A student television show featuring news, sports, drama and comedy.

By Charles Hung

Every Thursday evening at 7:30, aspiring filmmaker Dan Epstein walks into the main studio with his storyboards and scripts in hand. Along with him come actors dressed in appropriate costumes for the scenes for that week. The stage is set for another segment of Duck City.

Duck City is a dramatic segment seen on DuckU, a University of Oregon undergraduate student television production. DuckU is a 30-minute show featuring news, sports, drama and comedy.

Oregon Public Broadcasting Channel 23 airs DuckU every Wednesday evening. DuckU is listed as a variable credit undergraduate course within the School of Journalism and Communication under the supervision of Rebecca Force, the faculty adviser and an adjunct professor.

The cast and producer of each segment, except news and sports, arrange their own shooting schedule and locations. Each week the producer is responsible for turning in a three-minute tape for his or her segment. The news and sports segments are produced on Wednesdays in order to keep the information current. DuckU shoots the news segment in the news studio, tucked behind the main studio. DuckU has no money, so the producers favor shooting everything on the University campus. The lack of financial resources also has meant that few students have heard about the show.

“I just think that not many students know about it, so it can tend to be enjoyed only by those who are ‘in the know,’” said Zayne Turner, a senior.

Since October 2005, Epstein, a senior and four-year veteran of DuckU, directs Duck City, a three-minute drama segment on DuckU, in the main studio in the basement of Allen Hall, the home of the School of Journalism and Communication, every Thursday evening. Duck City is the brainchild of Epstein and Dustin Reese, a junior and longtime collaborator, after they watched Batman Begins and Sin City.

Epstein filming a scene with Nocturnal, the evil twin of Captain UO, in the main studio. A photo gallery

“We got a feeling of green screen technology mixed with this dark city that was brooding and kind of corrupt,” said Epstein. Epstein decided to populate Duck City with the characters from his previous DuckU segment.

Epstein and Reese wrote the script and the plot of Duck City during the summer vacation. As a result, Duck City is the only segment on DuckU that features a running plotline. Epstein comes to the set every Thursday evening with his homework done, his actor’s homework done and his costume designer’s homework done. Afterward, Reese would insert the necessary animation and special effects for that week’s tape.

“Dustin (Reese) was accumulating a lot of special effects knowledge,” said Epstein. “So we thought let’s do a drama because other people at DuckU tried drama and it was terrible.”

As executive producer of DuckU, Epstein joins Force and the other executives every Tuesday afternoon in the studio to screen that week’s episode of DuckU before it airs on Wednesday night. In the early days of DuckU, Force gave free rein to the producers and the executives.

“We just produce it and we air and we produce it and we air it. Rebecca (Force) would come in and say you guys are great; I don’t have to micromanage you,” said Epstein.

In February, the vetting of every segment of each week’s show resulted in the executives’ decision to cancel one showing of Trailer Park, a comedy segment. Matt Toomb, a 29-year old senior, produces and directs this fictional movie trailer. The cast assembles in the lounge located in the basement of Allen Hall to discuss ideas for a movie trailer and shoot it. The episode in question was about what the audience does not see going on behind a local newscast. Force and the executives decided that the content of the show was too racy for public television.

“The part where he was screwing in the light bulb and it looks like he is having sex with the girl – that was starting to lose its comedy. They did it as an Austin Powers affair,” said Epstein. “I guess that was funny to the mainstream.”

Epstein has been with DuckU for his entire undergraduate career. Epstein started as an animator on DuckU in the fall term of his freshman year. He created and produced an animated segment called the Dan McStick Show, the longest running segment, during his freshman and sophomore years.

“So every week, I would film the drawn characters,” said Epstein. “I did all the voice impersonation for the characters, and I did the editing and the filming. I did not need a crew.” As a result, Epstein became known as the freelance freshman. Marley joined Epstein as a co-writer for the Dan McStick Show in 2004. Epstein and Marley later collaborated with Reese to create and produce McStick Live, a live action talk show, for the spring term of 2004. In the 2004/2005 academic year, he became an executive producer. Reese and Epstein decided to create and produce a new cartoon segment when the majority of the crew of McStick Live left.

“We called it 'In the Thin of It' instead of 'In the Thick of It',” said Epstein.

Marley left McStick Live to produce and host The Duckbox, a three-minute segment based on the FoxBox, in the fall of 2004. For the FoxBox, the Fox News Channel uses a video recording console to record the answers and reactions of ordinary individuals in a mall to various questions. For the Duckbox, Marley would go around campus recording the response and reactions of other students to various questions. Marley and his cameraman were in effect the mobile video recording console. Playduck is a revamped version of the Duckbox for the 2005/2006 academic year with the goal of being more entertaining.

Marley transferred from the University of Washington in 2003. Epstein tapped Marley, a psychology and chemistry major, as an executive producer in 2005 with the departure of two executives.

“Eric (Marley) was the second or third person I met when I moved to Portland in the fifth grade,” said Epstein. “Even though he is not an electronic media major, he is one of the better execs that we’ve had.”

Marley originally was suppose to fill the executive position being vacated by sophomore Sloan Cameron, the master editor, who wanted to go abroad in the winter term of 2006. Cameron decided to remain in Eugene after a series of discussions with other executives in the spring of 2005. Epstein still appointed Marley as an executive producer in the meantime as there was a need for people with good organizational skills. Marley and Epstein wrote the syllabus for DuckU in the summer of 2005.

“DuckU in the past has been very unorganized, and Dan (Epstein) has always complained about that,” said Marley.

Marley and Epstein have hopes of pursuing a career in film or television after graduating. Marley plans to graduate in spring 2007. Epstein has applied for the fall of 2006 to NYU Graduate Film School and University of Southern California Graduate Film School.

“I really would like to do something like DuckU, but for money,” said Epstein.