Student group launches weekly online comedy sketch show
If you've spotted a group of guys acting silly and filming around Gambrell Hall, the first-floor dining area in Russell House or even outside the pink "mansion" otherwise known as East Quad, you didn't witness a big-budget movie in the making. It was Skitster Productions, an up-and-coming student video production company.
Second-year media arts student Imari Anderson, second-year advertising student Will Louison and student Conor Ferriter are the group's founding members. Anderson has been making videos since early high school, and he and Louison always wanted to have their own show.
"Will and I always find ourselves in situations that we think would make hilarious videos and we always toyed with the idea of having our own comedy show," Anderson said. "We started brainstorming like crazy and took all the hilarious college experiences we've had and wish we'd had and tried making them into skits."
The group's name is a play on words — as well as an underhanded jab at hipsters.
"I thought it would be ironic to call ourselves 'Skitsters' with the tagline 'You've probably never heard of us,' which plays on the fact that we're not famous," Anderson said.
Anderson said Skitsters began when the trio entered a short film in the Campus Movie Fest competition this semester. The movie, "Behind the Beat," is a five minute mockumentary about the life of rapper MC Thug Nugget. The Skitsters crew films most of its footage on campus and the team used shots of East Quad to depict the outside of MC Thug Nugget's grand mansion.
"[We] used it as a jumping off point to start uploading weekly comedy skits onto YouTube," Anderson said.
In addition to "Behind the Beat," Skitsters has filmed three short episodes of a sketch comedy-style show. Anderson said the group plans to film at least three more episodes before the end of the semester and continue making videos when school resumes in the fall.
"We plan on starting Season 2 at the beginning of next semester and have a solid fan base by then," he said.
Anderson and Louison are also renting a house together next year and will document what it was like to live with each other in a behind the scenes mockumentary-style episode.
Since Skitsters releases a new video each week, the group doesn't spend too much time rewriting or developing each skit.
"We don't really have time to overthink our skits," Anderson said.
Anderson and Louison make an effort to write down their ideas and share them with each other, so new skits are constantly coming to mind.
"I have a whole folder in my computer just full of different skit ideas that I've come up with," Anderson said. "I feel like Skitsters won't ever have the problem of not having any material to work with."
While Skitsters hasn't been around for a while, the guys are beginning to build a fan base.
"When we first uploaded episode 1 to YouTube, it took three weeks to get 500 views. By the time we got to episode 3, it got that same amount in less than a week," Anderson said.
The guys have even been recognized by fans while out and about on campus.
"Me and Will went to a party the other night and this girl came up to him and asked, 'Aren't you the guy from Skitsters?'" Anderson said.
Skitsters plans to release a comedy-horror movie over the summer to keep fans occupied before Season 2 hits YouTube in August.
To learn more about Skitsters, check out their YouTube channel, SkitsterProductions, and follow them on Twitter @Skitsters.