CanCulture spoke to a Toronto Metropolitan University student who’s creating his own show about the collectivity in youthfulness and queerness
By: Daniella Lopez
Vibe Check was produced by TMU students and filmed around locations in downtown Toronto (Daniella Lopez/CanCulture)
For his final thesis project, Don Qarlo Bernardino, a fourth-year media production student at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), spent the entirety of 2022 creating his baby: a TV series pilot titled Vibe Check.
Vibe Check follows four queer, Asian, BIPOC students who move into a communal home together in downtown Toronto and find family in one another.
In early November, the show went into production where they spent 12 days filming. I sat down with Bernardino to find out more about the show, his experience making it and the lessons he wants viewers to take away from it.
Please note, this interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What inspired you to create the show?
The show has been a passion project of mine for more than a year. I’ve always been interested in writing stories, and I think with the medium of television, there’s a lot that you can do to tell different, diverse, interesting stories.
I've always been passionate about Filipino, queer and Asian representation. I’ve always sought after shows that have that sort of representation, but I never saw it from a Filipino, queer perspective, so I wanted to create a show that was all about [gen-Z] that was just unapologetically queer.
Why did you name it Vibe Check?
As a writer, the hardest thing for me is creating a title because that’s your brand. I was searching up what represents gen-Z culture, and I was like, “What is slang that represents us that can also be catchy? Why don’t I say something about vibes?” When you meet someone, the most gen-Z thing to say is, “do they pass the vibe check?” That’s the whole idea of the show, and it stuck.
What was the process of writing the script like?
Creating the script was a whole process. I was the sole writer; I wrote the entire script. It was over 30 pages.
Because it’s a pilot script, there’s a lot of pressure and expectations that I put on myself to incorporate everything. I’ve had some of these scenes that you see in the show in my mind for a long time, but actually connecting them into a story and seeing how it shifts and evolves was really fascinating. A lot of the characters were also very personal to me as well, so it was a very vulnerable script. From the script all the way to production, it became more and more surreal.
You just finished production. What was that whole experience like?
Production was [wild] because I managed five roles — I was the sole writer, director and star of the show. I cast the whole production and I also helped with producing. A lot of us on set were just students who didn’t have a lot of experience, so there were people still learning.
The location we ended up filming in was my personal dorm, so it became more surreal because it was a story that reflected my life. The [main] character is a messier version of me, so his room has to be messy at all times — so my room stayed messy for a long time.
I’m still processing it, and to this day, it’s an experience I’ll never forget. Regardless of the difficulties, this production was so fun. My crew was so committed and dedicated to showing up on set, helping out and working together as a team.
Do you have a favourite scene that you shot or starred in?
There’s so many that I absolutely loved. My favourite scene that we shot was a party scene. Jessa [one of the main characters] runs into her ex-boyfriend at the party and he tries to get her back. They have this argument, and she realizes this guy is not worth it. It’s a really funny scene of a toxic, straight high school relationship that never worked out.
Image via VibeCheck Instagram, captioned: “We think day ten might’ve been the best one yet.”
There’s a scene of David and Jacob [two of the main characters] eating Filipino food and walking down an outdoor plaza, which was really beautifully filmed, and it just showed queer male friendship.
There’s a really funny hookup scene that’s at the beginning of the show, where [my character] tries to hook up with someone, but it goes terribly wrong.
Those all sound so much fun! Is there anything you want viewers to gain from watching the show?
I want to inspire people to show that we can tell diverse stories in media and in television. It is possible to have proper representation, to cast authentically and to write stories that are authentic.
And in terms of queer representation, I was never interested in the coming out storyline because … it’s either about them struggling with their sexuality or being a cheesy romance story or extremely tragic. This is a story about queer people right in the middle. It’s made by and for queer BIPOC people. The message I want audiences to take is that we can see ourselves represented if we just try because we did.
That’s awesome, I’m so excited for it. Finally, when is it coming out?
That’s a question I get all the time, and it’s putting more and more pressure. By [December], we’re going to release a trailer. After post-production is done, we’re going to see which theatre we can show this project in. I’ll continue working on it to make it even better for next semester. We just want to bring everyone together to show the hard work that we did.
VIBE CHECK
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VIBE CHECK 〰️
