Big Rapids/Notable locations at Ferris

Brophy-McNerney Hall Complex
Further viewing: Google Maps Brophy and McNerney Halls were part of the same building, and contained mostly criminal justice students. In the Eccentriaverse, Cassie Helm lived in this building somewhere in the spring of 2008. The Dozerfleet founder stayed here his first year at Ferris, from fall of 2006 to spring of 2007. Due to issues with the desktop being used at the time to run The Sims 2, the Despair Gerosha version of Ciem had to be canceled. This freed up a lot of resources to focus on other ventures: particularly, assignments. "Defining 'Jump the Shark'," "DNA Homology: When 1% Discrepancy is Way Too Much," and more papers were written during the Dozerfleet founder's tenure in McNerney Hall Room 116. The laundry room nearby was vandalized in October of 2006, leading to "The Great Broken Glass Laundry Caper" being written discussing desires by some in the dorms to figure out who broke the window - and why.

"Introducing: The Movlune Lava Clock" and "Snakes on a Marketing Strategy" were written for Marketing 321 class during the founder's tenure in Room 116. For speech class, "Facebook vs. MySpace" was created as a PowerPoint presentation. This was followed up with "Man and Dinosaur" and "Santa: A Feasibility Study." Jawknee became part of the Gerosha schedule, but was later absorbed in 2012 into Sodality: Instigation. "Phantasmic," was added to the Every Ape and His Brother album Morbid! The Horrendous Hobo!!!. It would soon be followed by "Doughboy," "Ridiculous," "Lower!!!," "They'll Claw You Open," and "The Hundred-Acre Woodland Massacre." The Midnight Madness event held at the Recreation Center led to "Doughboy" being performed live, with many students enjoying the performance. The Flying Flamingo Casino event happened, with the founder of Dozerfleet recording footage for it. Unlisted even performed for the event. However, the founder's camera died while recording events there. He'd get another camera two years later.

This was also around the time that he'd become aware of the British Power Rangers parody Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers, and would eagerly await the arrival of its second season - unaware that season wouldn't get released until 2010 due to various setbacks. In 2017, he'd become the administrator for the official Emo Rangers Wiki, along with publishing Volkonir Meets the Power Rangers to Mod The Sims.

In 2007, the first Dozerfleet Database was born in Room 116, along with Classic Gerosha continuity and the 2007 Ciem webcomic. The database was called "DozerfleetWiki" at the time, and was hosted on WikiSpaces. It'd get moved to Wiki-Site in 2008, before finally arriving to Wikia in 2011. Its name change to Dozerfleet Database would be made official in 2016. "This Feels Obscene, It's an Earthquake" became the first song off the Every Ape and His Brother album Elefante Elegante Interesante Importante in Room 116, soon followed by "Cadmium" and "The Bison's Apocalypse." "Let the Elements Shine Down" was written for a (revealed-later-to-be-very-much-fake) friend toward the very end of the spring semester of 2007.

The Dozerfleet founder eventually left McNerney Hall behind, moving to North Bond Hall Room 116. He seldom set foot on or around the Brophy-McNerney building again, except for one time when he needed the basement to film an action sequence assignment. John DeBruyn was to resume his role as Prince Volkonir for that shot, after lending his appearance to the character once before in a promo poster. However, the small crew abandoned the project and fled the basement after facing an onslaught of sexual harassment from Brophy residents. John abandoned the role of Volkonir because of that incident.

Bond Hall Complex
Further viewing: Google Maps

Further reading: Ferris State South and West Campus Halls

Most prominent about the majority of early Dozerfleet development post-2006 is North Bond Hall, where the Dozerfleet founder lived during most of his time at Ferris. The lobby to the Bond Hall complex featured many special events, including two dating auctions. Room 165 was where work resumed on Ciem 2007 after the move from McNerney 116. He remained in here from May of 2007 until May of 2008, then moved to Room 308 of South Bond Hall for one summer before moving to Room 207 in the North for the fall 2008 semester. Special about the back area of Bond Hall was its proximity to a volleyball field, as well as access to the Bishop building and to DPS. The Bishop building was at one point a main station for the TDMP program, though it had been a residence hall prior to that. For the 2007-2008 school year, the Dozerfleet founder had to park in Lot 47, as with the 2006-2007 year. Come the 2008-2009 year, he was able to relocate parking permission to Lot 5, just outside Bond.

