Miami University administrators can breathe a sigh of relief over the decision to reject actor James Franco and his company's proposal to film a "documentary" at Miami, but attendees of the University of Southern California (USC) are not so lucky.
Franco and his company Rabbit Bandini Productions approached Miami officials during summer 2011 with the idea of filming student life on campus but were rebuffed by the university after some discussion.
At the same time Rabbit Bandini was talking to Miami, they were feeling out Xavier University and Ohio University for the project but were turned down at both schools as well, according to Claire Wagner, associate director of university communication. With no takers in Ohio, Franco and company returned to California where they filmed at USC and produced a show called Undergrads.
Undergrads, which is scripted and will play online only, follows a group of students around USC, shows a lot of partying and a lot of alcohol. Although the show is fictionalized, USC officials are not pleased with what it portrays.
Carl Marziali, assistant vice president for media relations at USC, would give only the university's official statement:
"The University of Southern California does not endorse nor did it authorize the web series Undergrads. The scenes in the series trailer could have been filmed on many college campuses. More accurately representative of USC are the students who provide hundreds of hours in community service, who rank among the country's most academically and artistically gifted and who value diversity in cultures, nationalities and socio-economic backgrounds among their peers."
Ann Austria, a 2011 graduate of USC said she doesn't feel the show accurately portrays what her time at USC was like.
"I think the film portrays one aspect of campus life," Austria said. "I'm not going to deny that stuff like this doesn't happen, I mean partying happens on all college campuses, but I believe it is a student's choice to participate in it or not."
The film shows the university in a negative and biased light, Austria said, but students aren't that upset.
"It doesn't seem that many students are completely upset by this, maybe because they don't care or they just feel it's stupid and brush it off, but I know the administration was upset by it because it doesn't accurately portray the student body," Austria said. "I personally did not see any of the episodes, but to sum up my reaction of the filming in one word ... stupid."
After seeing previews for Undergrads, Wagner said there are some people who are very relieved Rabbit Bandini did not get the chance to film at Miami.
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"The company said they wanted to film student life so that's why we didn't say no right away," Wagner said. "We had more discussions, however, and found that they were planning on showing only the party aspect."
While Miami couldn't stop Rabbit Bandini from filming off-campus, they could deny the company permission to film inside classrooms or inside residence halls, according to Wagner.
"Any time someone wants to portray Miami University, we want to make sure we can control the content and image," Wagner said.
Wagner didn't rule out the possibility of filming happening at Miami someday, but she did offer thoughts on Franco's latest films.
"He's a PhD. student, I'd really like to see him do some serious academic work," Wagner said.
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