Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Skousen Films

Here's an unabashed post that borders on shameless self-promotion. While I claim no involvement in the creative process of any of the cinematic content on David Skousen's new website, some of his work feels like my own. That's because Skousen is a lifelong friend, who I've worked much with over the years. (Someday we'll put those darn "freak out" cartoons online.)

Most of our inane collaborations, starting as teens, have involved explosions in one form or another, and arguably, this kind of stoicism is one of Skousen's stronger points. But I think he's starting to bring together other defining elements that fine a filmmaker makes.

Since I have made every effort to be objective and critical of anyone else I've covered on this site, I won't posture to paint the brightest picture of Skousen. His work does have a certain forced emotional quality that I sometimes find hard to stomach. But then, I've always been hypercritical of emotionally-driven content in anything cinematic, and admittedly I have my own can of worms. I mean, for heaven's sake, I cried when Spock died in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan—and in front of all my fellow Church-going peers at that who watched it with me at a young age. (How old was I? Seems I've conveniently forgotten.) So I'm kind of hit and miss on the sappy sponge factor.

All that said, I've always seen him an incredibly bright star who's star just hasn't quite risen yet. If you need proof of the potential, looks no further:

If you go to his website, you'll see other material worth a viewing, though I think this particular piece is probably his most interesting.

posted by Rhapsidiomite @ 11:11 AM
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