Arts & Entertainment Bainbridge Island
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Friday, October 18, 2013 • Bainbridge Island Review
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Watch and “Listen”
FIELD’S END
Teen’s film to be featured in national festival BY LUCIANO MARANO Bainbridge Island Review
Eat your heart out, Orson Welles. The legendary Hollywood auteur was only 26 years old when he made “Citizen Kane,” still regarded by many critics as the greatest film ever made. It was his first film. Brendan Bennett beat him by a decade. A sophomore at Bainbridge High, the teenage filmmaker’s own first movie, “Listen,” is being featured in the upcoming International Student Film Festival in Hollywood on Oct. 26. The movie is already gathering praise and its success has only solidified Bennett’s already intense passion for cinema. “I really enjoy watching and also making dramas,” Bennett said. “I think that you’re more interested in what the characters are going to do next and how they’ll be able to solve their conflicts.” Bennett said his influences as a young filmmaker range from the works of Steven Spielberg and Danny Boyle to Quentin Tarantino. His favorite movies are “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Little Miss Sunshine.” His favorite types of stories, Bennett said, are character-driven and plotbased dramatic narratives. “It’s all about the story and they’re kind of slice-oflife in that you can really relate to the characters. And that is interesting to me,” he said. “Listen” is an eightminute short film, written by Elias Ginsberg, in which Bennett was both co-director and lead actor. It tells the story of a young man trying to find his way in life despite several negative influences and the emotionally stabilizing power of music. “Listen” was filmed by Bennett in collaboration
Natalia Dotto photo
Jennie Shortridge
Writers’ class tackles the art of dialogue
Photo courtesy of Siobhan Maguire
Bainbridge High teen auteur Brendan Bennett’s short film “Listen,” an eight-minute narrative about a young man trying to find his way in life and the stabilizing power of music, will be featured in the 2013 International Student Film Festival in Hollywood Saturday, Oct. 26. with a group of other film students during a two-week advanced film making course earlier this year at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Fla. “We were originally trying to do a comedy,” Bennett said of his filmmaking team, and he recalled that time was short. “We had a week to write, shoot and edit it.” The story did not come together as planned, and the team was forced to scrap the project and look for a new idea. “I think it’s a lot harder to write comedy than it is to do drama,” Bennett said. “One of the guys in our group, Elias Ginsberg, he had this script already written called ‘Listen’ and we all read it and instantly fell in love with it.” Bennett’s fascination with storytelling began at a young age and, like the late Welles, it all started at the theatre. “He’s always been very interested in visual storytelling,” said Siobhan Maguire, Bennett’s mother. “I used to take him to the theatre all the time.” Focusing his interest
“I love going to the early on directing, Bennett set out to get as much expe- theatre,” Bennett said. “It’s been hard, especially on the rience with varied aspects island, to find places where of production as he could. I can learn film so I tried to Bennett has worked in learn all the basics through various roles on a number of local productions, includ- theatre so that when I was old ing as enough a crew to do film member “I really enjoy watching I would for the and also making already Seattle dramas. I think that know Children’s most of Theatre you’re more interested the basics student in what the characters and fundaproducare going to do next.” tions of mentals. “As You “Since Brendan Bennett Like It,” I was 8, Filmmaker “Big I’ve been Friendly learning Giant” about the and “The Witches.” In his lighting, I’ve taken acting hometown of Bainbridge, courses and I’ve tried to he has been involved with learn every single aspect the Bainbridge Performing that I can get my hands Arts Shakespeare Society’s on,” he said. student productions of “15 Outside of his normal Minute Hamlet,” “Dear school responsibilities, Edwina” and “Sum Might Bennett has completed Dream.” He has worked as courses in acting, lighta member of the lighting ing for stage and stage team on Ovation Theatre’s management both with “Try Not To Dance,” and Seattle Children’s Theatre is a member of the BHS in Washington, a two-week Tech Team, working on last summer film camp at year’s productions of “The Red Studios in Los Angeles Seagull” and “Winter One and classes at The Gaiety Acts.” School of Acting in Ireland.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Bennett is already working on several new film projects when he’s not too busy with school work. “I spent a week in Ireland and I brought my camera,” Bennett said. “So I’m kind of editing a snapshot of Ireland through the eyes of a 15-year-old.” He is also working with a local therapist to make a video presentation for Bainbridge Island teachers about the perils of student anxiety. “In the spring I’ll be helping the BPA with ‘Macbeth,’” Bennett added. “I’m helping them do some visual effects with video to kind of help with the story.” For younger students interested in filmmaking, Bennett advises research and independent study as the fastest ways to learn the basics. “I got to say that YouTube and Google are probably your best friends when it comes to learning stuff,” Bennett said. “Because everything I’ve learned from there has been just looking it up. It’s a real advantage.”
Bestselling novelist Jennie Shortridge will teach a class on how to write effective dialogue this weekend at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Written dialogue can sound stilted and unnatural, can bog down a work’s narrative and pull readers out of a story. Shortridge will guide students through practicing the basic tenets of writing dialogue, “moving into artistic mastery and nuance.” Students are asked to bring a few pages of dialogue from a current project, or write a scene with dialogue before class. Students will analyze their work and work on ways to make it more effective. The class is 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20. Shortridge has published five books, including her latest, “Love Water Memory” (Gallery Books – Simon & Schuster). She has studied writing craft with some of the country’s best writers and editors, including Pam Houston, James McManus and Tom Jenks, who opened her eyes by saying, “Dialogue is a sword fight.” Shortridge is a co-founder of Seattle7Writers.org, a nonprofit collective of Pacific Northwest authors whose mission is to foster and support a passion for the written word. She is a popular writing teacher in the Northwest. The class is presented by Field’s End. Tuition is $100 and students may register online at www. fieldsend.org. Financial help is available through turn to HAPPENING | A13