Students who arrive on campus interested in the “television” part of the Radio-Television-Film major may be surprised at how few TV opportunities Northwestern offers. While students shoot short films nearly every weekend, few produce serial programs. However, student production company NU Channel 1 (NUCH1) is here to help those who aspire to Netflix fame by hosting students’ original web series.
“I’ve always wanted to write sitcoms, and now I’m doing it,” said Daniel Jude, a Communication sophomore and one of the head writers of the NUCH1 show Carpe Diem. “Literally, [I started] as a freshman in college.”
Since Northwestern doesn’t have a broadcast channel to air student shows, web series are the next best option. Web series are television in a microcosm: aired exclusively on video-sharing sites like YouTube, each “webisode” is a only a few minutes long and can be produced on a much smaller budget than normal TV.
Students pitch their show ideas to NUCH1, which then chooses to give equipment and money to certain projects. But NUCH1 isn’t just Northwestern’s only web series production company. In fact, it is the only Northwestern organization that makes TV at all.
“If there were organizations, it’d be easier to have more specific TV things, like comedy TV, drama TV,” said NUCH1 President Chris Romero. “So I’m glad that it exists at all, but I wish there was more TV stuff for RTVF students.”
Though NUCH1 was created in 2009, it was only recently recognized by the Associated Student Government (ASG) and the RTVF department. NUCH1 initially wanted to be a hub where people could find student short films – but the organization was trying to do too many things at once, Romero said.
“We tried to re-launch what it really is,” Romero, a Communication junior, said of NUCH1’s recent goals. “We really tried to focus it on student-created, serial programs. I think we’ve just tried to improve the quality of those programs in the last couple of years.”
NUCH1 currently produces three shows: Carpe Diem, the tale of high school students with a bucket list; Assistance, about four misfit T.A.s; and its newest addition, Editor in Chief, which captures the inner workings of a fading university newspaper.
“What’s really cool is, over time, you can see how things develop and progress,” said Jared Bohlken, a Communication junior and NUCH1’s general manager. Bohlken is also a co-creator of Editor in Chief, along with Romero. “It gives you more freedom in that you don’t have to really delve into all your characters immediately… That’s not to say there isn’t any character work in a series, but it’s just more methodological and just easier to lay out in a more linear fashion.”
However, there are downsides to producing multiple episodes a year. Most NUCH1 shows last one or two seasons, so working on a show is at least a yearlong commitment. Scheduling can also be difficult, as the cast and crew must work more days than on a normal short film shoot. Then there is the budget problem.
Zoe Pressman, a Communication sophomore and a co-creator of Assistance, estimates that the show has a per-episode budget of 50 dollars.
“If we want to try something more ambitious or get some more equipment, we need extra funding,” she said.
NUCH1 encourages all its show to do independent fundraising, Romero said. Assistance and The Mailroom, an NUCH1 show that concluded last year, followed that advice. They set up accounts on crowd-funding websites and asked for donations. Both shows met their goals – 500 dollars and 200 dollars, respectively.
NUCH1 recently pitched to the RTVF department to receive more money, Bohlken said.
“Ideally, we’d like to have a much larger budgets for the show[s],” he said. “More in the range of what short films get on campus.”
And NUCH1 might just get that money. The organization has more of a campus presence than ever before, according to its leaders and show creators. But they’re still not satisfied, not until NUCH1 shows attract every eyeball on campus.
“Just increasing the people watching our shows, get more notoriety, make people aware that we exist on campus,” Romero said of NUCH1’s goals for this year. “And just to continue producing new shows and new content. To attract as many students who are interested in TV as possible, to use us as an outlet to work on their projects.”