Founded in 1987, The Beguiling has set a new standard in Canada for comics and graphic novel retail. Showcasing the largest selection of alternative, underground and avant-garde graphic story telling in the country, The Beguiling has a worldwide reputation for excellence. Among the many accolades afforded the store, the most prestigious was the first-ever Will Eisner Spirit of Retailing Award for excellence in retailing.

In its long history The Beguiling sponsored many book launches, author signings, readings, and other comics events with legendary creators including Robert Crumb, Harlan Ellison, Jamie Hernandez, Neil Gaiman, Joann Sfar, and literally hundreds more. In 2003 several members of The Beguiling staff founded The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, bringing alternative and independent comics creators from around the world to Toronto to celebrate the best of comic art. Held every two years, the show continues to thrive, growing in size with each iteration.

Music is Brahms “Rhapsody, Op.79-2″

Video Shot & Edited by Benjamin Dickerson

This is a Demo Video I shot and Edited for Carbon, for the new JVC GY-HM700U. A professional HD Camera. The footage was shot up Hwy 118 near Bracebridge Ontario.

A Class of Its Own… The GY-HM700 combines JVC’s popular compact shoulder form factor with a new level of performance suitable for demanding applications in mainstream production, electronic newsgathering and cinematography. Add to that the convenience of solid state recording, the economy of widely available SDHC media, and the world’s fastest workflow, and it’s easy to see why the GY-HM700 is today’s most complete and versatile professional camcorder.

Carbon Sound and Picture is dedicated to providing the highest quality support for Post Production Professionals. We have technicians experienced in post production and broadcast hardware, software and workflows. Our status in the industry allows us access to top-level support contact at major vendors like Apple, Panasonic, Avid, AJA and many more.

Video by Benjamin Dickerson

This is the Little animation that could. A rejected little cartoon I started for the Rated R Art Show. This is the finished version I never bothered to post. The sound is rough, but the animation I found to be fun and worth sharing.

Teaser Trailer

My Role(s): Writer, DOP, Editor, Music (Co-Credit) and Director

Lindsay the AlchemistSynopsis: Lindsay is an abscess human laying within a margin only few of us would understand and she is changing. It is this change and the threat she feels it presents that catalyzes her decision of self-imprisonment. Equipped with only the bare essentials for survival and a camera to record the artifact of her struggle, which becomes a literal video diary of her battle with something larger and potentially greater than herself.
“Movies are regarded in the sequence of Mythology, Stories and Drama, as expressions of often obscure fantasies in the people among whom they are produced and diffused.” -Martha Wolfenstein and Nathan Leites. From “Movies: A Psychological Study”.
Lindsay the Alchemist is a 20 Minute exploration of a disease. Developed through a combination of medical, theoretical and heuristic research. With a lot of attention placed on the character and themes of isolation. The medical research was organized around symptoms of Schizophrenia. The symptoms and disease pattern the films narrative, as a kind of fictionalized case study is transposed into film. The sole character (Lindsay) is designed without application of our most common assumptions of gender, mental illness, sexual orientation and ethnicity. The ambition of this being to disseminate a compelling character story without perpetuating and condoning the misrepresentation of abject people through the continued marginalization and defamation of the individuals circumstance. Lindsay, is an undifferentiated Schizophrenic, this is the foundation for every movement throughout the film. Each scene constructed around how the character reinforces the Schizophrenic’s primary conflict (the core delusion or hallucination in which the Schizophrenic combats), with dialogue and incident contextualized through the variety of symptoms of Schizophrenia (i.e. disorganized thought, speech and behaviour; Alogia, avolition and social dysfunction)

Lindsay the Alchemist is a short film I wrote, shot, edited, directed and wrote music for. I know that seems like a lot. Part of the benefits of going to an art school is that through necessity you develop the habit of doing everything on your own. And by doing so, you get to dramatically expand your skill set. Lindsay the Alchemist is the marriage of all these acquired skills. By the same token, it’s the first time I was able to work with a professional actor in a collaborative and immersive way to really bring the character to life. So, I didn’t do everything myself

This is a teaser trailer for the film.