Meet the Filmmakers
Ben graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2007 with a degree in Film & Video Cinematography. He worked his way through the G&E Department, working as a Grip, Best Boy Electric and Gaffer before DPing shorts, features, and commercials. When the world entered Quarantine in 2020 Ben began writing a new short film each day to cope with being unable to work. In 60 days he wrote over one thousand pages, across fifty-four scripts, in sixty days. Tin and Ben began the company in Summer of 2021 by producing Yellow Polka Dot. Since then, they have produced: The Sleight, Spearmint, Plowed, The Solution, Beyond the Void with Captain Dalton Mattix, Counter Girl, and Familiar Little Stranger. Ben has also prepared feature scripts for Yellow Polka Dot, The Sleight, and The Solution, with another one planned before Fall of 2027. His personal website can be found here: www.benkurstindp.com
Tin is a New Mexico-based cinematographer with one persistent question driving his work: what should this image feel like, and why? As co-founder of 54 Scripts Productions, he photographs and directs narrative films with the same commitment, creating images that are specific, intentional, and unmistakably tied to the story that they're serving. He and his 54SP partner and co-founder Ben Kurstin are building toward features one frame at a time, with the hope of fostering a creative community wherever that path leads. His personal website can be found here: https://www.tinnguyenfilm.com
Our Story
As a company our idea is to constantly create, to make wild, diverse, and fresh films. Using the 54 short scripts Ben wrote in 2020 as a foundation, the company has fast tracked production after production, averaging 2 shorts a year. With each film we strive to test ourselves, test the company, and try out new genres. After completing our run of shorts we will transition the company to producing features, starting with one of the several features Ben has written recently.
Tin and Ben have a combined 35 years of film industry experience. They use that know-how and insider perspective to make their films efficiently, ethically and creatively. Both company members serve as Producing Partners on every film, alternate directing roles, bring in outside voices to direct, and take turns as Cinematographers to ensure the visual style constantly changes and evolves.