Without Skin - Short Film

Without Skin (previously Cassidy Spanks) is a 15 minute long short film about an adult film actor (Cassidy) who meets an adult film actress (Belle) and develops a meaningful connection on the set. However, as a result of their professions, they are unable to fully establish a relationship, leaving them feeling the full weight of their solitude.

Exploring themes of lonelieness, desire, and the longing for comfort from another person, Cassidy Spanks contrasts the vibrant aesthetics of 90's pop culture and the adult film industry, with the brooding and decaying location of Urban Leeds (West Yorkshire, UK) to create a sense of temporal and geographical dissacociation that reflects the struggles of the characters to connect to the world around them.

In a world in which human connections feel harder and harder to come by through the rise of social media, dating apps and a crisis of identity deep within youth culture, our film reflects the world we live in today, using this backdrop to convey the melancholia that arrises from the feelings of isolation we all experience.

This is a final Master's project for both the Director (Joshua Deal) and the Cinematographer (Elisenda de Wit Roy) where they will be able to showcase their skills and own perspectives on such themes.

Counterbalancing the weighty story through the lens of a woman's perspective, Elisenda aims to maintain the film's focuse not on the perceived excess of the adult film industry but on the identities and humanity of the characters who occupy this world.

As the Director, Joshua is working with his screenwriting partner for this project (Toby Poole) with the aim of telling a story, that expresses through the poetic powers of cinema, the sense of entrapment these character's feel within their circumstances. Through this, he hopes to convey to the audience a story that is truthful to our collective experiences in modern society.

Some of the stylisitic and narrative influences for this project include:

As well as the specific films:

With this gofunding we hope to cover most of the costs of Production:

Our current Crew is looking like this:

We will keep this site updated with new concept art, pictures of our locations and the crew members and any other fun parts of production that may be of your interest to show you our process and how your donations are helping us.

We hope to be given the opporunity to make our voices heard as young filmmakers, and to showcase our passion for telling a story that is close to our hearts.

Best,

Joshua & Elisenda.