LOG LINE The story of a man who takes his skin off for his girlfriend, and why it probably wasn't the best idea... SYNOPSIS In this twisted modern-‐day fairy tale, a man removes his own skin for the woman he loves, believing it’s what she wants him to do. And she does… at first. But his action soon proves to have dire consequences. Small things, things like stains. Things they can handle. But before long it becomes clear their relationship will never be the same again…
ORIGINS
‘He Took His Skin Off For Me’ is an adaptation of the original flash-‐fiction story by award-‐winning writer Maria Hummer. Its vision of the skinless man as a twisted piece of domestic magical-‐realism is powerful, evocative and beautiful. Think Margaret Atwood meets David Cronenberg.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT This production has been a labor of love, the result of over fifteen months dedication. The first time I read Maria’s remarkable story I knew there was no turning back. It’s the kind of idea that grabs you by the back of the neck and doesn’t let go. Her unique female voice demands your attention yet defies your expectation. I knew I had to make it into a film, I just didn’t know quite how yet. In the end we had to build our own SFX department from the ground-‐up to bring the story to life. We were a truly independent production, raising the majority of our financing via Kickstarter after most deemed it too risky or too ambitious to pull off. The makeup achievements are the result of thousands of hours of exceptional craftsmanship and achieved entirely without CGI. It is, bizarrely, also a student production, being my own graduation film from the London Film School. But at its heart it is a simple, tragic love story, grounded by the nuanced, powerful performances of Anna Maguire and Sebastian Armesto. The film demands you make sense of it; in constructing an interpretation you necessarily draw on your own life experience and, in a way, become a part of the story. The power of the allegory is how multifaceted it is. Every audience member has their own take; sympathies and meanings seem to go in almost all directions. I don’t want to tell people what the film should be. Even finding a genre to describe it is difficult. I want people to come to this film just like I came to the original story, completely unprepared. If I can leave with one pearl of wisdom, though; if you take off your skin just to be with somebody? That’s only ever going to end messy…
A PRACTICAL SFX FAIRYTALE From the beginning we knew this film had to shot practically. The story required a tactile, real world quality that only physical makeup provides. The film is 100% in-‐camera; there is no CGI whatsoever. Bringing this story to life was a monumental challenge. We began by reaching out to Colin Arthur (NeverEnding Story, 2001: A Space Odyssey) and with his help and guidance built our own independent team of sculptors, makeup artists and SFX newbies to make a man appear to have no skin. Jen Cardno took time away from the Royal College of Art to run the team as SFX Supervisor. Given the resources available the quality and realism of her designs is unprecedented. The team spent over 8 weeks creating hundreds of individual muscle pieces specifically crafted for Sebastian’s body. Thousands of hours went into its creation. We have always said we needed to believe in the effect for the film to have any effect, and that gamble more than paid off.
Above: Early test work on a skinless arm
Below: Face pieces dry in the sun
Above: Sebastian bust map
Left: Sebastian has a moment with himself…
Right: Colin Arthur (NeverEnding Story) helps chisel the face bust
Left: the body map comes to life
CAST
SEBASTIAN ARMESTO as HIM Sebastian is an English film, television and theatre actor known for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Marie Antoinette (2006) and for playing the poet and playwright Ben Jonson in Roland Emmerich’s Anonymous (2011). Armesto has acted in high-‐profile theatre productions in Britain, including three shows at the National Theatre and one at the Royal Court. He is currently starring as Edgar opposite Frank Langella in King Lear. He also writes and directs theatre with company Simple 8. Most recently, he co-‐wrote and directed a play based on William Hogarth's The Four Stages of Cruelty and new versions of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Moby-‐Dick.
ANNA MACGUIRE as HER Anna Maguire started her career in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. This basically meant that she was hooked and would never be free of the world of film. She continued to act as a child and teenager in her school holidays, appearing in various film, TV and theatre roles, including work for 20th Century Fox, Hallmark, the BBC and the Almeida Theatre in London. After taking a sabbatical to study English Literature at Cambridge University she has returned to acting, appearing in The Hour (BBC) and Parade’s End (HBO) as well as performing in various stage roles. She has also started making her own films, the first of which, Don’t forget your mittens, premiered at The London Short Film Festival in 2014.
