Campus comedy

The 32,000 students who attend the Ruhr University in Bochum have unwittingly become the focus of three aspiring film-makers. Students Yannick Sievers, Alexander Skrzypowski and Peter Kurz have made Germany's first so-called 'campus sitcom' based on the lives and relationships of their fellow students.

Called '7Schlaefer' (or 'Seven Sleepers'), the show broadcast its pilot episode to an online audience of thousands – with over a thousand hits on the video site YouTube alone.

None of the three creators have any background in film-making, and the first episode was made purely as a hobby.

"It started out as a way to have fun,“ co-creator Alex Skrzypowski told Deutsche Welle. "We are all very interested in sitcoms from America, England and all over the world and we thought it could inspire us to do something of our own.“

A new genre

Frustrated with the lack of new ideas coming through on normal television, the three creators decided to turn to the Internet.

"The main TV channels are getting worse, and more people are using the Internet,“ said Peter Kurz. "You can see it particularly with music videos, more people are going online – and other fields can profit from this too.“

"It's also free,“ Skrzypowski added. "We are not bound by anything or anybody, we can develop the script how we want and it's cool to have that freedom.“

The producers claim to have made an entirely new genre – the campus-sitcom. Based on their observations of their fellow students at the Ruhr University, the show is based on the lives of normal students in Germany.

Stereotypical students

The pilot episode centers around a student party, which is where the characters all meet for the first time. Anyone who's ever been to college will instantly recognize the characters, as each fits a particular stereotype - there's Michael the jock, Astrid the feminist, Cindy the bimbo and Johann the nerd.

"You're confronted with these sterotypes every day," said Skrzypowski. "You're walking around campus and you see the snobs, the emos, the chicks – and we have all that in the show. We thought it would be funny to smash them all together and see what happens."

Seventy students auditioned for the main roles, which shows how much enthusiasm there was for the project on campus. One of the creators, Peter Kurz, plays one of the leads himself, as Pete the drug dealer.

Kurz explained why he was interested in playing the role. "I watch a lot of TV shows and my favorite characters are normally the petty criminals because they are a bit stupid, but the funniest," he said.

Filming the pilot

It took weeks of writing, planning and casting as well as two days of filming in the campus cafe to make the 14-minute pilot episode.

Skrzypowski explained it was a long process because they wanted it to look different from other student films on YouTube. "You look at them and see they are not professional,“ he said. "We are not professionals but we are passionate and surround ourselves with people who know what they're doing,“ he added.

The Ruhr University provided some funding for the first episode, which helped the team pay for a professional cameraman to film the episode in high definition. Everyone else involved in the project gave up their time for free.

As the team deal with the feedback and media interest in the first episode, they are continuing to plan the rest of the '7Schlaefer' series. The university has intimated it may be able to fund more episodes, and the team have five more episodes written and ready to go.

The trio in charge of the series see their program as a way to give something back after devouring so much television and film content themselves.

Kurz sums it up: "It's a problem that most people don't get active, they just consume TV. They don't create anything. It's nice to actually make a difference.“

Author: Catherine Bolsover
Editor: Ben Knight