SHAVING

(1996, 5’07”, QuickTime)

The Commuter started life as a longer film called Shaving  in which we follow a whole day in the life of our commuter.

After shaving his face off and spraying on his suit, he spends the day working at the Bureau Of Missing Persons, looking at mugshots of other faceless people. Later that day he returns from work, steps under the shower and washes his suit off. He examines his face in the mirror: his face has grown back like five o’clock shadow.

The Commuter was shot on a borrowed camcorder and manipulated in PhotoShop in downtime at mine and my collaborator Jon Mercer’s places of work. It was my first proper film with actor Pat Reid.

CREDITS

The Commuter: Pat Reid
Camera & Effects: Martin Pickles & Jonathan Mercer
Sound Design: Dave Peacock
Written & Directed by Martin Pickles
Produced by Martin Pickles & Jonathan Mercer

SCREENING HISTORY

25hrs video art festival, Barcelona, Spain, May 9th-10th 2003
Curzon Soho Cinema Bar, London, April 2003
The Halyon Club at The Edinburgh Fringe, August 2002
Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, France, February 2002
The Portobello Film Festival, London, Summer 1997
The British Short Film Festival, London, Summer 1997
The Pleasance, Edinburgh Fringe, Scotland, August 1996
Ars Digitalis Festival, Berlin, Germany, December 1996
The Halloween Society screening club, London, Spring 1996
Club Cinergy screening club, London Spring 1996

It won a Public Art Award at the Ars Digitalis Festival in Berlin in 1996.

TELEVISION

It was screened on Canal+ in Belgium and France over a nine-month period starting in late 1996. A clip of an early version of Shaving was screened on Take Over TV on Channel 4 (1996) and subsequently on ITV and Channel 4 (2000).