Todd Sklar
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“It’s Just a General”: How to Take a General Meeting
At some point in your career, things are going to break your way — you’ll be lucky enough to have your crowdfunded labor of love generate some heat at a big festival. Or your short film will go viral. Or maybe you’ll sell a hot spec or make the Black List. Whatever happens, you’ll land managers and agents, and people in L.A. will want to meet you — and not a minute too soon, because you’re four months behind on rent and need to pay for T-shirts for all your backers. It’s time to meet studio execs looking to hire […]
by Marc Maurino on Jul 17, 2014 -
Five Questions with Awful Nice Director Todd Sklar
After self-releasing his first feature film, Box Elder, around the country in 2008, director Todd Sklar has had a successful run of it with major U.S. film festivals. His short ’92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card premiered at Sundance in 2012, which he has made into the feature Awful Nice. Co-written by Sklar and Alex Rennie, Awful Nice follows the misadventures of two brothers who travel back home to Branson, Missouri, to put their recently deceased father’s estate in order. Starring Christopher Meloni, Alex Rennie, and James Pumphrey, Awful Nice premiers in the Narrative Feature Competition category tomorrow at SXSW. Filmmaker: Awful Nice is an expansion […]
by Alexandra Byer on Mar 9, 2013 -
Watch Ten Sundance Shorts Online, Including New Works By Jeremiah Zagar and Todd Sklar
Jeremiah Zagar, the prolific documentary filmmaker behind 2008’s In a Dream is back with Heart Stop Beating: A Body Without A Pulse, a new short screening before Escape Fire this week at Sundance. Heart Stop Beating is a brief, fascinating look at Billy Cohn & Bud Frazier, two doctors who successfully replaced a dying man’s heart with a mechanical device this past March, proving that human physiology can be supported without a pulse. Over its four minute run-time, the documentary features glimpses into the operating room, as well as interviews with Cohn and Frazer. Watch it above. Also available to […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 25, 2012 -
SHORTS PROGRAM II: EVALUATING RELATIONSHIPS YOUNG, OLD, AND NEW
The films that make up Sundance’s Shorts Program II all address issues of basic intimacy and loneliness. Whether telling the story of a homecoming between wife and husband, an unexpected encounter with a stranger, or in one case, the way technology’s interference in everyday life renders a relationship unidentifiable, these young filmmakers are all attempting to understand emotions that still remain mysterious. Take Brie Larson, Sarah Ramos, and Jessie Ennis’ The Arm, for example. The film begins misleadingly. A narrative seemingly about a power struggle between two male teenage friends turns quickly into a darkly humorous depiction of a subject […]
by Alexandra Byer on Jan 23, 2012 -
TODD SKLAR BEGINS PRODUCTION ON HIS NEW FILM “AWFUL NICE”
For our Fall 2008 issue we highlighted Missouri filmmaker Todd Sklar, who embarked on a DIY road trip with his film Box Elder and three others, screening at arthouses and colleges throughout the midwest. Sklar is now in production on his next feature, Awful Nice, through his Range Life Entertainment company. Shot in Branson, Missouri, the film follows estranged brothers Jim (James Pumphrey) and Dave (Alex Rennie) as they return to Branson to renovate the vacation home that their recently deceased father left them. Sklar co-wrote the script with Rennie. Shooting begins in Branson next week and will end in […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Oct 17, 2011
