Transitioning from spring break into school mode is hard enough without the allure of a television. Luckily for us, the “Game of Thrones” season premiere and “The Walking Dead” season finale are already out of the way. Still, that blank screen has a habit of calling when we’re at our busiest. “Your Netflix queue is all ready for watching,” it says. “They’re replaying your favorite episode of ‘Trading Spouses,’” it says. I love TV and film too much to quit cold turkey, regardless of my assignments piling up, but I’ve learned you don’t need to.

Time management is the main thing — obvious, I know — but our love for favorite characters can also be used to help us. Try implementing a reward system: Wrote the first page of your neuroscience paper? Great! Treat yourself with an episode of “The Office.” Halfway through the assigned chapters of your textbook? Looks like it’s time to start “Wreck-It Ralph.”

I’ve also found that associating episodes, characters and events from TV with the information I’m learning helps facilitate the memorization process. “What year was the Battle of Dujaila during WWI?” I read about it around the time they were showing that ghastly dress on last night’s ‘Project Runway.’ Oh, yeah, 1916!”

This method does not work for everyone, and it’s important to determine when recording a must-see episode or movie is more beneficial than watching it. Will not knowing who was eliminated on “Dancing With the Stars” eat away at you to the detriment of your work or will not knowing be the motivation you need to knock this paper out of the park?

The happy balance is different for everyone, but it’s always possible to keep up with the Kardashians (if you really want to) and schoolwork through proper prioritization and work ethic. Sometimes, a dash of stress relief in the middle of a mountain of obligations is just what you need.

Stand-up comedian Maria Bamford, whose comedy focuses on self-deprecation and dysfunctional mentalities, will be performing at the McDonald Theatre this Friday, April 5. Bamford considers herself to be a theatrical comic, and she deals with topics she believes will be relatable to students who are struggling with the complications of everyday life.

“I found college to be frightening,” Bamford said. “I went kind of mental, so if you’re having a hard time, I’m going to be talking about that.”

Bamford is also a prolific voice actor, providing characterizations for shows such as “Adventure Time” and “The Legend of Korra.” She has a straight-to-fans comedy special “Maria Bamford: the special special special!” released in November and available online with purchase. Her Comedy Central special, “Ask Me About My New God,” is due out sometime this year, according to her publicist.

“If you want to sit down and watch something in a dark place where the light is focused brightly on one person, then I think you’ll enjoy the show at the very least,” Bamford said. The quirky comic is enthusiastic to perform in Oregon — she’ll be performing at the Historic Grande Theatre in Salem the night before her Eugene show.

Eugene, she said, is “a sweet, lovely town where it seemed like people would have the time and the inclination to knit.”

“I thought maybe that there would be some contra dancing,” Bamford added. “I didn’t see anybody do it. That was my fantasy about it.”

The McDonald Theatre will open its doors at 7 p.m., and the show, produced by Ravens Flight Creative, starts at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $24 and can be purchased online at TicketsWest, or at the theater ticket office.

Bamford encourages students to research her comedic style before purchasing a ticket. “I don’t want to waste anyone’s time,” she said. “Especially when they’re in college and they’re trying to fight the Beavers.” 

Spring term ends June 14 and graduation takes place June 17 — between now and then, a dizzying array of exciting movies are hitting theaters. It’ll be a struggle keeping up with papers and readings while scrambling to make midnight premieres, but with a term so jam-packed with must-sees, it shouldn’t be too difficult to squeeze one or two movie tickets into your budget. The problem is picking your cinematic poison.

“Star Trek Into Darkness,” the sequel to J.J. Abrams’ 2009 “Star Trek” reboot, hits theaters May 17. “Iron Man 3” releases May 3 — the newest trailer shows Tony Stark’s love interest and assistant, Pepper Potts, sporting an Iron Man suit — and “The Hangover Part III” premieres May 24. But if sequels aren’t necessarily your thing, not to worry: Plenty of new ideas are hitting the movie scene within the next three months.