North Bond 165
North Bond Room 165 is where the Every Ape and His Brother songs "Serial Bomber," "Serial Bomber, Part 2," "Salem (Story of a Trial)," and "Slaughterized" were written. Interview with Polly and Mutt Mackley and Gambino Penguin's "Somewhere I Belong" were both filmed in this room, with the latter including downtown Big Rapids locations. Music For and Inspirational to Ciem was also assembled in this room. The Trapezoid Kids: Dwell-A-Thon: A Look at The Blue Face Film Strips was animated in this room. "All Your Shapes Are Belong to Us" had preliminary voice acting and recording done in this room, before editing was moved to a studio in the IRC building. The Apple Pecan Lodge ad's script was written in here around that same time period. Farewell Graduate: A Day at the Open House was created while the founder was living in Room 165, though it was filmed in Delta Township and edited in the Bishop building. "Reflections on Tom Ruegger," "Roffdubbing and Memetic Mutation," "The Trapezoid Kids PSA-A-Thon," and "YouTube: The Double-Edged Sword" were all either written or assembled in Room 165. The trailer for Volkonir was drafted in Room 165, though it was shot in the basement of a residential home in town.

The Task Delegator was developed for Connie Morcom's steaming media class while the founder of Dozerfleet was living in Room 165, although its rough draft was made in class. Who's Who at FSU?: "Service Workers" was shot in the IRC basement TV studio in the spring of 2008, while the Dozerfleet founder was still living in Room 165. This was followed up with Beyond the Campus: "The Ferris State Criminal Justice Program." "Concerning the Fitzgeralds" was written for a literature class while he was living there, along with "A film review of Ghost Rider." "Once I'm Gone" was written in April of 2008 at the library, while the founder was in the process of moving out of 165.

South Bond 308
In the summer of 2008, the Dozerfleet founder relocated to South Bond Hall Room 308 temporarily, while North Bond was closed for maintenance. It was in this room that he made Slovak Girls: Keepin' Summer HOT!!! as a commissioned project from Luka Underground. When Bikes Argue was given a film adaptation on YouTube, immediately followed by one for When Bikes Argue 2. What If: Wizard of Oz Rangers Idea was made just for fun that same summer. For a film production class with Clayton Rye, 3-13 was adapted. However, it had to be highly edited due to stock footage damage. Penguin on Drugs was proposed as an alternate project in case 3-13 proved unusable, but that footage was completely destroyed.

North Bond 207
North Bond Hall Room 207 was the Dozerfleet founder's next destination for a room to reside in. Work on Ciem resumed in here, though most of what remained in the fall of 2008 were final edits - primarily to the end credits. The DSHW version of that machinomic was finally completed and released on WebCD format in January of 2009. The syndication of it on Mod The Sims was complete by December of 2008, ending a 2-year journey in the comic's creation and compelling a desire to make sequels. "Three Takes on a Dream" and other papers were written in here. What Condoms Don't Protect You From began life as an ad campaign with the entry "Self-Control: It's Priceless," written for Clayton Rye's fall 2008 script writing for film class. This also resulted in a script draft for the first chapter of 90 Has No Secant. Around that same time, for Connie Morcom's streaming video class, the Rintel Family House Tour was created as part of a 90 Has No Secant official website draft. On the side, "So Which Is It?: Is The Dark Knight Pro or Anti-Iraq War?" received a posting on the Dozerfleet founder's MySpace page. Every Ape and His Brother began its third lyrics album, The Chicken of the Opera, with "Jerry the Psycho Reindeer." "Salt the Raging Hamster" soon followed, along with "Die Die Die!!!" as a follow-up to "Slaughterized."

In the spring of 2009, Ciem 2 and Ciem 3 began pursuit. Music For and Inspirational to Ciem 2 and Music For and Inspirational to Ciem 3 were quickly churned out, with inspiration for their music style and structure coming from Sony albums Music From and Inspired by Spider-Man 2 and Music From and Inspired by Spider-Man 3. After a quick stay at the 2009 San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, the Dozerfleet founder saw The Meaning of "Choice" and was inspired to mix that with a narrative similar to V for Vendetta to create Navyrope for The Gerosha Chronicles. Extirpon and its titular character soon followed. "The Eel Thing" was written around this time. Several scripts and slideshows were also drafted for the Broadcast Writing class held in the spring of 2009. Most of these became canon to Dromedia, though the Viron Counselors Network ad became Classic Gerosha canon. Wilson's Pig Market Ad, Izzy's Intimates Ad, Diablo Juan's Puerco Ad, Roadkill Motor Mall Ad, and Cheap Charlie's Checkout Ad were all also written during the Dozerfleet founder's tenure in Room 207.

