We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brenton Bent a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brenton, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

Since the beginning, my goal has always been to be as influential as possible in my art. To leave such an impact on my audiences that they walk away from what they’ve just watched having a new found perspective or outlook on their lives or their ideologies or even on the world around them.

Six years in and little has changed in at regard. I have had the pleasure of meeting many other creatives since I became a director. They’ve inspired me just as much as I’ve inspired them and I could only hope that they will remember and speak on that even after I’m gone. The impact both I and my works have left on them.

Brenton, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a narrative film director. I tell stories that are steeped in spectacle, morality, and environmental acknowledgement in all manors of genres and storytelling mediums.

Back in 2015 I felt I had to decide what I wanted to do with my life. I knew whatever it was it would have to be something both fun and meaningful as so that I could stick to it and never feel to forced or burdened by it while at the same time feeling a looming guilt and boredom should I ever step away from it for too long.

The sciences were my identity for years prior. Everyone, myself included, thought that I would become a paleontologist or biologist but after being in grade school for so long I knew I could never excel enough in academics to achieve that dream. I had also built up a background for myself in Horticulture, having years of experience working in greenhouses and caring for various plants. Sure it involved my interests and opportunities of dispreading environmental messages, but I knew deep down that it was very limiting and my ambitions and goals would easily surpass my my resources. I felt being stuck in a greenhouse would stifle my potential and I didn’t want that. I wanted to do something that I could expand on while I achieved my goal of letting people know about the world they lived in and therefore influencing their decisions.
Fortunately, I also dabbled in video editing. Simple cuts with music out of windows live movie maker on the good olé windows 7 laptop. It was fun, broad, and felt like it could cover whatever I needed it to so long as I had the footage to match. With that, I attended the Art institutes to further my knowledge and skill of filmmaking. In 2018 the school I attended closed on account of the college itself failing, but not before I graduated with a BFA degree in digital film and video production along with two films to show for and my first company under my belt. From there it was a true legendary roller-coaster to get to where we are now.

Today, B Sinima serves as a major media group and motion picture company dealing with story-rooted visual art in Film, Photography and Books. Our Clients range from small businesses and partnering production companies to larger corporations and organizations with aligning values that have a dope and amazing story to tell through films.

When we collaborate with others brands and companies, or when our viewers watch one of our narrative films, I just want them to know and recognize why we do all that we do. Being able tell my own stories and push to influence the evolving zeitgeist is an amazing opportunity to utilize everyday. But, having the ability to then take someone else’s inspirational story and reflect that back out toward the masses is equally fulfilling. Knowing I’m able to positively influence people and knowing that so many will be inspired, intrigued, or just better off in life is why I work so hard to achieve the ambitious goals I carry in this medium.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Something I always thought and believed was that once I created my own company that it would be in competition with everyone else doing the exact same thing. And so I thought “fine, lets be the best in the area”. Not only was I a brand new video company that had no sort of leads, no network, or barely any resources compared to the other commercial branded video productions in the city, But on top of that I wasn’t even a legitimate business in the eyes of the IRS, with no LLC, website, or even social media to present my services to potential clients. And even after starting to build up those things and learn how to play the game, I still carried the mentality of competition equals success. That is until I graduated college.

After college, my world shrank and grew at the same time. A lot of people who helped me build this business suddenly moved out of town or shifted priorities so I was more or less alone when it came to being able to create content at the scale I could before. However I started meeting more and more people directly tied to the film industry. Through them I learned that everyone in this field don’t have all their resources and that everyone is building towards a similar goal. This realization brought me to the decision to start valuing collaboration with others over competition and its a concept I’ve carried with me in every project moving forward. Sharing resources and collaborating on all types of different projects, bringing on others to collaborate on projects that I create within my own company, I don’t regret switching to that mindset one bit. Its far more beneficial for everyone involved.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

This may come as a surprise but I wish I knew about the potential of live in-person screenings for films when I first started. I had films that I didn’t know what to do with after they were done, I never learned how distribution worked so they’d end up sitting on YouTube gathering dust. After I saw how wasteful it was I spent two years researching on my own how to properly get my films viewed by new audiences.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bsinima.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bsinima/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bsinima/
• Linkedin: https://in.linkedin.com/company/b-sinima?trk=public_profile_experience-item_profile-section-card_image-click
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/B_Sinima
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwJaCAtByJ0mPVQ34vDsEhQ
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10433057/