Ben Floss shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Ben, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
I like to work outside of work. I write, I plan, I learn stuff- I get to mess up without job stress. There aren’t expectations except mine. I’m fortunate to have fun with what I do. Making movies and working in media is both a hobby and a job.
I also play ice hockey as a goalie. That’s non-Ben time. I’m not there, there is only goalie. See puck, stop puck, make skaters mad. It isn’t quite disassociating, but it’s a little break from being me and simply playing a role. That and its good socializing. Good dude time.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Ben Floss. I’m 6’20”, banned from most zoos, and can see around corners.
I run the production company Mega Blood Moon. Everyone who has helped, is helping, or will help with our movies is threateningly good looking, especially in the moonlight.
Mega Blood Moon makes horror movies with an emphasis on delivering fun over everything else.
Our first film, Mega Blood Moon: The Freelancer, came out earlier this year on Amazon, Tubi, Google Play, and Youtube Movies. We shot it in secret, with no script, no money, no schedule, with mostly only 3 people, a lot of literal blood, sweat, and tears- and it’s 73 minutes of honest entertainment.
Now we’re getting to work on the next one. It’ll have more planning, and an actual script, but golly gosh is it going to be just as fun.
I’m intensely proud of the work that’s been done and that’s coming down the pipe. We have’d stupid, we does fun, we surprise with solid plot structure and a short runtime. We want our movies pops out at you like an Italian anarchist at the Pan-American Expo (1901), except it results in fun instead of Theodore Roosevelt.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
My Mom and Dad. In a very realistic way, that they were able to communicate to me succinctly.
“Ben, you’re weird. Some people will get you, others will not like you because you are weird- but you’re weird. Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s bad. Just be you…and don’t be a pecker head.”
They’ve always been very supportive of me, and that feels great, and I feel very loved.
When did you last change your mind about something important?
Back in 2021 something happened to me. You aren’t going to be given the details.
Before then, I had hangups about whether or not I was an “artist”. Nothing I made felt like art. It was all fun and I was happy with how it turned out, but I was unbalanced between what I liked making, and what I thought I should make.
I wanted to be taken seriously. Desperately wanted that. But it never felt like what I was doing could get me to that direction. I had to make something beautiful, and serious, but what I like to make, and be marketable.
I wanted to be seen as a serious artist. I wanted to see me as a serious artist.
2021.
I no longer give a rotten copper f**k about being seen as a “serious artist”. I see me as me, and I work on the things I want to work on, because they’re important to me. If people see what I do as serious, or take it seriously, good for them.
I take me seriously, and I don’t care if others do. That’s made my work and my art my own.
Turns out, people like it.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
I used to believe that hard work pays off. It doesn’t. Not for me. Not on it’s own. Blunt force hard work paying off is suicidal on it’s own.
I spent years with insomnia working through sleepless nights as hard as I could on- I don’t even remember anymore. I spent years putting 100% into jobs and workplaces, but never moved upward. I spent years believing that if I just kept working, always working, that I would get better at what I wanted to do. And it didn’t.
What did work was allowing myself to try and breathe. Allocation pays off. Prioritizing pays off. Letting go pays off.
The serenity prayer in AA is really the best summary of this, but I’ll summarize in a less secular way:
Accept that there are things you have no power over, put energy into the things that are within your power, and know the difference between what you can and cannot control.
Apply direction and function to hard work to give it structure, but accept at a certain point that it’s out of your hands. Working harder does not mean quality work. It means more work made harder.
Nowadays, I break things up and work on them more thoughtfully and piecemeal. I do still have 18 hour sprints of work, but its out of inspiration rather than desperation. Out of curiosity even. I enjoy it.
Jobs are a lot less stressful when you focus on your task and know it isn’t worth outworking other people. Competition I guess would be a counter point, but I’m not competitive.
I still work very hard, but it’s for me, and I take smoke breaks.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Are you tap dancing to work? Have you been that level of excited at any point in your career? If so, please tell us about those days.
For Mega Blood Moon I get to work with some of my best friends to write dumb jokes for silly horror movies.
We all help each other come up with ideas for the kinds of movies we love watching, and love to make.
Even in more stressful times, talking budgets or outreach or marketing, I’m still doing this with people I love in the way I love doing it.
I love working for my company. It’s stressful, the company is small, and the budgets are insanely tight- but those are challenges. Me and my gaggle of dickheads get to play roughhouse, film it, and send it to the unwashed masses like slop to a trough.
I’m Gene Kelly every day that I work for me, especially when it’s raining.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://megabloodmoon.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanguinemoonbase/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572909624657
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SANGUINEMOONBASE
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/7sS8O1sjobYlbynEu7pFak
Image Credits
Michael Lipton, Jun Shimizu, and Brian Nolte
