Brandeis television production organization BTV will soon officially release its first offering so far this semester: a sitcom, Slice and 'Deis, originally conceived by Arun?Narayanan '10. The sitcom will premiere Monday at 7 p.m. in the Golding Auditorium.JustARTS: What are your roles?

Ilan Amouyal '11: Producing, co-directing with Arun.

Arun Narayanan: Creating, writing, directing, helping with some production stuff as well.

Gdaly Berlin '10: You can call him M. Night Narayanan.

Ted Levin '10: I play Ronnie.

Berlin: I play Ed.

JA: And what are your characters like?

Levin: I guess Ronnie is supposed to be a typical Brandeis student, a little bit nerdy, a little bit awkward, but, you know, trying to have a good time and maybe not doing so well at accomplishing that.

Berlin: Ed is you know, kind of goofy, but also kind of a cool guy.

Narayanan: [He's] a little bit on the sketchy side. I envisioned Ed as the main character. He and Walter [another character] are more of the focus of the show.

JA: What's the plot of the show like? What's the premise, five kids hanging out?

all: Pretty much.

Amouyal: Five kids hanging out, making fun of what you can make fun about at Brandeis.

Narayanan: They pretty much do random things on campus.

Amouyal: It's not a dramatic plot.

Levin: It's a highly satirical version of what goes on at Brandeis.

JA: What happens in the first episode?

Narayanan: The first episode is called "Sex with Dolphins."

Berlin: No dolphins were hurt in the making of the show. Physically. Maybe emotionally.

Amouyal: But one was eaten, just to see how it tastes.

Narayanan: I guess the main story's just, the friends are hanging out one night, and they decide to redecorate their hallway.

Levin: In terms of flyers.

Amouyal: It's a flyer that's very specific. It's kind of making fun of all those flyers in the hallways in dorms.

Narayanan: That's pretty much all we want to say.

Amouyal: We don't want to spoil the surprise, and the first show is just to introduce the characters.

Narayanan: I don't think plot is the main focus, at least in this episode.

JA: How long are the episodes?

Narayanan: We're hoping around 25 minues or so, like a regular sitcom.

JA: Will there be a premiere party?

Amouyal: We're working on it.

Narayanan: It would be good, but [the premiere is] also on a Monday night.

JA: So will it just run on the station at 7 p.m. on Monday?

Narayanan: There will be a premiere in Golding Auditorium at 7 p.m. After that, I'm not sure how it'll run on the station, because we don't have a lot of other content to show. Maybe we could just run it continuously. [Laughs]. But it'll be on the Internet.

Berlin: The BTV Web site ... it's kind of like a YouTube format.

JA: Do people see you filming on campus and ask what you're doing? Do you attract a lot of attention?

Narayanan: Yeah; when we were filming in front of Shapiro Campus Center, a lot of people were like: "Hey guys," not realizing we were filming.

Amouyal: Or at the gym, guys were like: "I'm going to hold some weights, and I'm going to be on the show."

Narayanan: When we were filming in East Quad, we took up the entire hallway for about an hour or so.

Amouyal: People are more curious than upset.

Berlin: People are always curious; whenever you have bright lights and a camera, people are like, "Ooh what's going on, can I get in there?"

JA: Do you have a problem with people getting in the background and waving, like on the news?

Amouyal: Not at all.

JA: How long did it take you to shoot all of your footage?

Narayanan: A long time, a lot longer than I expected. How many weeks? Maybe four to five weekends.

Amouyal: But we were not organized at the beginning. We did not know everyone's schedule. We did casting right away and wanted to start filming.

Berlin: We did, like, a 30-second scene, and it took about two hours to film. Random lights would go off. There'd be a power surge; all these lights would be plugged in in someone's room, and suddenly they'd all go off.

Narayanan: We're all learning, especially in terms of lighting.

Amouyal: Hopefelly we'll shoot one episode over three weeks and have a new episode every month.

JA: So episode two will air in January.

Amouyal: Yes.

JA: So is this the first BTV show to get its first episode out?

Narayanan: Yeah. I saw some footage of the cooking show; it looked close to being finished.

Berlin: The sketch comedy show, I think, is close to finishing production.

JA: Any last words?

Narayanan: It has been a rewarding experience.

Amouyal: We're learning a lot of things.

Berlin: It's also a lot of fun-all the people we're working with are genuinely nice, fun people-even though a 30-second scene takes us three hours, everyone's still having fun.

Narayanan: Everyone's just always having a good time.

Amouyal: Hopefully people will enjoy it.

Narayanan: We enjoy it.