BENJI
Written, Produced, & Directed by Oscar Garth
A seemingly innocent TV commercial for a family-friendly recycling bin becomes increasingly bizarre when the father decides to recycle more than just household waste.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
A director of photography with a bold, playful style, Oscar brings surreal stories to life through the lens. With multiple shorts under his belt, Oscar recently completed his first feature film, and is currently developing a series with comedy writer/director/performer James Button. Oscar's passion for storytelling has recently led him to explore directing as well, with his debut short Benji.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH OSCAR
Welcome to our Weekly Pick! Let's dive straight in.
Benji first caught our eye as an Official Selection at the 2024 edition of our film festival when it won an award for production design.
First let's chat about the design of the film and its awesome retro aesthetic. How did you go about sourcing all of the elements needed to pass off a convincing classic look that feels more like it's been plucked from the past vs made anytime recently?
I watched a LOT of old TV ads. They were bonkers back then, but there’s something incredibly charming about them that has always appealed to me. Possibly the happy-go-lucky, overly optimistic vision for the future, and all the goofy tech.
I was really meticulous about everything with Benji, it was so much fun to design the look for such a bold, playful world. It all clicked into place when I stumbled upon 'The Houseboat' in Dorset. Most locations I looked at were just normal modern houses with a bit of vintage wallpaper, but this place was a literal 1960s 'House of Tomorrow'. It came almost completely dressed, so our production designer Jamie just had to swoop in and add some finishing touches, along with a few random retro knick-knacks I nabbed from my flat.
On the tech side, I shot on a Blackmagic Micro, which has a gorgeous super 16mm sensor, getting me most of the way to a film look. Coupled with an old, beat-up Canon servo zoom lens to get those playful TV ad snap-zooms, and give an overall de-tuned feel.
And then of course, there are the Benji bins. I found an amazing illustrator on Instagram, Ann-Sophie De Steur, to sketch them out, and then JSM Model Makers down in Marlborough brought them to life with actual moving eyes, switches, and LEDs. They now live with me in my flat. One is a functioning desk bin.
Can you tell us a bit about your festival journey with this film? The highs, the lows, the inbetweens.
Well, Benji had a great run, and nabbed a handful of awards including the Andy Jones Award at Aesthetica, Best Micro-Budget Short at Kino, and was one of the Judges 6 at Exit6 fest. More importantly though were the reactions I got from people leaving the cinema. It was always a joy hearing peoples’ verdict on exactly what was going on in the film, with one notable review being “I’ve no idea what happened at the end there but I was in tears”.
Getting the film online has been a long time coming. How have you found the reception of the online release of the film?
I think again, the biggest joy for me is witnessing in-person reactions to the film, discussing it over a pint, and using it as a springboard to chat creatively about other projects. Now that it’s online, I honestly don’t think about it much, my head is already onto the next project.
You often work as a cinematographer for other directors. Can you talk about how your process changes when shooting for others vs shooting for yourself?
When it’s your own film, you’ve got the whole project - the script, the performances, the existential dread, all of it your brain at once. When I’m just wearing the DP hat it gets a little simpler.
It’s pretty similar in terms of storytelling. I’m always thinking about the narrative and what my own creative eye can bring to the table. And so, the directors I love working with most trust that together we can create something more than the sum of its parts. It’s always a hugely collaborative effort, I’m not just chucking a camera down, the vision for the whole project has to be mutual. It’s a great feeling when you develop a shorthand with a director and suddenly every creative decision you both make it in-line with that vision.
What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?
My advice would be don’t look for hacks. Focus on creating something authentic, that brings up some emotion in you. Try and look at whatever anyone else is doing as little as possible, and for the love of god don’t hang your worth as a filmmaker on laurels or accolades.
What are you working on now?
I’ve always got a bunch of daft ideas bubbling away. The next one will likely be a short called Channelling Walter Fishman, about a hermit who lives underground and makes crap electronic music. Parallel to that, I’m jumping into feature development with long-time partner-in-crime James Button. We’re writing a comedy feature debut about a 900-year-old man stuck in a bleak care home who just wants to get back to his castle… so stay tuned for that nonsense.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
The last short I saw at a festival that really landed for me and deserves a shoutout, was ‘I Have a’ by Rory Waudby-Tolley. Fast-paced daft animation about a guy listing all the things he has… You have to just watch it.
One short I do keep coming back to as a solid source of inspiration is The Privates by Dylan Allen. “An unknown rock band struggles with a radioactive energy in their music that blows up amps, liquefies tape decks, and starts electrical fires”. It’s a little bit Edgar Wright, with a touch of Spielberg whimsy, and not only is it beautifully crafted in terms of cinematography, art direction, score and sound design, but the stand-out attraction for me is the naturalistic performances and editing. It all feels highly conversational, a bit like in Alien, where quite often you’re lingering on reactions rather than line delivery, and fully buying into the idea these guys are in the same room talking over each other. I honestly can’t believe it was never picked up for a feature.
