𝙸 𝙲𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚜

𝚂𝟺𝙴𝟺: 𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚢 𝙴𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚅𝚒𝚜𝚞𝚊𝚕 𝙰𝚒𝚍𝚜

Inspired by Community S4E3: "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking."

Leo POV [Documentary]

Footage of New Rome's resident psychology major, Clovis, in an interview chair fades in on the screen. Although nobody on campus fully understands what Octavianesia is, everyone is fully committed to learning more about this condition and its roots.

Clovis yawns and says, "I pulled an all-nighter studying Octavian, or Gary, as he now prefers to be called. Can't say I disagree with that logic."

"What logic?" Leo asks from behind the camera.

"Octavian—Gary—says he'd rather go by Gary because if he doesn't have any of his old memories, he isn't Octavian anymore. He's Gary."

Leo pushes Jake Mason's boom mic out of the frame and then asks his next question: "What exactly is the difference between Octavianesia and amnesia?"

Clovis lays back, his head thrown over the back of the seat.

"Clovis?" Leo asks.

Leo's trusty cameraman Travis Stoll waves a hand in front of Clovis's face. "He's out cold."

Annoyed, Leo claps his hands in front of poor sleepy Clovis.

Instead of responding, he snores.

"Clovis!" Jake shouts.

He yelps as he's awoken. "What? Oh. That'll teach me to pull an all-nighter. Sleep is very important you know."

"Evidently," Travis retorts.

"Well, thank you for your time," Leo says. "We're going to wrap up here and let you get some sleep, Clovis. Clovis?"

The interviewee has fallen asleep again, so they cut the camera and shift to the second interview of this pivotal documentary. Although the over-eccentric dean is nobody's favorite character in the sitcom that is Leo's life, he's a necessary force, especially when it comes to offering a new perspective on Octavianesia. Besides, Leo would like to hear from the man that hired him as a teaching assistant in the first place.

"What's up, Dean D?" Leo greets as he and his crew step into the dean's office.

"Leonard. Others," he responds, not bothering to look up from his game of online solitaire.

Travis zooms in on the dean and Jake pushes his wheelchair closer to the desk so that the boom mic can reach. They've been doing documentaries like these for about three years now and Jake still can't manage to keep that mic from entering the camera frame, but he's so kind that Leo just doesn't have the heart to fire him. Also, there's no one lined up to replace him, so the director's hands are tied.

"We want to know more about Octavian's condition," Leo says.

Dean D closes out of his game and looks directly at the camera. Slowly, he picks the can tab off his Diet Coke and pitches it into a pile full of them. That man probably drinks about a case of soda a day, which can't be healthy.

"So," the dean says at last, "you want to know about TA turned student turned SoundCloud rapper turned campus security officer turned villain turned Octavianesiac."

"Uh, yeah," Leo says. "Whatever. What can you tell us about Gary from when he was Octavian? How did he become a TA in the first place?"

"I trusted the advice of one of my colleagues from the music and drama department," Dean D explains. "He's from the visual arts as well, and he does the poetry class for our English department... I'm pretty sure he teaches a nursing class now that I think of it. Shoot, I probably shouldn't have cut that guy's pay. The fact of the matter is that I trusted my colleague, and ended up hiring someone who hasn't even completed his undergrad education."