Inspired by events from producer Matthew Thill’s observations and experiences, Social Skills presents a brand of humor similar to that of The Office, with all of the shock value delivered by a show like Workaholics. Cohesion between both the members of its production crew and the members of its viewing audience are the key factors playing into its success.
Mitch Sawyer is a typical ladies man: very active on the social scene, with a very large friend circle, and is a local house-party legend. He’s a classic extrovert who seems to place, for the moment, the party scene over his academic responsibilities. His roommate is James Zimmerman, an introvert with extremely limited experience when it comes to females. Awkward and shy, James finds himself being taken under the garrulous Mitch’s wing to learn social skills and the ins and outs of the party scene. The pair is balanced out by Mitch’s best friend from his high school days, Lilly, who serves as the stabilizer between the two during the inevitable scuffles, since they’re on essentially opposite ends of the social spectrum. The show follows these three through their various escapades navigating the social scene. There will be scenes to give a viewer pause for their seriousness, and there will be vastly more moments of hilarity, but the underlying theme of the show is commonality: a feeling of “This has happened to me before!”
Production of Social Skills is right on track, a producer’s dream, by Thill’s accounts. The first day of shooting was Friday the 24th, and the first episode expected to be shot in about four hours. Thill also had positive things to report on his actors. “I cast them based on their natural functioning personalities…sure I had them read specific lines and such, but moreover I was watching how they carried themselves in general when they walked into the room…[I] think that they will do a wonderful job”. A key ingredient to the success of a show is cohesion within its production crew, and Social Skills has achieved such unity through group bonding sessions and a common excitement and enthusiasm about its message. While Thill handles the writing and producing, he cites his Cameraman/Director of Photography Max McDermott with managing the camerawork and visual elements.
There are, of course, some challenges that come with getting the final outcome to meet the writer’s original vision. This is where a commonality between all members of the cast and crew becomes so vitally important, and Thill feels confident in success because of the dynamic of his own team. “Whatever the final product turns out to be, I know that all of us will be behind it no matter what…and that is all I could ask for!”
By Kaylee Tornay