Short Film Research: Original Skin

"original skin" is a twelve minute short film encapsulating acceptance and discrimination. It is a very touching short film that takes place in an alternate universe where being intimate means swapping bodies with the other person. In the process of doing so, a young woman struggles to be herself in this new body she is in. She faces discrimination from her mother, urging her to swap for her body back or else she would be disowned. Although fictional, this film represented something that many teenagers and young adults struggle with: finding who they truly are. It was a deeply intimate portrait of finding one's identity through a rough transitional period, which is something many people are able to relate to no matter the circumstance. 

A very frequent shot used in this film was an over the shoulder shot. Since there was a lot going on in the woman's environment, over the shoulder shots were used to show the woman's surroundings while also including the woman and the people she interacts with. Something that commonly happened in this film was that a few of the characters kept picking at their skin. Whenever a character would do this action, the camera would do a close up of the person's arm in order to emphasize that they are picking at their skin. The sound of the skin being picked was also greatly emphasized and was able to be heard over the dialogue and background music. If not a close up, a shot reverse shot would be used. There were an abundance of two shots as the whole filmed circled around a woman being intimate with somebody else. There was minimal dialogue, but the story was mostly told through emotional music.

The lighting throughout the film was very dim and dark, except for somewhere in the middle. During this time in the film, the two people were switching bodies. The lighting became bright. hazy, and an orange tone. This majorly differentiated from the rest of the film, where the lighting was dim, groggy, and in shades of dark blues and blacks. 

Something I liked about this short film was how the faces of the two characters morph as they are getting intimate. This represents the transitional period of them switching bodies. The lighting became a dark red and the music became very eerie and pitchy. I thought this was a very interesting addition in order to represent the main idea of the film.