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Can I tell you about… Under the Arch. When I met Sean Patrick Murray last year at a party in the Hamptons, he told me about this exciting new project that he had been working on with his friends from NYU. A reality based show entitled “Under the Arch”, about the ups and downs of 7 NYU students living and partying in Manhattan. “They are all my friends that I have met in New York. Our newest cast member Briana is a girl who I met on the 6 train, and we’ve been friends since.” Sean said of the cast. In case you’re wondering, the title references the iconic landmark in Washington Square Park that is the epicenter of New York University. “About two years ago I was watching Laguna Beach with some friends and was tired of watching the same shows, and kept claiming “I could do this. Our lives are so much more interesting.” They told me to stop complaining and actually do it, so I hired a crew, rented equipment, and got a bunch of my friends together to make a 7 minute demo pilot. The pilot lived on my facebook and youtube account, and suddenly got all this buzz by GAWKER.COM and NEW YORK POST: Page 6. Michael Flutie and Madwood media read the articles, and contacted me via my YouTube account. I came into the office the next day, and since then its been history,” Sean added.
With the help of producer and talent rep Michael Flutie, Sean has managed to bypass the networks altogether by having the webisodes only available to select audiences by invitation. Sean said that they wanted to create something new, interactive, and exciting. He felt that less and less people were watching TV and were spending more time on their computers so he, Michael and the Madwood team spent over a year developing the show and exploring this new terrain.At their launch party at Bungalow 8 hosted by downtown party doyenne Amy Sacco, Michael was giving out UTA credit cards with passwords so we could all watch the show the next day. He said he was sending out a total of 3000 of these cards to “tastemakers” to generate some buzz for the show. Everbody came to show their support including photographer David Xavier Prutting and his gorgeous fiancee Chau Ngo. David took photos all night long, he never stops working.So how real is this show? Sean added, “Anything that is produced has to have been touched for an audience. I don’t want to lie like shows like the HILLS or LAGUNA and say it’s all “reality”…because you can’t kid an auidence. They will see right through it, and be pissed off. But if we are honest from the start, hopefully we will gain respect and allow the audience to be engaged and entertained. The idea of this show isn’t to be a documentary, but to tell a story.The episodes are all emotions, feelings, situations, and events that have happened to us. It’s like we are playing ourselves. We have taken journal entries, experiences, etc, and come up with a “piece”. Just like how “A Chorus Line” was created. When filming, we will discuss what’s current, what is relevant, but also what our schedules are like that next week. So if we can combine live occurrences with a scene, all the better.”
The cast were styled by downtown retail diva Jeffrey Kalinsky, with hopes of attracting a younger customer base through this new medium of entertainment. Ingenue Ariana Madix wore my Martina black patent clutch for the party and I must say she looked AMAZING! Even her costar Briana Cornelius was lusting over the clutch. Big shout out to my friend Sean for making it happen!
Michael Flutie, who’s most recent success was “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”, plans to shoot 12-16 more webisodes in the next season. Eventually he’s hoping that certain brands will want to partner up for appropriate product placements and other cross-marketing opportunities. To date, only Joey and Sean have graduated. Briana and Sarah are still at NYU and they are continuing to film the process of the characters post-graduation, but are also casting new NYU students in the Fall.
So the next time you happen to be walking under the arch, make sure you look hot and fabulous! Hey, you never know. You could be in next season’s webisode. Get ready to get real!