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By July 27, 2024 (San Diego) – For a filmmaker, making your first full-length feature film is a milestone worthy of celebration upon its own merits. It usually has meant years of short films, social media clips, and late-night editing sessions that slowly builds your confidence to finally take the plunge and produce a 90-to-120-minute story.
But it’s a whole different celebration when that same first-time feature film sweeps your premier home-town film festival and wins best picture, direction, writing, editing, lead actor, supporting actor, cinematography, and musical score.
That’s exactly where Benjamin Howard (no relation to this author) finds himself after his film “Riley” swept the San Diego Film Awards this past June.
“It was a dream come true,” Howard acknowledged when he spoke to East County Magazine recently.
A product of Valhalla High in El Cajon, Howard wrote and directed the film primarily in East County, shooting the majority of scenes in the same locations he grew up in.
“I loved growing up in East County,” Howard recounts, “the friends that I made, the things that I experienced – it was just so much fun to come back and bring something to life in a place that meant so much to me.”
Filmed in April of 2022, Howard found himself reliving many of his childhood and teenage memories.
“I would take girls on dates at Parkway Plaza Mall, or go up to Mount Helix Park, and so as we were scouting these locations it was a really fun opportunity to relieve these moments with my [production] team,” he recalled.
It was many of those memories that compelled Howard to create this almost biopic coming of age story detailing the struggles of a high school football player navigating his sexuality, the expectations of himself and those around him.
“It’s a movie about relationships,” Howard explains, “it’s his relationships with his best friend, his teammates, his girlfriend, his parents, and his coaches. But most relevantly, it’s about his relationship with himself and learning who he is.”
After a moment, Howard summarized, “It’s a movie about just kind of celebrating living an authentic life and being kinder to yourself,” he revealed.
Drawing on his own struggles, Howard says he wrote the story in a way that could benefit others when viewing it.
“I made the movie that I would have benefited from seeing 10 or 12 years ago, when I was in high school,” he shares. “If I had seen this film, I would have told myself ‘OK, I'm not the only person going through this,’ and so we're hoping this film is seen by young questioning queer athletes and they can see a version of themselves in this film and understand they're not alone and things can be OK.”
Ironically, this wasn’t always the story line. Through the editing process, Howard says the original story became less relevant as the true lesson and theme emerged.
“The story that was shot on set was about this kid who lives under his dad’s shadow and he’s trying to come out from under him and make an impact,” Howard reveals. “But as the edit came together, that father-son story began making its way to the wayside and we were realizing this movie is about a kid and his relationship with himself, and not so much his dad.”
It should be noted that Howard’s dad is none other than San Diego’s own CBS Channel 8 sportscaster John Howard who contributed to the film in his own way.
“We shot the party sequence at his apartment – he moved out for a month and let the cast and crew stay there, so that was really pivotal and helped us get things made,” Howard laughed at the memory.
Now that the movie is made and awards given, Howard is pursuing distribution, so fans and the San Diego public should check his website windsorfilmcompany.com for updates of when it will be available for viewing.
And now onto the next project, which Howard says is a bit simpler than his first.
“It’s a character study of two ex-boyfriends but delves pretty quickly into a profound exploration of human connection,” Howard says, “but in order to do that they have to connect with themselves, and they’re locked in this apartment during the quarantine.”
With the past behind him, and the future bright, Howard reflected on what was important to say to his East County friends, family, and general public.
“My message would be, you don't really think that the kid from El Cajon in California is going to go make a movie,” Howard begins. “But that kid exists. And if that kid is in Grossmont or Granite Hills and they've got big dreams and ambitions, go try and make it into movies,” he said.
After a moment he finishes, “It will be an incredible journey for you.”
SOURCE
Howard, B. (2024, July 6). Writer, Director, Riley [Personal communication].
Poster Courtesy of Windsor Film Company. Movie poster for East County filmed movie Riley.
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