The science fiction flick “Oblivion” comes out April 19, starring Tom Cruise as a drone repairman stationed on Earth, a planet made unlivable after an alien war. The population has looked to space for new dwellings, but members of a resistance (Morgan Freeman included) remain on Earth. If handled with the same smooth, futuristic imagery portrayed in director Joseph Kosinski’s previous film, “TRON: Legacy,” “Oblivion” looks to be a cinematography and CGI powerhouse.

Viewers looking for a more emotionally involved story should catch “42,” releasing April 12. Titled after Jackie Robinson’s uniform number, the film tells the story of the life of the first black Major League Baseball player in the United States. Chadwick Boseman (“Lincoln Heights”) stars as Robinson with Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey, the MLB executive who signed Robinson, and Alan Tudyk (“Death at a Funeral”) as Ben Chapman, the Phillies manager who opposed Robinson’s involvement in the MLB.

Comedy lovers probably already know about the upcoming film “This Is the End.” It’s so unorthodox and bizarre that its likelihood of success is about the same as its chance of failing. It stars James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill as — wait for it — James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill. The actors, along with Jay Baruchel (“Tropic Thunder”), Danny McBride (“Eastbound & Down”) and Craig Robinson (“The Office”), play fictional versions of themselves as they try to survive on a post-apocalyptic Earth. This is Rogen’s first crack at directing, and he’s joined by co-director Evan Goldberg, who produced “Knocked Up,” “Superbad” and “50/50.” The film, out June 14, will be an interesting platform to see how the actors view themselves and their relationships with one another.

Students of all cinematic tastes have options this term for a few hours of procrastination before summer arrives. Be sure to take advantage of them.

Violence, sex, horror and fantasy are great facilitators in films to pinpoint a scene as momentous. Suddenly, someone gets their head chopped off. Hey, that guy just took flight. Look, a first kiss! But critical moments don’t need to be nearly so complex. Sometimes, all that’s needed is a simple “What the fuck?”

Motion Picture Association of America regulations allow PG-13 movies one non-sexual usage of the f-word. The word can be used only once and only as an expletive. Arbitrary? Definitely. Hilarious if handled correctly? Of course.

Using the f-word more than once bumps the rating up to R, severely limiting a film’s audience and affecting box-office numbers. Many films that remain within the boundaries of PG-13 restrictions do not take advantage of the one-time cuss word allowance, and, often, it’s for the best. Imagine if Robert Downey, Jr. had dropped a hard “f” as Sherlock Holmes. How awkward would it have been if Indiana Jones had let one slip, or if Samwise had reacted a little too strongly to Frodo’s mood swings? Often, an f-word just doesn’t fit and would seem to be there mostly for shock value. But, occasionally, a single f-word is all the script needs for a scene to go from forgettable to significant.

Would Wolverine’s cameo in “X-Men: First Class” been nearly as characteristic and hilarious if he had told Magneto and Professor X, “go fornicate with yourself”? Would the backlash against Ron Burgundy have been as believable if the “Anchorman” star had instead ended his report with a tamer “Go fudge yourself, San Diego”? Additionally, would any other reaction have been appropriate to Emma Stone seeing Ryan Gosling’s quite f-word-worthy abs in “Crazy, Stupid, Love”?

The film industry is good at many things, not least of which is the ability to embrace restrictions (however strangely specific and nit-picky they may seem). Whether or not a 13-year-old is more or less scarred by a single use of this expletive or multiple seems of little consequence — what’s more significant is determining the proper place for it on the big screen.

What do “The Goonies,” “Stand By Me” and “Animal House” have in common? Besides being awesome movies, they were also all shot in our favorite rainy state, Oregon. But you probably knew that — Eugene-based “Animal House” fills every fraternity at the UO with a special kind of pride, it’s hard to visit Astoria without someone making a “Goonies” reference, and “Stand By Me” featured scenes shot in towns from Brownsville to Cottage Grove to Eugene.

But the Oregon landscape provides a cinematic experience for more than just these three productions. Here are some films shot in the Beaver State you may not have known about:

— “Five Easy Pieces” (1970), starring Jack Nicholson, had scenes shot in Portland, Florence and Eugene. The diner scene was shot at Denny’s on 3652 Glenwood Dr. That Denny’s is still there.

