Below is an interview I had with Aaron Mattson, creator of the YouTube channel “A-A-RONproductions.”

 

Q: What is your web series about?

A: It is called “The Floor.” It is an office parody. The Office is a mockumentary of the regular everyday life of people at an office. And that was the inspiration for “The Floor,” which is a show about the regular life of guys on Baker 2nd.

 

Q: How difficult was it to start?

A: Freshman year, four years ago, I was rooming with Noah. We watched the entirety of The Office together, all the way through. And after it was over, Noah looked at Baker 2nd and then the show and saw that the people on the show match the people on Baker 2nd. Won’t it be funny if we did a show? His thing was mostly about recording the things that happened on B2. I took it a step further and started writing episodes. Each floor has scripts that we loosely base the episodes off. The script is a skeleton of the basic idea I have for the episode.

 

Q: Does your film background help you with the production process?

A: Writing stories is easier because I have been doing that for four years now. I also love screenwriting, so it comes naturally to me. It is not that difficult to write a floor episode because each character is simply an exaggeration of the real character. Every guy plays himself. Every character is an over-exaggeration of who they are in real life. So, you have Noah. Even though he us not on the floor anymore, he is still a featured guest. You know Noah. He is loud and kind of obnoxious and kind of wild. In the show he is loud and kind of obnoxious, and kind of wild but on steroids. And Mark is kind of a quiet, reserved, no -onsense kind of guy who doesn’t understand why everyone is so crazy in the show. In real life, he is kind of like that.

 

Q: How did you get the idea out?

A: Freshman year, when we never got the motivation to do it. I had written a couple script ideas, but we never really worked on it. It wasn’t until sophomore year, during the spring semester, that we got the motivation to do it. We filmed an episode in a day, and it didn’t take time. We showed it during DMA chapel, and people got excited about it. Usually, episodes range from six to 25 minutes. The first episode was just six minutes.

 

Q: Did the show help Baker 2nd guys bond better?

A: Baker 2 is pretty much a very bonded community. So, it was really easy to get people together. Even today, we have lots of side jokes that came from the episodes. As episodes became bigger and bigger, we included more people because the show started with Noah, Mark and Andrew.

 

Q: How do you think this will help you in the future?

A: I learned the basic stuff, which is learning how to film mockumentary-style. Because that is a big genre like The Office and Parks & Recreation. They are all shot in that style. It helps me learn the techniques. From a storytelling standpoint, the show has evolved a lot from the first episode. The show started with a basic outline, but now, I have a bigger grasp on how characters should be based on how they have evolved over time. In the future, if I start doing a TV show, I understand where characters start and how they end.

 

Q: The Finale?

A: It is going to be emotional. We have one little episode before the last episode. The last episode is going to be a big one. I plan on bringing everyone who has been on the show for one last cameo in the last episode. Sort of like a send-off. No spoilers here, but I plan to end the show leaving things open for the future generations. It is a finale, but it is open-ended whether they want to do anything with it or not. It is up to them.