CREW BEN ASTON – Director
Ben is a 27-‐year-‐old London born filmmaker, raised in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Australia and Bath. After graduating with a BA in Philosophy from Kings College London, he moved on to the London Film School; this will be his graduation film. His last film ‘Dinner and a Movie’ was officially selected for the Palm Springs Shortfest 2013, the London Short Film Festival 2013 and the Edinburgh Film Festival 2013 which named him a 'British director of tomorrow'.
FIONA LAMPTEY - Producer Fiona is a skilled Production Finance Manager with 8 solid years of experience. She joined Channel 4 in 2004 and currently works for their feature film division, Film4. Her credits include films like 'Attack the Block', 'Four Lions' and 'Submarine'. Fiona has produced two short films: 'The Prayer' by Shola Amoo and Nosa Nedion and 'Close' by Geoffrey Taylor.
MARIA HUMMER - Writer Maria Hummer was born and raised in Toledo, OH, has lived in Seoul, Korea and currently resides in London. She has a BFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Screenwriting. She is a jack of all trades, having worked as a professional taste tester, youth hostel manager, development editor and British-‐American translator (yes, that's a thing apparently). This is her second collaboration with Ben Aston after ‘Dinner and a Movie’. In addition to working on short and feature film projects she has a flourishing fiction career, with five short stories accepted for publication this quarter alone. She is currently working on her first novel.
JEN CARDNO – SFX Supervisor Jen spent her formative years scrabbling around in the dirt collecting insects, and not an awful lot has changed. After finishing her two-‐year Fine Art National Diploma with a Triple Award Distinction, she went on to study illustration at the UWE. Experimenting with modelmaking and animation at the end of the third year, she graduated suddenly in 2008, and went straight into work at Bolex Brothers Studios. After freelancing at SFX and prop houses for a few years, she decided she wanted a master's degree, and is currently half way through an MA in animation at the Royal College of Art, London.
YIANNIS MANOLOPOULOS – Cinematographer
Yiannis studied Philosophy, Economics and Project Management before realising he had to make films instead. He hasn't stopped doing so since and does not intend to. Yiannis studied at the London Film School, specialising in cinematography. Since then he has been involved in numerous student and professional productions with his newly founded company Filmstead, in the effort to grow as a cinematographer and do what he does best, sharing stories through the creation of cinematic images.
Reza Jouze – Editor
Reza was a stage actor and director in Iran, before settling in the UK. He has acted in more than 20 stage plays and has directed 5. He has twice won the best Theatre Actor of the year award in Iran. After moving to London he entered The London Film School and in 2013 graduated with MA filmmaking. He has edited more than 10 short fiction films and several documentaries. Reza is now working as a freelance Editor.
KATIE MACGREGOR – Production Designer Katie Macgregor is a London based Art Director. Originally from Sydney Australia, she moved to London to study Foundation Art & Design at Chelsea University, and continuing her degree in Fine Arts at UCA in Farnham. Katie has worked as an Art Director in London since 2011. During which, she has worked on over 40 films, music videos and commercials. She has worked on a variety of projects including music video for Emmy the Great, Young Rebel Set and Dear Reader and has recently Art Directed TV Docudrama 'Miracle Landing on the Hudson' which was aired on National Geographic Channel in 2013.
MARK SEYFRITZ – Composer With a highly eclectic and multiple award wining career as a composer, producer and programmer in the music industry, Mark started scoring and sound designing for films in 2005. He has scored several features recently including ‘Dark Tide’ (Halle Berry / Olivier Martinez), ‘Dead Man Running’ (50Cent / Brenda Blethyn), ‘Devil you Know’ (Jennifer Lawrence / Rosamund Pike / Lena Olin) and ‘Jonah’, that has just been nominated for ” Best British Short ” at the BIFA’s 2013, and at Sundance for “Best Short film Grand Jury Prize”.
