We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Summer Benson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Summer below.
Summer, appreciate you joining us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?
The original concept for my short film, Let It Breathe, appeared during my senior year of college under a different name and almost entirely difference premise. The story followed a Black woman in her thirties who worked as a physical therapist and had more than one night in jail under her belt. At the time, I had just started my journey as a screenwriter and sought the opportunity to tell a story I hadn’t seen on my screen before. While this early rendition of Let It Breathe was a concept I had not seen, it was also widely one I had not experienced. As a result, the story felt disjointed and my characters felt predictable and secondary, even as main characters. Still, at the core there was a story of a Black woman battling with an internal violence that intrigued me. More importantly, at the core was a story I related to.
A couple years into moving to Los Angeles, I joined a writing group made up primarily of young, queer writers who were eager to share their work with community both at the beginning or already some time into their writing journey. I received critics on my work, my structure, and dialog – as a self taught screenwriter, the validation that came from real people viewing my work and deeming it enjoyable and having potential was invaluable. However, my greatest takeaway from the group came from reading the works of others. When introducing work, I recognized a phrase that continued to pop up: “This story is loosely based on me/my friends/my family/an experience, etc.” Each story shared was personal in some way, shape, or form. The realization gave me permission to step back and really look at my script and look at what I was writing. As a 24 year old, Black, non-binary, lesbian with a passion for the creative arts, there wasn’t much I had in common with my main character and, as a result, struggled to tell her story and find the voice I was so desperately searching for.
With this new knowledge in mind, I went back to the beginning and slowly Rae, the 30 year old physical therapist with a criminal record, transformed into Cy, the 22 year old college student facing academic probation on account of a violent outburst. With this character I was able to find relatability, voice, motivations, fears, humor, all things that make up not only a character but a person. Cy becoming my main character made the possibility of bringing the story to life appear more attainable. After finishing my third draft of Let It Breathe, I reached out to a trusted producer I had worked with previously and she agreed to help me bring this film to life.
From that point on, I knew if I wanted to see this idea blossom into all I had imagined for it, I had to build a team I could trust. I handpicked my director and trusted that she would bring on a cinematographer that she worked well with and who had the skills to execute her vision. I trusted my cinematographer to bring on a lighting team that met her standards and could work efficiently. I built a team based off of community, both mine and others. to ensure that the people on this project wanted to be there and would work hard on the art we were making. Knowing that everyone in each and every role came from a personal relationship made the set feel welcome and relaxing and, at the same time, communication flowed easily, keeping us consistently moving and on schedule.
Before day one of shooting, I knew we were going to be successful because of the team we had at our core. Specifically, our director pushed me as both a writer and an actor to look at the story I was telling and ask myself questions to get it to that next emotional beat or important subtext or space of freedom. The story I brought to my producer a year before shooting wasn’t entirely the same one that we ended up making this past summer because I trusted that my team was leading me in the right direction for story and they trusted me enough to take the notes and execute what was needed.
Now, I’m proud to say that I have shot the first film I have worked on as a producer, writer, and actor and while many have expressed the positive impression this will add to a resume, I look at it through a different lens. This experience has taught me something simple but often hard to grasp: I can. I can create my own story, I can start over and create it all over again, I can share my ideas with others, I can trust others with my work, I can produce, I can adapt, I can stand as a lead actor, I can pave my own path. I can because I want to.
I can because I can.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
To say that I always wanted to make movies would be a lie. However, film and television were always two things I was drawn to. At the age of 2 I learned how to work the VCR so I could watch The Wizard of Oz on repeat for an entire day. By age 6, I memorized all of Peter Pan’s lines in both of his Disney animated movies. My life continued like that: Categorized and spliced out by whatever piece of media held my attention. I was enraptured by Pirates of the Caribbean and swooned over Twilight. When a book series I enjoyed got a horrible movie adaptation, I took it as a personal blow and rewrote my vision on sheets of notebook paper that would get hidden under my bed. Even then, I wouldn’t say I had developed a love for writing or felt drawn to perform. In fact, it wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school where I auditioned for the school’s Spring Play (Our Town) that I came to fully appreciate and understand the beauty of performance. Once that bug bit, I couldn’t get enough. My friends and I would shoot web series and minute long films, I competed state-wide in acting competitions and hosted performance nights at my school, I took summer courses and added a 7am class to my schedule in order to stay in acting classes. My love for the craft grew and I allowed it to grow into a passion as I entered my college years and pursued performance through sketch comedy, student theater, student film, and personal summer projects. As I entered my senior year at Florida State University, I stepped into the world of screenplay and started to write both my first pilot and my first feature film. After school, I was ready to jump head first into the world of entertainment, and while the emergence of COVID did slow down and shake up my initial plans, I never let the dream get snatched away from me as a whole.