North Bond 213
The Dozerfleet founder was unable to attend the summer classes of 2009, and had to sit out on production of Pine Springs. In the fall, he moved to North Bond Hall Room 213. An unpleasant dream in this room later inspired the events in Sorbet, which was made canon to Cataclysmic Gerosha. The most emphasized class for the fall semester was TV Practicum, which was split into two factions. "Team Green" focused on making documentaries and propaganda, while "Team White" focused on making entertainment with some small amount of educational value.

The Dozerfleet founder was in Team White; along with classmates Cassie Tyler, Chris Wilson, Zach Foster, Kyle Mayer, and Angelica McClary. Mackley's Wardrobe was the one of the first series pitches offered up; but it was quickly rejected when Angelina objected to being the deuteratagonist to a hand puppet. The Twin Conspiracy was proposed next, primarily by Cassie. This evolved into Kozerlen, and later into Mountain of Cabal and then Bogged. The final draft came as Blood Over Water, which became canon to Classic Gerosha. In Cataclysmic Gerosha, a remake revised and rewrote story elements as necessary to retool the story as an origin for the Purge-Flare. This story was set in the fall 2009 semester, as a nod to when the miniseries was shot. However, events in the book are spread out over the entire semester. The events in the miniseries are implied to all happen within one week, going from summer to winter in that time. Around the same time that the original Blood Over Water miniseries was being produced, "Ideas for Inherit the Wind" was drafted up for Tech Theater class. "On the Ethics of Creating Werewolves" became another entry on The Chicken of the Opera.

Come the spring of 2010, the Dozerfleet founder had to look for a place for internship. SWOCC Studios became that location, though Grand Rapids Community College and WKTV Wyoming were considered. Ferris Dental promotional and a demo reel came out of life in Room 213. However, the lion's share of time and energy went into producing content for Ferris in Focus and assisting with the live studio crew on rotating positions for Ferris State Live. More time was spent in the labs and on locations than was spent actually living in 213, as edits and exports could take a very long time - and the studio had a limited number of keys. After moving out of Room 213 at semester's end, he was at the Grand Ledge House briefly before moving to 1165 Drakeshire Ln. Apt. 5 at Drakeshire Apartments in Farmington for the summer of 2010. Every other project from 2010 in the catalog was made at that location, which he moved out of in December of 2010.

North Bond 241
While the Dozerfleet founder never resided in North Bond Room 241, its location became pivotal to plot points in Sorbet, which moved events to this location (as opposed to Room 213, where the actual dream that inspired that story happened.) Sorbet became Gerosha canon as of 2011, after a lunch at the Mitchell's Fish Market of Lansing at Eastwood Towne Center. Later, as a running gag, this room became the location where Halal Affadidah was storing his 1-gigaton nuclear bomb in The Gerosha Chronicles: Centipede + 49, a video game premise drafted in 2013.

The Quad
Further viewing: Google Maps

This area of campus was a meeting place for many events. Most notably, it was the Dozerfleet founder's first exposure to Iron Man - and to the MCU in general. The MCU would later become significantly inspirational to how Cataclysmic Gerosha would be structured.

Interdisciplinary Resource Center
Further viewing: Google Maps

Often dubbed the "IRC" for short. This building gained an expansion in 2008-2009 that connected it to the College of Business. The IRC contained several state-of-the-art classrooms, an open walkway, a Starbucks, and the TV studio in its basement. Who's Who at FSU? and Beyond the Campus were both shot in-studio there, along with Pine Springs and Ferris State Live. A few segments of Ferris in Focus were also shot in that studio, though most segments of that show were shot on-location elsewhere. Several scenes in Blood Over Water were also shot here, including a deleted scene that was removed because of the risk of violating Starbucks' trademark.

Clark Hall
Not much happens of importance in our Earth in this hall from a Dozerfleet perspective. However, this hall is host to Dereck Tumbine, who becomes the boyfriend of Cassie Helm at the end of Volkonir 2008. In reality, Cassie's actress, Bethany Haase, passed on the opportunity to be a part of the project in order to spend more time with her real-life boyfriend of the time.

The Rock Cafe
Further viewing: Google Maps This became the main dining establishment for hall residents on campus. The Dozerfleet founder briefly worked here as well. It received major renovations in 2009 from what it was when he arrived on campus in 2006. It was one of two diners in the paper "The Rock Café vs. Center Ice." Presumably, it was so-named because the oft-painted campus boulder was right outside.

Center Ice Cafe
Further viewing: Westside Cafe on Google Maps

At one point, there were four major noteworthy cafeterias on campus: The Rock Café, Center Ice, Mascar, and Westview. Westview was finally closed when the Rankin Center was taken down and replaced with the University Center, some time after the Dozerfleet founder graduated. Mascar was shut down by the end of spring of 2008.

