An Interview with the Sklar Brothers

Randy and Jason Share Their Experiences in Online Entertainment

by Brian Rothe

You guys have done everything from web content to feature films. What is it that makes the Internet different from other media and how do you compare your experience working with Internet content to working in TV or film?

Working in the Internet medium has been great, actually. Liberating and fun. There seem to be fewer constraints. It's similar to TV and film in the way that the best stuff on the Internet, in our opinion, makes use of storytelling techniques. But you’re freer to add random elements. It's a quick bite, quick hit and the trick is to pack as much comedy and story into a 6 minute chunk as we can. In that way, it's a fun nut to crack.

What do you like and dislike about creating Internet content?

The immediate response from the internet is incredible. But again, it comes from sites like YouTube or My Damn Channel, central sites, and you can see from number of views and comments how people are consuming what you've created. This is great, almost like doing stand-up comedy (which was our entry into the business). The Internet allows viewers to pause, rewind, watch quick moments again and again, which in turn allows us to pack episodes with tiny visual jokes to be enjoyed on the 5th and 6th viewing.

Our problems with creating content for the Internet are these: It's a great medium that reaches a nice number of people, but it still doesn’t have the same distribution power as television and film. It's also extremely unpredictable from episode-to-episode of your web series. One episode may get 300,000 views, and another, only 3,000. I think these are all problems that can be fixed over time as content on the Internet grows in terms of quality and there become more of a host of sites like YouTube that people come to for content.

Finally, the money for making Internet content is just not the same as TV and film.  Someday that will change as well, but, for now, it's tough to carve out a living just doing Internet stuff and that too can drive people away who are making money on TV and in films from creating on the Internet.

The sponsor/client relationship is constantly evolving, but especially when applied to the web. No one really knows for sure what direction the industry is going to turn in, and Skype stood out by becoming a major sponsor of "Back on Topps". How did the deal come together? Were you approached by Skype or was it the other way around?

The ad guys at Tornante, (Michael Eisner's company). Specifically, Doug Miller is great; he went out and got the series in front of a lot of prospective brand partners. I think Skype got what we were trying to do and that we would try to incorporate the product as seamlessly as we could into the plots and fabric of the universe we created. We wanted to create a world where people used Skype all the time. Skype was part of their vocabulary and characters in the show needed to communicate with the product periodically. We even had Greg Oden, Center for the NBA's Portland Trailblazers, call us via Skype and deliver a lot of information about Skype’s service to us, which we found useful, but also commented on how weird it was that Greg Oden had all this Skype info at his fingertips. In doing so, we really endorsed the product (which by the way, in real life – we use it all the time to keep in touch with family members, so it was easy to get behind a product that we use in our daily lives), without being preachy or too sell-y.

What can we expect from season 2 of "Back on Topps"?

Well, due to the economic downturn, our boss, Gaylen Briggs, has rented office space out to a Christian dating service and they creepily start to turn up at inopportune times leading the brothers and Bev to question if they really are who they say they are? Meanwhile Gaylen has accepted them as office mates and newfound friends, drinking the Kool-Aid to some extent and the brothers are worried.

In this new season, the brothers will hire office trainers, get their futures read by a Tarot Card reading Arrowhead Water Guy, and they will find an old man next to a dumpster who may or may not be aging backwards. It's good clean fun with athlete cameos as well as great comedic actors populating this quirky world.

Your cast-mates are also involved in a lot of other internet content...how is web content viewed among your peers? Is it the next big thing or simply viewed as a stepping stone to TV and film?

It's still a bit of a stepping stone to TV and film, but most of our friends who agreed to do this show and be characters in it have already had success in TV and film and agreed to do the work because they liked the writing and wanted to work with us and Mike Bleiden and Peter Atencio (our directors). And in that way, the stratification of Internet below TV and film seemed to melt away. It was like, "Is this a good piece of material? Yes. Let's do it, no matter where it ends up. Because in the end, we know we'll be proud of it."

What are you watching on the Internet? Any viral videos that stand out? What about series, comedy or anything else?

We're huge fans of Wainy Days. Love David Wain and everything he does. And it's great to see his mind work in such short spurts, without any network or studio notes getting in the way. You get the feeling that he's doing things exactly the way he wants to in that series, and is only bound by a limited budget.  We love the show because of the production value, the quality of the actors and the level of comedy. That's what we try and watch on the Internet.

The Shaman: Jason Nash, the guy who plays our stalker, this is his series on Atom.com. He's so funny, and our director, Michael Bleiden shoots the series and it just looks beautiful. Again, a lot of attention to detail makes that series super funny in our opinion.

Drunk History with Derek Waters is really funny. You can't help but laugh out loud at this perfectly constructed show. It's just a great concept, executed beautifully.

Children's Hospital, written and directed by Rob Corddry, is fantastic as well. It makes use of some of the best comedy people working today.

How is Internet programming different than programming for television?

It's different in that videos are uploaded, they are tougher to promote on the Internet, they have to grab an audience or go to a site like Funny or Die or YouTube or My Damn Channel. Those sites are becoming like TV channels such as Adult Swim or Comedy Central or HBO. And now with comedy channels like Adult Swim doing 11 minutes shows, TV is moving toward the webisode in terms of length. I think you have to group a lot of similar shows together, in terms of comedy, to reach out to an audience.

What was your involvement like in regards to the development process?

We developed the concept for this show with folks over at Tornante – Steven Cohen, Noel Bright, Josh Rimes and of course with input from Michael Eisner. Then we got with writers we like and trust, Eric Friedman and Matt Price, and developed episode ideas, and outlines, which we then took away and polished off. We went through a notes process with Tornante and then on the set, material grew based on the fabulous improvisational skills of our actors. When you have someone like Rich Fulcher (The Mighty Boosh and Snuff Box) on set, you know that what you wrote for him to do will be good, but what will come out of his mouth after he's inhabited the character for a while will be even better. We have a lot of trust in our writers, our actors, our directors, and then our editor, (Neil Mahoney: Season 1 and now James Atkinson: Season 2) to find funny moments on top of what we shot. Even our sound mixer, Geoff Green, will find a few sound jokes, musical stings, and sound effects that can add another 3-4 jokes per episode which is great and ultimately makes for a richly layered comedic piece.

What makes "Back on Topps" stand out among other web series? What makes it worth watching?

We think what people will get with Back on Topps is an enjoyable look into the unique world of sports. There are great comedy actors giving really funny performances, it's directed well and then edited fast so that watching 6 minutes of a show will go by in a snap. We are really proud of every episode as a finished product and feel like we aim to make the overall quality of each episode every bit as funny and strong as content on TV or in film. That’s our goal and we'd like to think that many times we hit that mark. Basically, there are laugh out loud moments in each episode which goes a long way.

CHECK OUT NEW EPISODES OF "BACK ON TOPPS" EVERY MONDAY

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