5 Questions With: Susan Benfatto

Posted December 9, 2009, 11:00 am in Movies
Credit Katy Widrick

Susan Noel Benfatto says she wants to make movies for people “her age.” So when she cast characters for her new movie, “Bingo Confidential,” she only looked for people 40 years old and older. Susan is not new to the business – she's been a producer for 20 years, including making music videos for Run DMC, Cyndi Lauper and The Oak Ridge Boys – but she's now focused on expanding the Growing Bolder message when it comes to entertainment. Back in 2005, Susan wrote and produced “Naughty or Nice,” a Christmas film for ABC/Disney starring comedian George Lopez, but this is Susan’s first feature film as a director.

We asked her to take part in our 5 Questions With series, and she jumped at the chance.

The premise: Ethel Bell has passed away, leaving $1 Million for one bingo game to be played in her honor! “Bingo Confidential” follows six quirky bingo-lovin' players as they head to the game - will one of them win - or will the greedy Bell relatives contest the will and stop the game?


1. What was your inspiration for the movie? What made you think it would be a story that could attract and engage a movie audience?

My inspiration came when I drove my friend's Mom to a bingo hall and walked her inside. Boy - what a shock! There were at least 100 people there of all ages and it was like one big social club. I thought she might win $25 and thought that was a sweet way to spend an evening. When I found out they could win $250 per game (now it's $500 in California!) I was very surprised - one of the best kept secrets I know of. But the real inspiration came when I spoke to the hall manager who told me that most all of bingo in the US was charitable based - the proceeds from the game went back into the community, but because of the larger casinos, the small halls were losing players. I thought the film might encourage new players to try the game at their local hall.

I think people like to laugh and right now people need to laugh. The film is not so much about bingo as it is about the 6 quirky, flawed characters on the same journey, headed towards the same place at the same time - getting to know them and hoping that your favorite wins the million dollars. I think audiences like competition, whether it's a football game or "Dancing with the Stars." It's very human to want to root for someone. Almost all of the actors are over 40 and I I wanted to make a film that could entertain people my own age and perhaps even inspire them to follow whatever dream or passion they may have or have had. It's never too late.

2. What are your goals for Bingo Confidential. What will make the project a success?

My goal for the film is to make everyone on the planet laugh. I do hope that after watching it, some might checkout their local bingo hall. It's really not what they remember, it's very fast paced, there are patterns to follow instead of straight & diagonal, so it isn't as easy as it used to be and the proceeds go to charity, so everyone wins. As a producer I needed to make a film that had a built-in audience, but as a director & writer I just want people to laugh and be entertained. When you watch the movie and you laugh - that's success.

3. What can you tell us about the story that did NOT make the final cut of the movie. Challenges? Bloopers? Funny behind-the-scenes antics?

I do have a behind the scenes commentary and out-takes on the DVD that is available on the website (Amazon only has the film) It really shows how it all came together. We shot through torrential rain, strong winds and one of the huge fires that frequent Southern California. We had no money for locations, so I just asked local neighborhood stores and offices if we could use them and I also asked if they wanted to be in the film. I think that's one of the great things about being an over 50 film maker. You can talk to adults like an adult. I also think they had fun being in a movie, an experience that they may never had thought they would have.

The stories changed almost from day to day. I lost a whole story line about a Bingo Player who wanted to win the million dollars so she could buy a plane ticket to be on Oprah. She was a huge Oprah fan and her whole "house" was covered with photos of Oprah. She had a beauty shop called "The Big O" and she kept calling one of the assistants "Gail" even though her name was Debra. All of her hairstyles were Oprah hairstyles, whether you wanted it to look that way or not. She was devoted to Oprah and didn't make a move without thinking what Oprah would do, which prompted her family to hold an Oprah intervention. Unfortunately the actress had to drop out to get a second job, so I promoted my friend Pam Levin from the role of the assistant to the lead and made her character a bingo addict. We kept the intervention. I still like the Oprah story but I'm not sure Oprah would have found it funny, so perhaps it's just as well.

