Students kickstart web series
Co-ed co-op · Mona Xia, a junior majoring in critical studies, and Tylre Roberson, a junior majoring in English, are working to launch a web series, Co-ed. – Photo courtesy of Erin Ramirez
It’s junior year of college, and two USC students have made it their mission to create a web series about their experiences growing up in college for the entertainment of the rest of the USC community. This is the story behind Co-Ed, a new web series that the creators are hoping college students across the country will identify with.
Co-Ed is the brainchild of Mona Xia, a junior majoring in critical studies, and Tylre Roberson, a junior majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing. Xia was initially inspired to create a show after seeing the success of her fellow classmates creating shows.
“I was producing at Trojan Vision for CU@USC, and one day I ran into a friend from a screenwriting class I had taken the semester before,“ Xia said in an email. “She told me that she started her own show on Trojan Vision, and I thought that sounded really great, so I asked her for advice and she told me who to contact.”
As soon as she thought of the idea of the show, Roberson was one of the first people Xia reached out to, and their creative chemistry was evident from the get-go.
“I knew I didn’t want to do this on my own so I reached out to Tylre because I had worked with her on campus and I knew she was interested in writing,” Xia said. “Before we knew it, we were meeting at Panda Express, pitching our ideas for a mini-series.”
Co-Ed is a dramedy focusing on the Three’s Company-esque idea of a freshman boy living in a suite with two girls. According to Roberson, deciding to make the show a web series instead of putting it on Trojan Vision forced the duo to focus in and really decide on what they wanted their show to be.
“We actually looked into Trojan Vision and decided to make it a web series instead,” Roberson said. “That took a lot of cutting down and finally solidifying the idea of a comedy about what it means to start college and be a college student and how to grow up really fast.”
But going the independent route has its challenges as well, and after many hectic days of writing, producing and managing money, actors and equipment, Xia and Roberson have already learned a great deal about how the business side of the entertainment industry can sometimes undermine the creative side.
“I think the director of our pilot put it really well — it’s a constant tug-of-war between money, time and quality,” Xia said. “If you don’t have money, then you’re gonna need a lot of time to make a quality show. If you don’t have time, then you’re gonna need a lot of money.”
But at the same time, these are two college students, which is why they turned to the crowdfunding site Kickstarter to make their dreams a reality.
“The Kickstarter is mainly a way for us to raise money and raise awareness about the project because, I mean, we’re college students,” Roberson said. ”Most of it’s been coming out of pocket right now, but we’re hoping to raise $3,000 dollars in the next 10 to 15 days to fund the project and basically fund our dream.”
But Mona isn’t worried about making sure that dream is perfected because, at the end of the day, she knows that the best idea in the world is pointless if nobody else sees it.
“I know that artists all aim for perfection, as you should, but if you had to choose between completing a somewhat flawed project and giving up on an unfinished masterpiece-to-be, definitely go with the first option,” she said. “No one will ever see this ‘masterpiece’ if you don’t finish it.”