After Stephanie Zambrano of Ham Channel’s “Into It” finished applying make-up to her co-host Andrew Moriarty’s face, he confessed that MTV was making him nervous.
The cast and crew of “Into It” welcomed two members of MTVU’s production team Tuesday evening. Both age 25, Production Coordinator Marni Kupfer and Segment Producer Justin Goldberg of MTVU filmed the cast and crew of “Into It” while they were filming their live show.
Moriarty was nervous this week because, while Fairfield does not currently air MTVU, his girlfriend’s school, Boston University, is among the 800 that do.
He explained his nervousness after filming.
“My girlfriend’s going to watch, her friends are going to watch, I mean, I met them! It kind of makes me nervous because 800 campuses will have this show on TV,” he said. “But in the end, it’s fun and we accomplished something.”
MTVU, the university-oriented offshoot of MTV, will broadcast the filmed footage as part of a half-hour show next week on their network. The same show will also feature Ithaca University’s student TV channel doing the same thing.
All involved were visibly excited and anxious because of the fact that their show would probably be seen by hundreds of thousands of college students across the country.
Lauren Levy, Zambrano and Moriarty hosted the “special edition” of “Into It.” Only two of them would be found hosting the show under normal circumstances. The hosts were decorated with ear-pieces, lapel microphones and up to three battery packs, none of which seemed to easily fit anywhere on them.
MTVU, even though represented by only two young people, had a very authoritative presence behind the scenes. As a result, the crew was inspired to prepare the show faster than ever. Broadcast manager Dave Grazynski noted that they sometimes start late because much of the preparation usually takes a great deal of time.
After hosting a national college film contest, MTVU has narrowed the choices to five films from the 50 or so applicants. The winner will receive a development deal with MTV Films along with a home theater system, so they can watch MTV on it.
“Into It” showed trailers for the five finalists as given to them by MTVU and then commented on them and took some phone calls.
After prior weeks’ crank call problems on “Into It”, a call screener was put to work this week. Those that slipped through the cracks were a Nicholas Cage fan and a confused Chinese food deliveryman.
The hosts encouraged viewers to vote for their favorite trailer, which will then be judged by celebrities, who will determine the winning film.
Celebrity judges include John Singleton, the director of “2 Fast 2 Furious,” “Shaft” and “Four Brothers;” Catherine Hardwick, the director of “Lords of Dogtown” and “Thirteen;” and Nicole Kassell, director of the film “The Woodsman,” starring Kevin Bacon.
Discussing the event outside the Media Center, Grazynski explained why MTVU’s presence means so much to the Ham Channel.
Aside from the fact that he expects it to be “some sweet promo,” he sees this as the beginning of a relationship with MTVU that may soon give birth to an MTVU channel here at Fairfield. Grazynski said that he is going to use this opportunity to start discussions about the possible MTVU channel.
HAM president Kelly Anne Martin said, “Having this sort of notoriety is great for us, and also the New Media program and its new major. We hope to work with MTV again in the future.”
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