Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Interview with Stroyteller/Filmmaker Tim Benson Part 2

 Welcome back, Timothy Benson. Let's continue with part 2 of your interview.
Can you give an example of this technique from one of your stories?
Sure, okay. Let me see....I observe a group of children jumping around in a bounce house at a b-day party (a couple of my children included therein). This bounce house floor kinda looks like giant bubbles woven together. Those bubbles actually remind me of giant larva. Then my mind jumps to...Kids jumping on giant larva? Then...Why are there giant larva in a nest on the forest floor? How did they get there? This sole image (and resultant questions) was the catalyst that started churning my imagination and spawned a complete story about three middle schoolers who race to save a city under siege after a greedy extermination company's genetic experimentation goes horribly wrong. Yes, Giant Mutant insects! Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs meets Arachnophobia. This is my sci-fi/adventure screenplay, HATCHED, which came about because I stopped at the bounce house. 
You are so blessed with an amazing imagination. It's amazing that you can start developing a story idea from something as common as a bounce house.
How did you get into animation?
My ventures into animation came about through my compulsion to see my stories animated on the screen. Trying to sell animation feature speculative screenplays to Hollywood proved difficult...ummm...almost impossible.....okay, no luck yet, I’m still trying!! The big studios don’t buy, they cultivate stories from within. The smaller studios want you to bring production dollars with your script. My agent couldn’t get any traction. I was frustrated. No one was interested in HOOKED. How could that be? 
There were so many times I thought about giving up, or considered writing for live action, or in a different genre, but THEN came my watershed moment. A notion occurred to me: 
What if I wrote, produced and directed my OWN short animated film? It could be a pathway to break into the animation world. A means to becoming a “produced” writer. And a way to share my vision for the screen with the world. I was all in. 
It's amazing when we get those intuitions that change everything, isn't it? You must've been elated.

Thank you for participating in the second part of our interview, Tim. It's such fun learning more about you and your career.
You're welcome, Deanie. It's been a pleasure.
for more on Tim's work,  please visit this link:


copyright 2018: Deanie Humphrys-Dunne

No comments:

Post a Comment