SYUKRI JR – Executive Producer Syukri is an independent producer and founder of CANDAS CREATIVE COMPANY. Being a collaborative-‐ driven creative company and film foundation, this startup seeks to champion and celebrate cinematic arts through spectacular storytelling, in addition to developing and producing shorts, features and documentary films; such as ACT ONE: A Documentary, Crossing West, On The Bridge, and Siren. CANDAS CREATIVE COMPANY in its first year has supported over 8 projects from around the world. Syukri additionally serves as Principal Partner of CUNGKEEL PICTURES, a private film financing and investment firm.
PRODUCTION INFORMATION TITLE He Took His Skin Off For Me GENRE Short, Drama, Magical-Realism, Horror DATE OF COMPLETION February 2014 COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION United Kingdom ASPECT RATIO 2.35:1 RUNNING TIME 11 minutes (11:22) LANGUAGE English SHOOTING FORMAT HD, Arri Alexa SCREENING FORMATS DCP, Blu-ray, HDCAM, DVD, QuickTime Pro-res 422
STILLS
FESTIVALS
Official selection for-
BFI London Film Festival 2014 Palm Springs International Shortfest 2014 Fantastic Fest 2014 London Short Film Festival 2015 Rhode Island International Film Festival 2014 St. Louis International Film Festival 2014 Cinequest International Film Festival 2015 Flickerfest International Short Film Festival 2015 Hollyshorts International Shortfest 2014 Underwire Women's Film Festival 2014 Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2014 Leeds International Film Festival 2014 Noci Cortin Film Festival 2014 Knoxville Horror Film Festival 2014 Paris International Fantastic Film Festival 2014 Thriller! Chiller! Film Festival 2014 Nitehawk Short Film Festival 2014 Awards -
Runner-up Alexis Award - Palm Springs 2014 Best Chill - Thriller! Chiller! Film Festival 2014 Audience Award - Toronto After Dark Film Festival Best Production - Underwire Film Festival 2014
INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR BEN ASTON Your film is based on a short story with the same name by writer Maria Hummer -‐ how did you come across the story and what made you want to adapt it for screen? I was the first person to ever read it, basically at the right place at the right time. I had recently finished on ‘Dinner and a Movie’ (our previous collaboration) and very much in the market for a new idea. Maria was working on a much larger story but had hit a bit of a wall, so she took an afternoon off to write something else. She saw a flash fiction competition (which she subsequently and hilariously found out she missed the deadline on) with the prompt ‘Cursed Blessings’. I have no idea how her mind works, but this story pretty much just exploded out of her fully formed in one sitting. The imagery and the language were at once haunting, dark, tragic and beautiful. When I read it I was surprised it didn’t already exist, it feels so familiar yet it’s totally unique. I just simply couldn’t stop thinking about it, I was dreaming about it. I could SEE it. The worst thing about ideas like that is that you have to make them to get them out of your head. I didn’t want to keep having dreams about skinless people. She never wrote this as a film and only gave it to me to get some feedback, but I instantly told her it was going to be a film. The original narrative written by Hummer is only just over 650 words, how did you go about translating this into an 11-‐minute film? There was a very long writing process, but it was almost entirely structural. The content itself sticks very closely to the story. I pretty much trusted in that special thing she had channelled and tapped into, it felt like a precious commodity and worth preserving. Anything new (like him returning to the closet or her testing her own skin) were embellishments that naturally came out when trying to re-‐ tell the story to someone else. To be honest if you were to try and describe what happens in the film you probably couldn’t top 650 words. It’s why short stories translate as often to features as they do shorts, there’s usually too much story there. A good short film can often compare more favourably in literature to a poem or haiku. Paradoxically, simplicity can enhance depth in short film storytelling. With this
