benjamin kearney

Benjamin Kearney is a director and editor based in London, working across narrative, documentary, commercial and music video.

work

Step Out Mentoring

documentary

A short documentary for charity Step Out Mentoring, telling the story of two mentor–mentee pairs.

As director, my focus was helping everyone, especially mentees aged 9 and 11, feel relaxed enough to speak openly on camera. Our shoot day with Ankur and David began with a kickabout. We put on some Brazilian samba, brought out our best joga bonito, and before long there was no line between crew and contributors, just teammates.

As editor, my responsibility was to do justice to these powerful stories of formative friendship. I intercut the two stories to draw out their shared themes: the joy of simple time together, learning that flows both ways, and a sense of belonging that outlasts the mentoring year.

The film premiered at Step Out's annual fundraiser and continues to support the team's funding applications.

watch Step Out Mentoring on youtube

Speak of the Devil

commercial

Character reveal vignettes for the theatre production Speak of the Devil.

Each vignette is a single, simple frame of one actor. The train carriage setting ties into the play’s plot, and the sound design and performances mirror its otherworldly, distressing tone.

The campaign helped the play sell out its two-week run.

watch Speak of the Devil on youtube

Game

narrative

A short film starring Lanre Danmola, playing twins on their way to a night out. They look identical but couldn’t be more different.

Directing from Raphael D’Cruz’s script was an exciting challenge to bring two characters to life with just one actor.

As editor, I had two main problems to solve. The first was cutting scenes where one actor plays both roles so they hold up as a real conversation between two people. The second was that the story was hard to follow without more exposition. We added a voicemail at the start to set things up, and recorded ADR to make clearer what’s at stake.

watch Game on youtube

Everest Challenge

documentary, commercial, Specialized x Red Bull x BRINK

Imagine cycling up the height of Everest, but in a Scottish storm. A collaboration between BRINK and Specialized UK, with support from RedBull. Capturing this across 8 cameras with a very small production crew, and editing the footage and recap interviews was a great lesson in finding the story in the (sometimes) mess of documentary production.

watch Everest Challenge on youtube

The Story of Ifefinch

documentary

about

I'm a director and editor drawn to stories that feel lived in.

I work across narrative, commercial and documentary.

For work or a chat: hi@benjaminkearney.com

Based in London.