By Cal State Long Beach French film graduate student Ronan de Suin’s decision to film his experience as a 2012 exchange student in Long Beach resulted in a 40-minute documentary named “One of a Kind” – so far it has reeled in more than 37,000 views on Youtube.
Now, de Suin and his best friend, Adam Swaby, are working to turn “One of a Kind” into a TV show.
When presented with an assignment in his screen writing class, de Suin said that he decided to write a screenplay based on his documentary. He later handed a copy of the screenplay to Swaby, an international student from England and senior film major.
“[My first thought] was that this is just awesome,” Swaby said, “and that it would work really well as a TV show.”
De Suin said that after receiving his bachelor’s degree from CSULB, he at first planned to return home and work toward his master’s degree in France. However, when Swaby said de Suin should film his TV show in the U.S., de Suin decided to follow his friend’s suggestion.
While the original “One of a Kind” follows de Suin’s personal experiences in California, the new project aims to create a TV show about the unique experiences of international students living and studying on exchange in Long Beach.
“We think Americans can relate to it because they can see what people from other cultures think about their country,” de Suin said. “People from home either have been through the same kind of experiences or have dreamt about them, which is the point of television, after all – you want to travel and escape your routine.”
De Suin and Swaby plan to start shooting the pilot of the TV show on April 15. They said it will portray a regular day in the life of an exchange student, for whom all surroundings are new.
“Some of it is obviously exaggerated because it’s fiction,” de Suin said. “But most of it could’ve definitely happened to us.”
In order to raise funds for the pilot, the pair said that they turned to indiegogo.com, an online fundraising platform that allows companies and individuals to donate money in exchange for a tiered system of rewards.
So far, more than $9,000 has been raised toward their goal of $12,350, which will allow them to use professional equipment for the TV show.
“We want to do the best possible job that we can do [with the project],” Swaby said. “So far, the Indiegogo campaign has been going really well. We are pitching [the project] to companies, places we’ve interned, friends, family, school and to the general public.”
All money raised through indiegogo.com/oneofakind will go toward pre-production, which includes castings, fundraising and merchandising, and equipment, which means that both actors and crew will volunteer their time for free.
