‘Pitch Perfect’ was an hit when it landed in theaters in September 2012 mostly because of its witty humor. The fun dramatization of the college a cappella experience at Barden University, called on some striking similarities between the a cappella groups here at Boston University. To discuss the similarities and differences between the ‘Pitch Perfect’ experience and the actual college a cappella experience I sat and chatted with David Valbuena (COM ’13) the President of the Dear Abbeys, Boston University’s premier all-male a cappella group, and Emma Temkin (CAS ’13) the music director of Terpsichore an all-female group.
What was your initial reaction of the movie and the way the college a capella lifestyle was portrayed?
David Valbuena: It was very funny, however it was very exaggerated.
Emma Temkin: Except not really there are a lot of similarities.
DV: There’s a lot of similarities, but like everything was taken further.
ET: Especially our groups are brother and sister groups and we literally had a feud the entire first three years [I was on it]. It wasn’t like that [in the movie] but it was funny because I was like ‘I didn’t know they knew we had a feud.’
What were some of the similarities you saw between you’re a capella experience and the movie’s portrayal?
ET: The recruitment process was very similar with our groups, at Splash we would be very obnoxious reaching out to kids screaming ‘Are you a singer? Do you sing?!’ Everyone has so much spirit for their group that it comes off obnoxious.
DV: The ICCAs are a huge deal.
ET: My group went this year and it was super intense.
DV: The ICCAs is like the competition to participate in.
DV: The movie ‘Pitch Perfect’ is actually based off of a book and the book tells the story of three different groups, an all-male group, an all-female group, and a co-ed group. And the book begins with the all-female group losing, however they don’t lose to the all-male group the book is going to be about, they lose to a different all-male group called the Boston University Dear Abbeys in 2005 because we actually won that year. And so we’re featured in the first chapter beating the all-female group but then the story is about the all-female group and the all-male group unrelated to us.
DV: [Unlike the movie], it’s also a big thing for people to date within the groups.
ET: A lot of Terps and Abbeys date within each other.
Did you think that the portrayal was accurate?
ET: When I saw the trailer I started to get a little weirded out, like if anyone knows what my college experience is watch this movie. Like yeah I wish that I was Fat Amy and I wish I that was that funny, but besides all the ridiculous dramatizations I was actually really impressed by how accurate it is.
DV: The guys group is very similar to us in the sense that we’re ridiculous, we don’t really care about professionalism or if we’re classy or not. We’re lewd, we’re inappropriate, we’re obnoxious, but we love it so much and we rock it.
ET: Especially when they’re drunk and the drunk girls are like ‘I think we’re going to become really good friends’ like we all hang out together we all have relationships together and as soon as you get to the group you know we’re all going to be friends.
DV: It’s competitive, and every group wants to be the best group at BU. And it revolves around things like ‘We’re doing this song’ or ‘We do it better’ or ‘They took this one freshmen we really wanted’ or ‘They stole him/her from us’.
ET: The callback process was not directly like the movie.
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DV: In the movie they auditioned like a rush where they auditioned for every group. We don’t do that. Every group posts their own auditions roughly around the same time and freshmen can go and hop around and sign up for different groups and then the groups post their callback lists. As the president, I meet with other Presidents of a capella groups and we discuss amongst ourselves the callback lists to try and have a civil conversation about who each is taking. That always explodes.
DV (cont): It’s also funny when groups do the same song. I remember we had this one night we had BU night of a capella and we had all the groups at BU come and showcase their songs and each group had two songs. It’s a little bit like in the movie [when they have the riff-off] except it’s not improvised because that’s obviously not possible; I wish it was possible!
ET: I mean we have our prep circles but that’s different.
DV: Its way different and it does not sound as good or as produced. But at that show, three different groups sang ‘Some Nights’ by Fun. and people freaked out because you’re sitting through a show and you hear the same song done three different times! Groups always get angry and [it becomes] kind of like ‘Bring It On’. But at the same time there are friendships, and we all party together especially after concerts.
ET: Because everyone does so well and so good every single year. Especially with all the media attention we’ve been getting everyone has had to step up their game. Choreo[graphy] has been introduced, and we never used to do that.
DV: Neither did we and we started that this year.
ET: For ICCAs our group had to do choreo and we aren’t used to it so it was a big challenge for us. Last time we did ICCAs it was really awkward doing choreo cause we didn’t know what they wanted, but now it’s more like a glee club thing with like legit dance moves. And the really good groups have insane choreo you have to like be a trifecta of talent to get to those groups. It’s changed so much in these past 4 years.
DV: In the 2000s the Dear Abbeys were the forefront of college a capella but now there are so many groups, there’s just more competition, and honestly, we don’t care that much. We’re just college kids and we’re just trying to have fun and sing songs and make friends and hang out. But now it’s like a whole industry.
Which character in the movie did you identify the most with?
DV: Obviously the President of the Trebz! [joking]
ET: Fat Amy. [joking]
DV: You’re definitely the class clown of your group.
ET: I’m also the Music Director for my group so I understood what they were talking about when there’s so much girl drama because there’s so much you have to balance. As a music director you want to change certain aspects about the group that need to be worked on, but other members of the group will not want to. When is it okay for my opinion to matter more than everyone else’s? But like we don’t want to be like the girls in ‘Pitch Perfect’ so we all talk to one another and try to make sure that we’re all on the same page.
DV: One of the cool things that I saw in the movie is how the main character Beca Mitchell (Anna Kendrick)] broke typical traditions of normal songs. With me as President I’ve been trying to do that this year working along with my music director. Guys are so into tradition and honor, and we have to do this the way we’ve always been doing it, and you can see that in other groups. We’ve been realizing that there are some traditions that hinder you, just like what you saw in the movie. Just because it’s the way you’ve always done it doesn’t mean that it’s the best way to do it. Especially with the new media attention. That’s the biggest similarity, how groups have to change what they’ve been doing to be back in the game.
DV (cont): I also identified with the main character [Beca Mitchell] because I had zero musical experience coming into it. I did not sing or perform, I was a visual arts kid. I auditioned for the Dear Abbeys while being moral support with this other girl who was auditioning for the Terpsichores. This girl was like ‘I’m gonna audition for Terpsichores, you should audition for the Dear Abbeys so that we can audition at the same time.’ I wanted to be friendly because it was my first week at BU and I didn’t really know anything so I did it, and I ended up getting a callback and getting in and now I’m the President.
To see more Pitch Perfect phenomena, you can catch the Dear Abbeys at their upcoming show this Saturday April 27th at Morse Auditorium along with Slow Children at Play!