"TRICK" a student short film

‘An eclectic group of NYC teenagers learn how to seek out meaningful connections as they are exposed to the young adult world of hookup culture and heartbreak.’

SYNOPSIS:

Best friends Trick, Quincy, and August prepare for the night before a big party. Trick has been seeing Quincy's ex-girlfriend Scarlett, which has put a rift within their friendship. Quincy, with a lack of respect for the people around him, berates Trick as to why he hasn't slept with her yet. Trick stresses the desire to connect with someone. He shares the same ideologies as Scarlett who stresses to her friends Bea, Ellie, and Jack that sex is not as amazing as boys make it seem. Scarlett and Trick stand as outliers among their friends who are unable to see that connecting with someone emotionally is more important than the sexual fantasies hookup culture have brainwashed them with. Scarlett and Trick find a connection within each other in an adolescent world that looks down upon those who seek out love.

DIRECTORS STATEMENT:

This film is heavily inspired by my young adulthood growing up in Los Angeles. When you're 16 years old and you have an entire metropolitan city at your fingertips and a little bit too much freedom, you pretend like you have the same capabilities as an adult. You’re learning about sexuality and drinking stolen vodka out of water bottles and smoking weed for the first time in a random park. All the while you’re lying through your teeth to your mom and trying to get passing grades.

The characters I have written are a reflection of myself and people I have known. They are teenagers masquerading as adults, attempting to understand what it means to still be young but to desire very adult things. We were absolutely feral, and thoroughly convinced that we ruled the world. In reality we were a bunch of assholes. Hookup culture is something that greatly influences you as a young adult. Its hard to express what you want when up against other 16 year olds telling you they want the opposite. At the end of the day, Everyone is searching to form some sort of connection. I simply wanted to capture some of what it feels like to be 16 years old and being a complete idiot, but learning a lot about yourself and your sexuality at the same time. I can only explain this chapter of my life as extremely hectic, and I definitely made some dumb decisions, but now I look back on it and laugh.

WHY DONATE?

Being a student filmmaker, on top of NYC rent, groceries, and train fees - there isn't much left to create. The donation money for this short would be utilized to keep our crew and cast well taken care of. It would provide healthy meals, be applied to their cost of transport, and help us to maintain COVID safety. Donations would also be going towards equipment rentals, production design, and costuming to create the vision my crew and I have in mind. This is my first personal project and by contributing you would be supporting the work of a woman filmmaker as well as aiding the work of the young artists that make up my cast and crew. This project is a reflection of what it means to be a teenage girl and becoming sexualized and not quite understanding where you stand within it. It's about having different opinions and learning that your thoughts are valid and you are not alone within them. Your generous donations would be going towards a story about youth culture and the trials and tribulations that occur, and with those donations hopefully a larger group of viewers can see a shred of their younger selves within the story I have written.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

Skylar Echard is a 21-year-old screenwriter, director, and actor. She attended the prestigious Los Angeles County High School for the Arts as a theater major. Skylar is currently a junior at Sarah Lawrence College where she studies film, creative writing, and literature. Skylar has been immersed in the film world from a young age. Her mother is a set decorator and through her mother's work in the film industry, she realized that she not only had a passion for acting but for working behind the camera. She has written and produced her own original plays in the past and began writing screenplays at age fifteen. She began working as an assistant director in 2018 and has since worked on multiple award-winning short films.