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THE COMMUTER
 
(2003, 90 sec, DV on 35mm)
Two 35mm prints available
 
The Commuter is a short animation in which an office-worker shaves his face off every morning in order to blend in with the other faceless commuters on their way to work.

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Stills from the film showing actor Pat Reid
 
Technique
The Commuter is live-action/digital hybrid. I shot the live-action component on video and then captured it on computer, before repainting it a frame at a time in Adobe PhotoShop with co-effects-designer Jonathan Mercer. The grainy image quality, which gives the film its distinctive look and feel, is an artifact of the image compression available in 1996.
 
Film Credits
Actor of 'The Commuter:
Pat Reid
Camera & Effects:
Martin Pickles
Jonathan Mercer
Sound Design:
Dave Peacock
Co-producer:
Jonathan Mercer
Written, Directed & Produced by:
Martin Pickles
5mm Film Blow-up:
CFS
Blow-up funded by:
British Council Print Fund
Sales Agent:
Dawn Sharpless of Dazzle Films
 
The Commuter is a 90-second reworking of my 1996 film Shaving (see below) and was made especially for Interfilm Berlin's short film festival 'Going Underground' 2003 ( http://www.interfilm.de )
The film was selected to be one of fourteen to be screened on the trains on the Berlin Undergound on 4th, 6th and 7th February 2003 and again at the Urania cinema on 8th February. Martin and the film's star, Pat Reid travelled out to Berlin to see it, along with Karola Gajda who starred in The Big Heads.

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Pat Reid under his own image on the Berlin U-Bahn, February 2003; the 'Going Underground' poster; Pat and Karola at the Urania reception; Pat and Martin onstage at Urania, 8th Feb 2003.  

 
More recently it was shown in competition at Animafest Zagreb in Croatia on 17th June 2004. This was the first time it was shown at a festival dedicated exclusively to animation. Appropriately the festival mascot was a bowler-hatted man. I would like to thank the British Council for giving me a travel grant to attend the festival and Margit Antauer and all the festival staff for looking after me.
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The Commuter Screening History
Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, Dazzle Films Screening July 2008
Independent Film Festival II, British Council, Cairo, Egypt 23rd November 2007
Uppsala Short Film Festival, Sweden as part of a 'Best Of Depict!' screening October 2007
Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, Dazzle Films screenings: 5:00 pm at Rushes, 66 Old Compton Street, London, and at 7:00 pm, The Hospital, 25 Endell Street, London July 31st 2006
Super Shorts Film Festival, 01 and Costa, London September 8th 2005
BBC Filmnetwork Website: see the film online from July 20th 2005
Hull International Short Film Festival, BBC Big Screen, Victoria Square, Hull, UK July 15th 2005
Homegrown Hollywood, BBC2 Learning Zone, UK Television July 14th 2005 etc.
Future Shorts, Studio Athanor, 17-19 Rue de la Fourche, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium June 27th 2005
Berlin Talent Campus, at the House Of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany February 12-17th 2005
Face On Film Festival, The Curzon Mayfair Cinema, Mayfair, London November 21st 2004
L'Alternativa 11th Barcelona Independent Film Festival, Pantalla Hall, Barcelona, Spain November 12-20th 2004
Simrishamn International Art Film Festival, Galleri Valfisken, Simrishamn, Sweden October 14-17th 2004
8th International Video Festival Videomedeja, at the Museum of Voivodina, Novi Sad, Serbira and Montenegro October 2nd 2004
MECAL 2004 Festival Internacional de Cortometrajes, Barcelona, Spain Aug 27th-Sep 4th 2004
OMSK ROAM, East London July 25th 2004
Talent Circle event, Central London July 20th 2004
Animafest Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia June 17th 2004
Fantastic Films Weekend, at NMPFT, Bradford, West Yorkshire May 22nd-23rd 2004
Welwyn Garden Film Society: 'The Commuter' and 'G.M.' were both screened as accompanying shorts for the Aki Kaurismaki feature film 'Man Without A Past.' Special thanks to Dawn Sharpless of Dazzle Films May 7th 2004
Festival des Tres Courts, at venues across France May 7th-9th 2004
Kino outdoor screening, Manchester for The Bigger Picture April 10th-24th 2004
Dazzle Films Screening at Curzon Soho Cinema, London April 22nd 2004 at 6pm
Dresden Film Festival, Germany April 16th & 18th 2004
Bimini Film Festival, Latvia April 1st-4th, 2004
Cinenygma Film Festival, Luxembourg Mar 28th-April 2nd, 2004
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market, France February 2004
Wood Green Film Festival, London February 7th 2004
Halloween Shorts Festival, ICA, London January 9th 2004
Depict! Film Festival, Bristol November 2003
Foyle Film Festival, Derry, Northern Ireland November 2003
Kino Film Festival, Manchester, England October 2003
Flexiff Film Festival, Sydney, Australia September 2003
International Scientific Film Festival, Szolnok, Hungary September 2003
International Open Image Competition, Deluxe Gallery, London March 2003
Going Underground Film Festival, Berlin, Germany February 2003
   
