The Daily Campus 10/15/07

UConn Alumnus Creates E-Show
Brittany Dorn

Issue date: 10/15/07 Section: News

It’s a mild summer day and three friends, all in their 20s, are sitting poolside, enjoying the weather. Finally, one breaks the silence.

“This is kind of depressing,” said Mark, taking off his sunglasses.

“What is?” asked his friend.

“That we’re about to die,” Mark replied calmly. “Think about it. We’re just one social gathering step from death.”

He’s talking about the post-graduation years, when barbecues and beer are the norm. Childhood days of chips and soda are no more, and all that’s left to look forward to is gatherings with wine and appetizers.

It could be a real-life conversation, but it’s not. Instead it’s a scene from “Winners,” an online show that chronicles the life of five friends grappling with the awkward period between college and adulthood.

One of the show’s producers is Sean Mayo, 24, a UConn alum who graduated in 2005 with a degree in political science. After graduating from UConn, Mayo completed a one-year intensive program at the New York Film Academy, where he learned the ins-and-outs of filmmaking.

Now armed with the necessary skills, he’s teaming with four friends from high school: Christiaan Enthoven, 25, Charles Roina, 22, and Jon Saks and Paul Catanzaro, both 23, to write, film and produce an original TV series.

The catch is that the series isn’t on TV-not yet anyway. Viewers can catch the show for free online at winnerstheseries.com. A brand-new 30-minute episode comes out each month and the site is updated with new material each Monday.

The show follows the lives of five friends: Murray, Terrence, Shep, Mark and Owen. Each has his own unique personality and quirks and is meant to represent a different stage in maturity and lifestyle.

Terrence, who is in his first serious relationship, is “pretty much whipped” by his girlfriend. Shep is a ladies’ man, Owen is “really awkward,” and Murray is a tough guy who is incredibly loyal to his friends. Mark has been going out with his girlfriend for six years and fights with her constantly.

“The show is really about how they evolve,” Roina said.

He said the show’s subject matter seems to resonate with the actors, many of whom are in their 20s.

“If I had a dollar for every time an actor said, ‘I’ve been there’ or ‘I’ve had a friend in the same situation,’ I’d have more than $13.78,” said Roina, refering to the amount of ad revenue the show brought in last month.

The producers said that while most viewers enjoy the show, they have heard some negative feedback about the choice of subject matter.

While they admit that their chosen topics-some of which include anal sex, “road head,” and the benefits of swallowing after blow jobs – can be a little outrageous, these are the sort of thing people in this age group really talk about it.

“We don’t try to be vulgar,” said Roina, who said the show instead aims to be realistic. “If people are offended with it, they’re not hanging out with the same people we are.”

He explained that “Winners” is different from other shows because it doesn’t judge or chastise characters for being wild or promiscuous.

“What’s wrong with partying and having sex?” he said. “Characters can do that, be happy doing that. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

Saks said the show is unique because it shows how people really talk.

“There’s a lot of shows with people in our age group, and they don’t talk like this,” he said. He said this realistic dialogue, combined with a believable storyline, are what make the show funny.

“My mom loves it, thinks it’s hilarious,” Saks said. “My grandparents didn’t get into it.”

“It’s like Entourage meets Sex in the City with nobody famous,” Roina explained. “Like Seinfeld, but what 20-year-olds would actually talk about.”

Filmmaking is nothing new for the five producers, who became friends while attending Greenwich High School. The school offered television production as an elective and also had a TV production club, where Mayo got his start.

When the five friends were home during the summers of their college years, they dedicated themselves to making feature-length movies.

Their first project, “Too Late for Hash Browns,” was a murder-gangster film that followed an unlucky protagonist who had lost both his family and job. The plot, which focused on his attempt to seek revenge on the man who ruined his life, took many twists and turns before concluding in a “dance-off.” (”That’s how we settle things,” explain the producers.)

Their second project, “High Five,” told the story of four best friends dealing with the death of their fifth friend. Strangely, it was a comedy.

In this film, the four “grieving” friends held auditions to find a

“replacement best friend.” In the end, however, they all ended up falling in love with the same girl.

The five producers put a lot of time and heart into their two movies, going so far as to make trips home at the beginning of the academic year to wrap up filming.

In the end, they sent the movies to a few comedy film festivals but didn’t widely show them.

They said they watch the movies every now and then, usually as part of a drinking game, where they each drink when they see their character on screen.

Their newest venture, “Winners,” is different. Now, they are taking a more public approach, trying to spread the word and encourage everyone to go online and check out the show.

Roina said the decision to post the series on the Web was an easy one.

“It seemed like the next logical step,” he said.

Currently, the site gets about 1,000 unique hits a month. Roina is particularly impressed that some of the viewers hail from different countries, the farthest away being South Korea.

Intent on increasing their audience, the friends are promoting their show with T-shirts and magnets, through social sites such as Facebook and MySpace and a future college tour, which they admit they are also using as an excuse to get drunk.

The producers said the amount of time they spend filming the show varies from week-to-week. Scheduling often becomes hectic because many of the actors and actresses in the series are working on other projects and trying to establish themselves professionally.

They aren’t paid for acting in the “Winners” and instead do it to get their name “out there.”

Casting calls are held whenever it becomes necessary to find new faces and talent for the show. The first was held last September, and since then about 15 have taken place.

Saks, who produces and writes the show’s script, said the hardest part of the operation was finding a good main cast.

The producers agreed that it was sometimes trying to work with the actors, since they aren’t paid and it’s impossible to force them to do anything. However, they expressed satisfaction with the current cast.

“The people we’re working with now, we’re happy with,” Saks said. “We’re in a good state.”

There will be 12 episodes this season, one for each month. Saks said he has already decided what will happen to each character and the way the season finale will play out.

He said writing the script wasn’t difficult.

“Most of it is stuff you talk about with your buddies,” he said.

Although filming times vary, on average the producers agreed that it takes about five or six days of solid filming, or about 10 hours of footage, to produce a single 30-minute episode.

Contact Brittany Dorn at

Brittany.Dorn@UConn.edu.