"Elected," the mockumentary of Brown's student government, released all five episodes of its second season Nov. 17. Moving between meetings of the Undergraduate Council of Students and interviews with its members, "Elected" follows a standard documentary method with hilarious results.
The second season finds the cast of "Elected" in an entirely new environment. As UCS President Jeff (David Dryer '07) was removed from the council, the oblivious and perky Becky (Katie Bosland '07) took his seat at the end of season one.
"Everything is coming to a close, loose ends are being tied up in a way that they weren't in the first season," said Kent Haines '07, who plays Greg on the show and also serves as a co-director. Haines described the season as the "third act" of the series, the finale to the tensions and conflicts of the first five episodes. With Greg and Becky's relationship over, the council's loss of Blair (Amanda Parker '07) and Becky's replacement of Jeff as president, this act looks to be a turbulent one.
"The biggest change comes from the fact that (the season) is not like a complete arc," said co-director and Herald Cartoonist Matt Vascellaro '07. According to Vascellaro, "Elected" moves away from the popular model of separate seasons by linking all 10 episodes into one complete story line.
But both Haines and Vascellaro said they believe viewers will notice a shift from season one's content and tone. Added extras and a greater focus on post-production are two aspects the co-directors said viewers can look forward to.
"It was impossible for us to not have learned certain lessons," Vascellaro said. A good number of the changes can be characterized as "stuff we wouldn't have been able to do if we hadn't done the first season and hadn't been confident," he added.
Both co-directors said they feel the writing of the show has improved with time and viewed the new season as a chance to explore new frontiers.
"We added a couple of new characters," Haines said. "That's sort of interesting because it's bringing new people into this really claustrophobic environment ... and seeing how they deal with it."
"Elected" began as a Group Independent Study Project in the fall of 2005, with Haines and Vascellaro writing episodes throughout the preceding summer. Both said the new installment is an improvement on season one, in part because they are more comfortable with the characters they created over a year ago.
"A lot of our writing starts from delivering the lines," Haines said. And with the new season, filming became simply an issue of everyone being at the set on time and "doing their part," Haines added.
But the new season presented as many challenges as it did opportunities, especially in terms of finding actors within the student body.
"At a certain point you just run out of friends," Haines said, noting the difficulty of casting small parts. "You can't re-use actors - you have to reference that person if you use them twice."
During one episode, both directors find themselves in front of the camera - an experience they do not intend to repeat.
"We realized how awful it would have been, if we had both been big characters in the show, to be constantly going back and having to watch the filming," Haines said.
A major obstacle the directors faced was retaining viewers. Keeping a fickle television and Internet audience watching the show can be difficult at times, given the scarcity of similar narrative-based productions. "We don't fit perfectly into any paradigm," Vascellaro said.
Considering the show's troubled past with sometimes unreliable Brown Television, the directors are trying to make the show accessible to a wider audience. Episodes are available on the show's Web site and are broadcast to 14 colleges on the Open Student Television Network. "Elected" can also be viewed on fifth-generation video iPods.
"We're more interested, frankly, in getting it out to as many people as possible," Haines said.
Season two rounds off Elected at an even 10 episodes, and neither Vascellaro nor Haines said they plan to continue the storyline.