— The 2008 horror film “Prom Night” has an opening scene showing the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport.

— “Twilight,” in its need for sunless, gray skies, spent more time in Oregon than the actual setting of the books and films (Forks, Wash.) The set hopped around from Gresham and Portland to Oregon City, Cannon Beach and St. Helens.

— “The Road,” a post-apocalyptic survival story based on a novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy, was filmed in various locations of apparent desolation, including Fort Stevens State Park and the Columbia River Gorge.

— In Stanley Kubrick’s take on author Stephen King’s horror story, “The Shining,” the outside shots of the haunted Overlook Hotel is actually the Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood. Rather than bucketfuls of blood, the location is better known for snowboarding and skiing.

From horror and vampire romance to destruction and disaster, the Oregon landscape lends itself well to various genres as an ever-changeable location, perfect for the settings of good and bad movies alike. Film-loving Oregonians should keep an eye out for familiar backdrops when watching their favorite movies.

Oh, by the way, Whose Line is coming back. More details later.

— Colin Mochrie (@colinmochrie) March 1, 2013

Improv and comedy fans, rejoice: The cult classic television show — “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” — is returning after six years off the air.

ABC was home to this hilarious improvisational comedy television show from 1998 to 2006. Host Drew Carey and actors Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie and Wayne Brady played a series of acting exercises for half an hour, many based on ideas the live audience would yell out. They performed everything from “Questions Only” — where two actors act out a scene but can only speak in questions — to “Action Replay” — where two actors act out a physically exaggerated scene, and two more actors, who were watching the scene but could not hear what was going on, re-enact the scene with new dialogue. Episodes would feature guest stars to help play the games: Robin Williams, David Hasselhoff, Whoopi Goldberg and Stephen Colbert all made appearances, along with many others.

“Whose Line Is It Anyway?” was the American adaptation of a British show of the same name that began in 1988, helping jump-start the careers of such actors as Stephen Fry and Phil LaMarr.

The American version was cancelled in 2004 due to low ratings, though it ran through 2006 with episodes consisting of previously unused content and reruns.

The CW confirmed that the show would be airing new episodes this summer, with Stiles, Mochrie and Brady returning to fulfill their roles, and Aisha Tyler (“Archer”) to be taking Carey’s role as host.

Comedian and author John Hodgman has a message for University of Oregon students: “Study hard. Don’t drink hashish all the time. Go easy on the sexting and take fish oil. It’s good for the skin and coat. Live your dreams. Don’t ever forget that you are mortal. That guy you’re seeing is a jerk. You don’t need to use that much laundry detergent in a load. One third of that is enough. Go out and do great things.”

Hodgman is best known for his role as a correspondent on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and as the PC in the Apple “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” commercials. He will be performing in Eugene on Friday, March 8.

“How could any Duck resist the allure of being told how to live their lives by a guy with a mustache?” he said of his upcoming performance.

This will be the first time he has visited Eugene, though he claims that 17 of his friends have ex-girlfriends who live here. “Something about the women in Eugene make men pine for them,” he said.

His show, put on by Ravens Flight Creative and Hennepin Studios, will consist of Hodgman sharing stories about his life as “very famous minor television personality.”

He has written three satirical almanacs, “The Areas of My Expertise,” “More Information Than You Require” and “That Is All” — all of which make up Hodgman’s literary series of “Complete World Knowledge.”

When asked what his show will consist of, he said he “will probably talk about sports, like the two sports called ‘football’ and why they’re both dumb.’” He mentioned he may also do his “world-famous Ayn Rand impersonation, though I might not dress like Ayn Rand.”

The show takes place Friday, March 8 at the McDonald Theatre and is open to all ages. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $27-$32 and can be purchased at TicketsWest.com, at Safeway TicketsWest outlets or at McDonald Theatre. Students can buy two tickets for the price of one if they purchase them the day of the show at the McDonald Theatre ticket office with valid student ID.

