Award-winning Filmmaker, Cinematographer & Actor Johanan Benavides Explains How All Roles Support Storytelling
“Earning a prestigious award can be quite motivating because someone somewhere connected with your film, to the point of giving you an award. It can be extremely validating. Often, we actors, cinematographers and filmmakers work for days, weeks, months and even years before we see any results — before an audience or a festival jury watches your movie. But then to know that you helped ‘tell a story’ that resonated with audiences can give you the energy and motivation to continue another long haul.” — Award-winning Filmmaker, Cinematographer & Actor Johanan Benavides
Every year when the Awards season rolls by, scores of filmmakers, actors, directors and cinematographers, like Johanan Benavides, dream of winning something prestigious like an Academy or Golden Globe Award.
Indeed, Benavides, starred in, directed and wrote Engaño a Primera Vista (aka Deceit at First Sight), which became the most watched movie in Bolivia, and which also means the movie attracted a big audience. But, even though “Deceit” was Preselected for Best Picture, Best Editing and Best Sound Design at the PREMIOS PLATINO 2017 (Latino Oscars), Benavides also thinks beyond just winning awards:
“Many look up to the Oscars as the pinnacle of success in filmmaking, and it still holds tremendous value in the entertainment world. But, I’ve been more focused on filmmaking that’s made for audiences and not so much specifically for awards, because I find that the average movie goer truly determines the success of a film. And, yes, connecting with audiences and entertaining them does give me a special satisfaction. It’s one of the elements that provides purpose in my life.”
Are you not entertained?
The truth is, that be it a live audience, or home TV/streaming viewers or those in movie theaters, one axiom holds true — If there’s no audience, there just ain’t no show.
And, actor Benavides loves reaching out to all sorts of audiences and putting on a show. To date, his ever-growing resume teems over with acting credits in short and feature length films, TV shows and theatrical plays. For example, he performed in an upcoming holiday feature, Christmas Overtime, and also had a lead as brilliant inventor Nikola Tesla in the groundbreaking theatrical play, History On Wheels.
But he also continues to display his versatility, including being a voice actor, dubbing people’s voices for all sorts of video content into other languages. He explains: “I enjoy working at dubbing content from Spanish to English, from English to Spanish and from Portuguese to both Spanish and English. I continue to work at voice acting for TV drama series (like The Responder, Wreck and Teenage Kiss), and, also on feature films and documentaries. The TV programs have ended up on premium platforms like HBO, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Prime Video and Vix. And, I have all sorts of tips I’ve learned from the frontlines — like the ability to get into the job with little rehearsal and then doing voices quickly in different languages and changing tasks at any moment.”
Also from the filmmaking frontlines, Benavides makes himself indispensable as he has worked on producing, directing, writing, editing, cinematography and camerawork — the whole gamut. He explains how important his depth of knowledge is: “Having experience in different fields in the film industry has given me a better understanding of how to collaborate with the different teams on set and outside of the set, in order to bring my character to life.”
In fact, Benavides has worked as the cinematographer and cameraman on the short film, Disconexion, which was a winner in the New York at the Rochester International Short Film Festival. He recalls, “That Rochester festival meant a lot to us, and everyone treated us very kindly during that experience. I was about 20 when it happened and I still find motivation from it.”
So much so, that he looks forward to working with the likes of Oscar-nominated director/writer Christopher Nolan, suggesting, “For me, it’s all about the thought that goes into his writing and how he collaborates with the actors and his crew, more specifically, his cinematographer. I find he makes films that I not only enjoy watching but that I would enjoy making. I have a lot of respect for the intelligence and care with which he tells stories.”
Moreover, Benavides has worked as a cinematographer on international commercials for the Dakar Rally and Herbalife, and many other commercials for the National Power & Energy Co. Additionally, he’s worked as cinematographer and/or cameraman on various music videos, and numerous documentary short and feature length films.
A Bird’s Eye View
Just as exciting, he’s an aficionado of using drones, including on the “Hermanos Benavides” work on their Deceit at First Sight. He excitedly explains, “The aerial shots are all drones, not from a helicopter! I’m a drone pilot myself, and I actually flew the drone during the scenes where you see a drone in the movie, as well as the aerial shots in the film. I wanted the shots to look smooth, like they would in a chopper because I felt like that added some production value. My former hometown of La Paz city in Bolivia rests at about 12,000 feet and flying anything there is quite difficult. It took me months of planning and shooting to get all the shots the way we wanted them for our film. But I welcome such challenges.”
With his whole gamut of filmmaking skills from directing and also acting in movies, TV, theater, and commercials, to his work as a cinematographer, Johanan Benavides knows about the art of storytelling. He plans to continue, participating both in front and behind the camera, and expand to other areas in the entertainment industry, and he gives us insights into the roles of a diversified actor, cinematographer, director and overall filmmaker.
— Beyond performing in award-winning filmed projects, how does your voice acting add to what you bring to the table?
— I offer the ability to read efficiently in different languages and change tasks quickly. You’ll go from reading a phrase or sentence to looking at the timecode, then the clip playing on the screen then back to the timecode and then saying your line in sync with the character’s lips. Sometimes, you’ll do as many lines as you can take without missing a beat or making a mistake…You don’t really have a lot of time to rehearse. You got to be ready to record on the fly or maybe get a chance to go over your lines once or twice before your recorded performance. But I have a lot of fun because it’s a uniquely creative process and it keeps you on your toes.
