About Ben

Making ninja movies, variety shows, Ken and Barbie chase scenes with fishing wire, and mafia shorts with my parents’ video camera as a ten-year-old, I have yet to put a camera down.

I’ve DP’d and directed independent shorts and countless music videos and branded content for beautiful people at Capitol Records, Warner Music, Sony BMG, General Electric, Wilson Sporting Goods, Corteva, Verizon Wireless, among others.

On a mission to understand the heart of the actor's bliss, I immersed myself in “The Meisner Technique” at a Sanford Meisner school in Chicago in 2018. In 2020, I participated in a Sundance Institute course, “Directing Actors”, led by Emmy award-winning director, Joan Darling. I learned from Joan that truth is found in letting go.

In 2021, I wrote and directed a scripted single-shot, multiple-location feature with  a community of friends. See our story in SCREEN Magazine. [ Me, cast, and crew discuss our experience HERE.]

My quest for filmmaking proficiency crystalized after spending three concentrated months in 2022 with Coen Brothers’ storyboard artist, J. Todd Anderson to design every shot of my upcoming motion picture, RON. Intimately learning the Coen’s regimen for making the film on paper before the money clock ticks reflects Bergman’s insistence that “only someone who is well prepared has the opportunity to improvise.”  

Writer James Baldwin energizes me to remain dedicated to doing the Work with a capital W. “If Love does not swing wide the gates, no other power will or can.”