Benni Diez

Benjamin Diez,[2] better known as Benni Diez, is a German filmmaker and electronic musician, known for his darkly themed short films Pressure Bolt and Kingz, and his debut romantic horror comedy feature Stung.

Benni Diez
Born (1979-11-19) 19 November 1979
Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany
NationalityGerman
Alma materBaden-Württemberg Film Academy
OccupationFilm director, film producer, CEO, VFX Supervisor[1]
Years active2003-
Awards
Websitehttp://www.bennidiez.com/

Education and filmmaking career

Born in 1979 in Starnberg, Germany,[2] Diez developed a love for horror and science-fiction filmmaking in the early 1990s.[3][4] In a 2015 interview, Diez said: "I always felt like I'm a filmmaker at heart. I always made my own movies when I was young."[5] He began teaching himself computer animation when he was fourteen, using "the very first computer animation program."[6]

Diez worked for agencies and production companies in Bavaria, and made his own videos before enrolling at Baden-Württemberg Film Academy, in Ludwigsburg, in 2002, specialising in visual effects and animation.[3][4] He said the video Bullet – Highway Patrol (2002), made in three days "from idea to finished clip", was what got him into the academy.[7]

Student filmmaker (2002–2007)

Diez had chosen his area of specialisation knowing it was rare that a directing student "could make sci-fi and horror films"; he "consciously chose effects" despite this, and, "I was lucky enough to do whatever I wanted and still direct live action stuff for my projects."[8]

Making genre films always interested me, and it's sometimes hard, especially in Germany, when you study directing, to do crazy genre stuff. You try to go the more serious, dramatic way, which is not wrong, but would have been wrong for me. So I deliberately decided to study effects because I knew I could still direct my own stuff.[5]

Short films

During his first year at the film academy,[9] Diez collaborated with fellow student Marinko Spahić[10] on a short mixed live action animation film titled Druckbolzen (Pressure Bolt, 2003),[11] starring Benjamin Biehn and made for €250.[12] The short played at several European international film festivals, winning an award at Aubagne[13] for sound in 2003, and the Shine Award at Bradford, for technical innovation in 2004.[9] Ain't It Cool News called Pressure Bolt "stunning" and "quite possibly the best film ever made for under five hundred bucks".[14] Diez teamed with Biehn again, as screenwriter, to make a short comic horror movie titled Martha (2004) starring Monika Manz and Hermann Schevtschenko.[15] Diez and Spahić collaborated again in 2004 on a short science fiction film, 90 Grad Different, starring Steffen Wink.[16] That summer, they began their third and longest project together, a thesis film,[17][18] an alien invasion thriller with hip hop and gangster rap motifs; the title, Kingz (2007) is derived from hip hop slang.[10] The twenty-minute film stars Mathis Landwehr and pop music stars Bela B, Olli Banjo, and Claire Oelkers, and features martial arts, swordplay, and gunfighting.[19] It was shown at international film festivals, winning Best Short Film at Trieste S+F in 2008[20] and a Méliès d'Argent in 2009.[21] Todd Brown praised the cinematography and called Diez "an effects god"; the film "fuses a bit of gang culture with bits of horror, scifi, and martial arts action and does it all remarkably well... Landwehr gets time to show his moves and the whole thing just fits together beautifully and cries out to be made into a feature."[18] Five years later, Brown recalled: "that short was far and away one of the best I saw in that year, an amazing blend of scifi, action and horror elements that made me a fan for life."[22]

Commercial work

While studying, Diez did postproduction work on films and advertisements for, among other brands, Festina, Audi, Bosch, and Snickers.[11]

Kingz Entertainment CEO (2007–2011)

After graduating with a diploma in visual effects and animation,[8] Diez served as CEO for the Cologne-based production company founded for and named after Kingz from 2008 to 2011.[4] Kingz Entertainment provides visual effects for commercials (for Toshiba and Shell, among others).[11] Diez reused footage from an advertisement made for the International Film School Cologne, Keine billigen Tricks (2009),[23][24] to create a new short of his own, Space Chase.[25]

Noncommercial work for which Diez provided editing or visual effects included zombie web series Viva Berlin!,[26][27] Marissa Maghavipata's short film Singularity,[28] and feature films, notably Lars von Trier's Melancholia.[4]

There's a handful of shots where Kiefer Sutherland and his son construct this little wire thing, where they look into the sky, onto the approaching planet, and they create a circle out of wire so they can compare the size and can determine how fast it's approaching. We did a few of those shots because everything behind that wire had to be rotoscoped out and the planet had to be put in, which are fairly small shots, but they were quite difficult to do because pretty much everything had to be painted out and replaced by another background planet. But it was a fun little job, and it was for a great movie.[5]