— With that ability to speak several languages, how does that help you deal with multilingual projects?
— Another interesting aspect of dubbing a production into another language is that, counterintuitively, as a voice actor you’re not as concerned with sounding as close as possible to the original voice, as you are with giving a performance that both translates culturally to the language you’re recording…and it stays contextually true to the scene and character in the story. This means you don’t necessarily want to use the same intonations, cadence and nuances that the original actor used while speaking his lines, because those are largely pertinent to the culture of that language. Instead, you want to perform in a way that will be understood by the most amount in the culture(s) that speak in the translated language while, at the same time, maintaining the context of what the original voice and story are communicating. So, you end up with a more neutral and universal sound that most people will easily understand.
— How did you initially prepare to get into voice as opposed to performance acting?
— I remember when I walked into the dubbing studio for the first time for my voice acting audition, it was thrilling because even though I practically didn’t have any professional experience at the time, I had worked on my voice quite a lot before that. I had learned how to sing and perform onstage. I had dubbed a few lines for the feature film I directed and starred in, but more than that, I had always just played with my voice doing impersonations, standing in front of people and playing out movie trailers I made up on the spot and even mimicking the dubbed voice I would hear from the foreign films playing on TV in Bolivia. We would joke with my brother and perform made up dubs for friends and family, and people would ask for more. So, when I stepped into the booth for that first dubbing audition, I couldn’t wait to get in front of a microphone and get a chance to show what I had. Needless to say, I felt I hit it out of the park.
— You co-directed and wrote Engaño a Primera Vista (aka “Deceit at First Sight”), and have directed scores of commercials, YouTube videos and short films, but what’s the challenge of directing yourself as an actor?
— Acting and directing together is just as challenging as it sounds. Overall, it was fun, even if sometimes overwhelming. I also had a co-director, my brother Yecid, and at times we wouldn’t agree with some minor decisions, but the vision was always clear, and that made a huge difference. Additionally, my previous filmmaking experience — doing framing, lighting, blocking, scheduling, grip work, camera movement, editing, you name it — came in handy to make my acting process more efficient. Even though we had weeks of rehearsal as well as an acting coach, I didn’t have as much time to explore and prepare for the role as the other actors, so I had to be efficient. Then as a director, I knew what I was looking for in the acting, so there was no guesswork when I got in front of the camera. I could easily adapt to unexpected situations or the crew’s needs when acting, because I understood how everyone’s jobs were done and what they needed. It helped me better serve them and myself as an actor. On the other hand, the upcoming Christmas Overtime, which is a holiday movie to be released 2024, had a separate director on set which is a completely different experience than doing both directing and acting. Overall, you have more time to focus on the present, you’re more relaxed and able to share with the rest of the cast and crew. And if you get to work with a good director, they can direct you to a place you wouldn’t have taken yourself. And, that’s what I do when I direct projects myself.
— Can you explain the role of director of photography and how closely you work with a director?
— The cinematographer or director of photography (DOP) is in charge of lighting the film. Now, depending on the director, he may also need to design the shots and camera movements. In effect, a DOP is the director’s right-hand man when it comes to the visual storytelling aspect of the project. And, like with any collaboration, the more chemistry there is, the better. Even though the job requires a lot of skill and technical knowledge, as a cinematographer, you’re at the center of a creative process. A DOP is constantly creating and problem-solving because as much as he’s in charge of lighting every scene to look a particular way, he must also achieve this on time and within budget. There are many variables to each decision a DOP makes and a mistake could cost the production a lot of time or money. You have many people waiting for your direction so they, consequently, can do their job in a way that best serves the vision of the film. Teamwork and leadership can make it a lot easier and look better.
— You’ve been a director, writer and actor who all contribute to storytelling, but how does a DOP help drive a project’s story?
— Light is what allows us to see the world the way we see it and when it comes to films, this is just as true as in real life. One way a DOP contributes to the story is by shaping light, using different sources, colors, intensities, angles and many other elements to influence the way the audience perceives each setting, each character and every situation. Another element of cinematography that greatly contributes to every film is movement. You use time and space to determine what the audience sees and when they see it. It’s all a big magic trick that brings the screenplay to life.
— Give an example of how your own work as DOP helped enhance the story?
— I was the director of photography for Desconexion, a short film we produced and that my brother directed. One of the production’s goals was that the story should be understood by anyone in any country that spoke any language. So, even though the film had a fair amount of important dialogue in Spanish, it was incumbent upon me to make sure we were always taking care of that element in every decision we made, cinematographically speaking. In collaboration with the director, I created a sequence of shots, camera movements, and blocking and lighting that would communicate in a universal visual language that could carry the story on its own. We would later receive confirmation, when the film would screen to different audiences, that our objective was achieved. For the most part, people who watched the film and didn’t speak Spanish were still engaged by the film and enjoyed the story. The short would go on to win at the Rochester International Short Film Festival and be selected at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival.
— What other performing skills do you have to offer?
— I love doing close up magic, especially with cards. Like with live theater, I enjoy the connection you can build with people through magic. Obviously, the entertainment factor is attractive to me as well. But also like acting or filmmaking or any other storytelling, it’s all about engaging your audience. And, like they say, Without an audience, there ain’t no show.
Drop in on Johanan’s IMDb and Instagram pages. And check out the trailers for Deceit at First Sight and Disconexion.
