Luck and timing can be the difference between "happily ever after" and a lifetime of solitude. That's the tenuous, thin skin this music video character study rests upon, showing two lonely souls adrift in snowy, small town lives. Director Daniel Stessen and DP Sam Gezari shot in a style that Stessen calls "staged documentary" — no Ben Harper, no performance, real locations, no staging, no script, real people (aka: no actors) and no crew — on-location mostly in and around Syracuse, NY. Split-screens amp up the presumably fated get-together of the two leads — a rugged guy with multiple jobs and a sense of family vs. a a sexy stripper who knows she could do better — but Stessen keeps you hanging until the very last moment of the video, eking out every bit of drama.
PS: Casting directors take note: The guy is played by Syracuse musician Mike Powell; the girl is Jessica Lawrence, who Stessen and Gezari discovered while she was working in an upstate NY pizza parlor. Like I said: Luck and timing. --> watch "Skin Thin"
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Ben Harper + Relentless7 "Skin Thin" (Virgin/Capitol)
Daniel Stessen, director | Doomsday Ent, production co | Sam Gezari, DP | Jackie London @ Bonch, editor | Bill Pollock @ Bonch, telecine/colorist