This left just the Rock, Center Ice, Quiznos, and a student food store that opened up serving cafeteria food for students during operational hours. The on-campus Quiznos would later shut down in 2014, as the company at its corporate level restructured under chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Center Ice finally closed its doors after the summer of 2009, forcing Bond Hall students in love with the diner to adapt to walking an extra 8th of a mile uphill to eat at The Rock instead. Last-minute snacking at 10:00 PM was no longer an option.

While Center Ice was operational, it had a very hockey-themed interior, celebrating hockey history in general but also celebrating Ferris' hockey team. It had an a-la-carte style of acquiring food, as opposed to the straight buffet method utilized at Rock and Westview. On evenings when bored, the Dozerfleet founder would sometimes purchase a pizza here and eat dinner while watching whatever was on cable TV that looked interesting. It briefly was brought back as the Westside Cafe, but was then converted to the Southwest Commons.

Starr Building
Further viewing: Google Maps Many of the Dozerfleet founder's classes were held in this building. Its first floor hallway near its parking lot has side corridor leading to the theater building. That general area in Starr has been utilized many times in Dozerfleet history. In Ciem, Starr was remade as the "Scarr Building" at Viron University in Viron, Indiana, a Classic Gerosha stand-in for the University of Southern Indiana. The first floor hallway near the theater entrance corridor was where Candi first met Denny Levens, as the hall and corridor were re-created inside The Sims 2. Candi later escapes when she discovers that Dirbine police in the breakroom are in cohorts with the Hebbleskin Gang.

A study room in that main Starr first floor hallway is also where Aaron Stefflin and Monica Shelly are ambushed by Chris Kennal and Kyle Tugrass. However, shortly after they exit and get inside Chris' SUV, they're on a narrow drive across from the library. Angelica did her best to use camera tricks and night lighting to obscure this visual continuity issue. In the novel, Chris is able to drive the speed limit and arrive by a different means to Lot 47 than by mere teleportation, which is what the jump cuts in the miniseries indicate happens for the SUV to get from Starr to the hill slope drive up to Lot 47 so quickly.

Chapter 9 of Ciem also takes place in a third floor classroom here. Candi's sociology class is an almost exact replica of Sociology 121's classroom in the spring of 2007 at Ferris. Real-life classmate Darla was remade as "Dhalia Lorrice" inside The Sims 2. In that class in real life, the Dozerfleet founder got to play with the class a copy of Bertell Ollman's Marxist indoctrination game Class Struggle. He discovered that the game's central premise could be subverted simply by getting certain corporations with common interests to co-hedge assets in order to rescue each other if risks got too high. The teacher shut down the hedging operation, as the game's central premise doesn't allow for altruism.

Dental Center
Further viewing: Google Maps

While it has been moved a few times, the School of Dentistry was at one point located in a building that eventually was torn down and replaced with the Michigan College of Optometry. The Ferris Dental promotional was shot inside the old building. Ferris' dental program was later relocated to its College of Health Professions, right behind the College of Optometry. The old optometry center was located inside Cramer Hall, which the school tore down and replaced with Lot 54.

FLITE Library
Further viewing: Google Maps

Some research was done for projects here, mostly for theater acting and tech theater assignments. The infamous Jim Crow Museum was eventually moved here, when it previously resided in the since-torn-down Rankin Center. "Once I'm Gone" was written in part in this building's 1st floor library in 2008. The first floor is also where final submissions were made for Audio Production class sound clips, including "All Your Shapes Are Belong to Us" in late 2007. In 2008, DozerfleetWiki migrated from WikiSpaces to Wiki-Site in this building. The local anime club also met in a room on a higher floor. Robin Hercher, who drew a manga version of John Domeck in the spring of 2007 and helped with some other assignments, frequently attended the anime club around this time.

This spot is where Chris' SUV drives off in part 4 of Blood Over Water, in spite the study room that Aaron and Monica were in being located in the Starr Building.

Rankin Center
Since replaced with the much-nicer University Center, this oddly-designed building contained both Westview Cafe and the bookstore. Various campus attractions were to be found here. It was here that the Dozerfleet founder first became aware of TVTropes. Quiznos was located in here also. It was in this building that several segments of Ferris in Focus were shot, particularly for "What Do You Think?" segments. Due to bad weather, Quad Movie Night was moved indoors to here in 2011. As a result, those who showed up got to see Thor indoors.