story it allowed us to rewards the attention of the audience while simultaneously entertaining on a surface level with its conceptual audacity. Tonally it was all there from the start, paradoxically mundane and horrifying. Obviously SEEING a skinless dude is a very different experience from imagining it, so we had to compensate somewhat. Just like with the robbery in ‘Dinner and a Movie’ it felt important that we make it the friendliest version of this story possible, lest it become unbearable. The decision to keep the voiceover was long discussed throughout the adaptation process. I felt that it was essential as a way of communicating the tone of the story and effectively deflating the horror that only showing the imagery would result in. I loved the wordplay present in Maria’s prose, but we had to be able to let this film exist on its own. We decided that the voice over should fill holes that the audiences can’t directly see and should, where possible, work against what we are seeing to create a dynamic that reveals more about the character. However, given that the plot of the film is very unusual, it was important that the voiceover also explain what was happening on screen without falling into the trap of simply describing it. The best way we thought we could achieve this was by losing all dialogue entirely. We felt it would secure the voiceover and prevent it from feeling invasive. Finally it also helped avoid an inevitable production problem – I was scared that the skinless man would just look silly when speaking. I’m assuming there was a lot of thought and planning that had to go into the pre-‐production of ‘Skin’ to make sure it was possible to achieve the look you wanted -‐ was there any point in the process of working out how you were going to make a film about a man who literally takes his skin off, where you felt you’d bitten off more than you could chew? Honestly, no. I just had a blind faith really. No idea how we’d do it, but just knew that we would. The only point that I suddenly felt like we overstepped was the morning we shot the test shoot, and I’ve never felt more fired up then I did after getting that in the can (http://vimeo.com/67283889). It was the first time it was real. From what I understand about Maria’s process developing the story she found herself writing the first line and was really scared by it, but deciding to dive in. That was pretty much how we treated every aspect of production. I’ve never really done anything that wasn’t a comedy, but just trusted we could do it. Same with the SFX, we had never done anything like that before but just dove in. To be honest I always figured this was an easy film, I mean, one location, two leads, no dialogue. Just needed to figure out the skin thing and we were home free. You raised over £9k on Kickstarter, what did these financial backing mean for the planning and production of your film?
Our kickstarter funded the entire effects budget, without that money we couldn’t have shot a frame, so we were placed into a position where we had to convince people this was something we could pull off. Each and every one of our backers took a huge leap of faith in trusting us to deliver what we said we could. That sort of accountability was a positive pressure and actually pushed us to work even harder. From a production point of view there was a very weird month where everything hung in the balance. My job became the kickstarter and nothing else. Afterwards it was a weird sensation to suddenly switch gears back from campaign manager to film director. We had auditions a few days after reaching our goal and it occurred to me that I hadn’t read the script in weeks. It was odd. It goes without saying, that whilst your film is so much more than an FX-‐ film, the special FX play a huge part in the film’s success, can you tell us a little bit about how you went about bringing this vision of skinless man to screen? We had to achieve a skinless man but never really had any idea exactly how we were going to do it, we just sort-‐of knew we would. We were in the process of developing the screenplay adaptation and had taken a few meetings with both VFX and SFX houses across London, but weren’t being quoted realistically achievable amounts. Turns out its super expensive to make something impossible. It was by chance that I heard that Colin Arthur, who was the SFX supervisor for THE NEVERENDING STORY and countless others films, was holding a weekend workshop about prosthetics and practical effects. I attended the class and afterwards had a long chat with Colin and his wife. After some pints and a few great war stories, they were in. His one condition being that we construct our team using people from the class. This was how I met the amazing Jen Cardno, who became our SFX supervisor. She had just dropped out from the Royal College of Art and was at the time a guardian at an abandoned old-‐folks home, which would become our ramshackle studio! Colin really wanted to give back and help. He was able to share his years of experience with our young and vibrant team of makeup artists and sculpters. In the end, we had an FX crew of over 12 people constructing hundreds of individual muscle pieces in a wonderful abandoned west-‐London retirement home. It was amazing, especially considering that no one was paid anything more than the smallest possible amount (we could only Kickstart the basic costs of materials). It was a real passion project from all departments. This film is a testament to their incredible talent and dedication. What they were able to achieve is genuinely groundbreaking. It delights me to see their careers take off, off the back of this film. We never considered touching it up in the computer, they made something incredible, we only want to show it off. EVERYTHING ON SCREEN IS PRACTICAL. Even though we considered CGI early on it was clear pretty much immediately that this was a practical SFX film. Practical productions like The Fly , Alien and
