Don Benjamin Gets Ugly in Binary
Veteran music video director and frequent G-Eazy collaborator Daniel CZ teams up with up-and-coming writer Ty Strachan (AKA Paper Plane Ty) for this slow burn short film surrounding a man’s inner demons and their manifestations as his doppelgänger. RIV’s final release of the decade comes in the form of Don Benjamin’s starring role, in Binary.
You may remember Benjamin from America’s Next Top Model with those piercing eyes and handsome face. Binary allows us to meet an ugly, dark side to Benjamin as his character(s), is close to suicide and frustrated with their worlds, this short gives a new meaning to Geto Boys “My Mind’s Playing Tricks on Me.”
His acting efforts in Binary are doubled, as he shares the screen with none other than himself.
It was my first serious role,” he tells RIV, “[I was] just pulling from dark times in my life and trying to instill that into this character. The reason it was hard for me to dual act for this project is that we were limited with time. The way it was shot, we had to keep bouncing back and forth, so I had to keep going back to each character and didn’t get to lock in on one then lock in on the other. Like, as they would turn the camera, they would be like, “you have to do it again both ways,” so I literally had to keep going back and forth, and it was really challenging.”
Binary shows the internal struggle one deals with when the devils you’re running from are within yourself. The challenges of stress and mental health are amplified and for this character the thought of ending it all was the battle he fought. Like so many people who silently fight, Binary presents this in a unique way.
Binary can be viewed exclusively on RIVnow.com.