Meet Ben Burke | Sound Designer and Stop-Motion Animator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ben Burke and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ben, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I pursued an artistic career because, for most of my childhood and early teens (and still to this day), I was glued to the TV, YouTube, picture books, etc. I constantly watched people making things and telling stories through clay figures, Legos, drawings, animations, sounds, and everything in between. And at that time I didn’t know how to make any of those things or how to tell any stories through a visual or auditory medium. I was constantly drawing pictures as a kid of large creatures fighting each other, military battles, and dinosaurs. All this is to say that I have been in love with the idea of telling a story through a medium of art and being inspired by the greats like Harryhausen, Cobain, Tartakovsky, Orna, and Galavan, all those people that I would watch whenever I could, that got me to start doing stop-motion videos for school projects in elementary school and into college, helping me fall in love with the process of pre-production, production, and post-production. Eventually, this led me to continue working in video production and then into sound design and music. Sound has become the career I’ve chosen to study and continue, along with visuals, I think it’s equally if not more important to have a good sound mix in your film or videos to make it stand out and expand the world you have built, no matter how big or small.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
For me, it’s really hard to answer these questions because I am still trying to develop myself as an artist and honing in on the skills of my craft to learn as much as I can. The way that I could describe my art is that I am focused on telling stories of the human experience and how humans have affected the world throughout our collective history through non-human characters and the lens of science fiction and fantasy-type stories. I use dinosaurs, aliens, and all kinds of creatures to hopefully convey stories about hope and living in a world that is full of terror and evil. I use sound design, animation that focuses on movement and minimal or no dialogue, and music to create specific tones and worlds. It wasn’t easy to develop this, it was a gradual progression of using the things my inspirations do and working them into my art and sometimes ripping them off which led me to create my art off of how my influences do things, later developing my style that’s still ongoing. I overcame the challenges by not trying to appeal to an algorithm, a quota, or some kind of guideline, while I think guidelines and deadlines are important, there was a period in my life when I wanted to fill up my socials with tons of content, but every time I did that the quality always suffered, I started to take my time more, take breaks, and sit with myself and not trying to rush something that I am making. Making something that I want to see and that will make me happy and satisfied. The biggest lesson is to make art for yourself, make the things you want to see, and stop trying to appeal to others and their standards of what “good art” is, this is something for you and you shouldn’t have to compromise on yourself or your vision when you make something for you. And I want the world to know that my art is born out of a love for science fiction and creatures that tell stories about humanity and the many things that we have done, leaning more on the darker and melancholic side but remaining hopeful for a better tomorrow despite the terror and evil we experience daily.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
For my little itinerary, I would probably go to a few places. For food, I love going to El Azteca because it reminds me of my favorite Mexican place in my hometown, which isn’t far but I’m working in the city full time so a little slice of home isn’t bad. Another place is the various food spots in Little Five Points, and speaking of that I would take a friend there to show them all the cool shops and artists in the area. Along with the Zoo or Aquarium, because I love animals and seeing them makes me happy, I will drag my friends to the ends of the Earth to see cool animals and creatures. And probably to a show at the Variety Playhouse or Underground Atlanta to see artists that make people question my mental stability, mainly 90s rock bands or newer punk artists, Godspeed, Duster, etc. those kinds of artists! And that would be the whole week!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people in my life who I’ve been inspired by, who have supported me through it all, and who deserve shoutouts for this. The first people are my parents, my mom and dad have always been supportive of my goals and ambitions in life, even when I didn’t believe in myself or was close to giving up on everything. From encouraging me to take pride in my work for even the smallest assignment, to comforting and talking to me during some extremely stressful and dark periods of my life, along with paying attention to Christmas gifts and things I wanted for my art and getting them for me, they truly have made an investment in me and every day I strive and try to give them the same love and support they have given me all my life. Others include Albert Orna (Mosufilm and Indefinite Hiatus) he is a stop-motion animator and filmmaker who made videos that have inspired me to this day I found him when I was 13 or 14 and his style of design and animation has been a constant inspiration to my work. Along with Gendy Tartakovsky and Kurt Cobain, two people that I have been a fan of for years, the way they create art and how they don’t back down or sacrifice their art or dignity to appease executives from studios and record labels. I can’t list everyone but my cousin Ethan, he and I were a two-man production company have made so many videos together throughout elementary through early high school. We have since gone down our separate paths but I will never forget and will always cherish the art and memories we made together.

Website: https://ben-burke.my.canva.site/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somebenguy/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-burke-burke-13a6aa155/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087504594220

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SomeBenGuy

Image Credits
Stacey Bode

@staceybode On Instagram

(All others taken by me)