In 2011, Diez decided that working on commercials took too much time away from being a filmmaker, and left the company to go back to freelancing and pursuing his own projects.[10]

Debut feature
Main article: Stung (film)

When Benni Diez read Adam Arresty's script for Stung, it "called" to him, "on a few very profound levels, mainly to my inner child that watched Alien way too young and got messed up in the brain by it a little bit."[5]

I knew if I was ever going to do a feature film, this was going to be my first, because it's just perfect. It has every element I love about drama. It has the scope where I would dare start really directing actors. Because it's not an ensemble with a dozen characters that have a lot of nuance, it's very compact.[29]

The project took about three and a half years to complete.[29] Stung is a 2015 German-American independent romantic comic horror film starring Matt O'Leary, Jessica Cook, Lance Henriksen, Clifton Collins Jr., Cecilia Pillado and Eve Slatner.[6][8][30]

Projects in development

Diez has been named variously as a producer or co-director for the third installment of the Skyline series, Skylines, currently in production with release anticipated in 2020.[31][32][33]

Musical career

Diez has been making his own electronic music since about the same time he started making films.[34][35]

Filmography

Short noncommercial films and videos
  • Buck Bölkers (1995)[11]
  • Bullet – Highway Patrol (2002)
  • Pressure Bolt (2003)
  • Martha (2004)
  • 90 Grad Different (2004)
  • Kingz (2007)
  • Bronko Bros. (2008) • concept trailer
  • Space Chase (2009)

Feature films
  • Stung (2015)
  • Skylines (2020)

References
  1. "Benni Diez". Xing. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  2. "Benni Diez". Rate Your Music. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  3. "Benni Diez Animation". filmakademie-alumni.de (in German). Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  4. Brunner, Wolfgang (interviewer). "Diez, Benni (Regisseur)". Film-Besprechungen (in German). Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  5. Buckley, Heather (interviewer) (6 July 2015). "Exclusive: Director Benni Diez Talks Stung's Cast, Influences, Road to Directing, and More". Dread Central. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  6. Price, Jason. "Stung: director Benni Diez on the buzz surrounding his directorial debut". Icon vs. Icon. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  7. "Bullet - Highway Patrol". Vimeo. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  8. Logan, Elizabeth (interviewer). "Meet the 2015 Tribeca Filmmakers #17: Benni Diez Hopes His Audience Will Go Home and Make Love After Seeing 'Stung'". IndieWire. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  9. "Low-budget short wins Shine award". 4rfv.co.uk. 4RFV International Broadcast News. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  10. "Bio". bennidiez.com. Archived from the original on 28 August 2018. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  11. "Archive of films Stung / Stung". kviff.com. Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  12. Brown, Todd (15 March 2008). "ScreenAnarchy Exclusive! Stellar German Short DRUCKBOLZEN Online!". Screen Anarchy. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  13. "Festival International du Film d'Aubagne Film - Music - Professionnal meetings". aubagne-filmfest.fr. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  14. "AICN & TWITCH present our International Eye Candy Column with: FEDOT, DRUCKBOLZEN, CHIKO, RED BARON, EVANGELION, and more!!". Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  15. "Martha". Vimeo. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  16. "90 Grad Different". Crew United. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  17. "Kingz Trailer (2007)". Vimeo. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  18. Brown, Todd (17 February 2008). "Germany Goes Genre Happy With KINGZ". Screen Anarchy. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  19. Felton, Jude. "Kingz (2007)". The Lair of Filth. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  20. "Trieste Science+Fiction 2008". Trieste Science+Fiction Festival. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  21. "Kingz". www.melies.org. European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  22. Brown, Todd (22 October 2013). "The Giant Wasps Are Flying! STUNG Wraps First Day Of Shooting!". Screen Anarchy. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  23. "Keine biligen Tricks". Crew United. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  24. "ifs Cologne". Vimeo. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  25. "Space Chase". Vimeo. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  26. "Interview: Benni Diez, Benjamin Munz und Daniele Rizzo (2015)". reealgeeks.de (in German). Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  27. "Viva Berlin VFX making of". Vimeo. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  28. "Singularity". Vimeo. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  29. Robinson, Tasha (interviewer) (24 April 2015). "Benni Diez on Stung's tender romance and messy giant mutant wasps". The Dissolve. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  30. "Bio". bennidiez.com. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  31. Golden, Lee B., III. "SKYLINES: Cha-Lee Yoon To Join Liam O'Donnell's New Sci-Fi Action Threequel [EXCLUSIVE]". Film Combat Syndicate. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  32. "Currently in production". Southbox Ent. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  33. "Skylines". Cinando. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  34. "Music". bennidiez.com. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  35. "Benni Diez". CD Baby. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
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