The Thing created tactile worlds that have stood the test of time. All those films play with the kind of body-‐horror that we were exploring and all are effective at affecting an audience. I don’t believe that they filmed a real ‘Xenomorph’ the same way that I don’t believe they filmed a real ‘Hulk’, but what I do believe is that what I am seeing is actually there. In addition they were all able to underplay and hide any weaknesses of the models or prosthetics due to the fact that they were physically there in the room when they shot it. In my experience an image that has been practically photographed has a hard-‐to-‐define yet tangible quality that distinguishes it from an image that has been rendered digitally. This is not to say that the latter cannot or has not succeeded the former, rather that the former has a regularly embedded advantage over the latter. Looking at what we were able to achieve I don’t believe our actor Sebastian has no skin, I will always see an extremely well made prosthetic. However, unlike with ‘Hollow man’ the quality of its design and application combined with the tangibility of the practically photographed image is sufficient to allow an audience to suspend disbelief. This is what I mean by effectiveness. I don’t believe it, but I am sufficiently convinced such that it triggers sensations of revolt and discomfort. This suspension of disbelief is the reason for the effect in this story and I believe that choosing a practical route was the best decision. You hear these stories of cast members and make-‐up artists spending many hours of the early parts of the day preparing to bring a character like ‘Him’ to life -‐ What did the FX-‐work mean for your cast and crew on a daily basis during the shoot? Jen’s design for the suit meant that it was composed of hundreds of smaller pieces, like a jig saw. Were it to have been a single suit it wouldn’t have stood up to what we were asking of it. However the result of that aesthetic decision was an increased application time. At it’s longest Sebastian was in makeup for 8hrs. Given that we were working to 12hr days and that it took an hour to take it off, we had him for only 3hrs on one day. As a result we brutally story-‐boarded the film, something I’ve never really been happy with, however everyone needed to know exactly what we needed to apply, if we could save an hour by not applying muscles to the other side of his legs then we had to know. We were careful to imply that you see everything, while never actually filming everything all at once. It simply would have taken too long to do a full body shot. We had 5 days in one location (my house), and we ran like a military operation. We had ‘leg’ day where we shot anything that might feature that part of his body. We tried not to split up individual scenes too much but some are cobbled together over different days. The real challenge was making sure that the performances and overall arc of the film remained naturalistic and delicate while slicing up our shotlists to meet the production realities of the SFX. It’s a testament to these incredible actors that it
feels seamless. Sebastian Armesto and Anna Macguire do a fantastic job as your lead characters ‘Him’ and ‘Her’ -‐ they beautifully portray the tenderness, commitment and complications of the relationship without ever having to say a word. How did you go about casting for the film and how important was it that you got actors with this kind of emotional range for your film? It’s hard to audition a film without dialogue, so we just spent that time talking with actors about what they felt the script was saying. After a long, long search we were lucky enough to meet two of the most intelligent people I think I’ve ever met. They got it immediately. Finding actors like Anna and Seb meant I could let go, we were all on the same page and given the intensity of the this production I needed them to be that good. The film was an insane performance challenge, but they knocked it out of the park. Seb had a tough time in the suit, it’s never easy to starve your own skin like that and he gave us more than anyone should need to. The fact that you can capture micro-‐expressions through the face pieces is incredible fusion of performance and design.
