I recently delivered a new trailer for Marisa Carnesky's 2nd tour of her critically acclaimed show, Dr. Carnesky's Incredible Bleeding Woman. Marisa is taking the show on tour with a series of films, including some I shot featuring performances by the likes of Fancy Chance, Rhyannon Styles, MisSa Blue, H Plewis and Nao Nagai. Working on this project has been such a pleasure and i'm excited to see it reaching an even bigger audience.
Since high school and before he had any tattoos, my friend Aaron has talked about becoming a tattoo artist. Since I started making films, I’ve wanted to document this craft against the unlikely backdrop of where we grew up: rural Norfolk.
After a particularly intense project, involving a series of international shoots I flew home for Christmas and went to visit Aaron at his new studio near Norwich. Building his own studio had been a dream of Aaron’s for several years and after a fraught process trying to gain planning permission he stumbled across Hellesdon Barns. The space, actually an old cow’s shed, is emblematic of the local area in many ways; from the low roof with long wooden beams, to the flint stone that is the region’s staple building material. For Aaron it felt just right.
Alongside his cousin Jake (a carpenter by trade, who is seen being tattooed in the video), Aaron refurbished the disused building and installed all the infrastructure needed for a fully functioning tattoo studio. With the place now open for business, I hung out with Aaron, Jake and Henry (Jake’s brother and Aaron’s apprentice), listened to Kurt Vile and drank a lot of tea just like old times. Here’s my portrait of a hidden gem: the tattooing art form in the most rural of settings.
Featuring: Aaron, Jake and Henry Skitmore
Music: Nicotine Blues by Kurt Vile (courtesy of the Free Music Archive)
A post shared by Aaron Skitmore (@holdfast.tattoo) on
Over the last couple of years I've had the great priviledge to work with director and showwoman Marisa Carnesky producing film content for her fantastic theatre show Dr. Carnesky's Incredible Bleeding Woman. This led to making short film adaptations of a number of acts from the show and above you can see stills of each (as well as Marisa herself in a shot from the show's trailer.)
Making these films has been an absolute blast, as I got to work with a pretty extraordinary group of performers (Fancy Chance, H Plewis, Nao Nagai, MisSa Blue & Rhyannon Styles) and play with genre tropes from 70's art house and b-movie horror (something that both Marisa and I are shamelessly fond of and make the show so exciting and entertaining).
The edits are now complete and are due to be screened in upcoming live performances of the show in Australia, following highly successful runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Soho Theatre and in Croatia.
Check out Carnesky.com for opportunities to see the show.
Adelaide Fringe dates: https://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/dr-carnesky-s-incredible-bleeding-woman-af2018
Melbourne dates: https://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/dr-carneskys-incredible-bleeding-woman
I have just finished working on a series of films for the United Arab Emirates Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science, produced by Nomad in Dubai. The Third Cycle Winners Film involved travel to Russia, the USA and China and the animated Process film was brought to life by the wonderful team at Morphine.
Visit the UAEREP YouTube page to watch the films.