My first job when I moved from Florida to California was an Executive Assistant position for season 3 of Love Island. While my interest wasn’t in post-production or reality TV, I was ecstatic to land my first role in entertainment and took the opportunity as a chance to see what interested me and what didn’t. From there, I landed a job as a talent assistant to an actress who then hired me for her following project. Between these jobs and after, I did a lot of work as a production assistant which afforded me more time on set understanding what and how much went into the behind the scenes. From commercial work to television to film, my understanding of this particular industry began to grow. From production assistant I moved on to background actor and had the opportunity to spend long hours on set as an actor. For the most part, I might be unseen in my roles but I gained an appreciation for the work it took to be on set in front of the camera: always having to be on, knowing your mark and following blocking, keeping up with scenes and wardrobe, sitting and waiting with the knowledge that you might be sitting and waiting for a long, long time. What stood out to me most about background acting though was how I never minded the long hours or odd locations or subpar food because I was ON SET. I was ACTING. I was doing exactly what I always said I would do when I made it out to Los Angeles, California.
With all of this and more under my belt along with the knowledge of a stagnant industry, I took it upon myself to make my next move: Write and star in my own short film. What started as a clunky and unsure script and college had transformed – through several writing workshops – into a strong final draft of my short film “Let It Breathe.” With the connections I had made throughout my time in California, I was able to build a team of strong creatives who were eager to help me bring my story to life.
I think that last part is something I’m most proud of – building community through art. In all honesty, I think what sets me apart from other people, and bear with me as I try not to sound like an ass, is my interest in the person and not what the person can do for me. I had people on this project who were seasoned vets in their roles and I had people who were trying a position for the first time. The length of career didn’t matter to me as much as the willingness someone brought or the kindness in communication. When you’re working with so many moving pieces to bring a film to life you have to know how to communicate to everyone, both from a general and individual standpoint. My priority is to make people feel welcome when they walk into a room, any room. If you’ve been assigned a job, then I believe you are the expert in that position. I want to uplift artists, I want to hear their stories and support them when the time comes for it to be seen. Really, I just want everyone to have their shot and if I can provide that through my projects or recommending them to someone else if I have nothing then I’ll be overjoyed.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
You cannot achieve it all on your own. It doesn’t matter what the end goal is, you have to lean on your support and you have to trust that the people you surround yourself with are capable of doing the work you’ve given them. During pre-production on “Let It Breathe” I was juggling several tasks as one of the film’s producers: paperwork and last minute castings and filling crew positions, etc. After one meeting with our DP, producer, director and myself, my director called me right after it ended and asked, “How are you doing?” At first, I tried to play it off and say all was good and I felt great but when I was met with silence on the other end of the line I admitted, “I’m really stressed,” to which my director responded, “Yeah, I can tell.” She called me from a place of love and worry to let me know that I didn’t need to do it all on my own. I was allowed to delegate, to say “I’m overwhelmed,” to ask for help. It’s a conversation that held so much weight for me at the time and it’s a conversation I’m constantly having with myself. Your pride will stand in the way of ease and opportunity and fulfillment. If you can’t ask for help at the beginning of your career, you won’t be able to ask for help at the end of your career (because you probably won’t make it there at all!)
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The connections. Every project is an opportunity to get to know someone new and I find that endlessly exciting. I know people from high school who I’m still eager to create with or sit with for a movie or a meal. At the same time, I have friends who I didn’t meet until I moved to California who are real and genuine friends that were happy to PA for my short or mention my name in a room without expecting anything in return. I think it’s important to network and show yourself and your work off but it is far more important to connect as humans who are ecstatic about art – that’s where you’re going to find your inspiration.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://scb16c.wixsite.com/summercbenson
- Instagram: @sometimescy
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/summer-benson-04bbbb30b/
