Alex Foley, the star of 4 Iroquois, sat down with Her Campus to discuss the evolution from television show to production company, the importance of collaboration, and who he thinks is the funniest.
Her Campus Emerson:Why start a production company in college?
Alex Foley: Well it all started with Matt Kramer and Katie Flynn. They created a production company called Surrender Pictures for their E3 entrepreneurial class. 4 Iroquois was the Web-Series created by Surrender Pictures. I think creating a production company in college is a great idea, especially at Emerson. It just becomes a more legitimate and organized way to create projects that you’re passionate about, while being able to collaborate with all of your friends.
HCE: How did 4 Iroquois evolve from a TV show to a production company?
AF: I think the beginning of the evolution started with the fact that everyone involved in the production of 4 Iroquois became extremely close. By the end of production we really were a family. Everything just clicked so well and we were actually getting work done so we thought, why stop here? We should take this creative force and inspiration and carry over right into the next year.
HCE: How do you choose who to collaborate with?
AF: Collaboration is very important to me and I think it is a critical part of the process. The people I collaborate with are almost always my friends, and if you aren’t my friend at first I guarantee you will be by the end of the first meeting. It’s not an exclusive process, if you’re funny, nice, and bring creative ideas to the table then collaboration is inevitable.
HCE: How did you shoot the show?
AF: The show was shot mostly on the Sony EX3 camera with a glide-cam that was operated by the very talented Bryan Rogers. We’d meet early every weekend…OK maybe not so early, but we would meet at the 4 Iroquois house and begin shooting morning ’til night. Go to sleep, wake up, do it again. It became a routine we all grew to love. I was constantly surrounded by good friends and we were all doing something we loved while creating a series we were proud of…it doesn’t get much better than that.
HCE: Who do you think is the funniest?
AF: Aw man, that is a tough question. I mean, everyone tells me that I’m the funniest but I don’t know about that :) Honestly, Cory, Gio, Dave, all of the writers and just everyone involved in making 4 Iroquois are hilarious. It’s so hard to say who’s the funniest because everyone brings something different to the table. Let’s just say half of the time on set was spent laughing.
HCE: What was your favorite episode and why?
AF: I mean, I loved all the episodes for different reasons but my favorite would probably have to be the “Reality TV” episode. That was by the far the best shoot and the directors and writers really gave me and the other actors a lot of freedom with our lines, lots of improv, lots of laughs.
HCE: Do you have any plans to follow up with Shit Emerson Girls Say?
AF: Haha, well there actually was a follow up idea called “Shit ROCKS Say” and it was just going to be a bunch of still shots of rocks with no audio. But no I think the “Shit Blank’s Say” video trend has run it’s course. But there are definitely more sketches coming out from 4 Iroquois comedy soon.