Joan Scheckel - Writer/Director
Joan Scheckel
Writer/Director/Producer Joan Scheckel is the internationally renowned creator of The Technique, the most influential new approach to writing, directing and filmmaking craft in Hollywood today. Joan is known as the “director’s guru” and as a master teacher, whose work challenges our cultural addiction to conflict and calls for a new storytelling paradigm that embraces feeling and meaning. Her innovations inform every level of the mis en scene, from writing, acting, directing to visual style. She teams with directors to workshop and develop material from the ground up. including such iconic hits as Niki Caro’s Oscar Nominee Whale Rider, Dayton/Faris’s Oscar Winner Little Miss Sunshine, Mike Mills’s Oscar Winner Beginners (Executive Producer), Joey Soloway’s Emmy Winner Transparent (Consulting Producer), Soloway’s Golden Globe Nominee I Love Dick (Producer), Sarah Shapiro’s Peabody Award Winner UnREAL, Rupert Sanders’s Oscar Nominee Snow White and the Huntsman, Nick Jarecki’s Golden Globe Nominee Arbitrage, Sacha Gervasi’s Spirit Award Winner Anvil Story of Anvil, Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation. Miranda July’s The Future, (New Yorker Magazine Best of the Decade List) and many more. Joan was co-writer on The Vintner's Luck, directed by Niki Caro (Mulan), starring Jeremie Renier and Vera Farmiga.
Overall, Joan has worked on 84 feature films and television shows. 74 came to her with unfinished drafts, no financing or cast, and with first time or early career writer/directors at the helm. 83 have been released, earning over 800 nominations and 400 wins including major category nods at the Oscars, Spirits. Sundance, Cannes and Emmys, Golden Globes etc. This year alone, there are 15 graduates of the Technique with Sundance Official Selection films and the 2020/21 awards season saw another 61 nominations and nods for Technique alums at the Emmy’s, Golden Globes and Oscars etc.
Joan has been profiled and featured for her work and her influence on a generation of directors in many articles and publications such as: NYTimes, LA Times, Marie Claire, Deadline, Indiewire, Vox, IF Magazine, California Sunday, The New York Observer and more
Trained as an actor, director, and classical singer, Joan began her career as a performer in seminal works on the New York Stage directed by such groundbreaking theatre directors as Anne Bogart, Joanne Akalaitis, and Meredith Monk - as well as popular hits like Star Trek and Seinfeld. Her directing credits include numerous shorts and plays including Pirandello's I'm Dreaming But Am I, Gillian Plowman's Me and My Friend, and Strindberg's Miss Julie, (on a 35,000 sq ft soundstage). She is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts in Film and Theatre.
Joan has recently completed her first book, 100 Questions, No Answers. Silenc e marks her feature directing debut.
Paul Young - Producer
Paul Young is an Emmy-winning producer who has produced more than 30 films and television shows, including iconic comedies like Reno 911, Married and Key & Peele. Paul also produced films like Jordan Peele’s Keanu and the indie film, Meet Me In Montenegro.
Paul Young
Pablo Chemor- Composer
Award Winning Composer, Pablo Chemor, is a rising star in both film and theatre composition, and a prominent teacher of Composition and Music Theory. Born in Mexico City in 1981, Pablo’s worldwide studies include piano and music theory at Centro de Investigación y Estudios de la Música (CIEM), United World College of the Atlantic in Wales, King’s College in London, where he earned his Bachelor’s and Masters degree in composition and musicology, extended study at the Bartok Seminar 2003 in Szombathely, Hungary, and the famed Casa del Teatro in Mexico City. His influential teachers include Guadalupe Parrondo, George Benjamin, Silvina Milstein, Jonathan Cole, Jonathan Harvey and Marco Stroppa.
Pablo began his career as a young boy, touring Asia and Europe with the Mexican folk group, Ofrenda. Following his academic success, Pablo became Artistic Coordinator of Instrumenta Oaxaca, and in 2013, rose to Artistic Director of Sonoro. Currently, Pablo is in demand as a composer and musical director for film and theatre. He’s a regular member is the theatre company Todas las Fiestas de Manana, for which he has worked both as musical director and actor in the major productions Chekhov’s The Kiss, and Reincidentes, with Director Alonso Ruizpalacios. Pablo also starred in both of Ruizpalacios’s films, Gueros and Museum.
Pablo’s musical credits include original compositions for Gustavo Montiel’s Marea de Arena, Guillermo Rios’s Perras, Manolo Caro’s Elvira and Barbara Ochoa’s Tiempo sin Pulso, major productions of Shakespeare in Spanish, including Richard III, Measure of Measure, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night. His soundtrack for Twelfth Night earned him the Metro award and is available on all major streaming platforms.
Pablo currently lives between Mexico City, where he can be seen regularly on independent and commercial plays, and Los Angeles. His music can be heard throughout this site.
Pablo Chemor
Jim Frohna - Cinematographer
Director and Emmy-nominated Director of Photography Jim Frohna has received critical acclaim for his intuitive, intimate storytelling and expression in cinematography, featured on such projects as the award-winning Amazon series Transparent and Season 2 of HBO’s lauded series Big Little Lies for director Andrea Arnold.
Frohna just finished shooting the Amazon feature The Idea of You directed by Michael Showalter starring Anne Hathaway. He was cinematographer on the series Shrinking for Apple+, created by Brett Goldstein, Bill Lawrence, and Jason Segel. Other recent projects include Showtime’s Super Pumped staring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kyle Chandler, and Uma Thurman as well as the pilot for HBO’s Somebody Somewhere starring Bridget Everett, produced by the Duplass Brothers. Also recently was Season 1 of Netflix’s The Chair, starring Sandra Oh, created by Amanda Peet and produced by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss as well as the Apple+ series Little Voice created by Sarah Bareilles & Jessie Nelson.
In addition, Frohna shot the Jim Carrey-produced Showtime drama I’m Dying Up Here as well as the Joey Soloway comedy I Love Dick with Kathryn Hahn and Kevin Bacon. He worked on the two-hour Musical Finale of Transparent as both DP and Co- Producer.
Frohna has directed episodes on multiple seasons of Transparent and on I Love Dick. In addition to working extensively with Arnold and Soloway, Frohna has worked with over 25 DGA directors including Zetna Fuentes, Jay Duplass, Daniel Gray Longino, Marielle Heller, Davis Guggenheim, Peyton Reed, Dayton/Faris, Kimberly Pierce, Jason Winer and Mike Mills. Frohna is also known for his documentary, music video and commercial spots including Mill’s documentary Does Your Soul Have a Cold, Dayton/Faris’ Red Hot Chili Peppers video Tell Me Baby, and the iconic Balls commercial for Sony.
The TV pilot, It’s Not About Jimmy Keene, on which Frohna serves as executive producer, premiered as part of the 2019 Sundance Episodic program and marked Frohna’s 7th project at Sundance. Afternoon Delight, a 2013 Official Selection Film, won the Best Director Award for Soloway. He was the Producer and Cinematographer on Susan Bay Nimoy’s short film Eve, an Official Selection Sundance 2018 as well as numerous other international festivals.
Frohna attended New York University and received a BFA from the Tisch School of The Arts.
