Hopeful aspirations for 3-year-old MCTV

By Tasia Endo

Recent Santa Clara graduate Michael Castellano had a dream: to create more than a college television channel by producing a network that shared content with other colleges across America.

Within his three years at Santa Clara, he fulfilled the first part of that dream with the inception of Millennial College Television (MCTV), which can be found on channel 58 of Santa Clara's Linc TV.

With persistence and support from organizations like the Residential Learning Community Association and the Center for Student Leadership, Castellano, along with fellow freshmen Adrian Valente, Billy Sladek and Shawn Hanna created Santa Clara's first television channel in 2003, MCTV.

"It was our own project that we wanted to make bigger," said Castellano. "With a focus on Santa Clara, now it's a venue for not only communication students but other independent content as well."

The channel currently airs a looping of shows which changes weekly.

Programing begins at the start of every hour and include new projects like "Lunchtime Love," a sports broadcasting inspired program which recounts plays in the dating world.

Older shows are also featured, such as "Dorm Room Cribs," which is a Santa Clara comedic version of the MTV original. This would include touring L-Train's dorm room in Swig. L-Train is played by John Sabine, who is the host of the MTV spoof.

Or, if you're lucky enough, you can catch an episode of the show that started it all, MCTV's first program, "College Late Night." The show is Santa Clara's own version of such late night shows as "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" or "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

Having graduated this past spring, Castellano leaves behind his MCTV idea to develop under new leadership. Currently a club under Associated Students of Santa Clara University, MCTV runs under a professional working model, with executive and vice producers, writers and publicity and marketing.

While this core group uses equipment from Media Services and the television studio in the Arts and Sciences building, MCTV still needs student support.

"We really need more committed people," said Michael Schroeder, a sophomore and current president of MCTV. "It takes a lot of dedication and time to put ideas into film. We have the equipment, but not really the people."

Anyone, of all skill levels, can join. While being a communication major is not a requisite for joining the club, having a passion for filmmaking is.

"Film seems to be put on a high plateau," said Schroeder. "Some people might have an interest, but they think it's too hard, or too expensive. But you can do it too; it's an easy way to express your creativity."

The club has general meetings every Monday at 8 p.m. in Casa Italiana room three. They are open to everyone, but there are other ways to participate in MCTV as well.

"Getting involved is as easy as coming to our general meeting, but even that's not necessary," said Kevin Holbrook. "Students can send in scripts they want made, send in movies they've already made or just e-mail us a great idea - all these things have been done before."

Within the three years since MCTV was created, the Santa Clara audience has responded positively to the channel's 26 programs.

"The channel is kind of hidden," said Castellano. "But when people stumble on it, they're happy because they get to see their friends and see some crazy stuff."

Aside from creative and comedic programming, MCTV also sponsors events on campus, like last spring's film festival, which showed student films on the grass outside of Swig Hall.

"Three-quarters of the way through the sprinklers went off," said Schroeder. "But that didn't scare people away, showing that people still supported the students who made the films."

With such student interest, MCTV has big plans for the future. By collaborating with local businesses to generate funding through advertisements, MCTV intends on making the film festival an annual event. Other events would also become yearly, such as contests, where students could submit three-minute videos.

The channel also hopes to air events occurring around campus, giving students another opportunity to see events that they may have missed.

But this goal is still limited by the lack of student participation.

"We've covered a few on campus talks, like for SCAAP," said Leyna Roget, a senior and vice president of MCTV. "But those haven't gotten edited and there haven't been enough students able to keep up that idea."

"Support is necessary," said Castellano. "But my goals and aspirations have never left, and I still want to see my dreams come into fruition."

Contact Tasia Endo at tendo@scu.edu.

Correction: The story incorrectly stated that MCTV was an Associated Students club. It did not register with AS for the fall quarter.