Who Is Ben Gaudet? Interview and review of Rebirth

     Some of you might be familiar with this super young buck from Canada. He made a pretty big splash with Blew. A short that can hang up there with some of the far more known titles. He has been putting in some serious work over the past year or so. So today I would like to help get his work a little bit more attention. So lets check out his most recent short Rebirth!

    

    Rebirth with a run time of 32 mins and stars Ben as all the characters. The synopsis from the back of the DVD  pretty much tells you everything you need to know. A serial killer takes his life one day, a few years later a guy decides to bring the killer on back to the land of the living. And as one could imagine, chaos ensues. Im quite impressed with Ben's ability to do everything involved at such a young age and do it as well as some other decent indie filmmakers twice his age. There are somethings that plague this production, mainly audio and looking at the camera. However they are very forgivable given the fact that a kid under the age of 15 did EVERYTHING! The end of the movies gives up all that gory goodness than Ben is a fan of. Gallons of squirting blood, a decapitation and so on and so forth.

      While Rebirth isn't as good as Blew in the storytelling department, he is showing his improvement with all other aspects of filming. He showed us he can do a good story in previous projects so I have complete faith that his end products will get better and better overall with each film he does. 

      While Rebirth on DVD was a very limited run of 15 and is OOP, fear not. Most of his projects, including Blew and Rebirth, are all available to view free of monies on his YouTube channel. The link to it will follow the interview I was able to do with Ben. Just keep scrolling ya doofus.

An Interview With Ben Gaudet

Some Guy:

So let's start with the glaring fact that you're pretty young. How old are you?

Ben:

I’m 14

Some Guy:

Jesus lol when I was 14 i was glued to the couch. How long have you been actively filming?

Ben:

I started filming movies when I was 8 in 2014, but I actually got serious about it when I shot blew a year ago.

Some Guy:

You more or less were born with a camera in your hand huh? Lol. Blew is where I and I imagine most of the rest of us became aware of you. Where did the idea for Blew come from? That's a subject most younger folks aren't really too aware of, so im curious where that idea was born from.

Ben:

I’m actually not quite sure where the idea came from, I really wanted to try to make another gore film so I started brainstorming ideas. I really wanted to make a movie about the downfall of a persons sanity due to drugs, because I had just found out about the film Requiem For a Dream, an was really blown away by it, I had never seen anything like it, the editing style and just the darkness of the movie. So I kind of thought of a plot that somewhat resembles it, but with lots of gore.

Some Guy:

I love the fact that you're a gorehound at such a young age lol it's also nice to have a filmmaker looking at films that have been out for so long with a fresh set of eyes. When you say 'I had just found out about Requiem For A Dream...' That's not a sentence people my age are used to hearing lol. I love that you are still able to get the rush of creativity from films that the majority of us have long since but aside from a creative stand point. That being said it shows that you really love the older grindhouse style horror movies. Where did your enjoyment of those spawn from?

Ben:

I got into horror when I was around 4, with the Friday the 13th franchise. Then later I started watching stuff like the burning, which I really liked the gore in. After that I found out about the video nasties and Italian horror, after that I found out about shot on video horror films, with the first film I saw being Mark and John Polonia’s classic Splatter Farm. After that I got into under ground splatter and German gore.

Some Guy:

German Gore is certainly the where the gold is. You do most everything there is to do in the film making process. Are there certain parts that really irritate you? Or for the most part do you find you enjoy doing it all?

Ben:

I think that filming by myself is pretty easy for the most part, but I think I would like to have a crew because that way I could get better shots and make it easier for me to pump the blood and film at the same time. But, I think I do enjoy being by myself, for example, not having to worry about when my actors and crew are available, and not having to write a script most of the time.

Some Guy:

Right? Being a one man show has its pros and cons for sure. When figuring out your effects for the first time did you find it as easy as you had hoped or where there alot of problems you found along the way? I've always been interested in SFX but it always seemed so time consuming to me.

Ben:

Special effects have had many problems on the set of my films. For example, the scene in blew where the kid cuts his own leg off was exposed to have lots of squirting blood, but it was so cold the blood in the tubing froze. I’ve never done molds yet, and I don’t know how to do them, and from what I’ve seen, they look like there pretty time consuming.

Some Guy:

Being from Canada I can imagine that sometimes the cold can really throw a wrench into the damn works. So lets talk about Rebirth. When did the idea for that come about?

Ben:

Tantrum by James bell, I watched that movie and wanted to make something similar with more of a slasher theme.

Some Guy:

James Bell is a name that I hear constantly from folks when it comes to their inspiration. It's certainly no surprise that his films rubbed off on you lol. How long of a process was it from idea to when it was ready for release?

Ben:

About maybe two to three weeks, because I had to gather the materials (dvd-rs and empty packages to ship them in) and I had to print the artwork

Some Guy:

Overall how do you feel this project turned out? Was there anything you wish you had worked on more?

Ben:

Yup, the sound mixing and the sound effects, and maybe a bit on the plot as well.

Some Guy:

Do you ever find yourself worrying too much on one particular part of the process? Or do you just tend to move on at a certain point?

Ben:

I definitely worry about little things in the movie, and some things I don’t even notice until I’ve completely finished the film.

Some Guy:

Is this something you plan on turning into a career at some point? Or do you think that would take alot of the fun out of it? Or is that even something on your mind at this point?

Ben:

It’s not really on my mind at the moment, I think I would love to go to a film school, or at least take film classes in college or university or something.

Some Guy:

Well I for one certainly look forward to what you can do with your talent in the coming years. How do your friends and family react to your stuff?

Ben:

For the most part they like it, my parents don’t like me making big messes with fake blood around the house, and my friends like it too, I really hope they can act in one of my films soon.

Some Guy:

Tell your parents I said it was fine. I got a face they can trust lol. Have you written anything with your friends in mind? Or do you have anything planned for the near future?

Ben:

I’m actually starting production on my next film within the next few weeks, and I have another idea planned which incorporates my friends.

Some Guy:

Anything you can tell us about your next project?

Ben:

I can tell you that it’s probably going to be my goriest film ever, and it’s going to have better production quality.

Some Guy:

I love hearing that! So one last question, lots of us define a certain decade as being the golden age of horror. My age group tends to look fondly on the 80s. My younger brothers say 90s/ early 2000s. How about you? What decade do you feel did horror the best?

Ben:

Probably the 80s to the early 2000s, tons of classic horror films where made in that time span, pretty much all of my favorites were made during that time.

There you have it folks. Check out all his shorts on the BrokenVHS - YouTube channel, you wont be dissapointed. Trust me, I'm Some Guy.