Recreation Building
Further viewing: Google Maps

Often referred to colloquially as merely "the gym" or "the Rec Center," it eventually became the main location where "Rockin' in the Rankin" events were relocated to, renaming them "Rockin' in the Rec." Midnight Madness 2006 as also held in this gym, and that's where Every Ape and His Brother performed "Doughboy" live. Offices in this building were also used as filming locations for Ferris in Focus segments.

Science Building
Further viewing: Google Maps

Some classes held here include Biology 109 and Human Sexuality, which were gen eds for the TDMP program. Other than a few essays, not much else came out of here. The building was looked over for possibilities for filming backgrounds for Ciem 2, yet nothing much came of it after that.

Media Supply Center
This room inside the IRC building was where almost all production equipment was stored for all major video projects on campus. All students at the time were expected to shoot footage using Sony DV500 cameras, with miniDV tapes and microphones that often didn't work at all - or worked poorly. The Dozerfleet founder first utilized this for Video I class in the summer of 2007, for a basic bracketing assignment. Later, the equipment borrowed was used to shoot "Mutt Mackley and Gambino Penguin's "Somewhere I Belong". It was to be borrowed again for a documentary on students' opinions on machinima; but that was canceled in favor of a documentary dubbed Farewell Graduate: A Day at the Open House.

Later, an opening for The Trapezoid Kids was compiled using footage taken with cameras from Media Supply. The titular Trapezoids were composited into appropriate frames inside Adobe After Effects. Music for this demo was a sped-up song from the soundtrack to The Sims 2: Nightlife. Robin Hercher agreed to come on to talk about the anime club for another video that year. Equipment was rented a few more times in 2007, but not to a significant degree. In 2008, the trailer for Volkonir and Volkonir Journals: Attempt #43 were shot with equipment borrowed from Media Supply. Later that fall, film cameras were borrowed for making 3-13 and Penguin on Drugs, yet the latter film was destroyed during shipping. Major equipment borrowing all but ceased after that until the fall of 2009, when Blood Over Water shots took priority. Ferris in Focus in 2010 required constant borrowing of equipment.

Williams Auditorium
Further viewing : Google Maps

The Dozerfleet founder took two different classes in this building: Acting and Tech Theater. His major project in acting class was an impersonation of John Barrymore as depicted in I Hate Hamlet - which somehow turned into a Jack Sparrow impersonation. He also studied Night of the Iguana. In tech theater, he got to make a stage set and work on set pieces for a Ferris Theater production of Measure for Measure, performed on November 12th, 13th, and 14th of 2009.

Alumni Building
English 250 was held in this building, and all the papers written for that class were turned in here. Right next to it, the West Building was utilized for tech support.

East Campus Apartments
Very little of the Dozerfleet founder's time on campus involved these buildings in their early time. However, their renovation featured in "Basket Campus Enforcement." That episode of Ferris State Live required a very quick view of the new apartments under construction. It was decided a drive downhill on Damascus Rd. with the camera aimed squarely at the apartments to provide a quick sweep view of all of them was the best route to showing what was requested. However, difficulty with the employed vehicle's backseat arrangement meant putting the camera there was a no-go.

Achieving proper angles for that effect meant that shots had to be taken from the driver's side window. However, driving and shooting from the same position proved too dangerous. In the end, the small team that shot that footage drove uphill along Damascus, with their camera aimed out the main passenger-side front window. Resulting footage was reversed in post to achieve a downhill driving effect. The apartments in their completed state can be viewed here.

Granger Center
Further viewing: Google Maps This building is particularly canon to Volkonir mythos. A purple pipe near the first floor entrance is the entry point EccentriaCore portal to the Pool of Healing on Cortascius, which can undo spells like the one Gwirmalesh placed on Volkonir. The showdown between Volkonir, the Treader Scouts, and Cassie Helm was to happen in this area of the building for 2008's Volkonir, before that film was canceled due to casting issues. Other areas in the building were considered for use in filming backgrounds for Ciem 2.

Ewigleben Sports Complex


Further viewing: Google Maps

Remote operation classes mostly covered hockey games that took place inside this building. Also, graduation ceremonies happened in the basketball court located here. The basketball court in Ewigleben was also where several bits of stock footage shot for Ferris State Live in 2010 occurred, as can be seen in "Basket Campus Enforcement."

A back entrance to one of the basketball courts was also utilized for the film crew for Blood Over Water, to ensure that the Aaron Stefflin abduction scene could be filmed.

Automotive Center
Further viewing: Google Maps

The building here itself played very little role, although footage for Ferris in Focus had been shot inside. The parking lot, however, is of greater significance. This area is about where the car was parked in Blood Over Water, when Aaron Stefflin made his dramatic drive-off to see George Lawence, not knowing that George was a villain.