Ben Withington

As part of a military family, my formative years were spent between eastern North Carolina, urban Japan, and the dairy farm country of upstate New York. The contrasts I witnessed in cultural story and landscape between these worlds informed my love of filmmaking's ability to explore vast ideas through aesthetic means.

My start into composition and visual storytelling came during college where I practiced black and white 35mm street photography in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After producing web-spots for college admissions and photographing an ambitious music video for the band "Summer Dregs", I graduated with an English degree and took a summer intro course in filmmaking for the sole purpose of fulfilling a final credit. There my teacher, cinematographer Gregg Easterbrook (Wicked Blood, The Killing Jar) urged me to apply to graduate school.

I received my MFA in Media Studies/Film Production from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where I garnered a reputation for atmospheric lighting and dynamic composition. I have experience with shooting in digital as well as motion picture film, and have managed both single and multi-cam setups.

I am always looking for ways to push my knowledge and practice of the medium.

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I have experience editing in FCP7, FCPX, and Adobe Premiere Pro in conjuction with After Effects using dynamic link. I have also done extensive work with various workflows that use combinations of these systems using XML translation.

In the world of budget DSLR filmmaking, I like to push the camera as much as I can. I have hacked and graded footage from many of the Canon line including the 5D Mark 3 (in conjunction with 3rd party picture profiles), and the Panasonic GH2. I also have experience with professional camcorders such as the Panasonic HVX 200 and the Canon XF 300.

I do my own sound design, ADR, and mixing using a combination of both the given NLE's built-in capabilities and Cakewalk's Sonar Producer X1.

I am very comfortable with working across different OSs, having converted my personal computer into a dual-boot hackintosh that runs both Windows and OSX.

I am trained in location sound mixing, knowing my way around the Sound Devices 722, boom operation, wireless troubleshooting, battery distribution, and time-code management.

I also know how to solder and use the skill in PCB board repair as well as in creating my own TR, TRS, and XLR cables.