We had no budget for the film, just years of experience in the film business. My actor friends had been working at it for decades and I had been a line producer - all of us had some small successes and now we were all over the "age limit" Hollywood allows.

Some of the actors were long time professionals but many of them, including Mary Sanchez, my friend's mother and the inspiration for the film had never been in front of a camera before. Memorizing lines is not as easy as you think, especially when the camera is on you and there are people watching. I shot a lot of scenes in hour "bites" to make it easier for them, but with the professionals we would shoot about 10 pages of dialogue in a day - a daunting task for the best of them.

I did a lot of rewriting as I drove to the set because actors dropped out for many reasons, and we couldn't pay any of them. The happiest accident was when 2 of our 3 "Nuns" dropped out the night before their scene. I called my friend Roberta Cruger, a journalist, and asked her - begged her really, to just wear the habit and sit there, I promised her she wouldn't have to speak. Our "speaking" Nun, Susan Blau, was not a professional actor but she had all the lines. She and Roberta had never met. Susan wanted to be letter perfect but became so tense that I pulled Roberta aside and asked her to just make comments like they were just friends who happened to be nuns to put Susan at ease. I left them alone to talk to the audio man and when we started the scene, the two of them were laughing and joking as if they had been friends forever. They improvised lines and had such chemistry, our tiny crew could hardly keep from laughing out loud. Although originally the Nuns were just supposed to be a very minor supporting role, I went home and rewrote the script to give them a larger part. Now they steal the whole movie.

With the new digital technology and the relatively inexpensive cost of the equipment, I just thought we could "all get together and put on a show." I knew how hard it would be to make a movie for no money, but I thought if we failed, the actors would still have footage for their reel. I never wanted to be a director but it was one of the few things in film I hadn't done, so I thought I would give it a try - plus I couldn't get anyone else to volunteer.

Learning this new technology was a huge challenge for me. I had a borrowed computer editing system and I had never handled a digital camera before, except to take still photos. Thank goodness for the internet! One of the best lessons I learned is that if I have a problem, someone else has had the same problem and by finding out how they solved it helped me figure it out. It was a very high learning curve and incredibly frustrating but I had to learn because I had asked my friends to come along on this project and I couldn't let them down.

Stu Kennedy, a composer who lived in Scotland volunteered to do the music, which added another layer of technology I had to learn. Sending film and music files over the internet was very difficult in the beginning - just learning the language of technology – "codecs," "ftp," "wav" - I don't have any kids or grandkids who could help me understand any of it! Stu was very helpful, he taught me how to "im," so we could talk in real time. Working with someone so far away was something I never thought I could do, so that part of the post-production process was very educational and exciting.

4. What is next for you? Another movie?

My goal is to make a comedy a year, using the same actors as an ensemble - only I hope to have money in a budget to pay everyone on the next one. I have a script for my next film, so I am putting together a budget and business plan to raise financing.

I am in still in the middle of marketing & distribution of Bingo Confidential, because independent film-makers have that responsibility now. Things are changing quickly in that area as well and as producer it's part of my job to change with the times to get the film to the public globally. It's another learning curve but very exciting to get requests for the film from so many different countries.

5. Why are you interested in working with actors who are "Growing Bolder" -- and what makes these actors different than a younger crowd?

I love being my age and I love working with seasoned veterans in front of and behind the camera. We have the same frame of reference about the world and have developed a healthy irreverence for almost everything. There's nothing left to prove, but so many new things to learn. The best part about "Growing Bolder" actors is that they have so much depth just from living life that's just there in their eyes and their actions. They are more than willing to take risks and to try something new because they don't have to worry about developing an "image" the way the younger actors do. Even the non-professional actors were not afraid to look "foolish" or "silly" in front of a camera. They were game to say whatever I had written down in the script. They were all willing to share their time and their talent with me and everyone who sees them in the film. That is an act of bravery that is very inspiring.

But one of the best things is that when I got tired, I knew my actors were tired too, and it was time to call it a wrap.

I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who would like to see people their own age in films, but at the end of the day, I think it has to be entertaining as a film, no matter who's watching it.

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