Eastern Michigan University student Benjamin Armes has won a Sir Edmund Hillary Award for his 22 minute documentary, “Dream it. Build it. Skate it.”
From running around with his parent’s VHS tape recorder camera at 7-years-old to making short films in his friends’ basements, Armes, a senior electronic media and film studies student has been practicing the art all of his life. He learned about filmmaking in high school and during his time at Washtenaw Community College, where he earned an associate of arts degree in digital video production at WCC.
One of the required courses in his program at WCC was a documentary video production class. Intrigued with skateboarding, Armes was inspired to create a documentary on the building of a 30,000 square foot skateboarding facility by the Friends of Ann Arbor Skatepark. Pitched and voted on during class, Armes was set to begin his documentary. With the help of his friend, Brad Tennant as his cinematographer and only a Canon 16 dlsr, Rode NTG2 Shotgun Microphone and a Zoom h6 field recorder as equipment, the team started the film which included interviews with local skaters, community members of Ann Arbor, and legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk in the spring of 2013.
Armes described his meeting with Tony Hawk as intense and said he was starstruck.
“Throughout course of [a] week, getting to know the guys and their stories and what they all went through, it started to connect with me,” Armes said. “These guys are starting to do something cool here and I want to do something cool to let people know about it. That’s the extent of using filmmaking. Video is used for storytelling. Making a documentary is like making a real nonfiction story and I really liked that.”
A few scenes from the film was shot for a couple of weeks before it was turned in for class. Armes, however, wanted to keep filming the story of the Skatepark.
“It started in class but there was something more worthwhile than that that I wanted to see through.”
After continued meetings and interview, the film was completed.
“I love people that are passionate about stuff, people that were passionate about making something fun for the community. It was something big for me.”
The film was finished in October, 2014, and was released last month on Youtube. A huge two-year-in-the-making film for Armes, he was surprised to find out that he won the award, which is based off a new Zealand climber who was one of the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest, in the 2015 Mountain Film Festival after his submission of the documentary.
“The best awards are the awards you don’t see coming. I didn’t know it screened at all. I remember being excited in the Student Center after receiving the email from the festival saying that I won. I texted my friends and was like wow, I won this award.”
He said winning the award was awesome.
“As long as I know in the pit of my soul, I felt that it was good and someone who said ‘here’s an award we thought it was good too’ is rewarding. It’s a story about people doing something and they succeeded. They climbed Mt. Everest in their own way.”
A short film filmmaker and staff videographer for the University Of Michigan Office Of Information, Armes will continue to make short films and documentary style films as a career.
Through the process, Armes said he learned not only about himself as a filmmaker but also the community of skaters that exist in Ann Arbor. Thanks to Eastern Michigan University and Washtenaw Community College Armes has gained knowledge in not only how to make a film but what to go into it.
“My big goal to accomplish was tell the story of the local people making a difference in their community,” Armes said. “I wanted to make a documentary that touch people and relate to inspire somebody to do something.”
This was Armes’ first documentary and award for it.
“It was to get across their stories and what they did in the best and most interesting way possible and as a filmmaker I felt like it was my duty for it.”
You can find the documentary and other short films created by Armes on Youtube at Ten Arms Productions.
