Gillian Ashurst's first feature film, Snakeskin won awards for Best Film, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Design, Best Original Music, Best Special FX, and Best Editing at the Nokia New Zealand Film Awards, 2001.

Here's a synopsis of the film:

"Alice (Melanie Lynskey) and Johnny (Dean O'Gorman) are looking for a fast trip out of mundane suburbia. They've cut the roof off an old valiant and are cruising the New Zealand highways, looking for adventure at all costs... They find it when their paths cross with an American snake named Seth (Boyd Kestner)... He's a walking myth. He can't possibly be real...

"Seth takes Alice and Johnny on the ride of their dreams... but every dream has its price - and in the heart of the Southern Alps, these kids are about to pay."

Shots of road signs at night had been cut together as a background for the opening titles, and were supplied to me as 2K film resolution files. Taking this as a starting point, I came up with the idea of passing car headlight beams across each sign and into the blackness, to reveal each title on a fake roadsign. The film scanning and printing was done by Park Road Post (formerly The Film Unit).

After a successful cinema run, Snakeskin is now available on video and DVD.

If you'd like to see some more of Synthetic's film work, check out the portfolio pages for Venus Blue (a short film by Snakeskin's director), and Trelise Cooper and Unitech (cinema commercials).