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” the 2011 reboot and prequel to 1968′s “Planet of the Apes,” is in the process of gathering its cast for a 2014 sequel. The newest film, titled “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” is set to be released May 23 of next year and will take place 15 years after “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”

The original 1968 film followed the journey of three astronauts who crash-land on an unknown planet after more than 2,000 years of deep hibernation. They soon discover that the dominant species on the planet are humanoid apes.

2011′s reboot gives the origins of how the apes grew so intelligent and took over the planet.

“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” begins 15 years after the 2011 movie was set. Gary Oldman (“The Dark Knight” trilogy, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) was reportedly added to the cast as the leader of one of the few human colonies left on the planet. Also cast was “Zero Dark Thirty” actor Jason Clarke and Andy Serkis, the CGI genius who’s best known as Smeagol/Gollum in “The Hobbit” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Serkis will be reprising his role as the ape Caesar from “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” director Rupert Wyatt will not be directing the sequel — that position went to Matt Reeves, who directed “Cloverfield.” Scott Z. Burns, the screenwriter for “Contagion,” “The Informant!” and “The Bourne Ultimatum,” also signed on as screenwriter for the upcoming sequel last May. 

Stand-up comedian Steve Rannazzisi, best known for his role as Kevin on the FX comedy show “The League,”performed at the McDonald Theatre Wednesday, Feb. 27 to a full house. Helping to open for Rannazzisi was the University of Oregon’s improv group, Absolute Improv, who welcomed the audience with two improv exercises.

The show, put on by Raven’s Flight Creative, lasted a little under two hours and focused mainly on Rannazzisi’s family. Rannazzisi, who has two young sons, a 4-year-old and a 10-month-old, made jokes about the difficulties of parenting (“I stepped on a Lego and wanted to murder my entire family,” he said), and the occasional joys of going on a solo-vacation. He discussed pot-brownies, pizza delivery, masturbation, how to pronounce his last name (rah-nah-ZEE-see), marriage and his newly grown beard, all overlaid with generous cussing. His topics and attitude reflected Louis C.K.-style stand-up, layered with sarcasm and details into his family life, which was something the audience appreciated.

Knowing that (according to him) about 70 percent of the audience was only there because they watched “The League,” Rannazzisi briefly talked about his character, as well as being confronted by embarrassing  fans of the show while grocery shopping with his son.

The remaining stand-up, however, was all about Rannazzisi. The comedian, who got his start on television with “Punk’d” and ABC’s “Big Day,” taught the audience last night that, while he may have gained national attention for his portrayal on “The League,” he maintains a solid talent in his comedic origins, stand-up.

Junior Jacob Salzberg mutters lines under his breath. He repeats “This is ridiculous; please call this off!” quietly over and over.

“Am I still terrified?” Salzberg asks a few seconds later.

“You’re pissed off,” producer John Goodwin says.

In a slightly run-down student house on Patterson Street, eight students find themselves shoved haphazardly into one room with lights, cameras and sound equipment. Someone claps their hands loudly, marking the beginning of a scene — this is as much to quiet everyone down as it is to tell the editor, who will peer over hours of footage once the filming wraps up, where the take officially starts. Salzberg falls into character.

In front of a hastily hung green felt background, Salzberg (now the character “Matt”) frantically tells the camera how he fears for his life now that he knows one of his roommates, “Chris,” is a murderer — a fact revealed after the last episode of the mock reality TV show “Random Roommates.” The cameras stop after two takes, which are deemed successful, and the entire congregation heads upstairs to shoot the next scene.

This is how a group of Duck TV students spent their Friday night.

Duck TV is the University of Oregon’s student-run television network, home of news segments, sports broadcasting and many fictitious shows pitched from the minds of some of UO’s most creative students. Two shows which aired this term are “The Lab,” a suspense mystery-thriller revolving around the limits of human evolution and “Random Roommates,” wherein four radically different male students are shoved into one house under the guise of having their shenanigans filmed by a reality TV crew.

