christian simmons + josh lind: colour me beautiful.

My two new favourite people are Christian Simmons and Josh Lind. Their contributions to the SCADshorts short film collective are unreal. I’m even more impressed today after discovering their versatility.

After tingling my spine and making me avoid writing utensils all day after watching their chilly and dark short film “Pencil Face”, I went back to the SCADshorts site today to watch more and found a hilarious bit of chromatic retro-perfection called “Colour Me Beautiful”. I laughed ’til I cried, then when the credits rolled their names were there again: Christian and Josh.

“Colour Me Beautiful” is pure win. It’s such a fine line to try and pull off that perfect brand of 70’s kitsch, and they do it perfectly. I’ve watched it over and over and I laugh every time. It blows my mind a little that these guys are able to move so deftly between pure creepiness to this over the top craziness. Big ups to Tricia Reil, the evil genius behind Jennifer Kenny, whose performance is just so amazingly awful. It takes real talent to act good-bad, and she nails it. Extra points too for spelling “colour” correctly… with the “u”. That’s right, bitches. Colour.

I particularly love Jennifer Kenny when she does quad stretches wearing her rollerblades. Oh. My. God.

If you can’t get enough of “Colour Me Beautiful”, and I couldn’t, you can check out a making of video here.

christian simmons + josh lind: pencil face.

This is really twisted. And I dig it.

I’m not sure what’s in the fountain water over at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design), but I want some of it. Their SCADshorts ongoing creative project is a feast – a trove, even! – of continually innovative, spellbinding short film. Like the simply brain-grabbing “Pencil Face”. Watch it right now!

Holy shit. Created by SCADers Christian Simmons (director) and Josh Lind (producer), “Pencil Face” is demented and skin-crawly. Both in it’s mood and also in that there’s a heart of truth for all of us in the casual, consumptive greed it depicts. That, and undertones of pedophelia… with a bit of “Fire Walk With Me” thrown in. So, all in all, a pretty comprehensive mix of weird.

If you want to see some killer behind the scenes pics and footage (or, if you’re just horribly disturbed and need to prove to yourself that Pencil Face isn’t really…) then click right here.