds of everyday conversations between college students were important for Negussie and Esparza to include, because they show the normalcy of everyday college life as well as the friendships depicted both on and off screen.

“If we worked with complete strangers, it would have been pretty hectic,” Negussie said. “It gives more of an authentic feel to the web series itself because we are using actual people we know, and the chemistry is there.”