Hey everybody. How've you been? I've been really busy. As I mentioned last time, I have been sifting through the work of the man you see below. My coverage took a little longer than expected (as it always seems to), but as you can see there's plenty to read about (3000+ words worth). Don't forget to click the more button to read on and find out about both of Mark's DVDs (Just Kill Me and No Commercial Value) and web only content. I'll be back again sooner than you might think with more reviews. Along with what's listed in the last post, I also will at some point bring you my thoughts on 24 Hours on Craigslist, Doom, and Saw II. I'll be busy. Keep checking back.


Mark O’Connell Career Retrospective (through 2005)
Review by Jon Waterman

Just Kill Me

Work created between 1992 and 1999

Top Story Tonight (1999)
An extremely hypnotic piece where found footage of news anchors are distorted beyond recognition. The faces blend and melt together to create something of a kaleidoscope of colorful talking heads. The short does well to not only put you into a trance priming the audience for a good brainwashing, but also gives off a strange looming underlying Big Brother feel. If the music were different, it would make for a pretty good horror sequence.

Walk (1993)
The short not only shows a younger time, but also a younger technique. Obviously one of his first works, “Walk” plays around with every bad video effect that comes with his new package. O’Connell tries to be funny by including what I can only assume is a drug induced narration track that stuck. “I saw a skeleton couple. They waved hello.” It makes for a couple interesting clips, but mostly it’s just wackiness for wackiness’ sake.

Peep (1994)
Old found footage of strippers and dancers are the main “focus” of this video dealing with the objectification of women and the destructive nature of the male gaze. O’Connell drives the simplistic point home by superimposing a close-up of an eyeball over the girls in their gaze-worthy areas. He also includes a strange industrial music soundtrack behind the overly repeated visuals to avoid any potential for misinterpretation.

Beach (1996)
A beach never really comes into play in this increasingly random offering. The viewer is treated to a series of scatterbrained images that are essentially coming from what is either a picture frame or a television placed in the middle of our screen. The creepy, atmospheric music goes against a lot of what we are seeing, but ensures that the end result is much stranger than any dream of ours would actually be while still placing us in one.
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