Welcome!
Thanks for visiting.
As Bilbo said, “There and back again.” Same with me. Now I’d like to share what I picked up on my seventy-seven-year journey.I was lucky to have dwelled for a time in a fanciful, hopeful realm, the 60s, “make love not war”, “sex drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll”, “change the world”. Well, it didn’t quite work out that way, but here I am, alive and kicking…slower.I was fortunate to have worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood before the conglomerates, so a flicker of the glorious light of the studio era still flickered. Loved it. Learned lots.Please, read, listen, watch my work, all made and written before that era of my life ended.Now, a new era, one’s journeys never ends.So, travelers, take what cha want, leave the rest.Click! Enjoy.
This site is dedicated to my wife, Nancy.
Nancy was my wife, lover, mentor and best friend forforty-six years. She was a touted film and televisionproducer and talented oil painter. We lived andworked side by side until she fell ill. Nancy passedaway, March, 2018.Nancy’s grandson Griffin Jennings and Icollaborated on a song to memorialize my wife, hisgrandmother musically forever. Working togetherwas a gift. Griffin's recording studio, Heavy Meadow is inBrooklyn, NYC. Griffinjennings.com
Books...
Macabres
Quirky Supernatural Tales of Horror
Cover art courtesy of my niece Alexandra Croix, an artist in LA
Flix
Clips from a Filmmaker's Odyssey
Cover design by my friend Krystine Kercher
Me. A writer? Never, ever interested in writing. Barely passed school English. Could barely write my name. Even when I started making short films, I just jotted scribbles on napkins. Scribbling that became two award-winning short films.
Writing was still not my forte until I got to Hollywood, but soon had it rubbed in my face.
Dues, Bigtime. New guy in town.
Start at pile bottom. Screenwriters are bottom feeders.
I learn and write an original. Gets me an agent. First screenplay sold. CBS TV movie, Georgia Peaches.
I wrote, rewrote, how a lowly screenwriter pays the rent. Got good at it. Now a screenplay doctor.
Too many, too fast, few made.
Stuck in a rut. Ran, legs, tail winded, back to home base, NYC. Joined playwriting groups. Wrote plays for regional theaters. My autobiographical play, "Brotherhood", was produced, with me directing.
Good reviews. Writing for the stage, glorious. Entered writer workshops. Surrounded by like-minded folks. Workshops, emphatically recommended.
Started writing prose that became two books sited below
Both on Amazon/Kindle. Wow! I'm a writer after all. Think I'll stay awhile... for now.
Phew! Hyperventilating. Glad I wrote that off my chest.
Click book titles. Buy 'em on "A" and "K". Please! My rents due.
Films...
Nancy & Mick at the premiere of Malcolm X
"Malcolm X" is Arnold Perl's Academy Award Nominated Documentary, based on the "Autobiography of Malcolm X". I was the film editor and co-produced the film with my wife, Nancy.
“Abraxas” is a cinematic time capsule capturing the “illusion/reality” of the psychedelic 60’s, featuring my dear friends, Mary & Jim Cary.
It won awards at the Berkely and Maryland film festivals and is in the permanent at Maryland’s Library’s permanent archival collection.
Abraxas sound track by my brother Steve’s band Graffiti.
“A Beautiful Day For A Picnic” is my anti-war film against the Vietnam War. It won awards in The Atlanta, Maryland film festivals. This film was a collaboration with my brother Steve Benderoth who starred, wrote the title song “Me” and did the sound tract design.
To Secure These Rights”- This is a film Nancy and I were commissioned to direct and produce for The Philadelphia Bi-Centennial Museum in 1976.
Cinematographer, Robbie Greenberg. Score by Steve Benderoth
“Takin’ A Short Cut” - Our MTV Music VideoNancy and I were walking down Astor Place, NYC. She spots a line of kids streaming out of an old barbershop, with way weird haircuts, zodiac & astrology signs, hearts, lightning bolts, any design you dreamed up, cut right down to their scalps. Nancy said, “There’s a video if I ever saw one.” We partnered up with good friend Richard Numeroff’s company Relay Productions, shot it the following week. My brother Steve, a top NYC TV Jingle writer, wrote a tune, “Takin A Short Cut.” We edited the video to his song. It won awards and got us into the TV commercial business.
Music...
I’ve been in rock bands with my younger brother, Steve, since I was 15.He was the front man; I was the drummer.I went from New York then to Hollywood as a screenwriter. Finally got back into music in my 50's when I set up a small home recording studio in my East Hampton office.
After college, Steve went to New York in search of his musical bliss, which turned out to a band named Graffiti and their internationally acclaimed album in 1967. Still on YouTube. Still getting fans.
Click, listen, enjoy.
A few of the tunes I wrote gooving below...
Mick's Give Back...
Thanks again for dropping by. Give back time. Here’s some stuff I’ve learned along my way, thought I’d pass it on.
Introduce your main character page one. Add a personality flaw that gets in their way they will overcome at story’s end. A minor victory.
Your hero must also learn something crucial about life by screenplay’s finish. Another major victory.
You must not, I say not, not, not, read or edit what you’ve written till first draft is complete.
It’ll only slow you down. Edit, rewrite, when through your first draft.
End each workday knowing the next line is what you are about to write. Stop! Do not write it!
Then, when you come back to work next morning, you know what your next line is. You dive right back in.
My personal addiction, bookending, I use a quirky sentence/phrase page one that sort of sums up the spine of the story, repeating it at the tales end, bookend closure.
When your first draft is done, run it by readers you trust. Keep the good stuff, trash the bad. If possible, have a pro-editor polish your script.
A new tactic, turn your screenplay into a self-published novel. Online companies to help you navigate that world are available. I personally recommend the folks at 40 Day Publishing.
Production companies seem more impressed with a novel then a screenplay. The best part, the screenplay is already written.
Old cliché “fire in the belly” just as apt today as ever. Relentlessly ram through every obstacle, take every “no” as a “yes”, every failure as success…or stay home flipping burgers. “Learn as you burn.” Rejection is the name of the game. Love it or leave it. Whatever rejects us makes us stronger. Believe beyond doubt you can do it, know you can do it, earn it, conquer it, own it! You are worth it.
Bonne chance!
Mick Benderoth 2024
To contact Mick - please email AlexanderBenderoth@Gmail.com