EDSS launches new student webseries

The English and Drama Students’ Society has launched a new web channel that displays content made by students for students. The web channel will feature two new shows, PranksNews, airing at the end of January, and Challenges on Res, airing in March.

Last Thursday, the team behind the web channel filmed the first episode of PranksNews, a talk show that follows hosts Katherine Nader, Marlo Young, and sidekick Mike Dopsa as they interview students (from UTM and from others schools), talk to professors, discuss campus events, and pull pranks.

This episode’s featured guests were Nelkfilmz (Kyle Forgeard and Niko Martinovic), a duo of filmmakers most famous for serenading unsuspecting girls in lecture halls, health education coordinator Chad Zankowski, and chemist David Patch.

The show and WebTV are the brainchildren of Nader, president of EDSS, who says the idea came from one of her courses and a desire to do more creative things with EDSS.

“It started in November,” Nader explains. “I watch a lot of talk shows and I was looking ahead to my second-semester courses. I noticed one of my syllabuses required us to do podcasts, and I thought, why not do it through a talk show? Since EDSS has the funds (because we end up doing a lot of academic events) and since we lost a lot of our drama-interested students, we thought this would be a nice way to get them back, so they could help produce shows for the WebTV channel.”

Nader acknowledges the presence of other channels affiliated with U of T, but she says WebTV is “funded and sponsored by EDSS and will produce student shows”.

WebTV’s other new show, Challenges on Res, will find two teams of students competing against each other in various challenges around campus, as the title suggests.

Nader says there will be two episodes of Challenges on Res and four of PranksNews. EDSS is also open to producing more student series in September.

WebTV offers new and different ways to get involved on campus. If writing and producing shows is of interest to you, or you just want experience in a new area, you can get involved by volunteering with WebTV.

You can watch PranksNews on the WebTV YouTube channel starting this weekend, and find more information by emailing [email protected] or by visiting the EDSS Facebook page.