Whilst a lot of the focus and attention the short will get will surely revolve around its unusual concept and wonderful FX work, for me the one thing I loved about it was just how relatable it felt. Whilst none of us (I hope!) have actually taken our skin off for a loved one, relationships are all about compromise and sacrifice for your significant other and you captured this beautifully in your film -‐ what do you hope your audience takes away from a viewing of ‘Skin’? This is probably the hardest question to answer. The film demands you make sense of it; in constructing an interpretation you necessarily draw on your own life experience and, in a way, become a part of the story. It's a fairytale. And the wonderful thing about fairytales is how they relate back to our real lives. We made a film with deliberate vagaries that the audience subconsciously fills, if you feel anything then that’s probably because you are interacting with it. When people tell me what they think it means they are often revealing part of themselves as well. The power of the allegory is how multifaceted it is. Every audience member has their own take; sympathies and meanings seem to go in almost all directions. For some this is a story of nakedness, about the problems that arise from holding out when your partner has bared themselves for you. Others read it as a cautionary tale of trying to lie about your true sexual identity. You mention compromise and sacrifice, which is something I definitely recognize in the story, but a love that demands such a one-‐way sacrifice is fundamentally doomed. By this reading the film urges us to see a toxic relationship for what it really is -‐ horrifying. We, the audience, see this from the beginning, and the moment the narrator understands it for herself the story ends.
I don’t want to tell people what the film should be. Even finding a genre to describe it is difficult. We had a story on set that we knew we were telling, and I see it as being the most clear, but I don’t want to tell people what it should be. I want people to come to this film just like I came to the original story, completely unprepared. It’s a big experiment and I really hope it works, but I don’t want to go over the deep end into full on pretentiousness. If I can leave with one pearl of wisdom; taking off your skin just to be with somebody? That’s only ever going to end messy… How did your other shorts ‘Russian Roulette’ and ‘Dinner and a Movie’ help shape and influence your approach to ‘Skin’? In many ways it’s an emotional sequel to ‘Dinner and a Movie. That film is all about virginity and the fear of love, while this one is about how much you can do for love once you’re in it. It was also a simple two-‐hander about a man and a woman, contained within a ridiculously ambitious production (in that case turning London into rural Michigan). Both were about trying to make other worlds and both are probably the friendliest versions of their respective premises. Conversely, ‘Russian Roulette’ was actually made as a reaction to this film. We were deep in pre-‐production and it had almost been a year since ‘Dinner’. I really wanted a rehearsal to make sure I wasn’t rusty when we got to film ‘Skin’. I also was a bit sick of how fucking heavy it was and just needed a palette cleanser. In the same way that Maria’s original story exploded out of another larger work, ‘Russian Roulette’ was a release valve over a weekend. Looking back at 2014 I am so freaking proud of both of them. ‘Skin’ is your graduation film from the London Film School -‐ what has your time at the school given you as a filmmaker? dude, I couldn’t have imagined ever making this when I started. Film schools are what they are, which is to say, they are what you make of them. I got really lucky. I met some amazing people and caught a few breaks. I can’t say anything better about the LFS than the fact that I wasn’t an artist when I arrived, but I was when I left. This movie was a giant experiment that I couldn’t have done outside of the playground that is a film school. The truly awesome thing is that I still get to make movies that I would have loved before I came. What are you working on next? And would you ever think of expanding the universe of ‘Skin’ into something larger? Skin 2 : Skinless Planet. FUCK NO. This is short exactly the most that everyone would want to see this story. However now that I’ve got a taste of the weird stuff I don’t really want to let it go, I just want it to be funnier. Right now we’re developing a wonderfully mad feature called JOHN MOVES IN, which I can’t say too much about, other than it’s not too far away from the domestic-‐fairytale logic of ‘Skin’, just much, much funnier.
CONTACTS DIRECTOR Ben Aston 24 Alexandra Road, W41AX, London, UK Email: info@benastondirector.com Website: www.benastondirector.com
PRODUCER Fiona Lamptey Phone: +44 (0)7930629744 Email: fiona@fruittreemedia.co.uk
RIGHTS & SALES Fiona Lamptey & The London Film School 24 Shelton Street London WC2H 9UB WEBSITE www.hetookhisskinoffforme.com