Super Shorts Tour:  
OXFORD March 2006
CARDIFF March 8th 2006
GLASGOW: Glasgow Media Access Centre, 34 Albion Street, 3rd Floor, Glasgow G1 1LH February 22nd 2006
LONDON: Video Forum, Earl's Court 2, Warwick Road, London SW5 9TA Showing: ALL 375 Films. Feb 7th - 9th 2006
MARGATE: Beeping Bush, The Community Pharmacy Gallery, 16 Market Place, Margate, Kent CT9 1ES: ALL 375 Films January 26th 2006
BRIGHTON, Hanbury Arms, 83 St. Georges Rd, Brighton, BN2 1EF January 16th 2006
DERBYSHIRE, Winding Wheel Function rooms, 13 Holywell Street, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S41 7SA December 21st 2005
WOLVERHAMPTON, Light House Media Centre, Chubb Buildings, Fryer St, Wolverhampton WV1 1HT December 15th 2005
CORNWALL, Acorn, Parade Street, Penzance, Cornwall, TR18 4BU December 14th 2005
HULL, BBC Big Screen, Queen Victoria Square Dec 3rd - 9th 2005
EDINBURGH: TALENT CIRCLE SUPER SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL 2005, Brass Monkey Bar, 14 Drummond St, Edinburgh EH8 9TU: ALL 375 Films Dec 5th - 9th 2005
LIVERPOOL, BBC Big Screen, Clayton Square Nov 12th - Dec 9th 2005
BIRMINGHAM, BBC Big Screen, Chamberlain Square Nov 12th - Dec 9th 2005
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, Digital Lounge, Tyneside Cinema, 10 Pilgrim Street, Part of the Northern Lights Film Festival programme. (nlff.co.uk)
ALL 375 Films screened
Nov 20th - 23rd 2005
BELFAST, Queens Film Theatre, 20 University Square November 9th 2005
MANCHESTER BBC Big Screen, Exchange Square October 8th -21st 2005
   
"The Commuter" poster
 
'As Is: A Downsized Life'
In 2005 The Commuter was incorporated into the 70 minute documentary As Is: A Downsized Life by Maryanne Galvin (USA, 70 min, 2005).
Dr. Galvin describes her film as follows:
"'As Is: A Downsized Life' takes you behind the scenes into the lives of nine diverse individuals who encounter economic simplicity. All were once upwardly mobile. In 2004 they found themselves earning, spending, consuming less and making incredible discoveries about themselves along the way. Some embraced voluntary economic simplicity as a lifeform long ago. Others recently found themselves unemployed, ill without insurance or otherwise without income. Each conveys a true grit approach to confronting consumerism, materialism and the implications on self esteem, dignity and freedom."
 
As Is: A Downsized Life Screening History
Broadcast on Comcast Cable and Urban Cableworks Channels  54, 48, 62 & 99 December 1st & 2nd 2007 at 5 PM and Midnight
  November 30th at 10 PM and Midnight
  November 27th 2007 at 9 PM
  November 4th 2007 at 5 PM and Midnight
  November 3rd 2007 at 5 PM and Midnight
  November 2nd 2007 at 10 PM
  October 30th 2007 at 9 PM
East Bay Media Center/Berkeley Video & Film Festival, in the Bay Area, CA, USA Autumn 2005
The St. Louis International Film Festival, USA November 2005
San Francisco State University Fall Film Series, USA Autumn 2005
The Doctoberfest/Clark University, Worcester MA, USA October 30th 2005
The Rhode Island International Film Festival, USA August 2005
The Boston International Film Festival, USA   June 2005
 
Prehistory of The Commuter: 'Shaving'
 
"Shaving" (1996, 5'45", digitised VHS on Beta SP)
 
The Commuter started life as a longer film called Shaving (1996, 5 min, Beta SP) which followed a day in the life of an office worker. 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. It was shot on a borrowed camcorder and manipulated in PhotoShop in downtime at mine and my collaborator Jon Mercer's places of work.
 
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Stills from "Shaving" as they appear in the 25hrs video art festival catalogue
 
Shaving 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
 
Shaving on Television
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).   
 
Awards
Shaving won a Public Art Award at the Ars Digitalis Festival in Berlin 1996.
 

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