Roomies- Season 1- Episode 5: Changes Part 2- Part 1 of 2

Film Description:

The gang deals with the loss of a good friend.

Film History:

For me, this was the most difficult episode. Never before have I tried to write and direct a film where the purpose was to bring an audience to tears (by sadness, not laughter :P). To be quite honest, the script was completely rushed. The planning for the first season of Roomies didn't go quite as planned, and we got crunched near the end of the semester. There were many times where I thought the episode wouldn't even get done. However, with our dedicated cast and crew, we pulled through just fine. I'll have to remember now on to have more faith when it comes to this project.

When planning and writing this episode, Josh and I never said a word to anyone else about what it was about. When people would ask us what episode 5 was about, we just rambled off some nonsense. When we wrote episode 4, we even wrote a fake ending, so our cast didn't know what was coming. It wasn't until after we had the main cast sign NDAs we showed them the real ending. I remember seeing the reaction on all the faces of our cast members as they read Joseph's final line, they were in complete shock (well, except for Lydia, I think she secretly wanted Chris dead :P).

The filming process was very extensive. When filming the funeral home scene, I shot over an hour of footage for what probably ended up being 3 - 5 minutes in the end. I wanted to get this thing right. For the most part, I think the direction was fine (except for some shots I'm not too proud of) but it was the script that suffered the most I think. It was a bit sloppy. The cast on the other hand did an excellent job and should be proud of what they accomplished.

When the final product was shown, there were mixed feelings. I remember the auditorium being dead silent (except for when Chris' picture was shown). In the end, I think it was at the very least an interesting experiment. We showed that we can pull off drama and that if put into the right context, it can be a good thing.

Film Information:

Title: Roomies - Episode 5 - Season 1: Changes Part 2
Genre: Drama
Released: May 4th, 2006
Director: Chad Troftgruben
Writers: Chad Troftgruben, Josh Nichols
Cast and Crew:

Bennett Gackle as Steven
Josh Nichols as Joseph
Ivan Mazala as Chris
Lydia Johnson as Erin
Amy Tichy as Kayla
Kimberly Finnicum as Nicole

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• sitcom
• college
• students
• roomies
• roomates
• school
• alcohol
• awareness
• drama
• sad
• party