Junior Conor Armor pitched the faux-reality show after the success of his comedy show last term, “SuperDan and the Green Wombat,” which he co-wrote with Salzberg. After “SuperDan” won Duck TV’s award for audience favorite, Armor decided to try writing a solo project.

“I wanted to try and improve my comedy writing,” Armor said. “I thought, ‘What’s a ridiculous concept that people can relate to, aimed at a college audience? Everyone can relate to having awkward, weird roommates. What’s the most ridiculous combination of people you can have? A home-schooled kid who’s never seen a beer bottle in his life and a drug dealer.’”

“Random Roommates” embraces the absurd while confronting the uncomfortable. The characters partake in acid trips, puns, failed flirting and acts of revenge. Episode two, which heavily featured fake feces, was even deemed too inappropriate to air on Duck TV and instead found its home on YouTube.

“The Lab” is a different creature altogether. Writer and creator Blair Lindberg has been creating movies since he first borrowed his dad’s camcorder at 8 years old. He says he is rarely caught without his notebook, where he scribbles ideas for TV and film productions in a language only he can interpret fully. In his notebook resides his first inklings about the four-episode science fiction drama, which was adapted from its original feature-film version.

“I was thinking, ‘Why haven’t we been evolving lately?’” Lindberg said. “(The human race) has been static in terms of growing — what would happen if we did start all of a sudden evolving again? What would we become?” Lindberg had been working on the concept for “The Lab” for three years before it premiered on Duck TV.

“I’m so passionate about telling a story because, at the end of the day, that’s really all we have that we can call our own — stories,” Lindberg said. “Film is one of the great mediums that really exploits that.”

Not only is Lindberg the creative mind behind the show, he also portrays one of its main characters, Dr. Zahn — although Lindberg admits that he much prefers the creativity behind the camera as opposed to being in front of it.

While creative writing behind the camera is the first step of the process, screenwriters like Lindberg and Armor require actors to bring their work to life.

One such actor is freshman Lexi Sloan, who plays a main character on “The Lab” and was also in “SuperDan.” She has been a theater actress since she was 8 years old, working in three shows a year. Growing up in Southern California, she became familiar with the Hollywood culture.

After stumbling upon a poster for Duck TV auditions in early fall, Sloan found herself in front of a panel of upperclassmen. She was hastily given a scene from one of Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” films to act out.

“You walk in and there’s anywhere between five to seven people sitting behind a big table,” Sloan recalled. “They’re all juniors and seniors; no one looked like a kid from my class. It’s very fast-paced and intimidating.” Despite her nerves, Sloan landed a part. “Once you’re in, I found it to be fun,” she said.

“Auditions” in the Duck TV sense, are for anyone, from those seeking to be producers, actors, sound technicians or editors. The show may start in the notebook of someone like Lindberg or Armor and may continue through the talents of actors like Sloan and Salzberg, but the final product is far from complete.

That’s where people like Rebecca Felcyn come in.

What many consider the most arduous task of film and television production, Felcyn sees as a calling. Like Sloan, Felcyn, a freshman, also discovered Duck TV through a poster and was able to land a position exactly where she wanted to be: in front of a computer, editing.

“I enjoy sitting down and being frustrated; it’s weird how in love I am with it,” Felcyn said of editing. “So many things have to go into making ten people look like a house party.” She edits the episodes for “Random Roommates” and was also the editor for “SuperDan.”

Felcyn, who does not attend the shows’ shootings, is often given hours of footage without really knowing what she’s going to see when she plays them. The producers will often apologize to her through the camera for messed-up shots, yelling “We’re sorry, Rebecca!” from off-camera.

“It’s all about bringing the producers’ vision to life,” Felcyn said. The editing process, from when she gets the randomly labeled video files to when the episode is fit for screening, takes anywhere from six to eight hours, sometimes more. After that, one week’s episode is finally complete, screened and put up on the Duck TV website. Each Duck TV fiction show gets four episodes from start to finish, with each installment being approximately eight minutes long.

“It is nice to write something and then immediately see it produced and get a sense of how what you put down on a piece of paper can be envisioned by other people,” Armor said.