Reel Deal

The recent 48 Hour Film Project in St. Louis proved something to local filmmaker Louie Benson and his crack creative team Shinn's List: They are the reel deal.

Now, after returning with a Best Editing award, Benson, Scott Elsey, Andrew Kenner and Zach Harris take time from their big-shot glamorous lifestyles to take a few questions from the little people.

OFF: So what's it like to put together a movie in 48 hours?

Louie Benson, Andrew Kenner, Zack Harris, and Scott Elsey

ELSEY (WRITER/DIRECTOR): Well it started on a Friday night at 7 o'clock and everybody met at Webster University. There are 14 categories and 12 teams to a group. There were 72 teams total in this competition because a couple categories didn't get used. So we meet at this place and draw a category and they assign you a character, prop and a line of dialogue that you have to incorporate somewhere in the film. Our character was Ryan Tokenell, who was an entomologist or someone who studies bugs. The prop was a doll, and our line of dialogue was "don't look now we may have trouble." After that, you have 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a four to seven minute short film.

BENSON (EDITOR/PRODUCER): Essentially the project started when I met Scott in January and I talked about wanting to make a 48-hour team of students from the broadcasting class at the Career and Technology Center. Scott being a former student, said he would like to start one also, so we came together on a team. I received an e-mail about the project saying there were 24 more spots opened up, but I didn't have the money at the time. So we told Rich Payne, the director at the center, and he liked the idea and without skipping a beat he sponsored us.

OFF: How long have you guys been making movies together?

HARRIS (GRAPHICS/TITLES): Actually me and Louie met each other the summer of 2001. We can't really brag about most of the stuff we've done. We've made 57 shorts, one full length, but we can't really brag about 40 of them. But we've learned from our mistakes. We didn't know the proper way back then and now we know more about lighting and camera work and things like that.

BENSON: Like I said, I just met Scott this year and I met Kenner last year during the filming of "Killshot."

KENNER (DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY): Traumatized my life the day I met him. He thought he was Wolverine. But here I am now.

OFF: I hear you have plans to do another 48 hour film project ... tell me about that.

BENSON: A team in Lexington, Kentucky called me and asked if we could get our team members together to go to the Louisville film festival this year.

ELSEY: We're still assembling a team to go out there, though.

OFF: I see that you won an award in St. Louis.

BENSON: We won Best Editing, and I thought we had a chance at Best Use of Dialogue, Best Use of Genre, Best Cinematography, Best Lighting. I didn't really think we had a shot at Best Editing so it was a surprise to me. First I think I was in kind of a state of shock, really, because I was the editor.

OFF: So how do you guys think you now stack up with the other local filmmakers?

BENSON: I think we have as good of a shot, if not more of a shot, at making a big impact. We may not have budget ...

ELSEY: We DEFINITELY don't have the budget, we've got the heart though.

HARRIS: We have the heart and soul to do it and the will to entertain.

BENSON: You can make a movie with as big a budget as you want but if you don't have a heart or soul in the movie, which I'm not saying these other guys don't, but we do. It's really not the look, it's the content.

ELSEY: We're not bashing anybody, we're just saying what we think about our material. I saw the other team from Cape's entry in the festival, "Insecticide", and I laughed my ass off, I couldn't quit laughing. I thought it was great. But the politics of the thing was bad. They should've won something, they were great.

OFF: What's your take on the local film community in general?

ELSEY: I think it will turn around over the summer, as far as building the community. I'm working with our competition on "Fire Lily" right now and I'm having a blast working with them. They have complemented our film and saying they would like to work more hand-in-hand with each other, whereas before it really wasn't like that. But I'm looking forward to working more with them. They're great guys.

KENNER: There was a lot of bashing going on, mainly between Bond and Huntington and Louie and Zach. A lot of the things they were saying were really making me mad because everybody wants Cape to grow as a film community and be on the map and everybody's real pissed off they're not using the stuff from "Killshot," and bashing each other ain't going to get anybody noticed any faster. But it's us and them, and if we work together it could be better. I mean, they have the budget, obviously, they can get money for films. But we have passion and we know the proper way to make a film. If we both work together we could make something awesome. Whenever that happens the film community's going to take off.

BENSON: All it is really is egos getting in the way of other egos. My ego is large. But I've worked with them in the past on 48 hour projects. And regardless of what experience I may have had or what I could contribute to the team I was still the guy who was holding this umbrella over the actress' head so she doesn't get sunburn. I didn't really feel like I was a part of the team. They still think I'm a 15-year-old kid who hits on actresses and works unprofessionally.