Meet Ben Goldsmith of Venice

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Goldsmith.

Hi Ben, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Born in Marina Del Rey to a wealthy Hollywood family
Grew up in the valley listening to ‘Sublime’
Parents divorced at age 8 due to an abusive alcoholic and narcissistic father
I became funny as the fat kid who made the bullies laugh. Defense to offense.
My mother raised me and my brother, traveling for work and sacrificing a lot
I wet the bed until 16, then went to UCLA majoring in Musical Theater but got my BA in theater film and television; spending most of my time on the Comedy Circuit; stand up at The Comedy Store, Improv at ‘The Improv Space’ and the ‘Groundlings’, and at UCLA on ‘Company’ like SNL of UCLA.
Focused on ‘storytelling’, I’ve filled my life with stage performances.
In company as a performer, I saw the writers gained power through opportunities for others, but directors had the camera’s and said what they ‘could or could not’ shoot. So they had the final say on either getting it done and making things happen.
So the next year on ‘Company’ I wrote the most scripts and got the most parts, and then the following year graduated got a camera and started filming, editing, and producing bar mitzvah video’s and wedding video’s.
Now I had sound equipment, now I had camera’s, lenses, and abilities to edit and package stories for families and clients and more confidence that I could start doing that for myself.
In 2013 Dumb Owl Productions was created to be a place where ‘stories with heart and humor’ could infiltrate the oversaturated marketplace of bland comedy and heartless art. It’s an ’employee owned’ company meaning any collaborator that’s ever come into contribute gets a point of equity in the company. All points are equal, all job functions are equal, honoring each actor, writer, editor, PA, producer, or anyone who comes to support the story. And now, after producing over one thousand video’s for YouTube, 2 Telly Awards, 1 Streamy nomination, and building Dumb Owl’s brand identity, we’re currently still barely existing, never producing a profit or ‘going viral’. Despite that desire for most to do that, we are focused on cultivating our craft, creating new original stories that we believe in, all while working in the restaurant industry to finance the whole thing. *Which we’re also writing about as an author ~ 3 books.
This all might sound a bit hectic, it is, however it’s exactly what I wanted to create for myself; a life full of challenges that are self fulfilled and increase in their complexities and inclusion of various voices.
Dumb Owl should exist without me, should be something that is carried on by the storytellers who stay committed to excellent storytelling and who celebrate their silly.
Thanks for your time and consideration.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s all been smooth and coarse and rough all over. It’s supposed to be gritty and we’ve never felt like we’ve succeeded in any monetary or financial gains type of way, we celebrate the opportunity to continue to create under the circumstances we face; using my job in the restaurant industry to finance the production company’s slow growth. It feels like a ‘churning butter’ situation. The longer it takes, I’m sure the better the cream.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As a ‘storyteller’ my art comes through various mediums; music, films, web-series, books, even dance and choreography. Uncovering myself through these various ways to channel, I’ve had a chance to deeply process some of life’s greatest mysteries; love and pain. Joy and sorrow. My anger and its combustible power is something that has fueled a lot of the discovery. Why feeling certain ways create certain outcomes of behavior; allowing them to re-emerge as another communication of how it feels to live.
I want to make musical film’s like “Sublime” the biopic. Musicals have a way to be either the greatest, singe closest experience to feeling as much as life packed into a committed space where people agree to sing and make sound, dance and move, and share their thoughts and feelings. If it’s good, it’s the best thing around, and if it’s anything less than that, it’s the worst thing on this planet.
I like that, a little tightrope of either it works or it doesn’t. Weaving that story would be my dream come true.

What does success mean to you?
To create more projects.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dumbowlproductions.com
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Benjaja