{"id":16331,"date":"2016-04-20T18:43:52","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T22:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/news\/article.php?ArticleID=16331"},"modified":"2016-04-20T18:43:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T22:43:52","slug":"16331_from-hollywood-to-montclair-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/2016\/04\/20\/16331_from-hollywood-to-montclair-state\/","title":{"rendered":"From Hollywood to Montclair State"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert DeNiro, Dolly Parton and Martin Scorsese are just a few of the big names Susan Skoog worked with before teaching her first screenwriting class at Montclair State University eight years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Skoog embarked on a career as a screenwriter\/director in Hollywood, but it took a lot of hard work (and soul searching) to get there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Skoog attended NYU for Theatre but found herself not-so interested in acting and spending most of her time in the revival and art house films in New York.<\/span><\/p>\n

After college, Skoog went into production and became an assistant to a talent manager and producer in an office that managed artists like Pat Benatar and Rodney Crowell, along with numerous comedians. After a pilot her office produced for HBO didn\u2019t get picked up, Skoog was brought to VH-1\/MTV by one of the producers who had become head of production.  <\/span>There, Skoog became an associate producer and then a director\/producer of music and film documentaries, working with artists like kd lang, Crosby, Stills and Nash and Bonnie Raitt. Skoog\u2019s next stint was producing a weekly film show where she interviewed filmmakers and actors.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Skoog enjoyed her work, but was itching to make films herself, so she moved to Los Angeles and began freelancing for Turner Classic Movies and TNT. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very exciting because my job was to produce programming around many of the actors and filmmakers from Hollywood,\u201d Skoog said. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I didn\u2019t go to film school per se, researching and preparing for this work was an amazing education in film history.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the actors she worked with included Jack Lemmon, Charlton Heston, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds, Glenn Ford and Oliver Stone. Her favorite was a retrospective on the collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro, whereby she interviewed them together. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, it wasn\u2019t until Skoog sought out a mentor, that she really took off in the industry. John Landis (Animal House, Blues Brothers, American Werewolf in London<\/em>) gave Skoog the most important piece of advice: To be a filmmaker, you need to write. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI went off and wrote a script for a short film, which eventually went on to screen at film festivals around the world.  <\/span>Then, he informed me that a short film wasn\u2019t enough, I needed to write a feature length film. So I did, and when he read it, he laughed at me and told me it was terrible and that I should never make this film.  <\/span>BUT, he said his wife really liked my script and perhaps he might be wrong.  <\/span>With that tiny bit of encouragement, I raised some money, collected lots of credit cards, saved some money from the TV shows I was making, and embarked on making my feature film, Whatever<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Skoog\u2019s film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was even purchased and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult and expensive to get films produced, but here [at Montclair State], hundreds of films are made every semester!\u201d Skoog said.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly rewarding to witness the students\u2019 growth as filmmakers and to have the privilege to help them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Skoog also noted the evolving entertainment industry and the effects it has on the film industry.<\/span> \u201cThe methods of distribution are changing and how we consume entertainment is evolving. It\u2019s important to stay current and understand the latest trends, and adapt–as well as hone your craft!\u201d<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u201cFilmmakers nowadays need to be able to do everything, from writing, to producing, to shooting, to editing.  <\/span>And, I think students need to be self-starters and always be trying to get films made, either for TV, festivals or the web,\u201d Skoog said.<\/span> <\/span> <\/p>\n

Her advice for students going into the film industry after graduation?<\/span> <\/span> <\/p>\n

1. Make stuff. <\/span><\/p>\n

2. Rewrite.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Rewrite\/recut. (It\u2019s not as good as you thought it would be\u2026)<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Rewrite\/recut. (It gets worse.)<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Rewrite\/recut. (It might get even worse.)<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Rewrite\/recut. (It will get better. Eventually. I promise.)<\/span><\/p>\n

7. Rewrite\/recut. (Ok, it\u2019s better\u2026)<\/span><\/p>\n

8. Rewrite\/recut. (It\u2019s getting there\u2026)<\/span><\/p>\n

9. Rewrite\/recut. (It\u2019s pretty good.)<\/span><\/p>\n

10. HEAR what people are telling you. <\/span><\/p>\n

11. It takes just as much effort to make a bad film as a good one, so you MUST find joy in your everyday process of filmmaking. <\/span><\/p>\n

12. Get a day job in the industry! Even if you\u2019re answering phones. You\u2019ll meet people. You need to be connected!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Susan Skoog teaches students the art of screenwriting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":116331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-of-communication-and-media-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}