Digital media production students in an advanced multicam production course are filming UCM’s first ever in-studio game show this semester.
The show, Game Central, aired its first episode Thursday on the UCM Media Network. Teams comprised of members from UCM’s Filmmakers and Actors Coalition and UCM Jennies volleyball competed in the debut.
“It’s a charade’s style, kind of like Heads Up,” said Allyson Cook, a graduate student producer for Game Central. “So the words are behind them and their teammates have to tell them clues about whatever the word is and they have to guess it.”
Cook said the show will feature seven different organizations from around campus each week in a round-robin style competition until they become seeded for an elimination bracket. The overall champions will then receive a prize pack.
The other five organizations participating this semester include: The Broadcast Educators Association, Public Relations Student Society of America, United Student Housing Association, Delta Chi and Jennies basketball. When the teams aren’t competing, they act as a live studio audience in the Patton Broadcast Center studio to add another layer of experience for the students.
Shannon Johnson, instructor of communication and faculty advisor of the course, said nine students work on set creating graphics, controlling the cameras and writing the script for the game show.
“There are certain roles that exist from week to week,” Johnson said. “That way you can get feedback, build and develop those skills. Then some of the other ones that have already been covered in other courses we rotate through those for the whole class, so everybody will run a camera and everybody will do audio and everybody will do graphics.”
He said the purpose of the class is for students to learn how to direct a show with effective time management and develop in roles to which they are already familiar.
“Students have already taken multicam class, so they’ve learned the basic elements of being the different positions that go into a studio production – a director and a floor director and a technical director,” Johnson said. “So when you take it to the advanced part of this, we spend more time on the individual technical aspects of it.”
Johnson said in past years the class worked together to produce a news show, but the class this semester voted in unison to create the game show.
Cook said Johnson reached out to students in an email for input on what the class would focus on during the semester.
“Darin (Plummer) brought up a game show idea and then others brought up a variety show or talk show kind of like The View, and then we even had an idea for a sitcom,” Cook said. “We all voted and thought that the game show sounded like fun and a different idea that we’ve never done in the studio before.”
Johnson said they spent several class periods developing the format, deciding on the rules and the game play. The show consists of three graduate-student producers, one faculty producers, a host and four other students who work on writing, audio, graphics and camera operations. The three graduate students in the class will each eventually produce four entire episodes.
Cook said producing the episodes involves making executive decisions throughout the show and holding other students accountable for their roles.
“It’s making sure everybody knows what they’re doing that day,” Cook said. “And making sure the show’s timed out – the script fits the run down and the teams know what’s going on that day and each person has their own role.”
Game Central is hosted by UCM junior Hannah Unruh. Unruh is a theater performance major who grew up performing and acting.  She said she thought the game show would be a fun TV credit to add to her experience but soon realized the responsibility of being the host.
“Basically I’m in charge of it while it’s going on,” Unruh said. “I’m the judge of the games. I make sure things are running smoothly, I put the contestants in the right spot, I have to focus on the camera, deliver all the lines – I’m basically running the show while I’m hosting it.”
Unruh said she’s never done anything like this.
“I’d say the hardest part is it’s just a completely different style of acting than I’m used to,” Unruh said. “I’m used to stage work, to knowing my lines ahead of time, rehearsing up to it and doing it for an audience and this is much more like ‘roll with the punches.’”
Unruh said she went into the first episode a little nervous.
“I was like ‘Oh man, I hope I can pull it together for this,’ but when they called ‘Cut’ at the end of the first episode and everyone clapped…all the DMP majors came out and they were like ‘Hannah you did such a great job. That went so smoothly,’” Unruh said. “I’m just going to keep growing from this and learning how to be able to be on camera and host. It’s already off to such a good start.”
Cook said she thinks the show is cool and different.
“We’ve done a lot of news-formatted shows, sports shows (and) talk shows like SideTracked, but I think we definitely are bringing something different to Central TV,” Cook said. “I think it’d be cool if it continues on after this semester because you could get other organizations involved, and I think it brings awareness to our program and what we do.”
Johnson said he thinks the episodes are going to get better and better.
“I think we’re going to get the snowball rolling…we have some very competitive individuals and they’re not just on sports teams, and I think they’re going to go all out,” Johnson said. “They have a taste for what this is now and I think they’re going to be animated, I think they’re going to be dynamic to watch. It’s going to be fun. I think they’re going to put all those energies into it and we’re going to have some outstanding productions.”
Game Central episodes air at 7 p.m. Thursday on Central TV. Episodes can be found on UCM’s student media website digitalBURG.com by clicking the C-TV logo. For more information, contact Shannon Johnson at [email protected]