Ben Senior, a junior at New Trier Township High School
Ben Senior, a junior at New Trier High School and an independent filmmaker, will be forever grateful for what he learned at a Montessori school in Evanston.
It had nothing to with what he had read in a book.
Nor what he had absorbed during a lecture.
It was this: “Ask questions,” Senior says. “Don’t be afraid to speak up. Asking questions is a huge part of education. When I take the time to come up with an idea for a film, I think of a ‘What if?’ ”
Senior’s future as a filmmaker?
Promising … unquestionably promising.
The Illinois International Film Festival showed his short film, The Routine, in Westmont in late May. The psychological thriller — with a running time of 35 minutes, including credits — won Best Student Film honors. It also will be featured at the Chicago Horror Film Festival at the Patio Theater on Sept. 23.
The young man with the IMDb (Internet Movie Database) page gets inspired each time he watches a movie directed by Edgar Wright. Films helmed by Wright include Baby Driver, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End.
“While watching Hot Fuzz (a parody of the buddy-cop genre), I noticed it called attention to how a movie was made,” says Senior, who attended Beacon Academy in Evanston in his freshman and sophomore years. “I really got into it. His films have quick cuts, jump around; they’re energetic. I started thinking, ‘Maybe one day I’d be able to create a movie along those lines.’ ”
The Winnetkan received his first camera — a flip camera — from his grandmother, Diana, several years ago and later placed it on a tripod at home to produce footage for a class project. The lone character in the short was a toy Bombay cat, with its voice provided by Senior’s mother, Kristen.
“I went to town with that home movie,” Ben recalls. “I interviewed the cat, and my mother, away from the camera, answered the questions. You can call my grandmother a key executive producer, because she bought that camera for me. And my mother has been my No. 1 supporter, always encouraging me to go for it when it involves my interest in film.
“For a scene in The Routine,” he adds, “my mother drove me to an alley and hung around with my crew and me. It was mid-October, freezing. But there she was, moving things for me, helping in any way she could. She’s the best.”
Senior’s most significant mentor to date is professional stage and film actor Kevin Lucero Less, who teaches a film class at Infinity Arts Academy at DePaul College Prep High School in Chicago.
“He’s gruff and stern, but I like that about him, because when he’s impressed — with an idea or with something you turn in — he’s genuinely impressed,” Senior says. “Great teacher, very knowledgeable, and he’s serious about film. He’s given me good advice, and he has hooked me up with influential people [in the film industry].”
Though he’s a math ace in the classroom, Senior prefers a school assignment that requires writing to any that involves numbers.
“I love words,” Senior says. “While growing up, I read a lot.”
For a writing assignment at Beacon Academy last year, Senior’s main character in a story about a road trip stopped at a Zombie Burgers diner in Iowa and gave his order to a zombie. Later, in Salt Lake City, the character discovered Mormons in a church service were actually robots.
“I ended the story with the character returning home and walking into my classroom,” Senior says. “He sees me and says, ‘Please stop putting me in horrible situations.’ ”
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