The Work That Made Me: Josh Soskin
A director with a diverse filmography ranging from short films to commercials and photography, Josh Soskin ties together a distinct blend of authenticity and artistic flair as a director at Partners Film.
Originally an actor, Soskin moved behind camera when he was just 21 years old, and has since helmed commercials for global brands including Adobe, Match.com Ford, Amazon, Samsung, and Snickers. During this time, his short films have been named Vimeo Staff Picks, while his 2015 drama ‘La Carnada’ premiered at Tribeca and was named ‘Best of Fest’ at Palm Springs.
So, to chat more about the work that’s influenced, inspired and defined his career, Josh sat down with LBB for a chat.
LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
Josh> Ooh, what a great question. Definitely music videos, not ads. I was a ‘90s MTV kid – they all stuck with me. November Rain by Guns N’ Roses rattles around in my head. Might have been my young crush on Stephanie Seymour? I also had a crush on Slash. You never saw his face. And I wanted to play guitar like that and have cameras swoop around me in the desert while I went ape shit on a solo. I still do. Everything was communicated through the music video. Music and music videos were synonymous and it was incredible.
For some weird reason, that Dinosaur Jr. video (Feel the Pain) also stays with me. That guy teeing off the skyscraper and the journey of the golf ball. And then Sabotage of course. All the Spike Jonze stuff was incredible. Fat Boy Slim’s stuff too! Sorry, that was a bad answer. I basically just said all music videos from the ‘90s, haha.
LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
Josh> The one that sticks out to me is the Guard Brothers’ Audi prom ad. I don’t know why, but that one made me want to do spots… I suppose (ironically), because it didn’t feel like a spot. It felt like a little movie – a little high-stakes John Hughes film with an Audi car in it. Really lit my fire.
LBB> The creative work that I keep revisiting…
Josh> Well, right now I’m obsessing over road trip films because I’m prepping a feature film that is also a road trip film. So I keep looking at ‘Rain Man’, ‘Paper Moon’, ‘Midnight Run’, ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’, etc. ‘Paper Moon’ in particular is an incredible film that flies under a lot of people’s radars.
LBB> My first professional project…
Josh> Technically, it was a series of mini docs I shot and cut for Current TV back in the early 2000s. My wife and I moved to Europe with a little dvx100 and a boom mic and made all these cool little mini docs around the continent. It was incredible.
LBB> The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
Josh> Oh I LOVE this question, haha. Definitely ‘Manchester by the Sea’. That movie infuriated me. I’m all for dealing with grief and tragedy in my work, but I just never think you should take an audience to a place like that without giving them something. Like, one crumb of hope! Otherwise, what's the point? It’s just misery porn. Yuck.
LBB> The piece of work that still makes me jealous…
Josh> Hmmmm. I just watched Dev Patel’s ‘Monkey Man’ and that gave me all kinds of jealous feelings in the best possible way. It's a PHENOMENAL first feature and the design is so simple and delicious. I wish I could concept things that brutal and simple.
LBB> The creative project that changed my career…
Josh> Definitely my spot for Match.com. Before that I was getting terrible boards, and after that I started getting good work to pitch on.
LBB> The work that I’m proudest of…
Josh> In terms of ads, probably also that Match spot because I wrote it and made it on my own as spec work and it took a big risk. I sunk all my money on it, banking on them to buy it… and they did (HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF). They aired it, it got love, and it changed my career. It was a huge gamble, but it paid off.
LBB> I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
Josh> Now why in god’s name would I tell anybody that.
OK, here’s what I will say, and I tell younger filmmakers this all the time. My very first short film was awful. And I deleted it from the internet and all of my hard drives. So there you go. It was about a janitor and it was in Spanish and I shot it in like two hours with zero planning or deep thinking and it SHOWED.
LBB> The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
Josh> Ad wise, the work we just did for Adobe with Hasan Minaj was super exciting. I was able to co-write and develop the creative with Adobe, and it was just one of those dream projects where you have good talent, good creative, and a fun idea. It was a blast.
