Welcome back to Inside the Members Studio. Today, we have a young man with us who has a dream to one day turn 14 minute YouTube skits into big features or lead a world revolution on religion. His name is
PredBen, please put your hands together!!!!
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First, let's begin with the obvious. Which is your favourite film of the franchises and why?My favorite film in the series is probably
Alien 3 I know that it's not a popular option here, but I found the last scene, where Riply sacrifices herself, with Michael Bishop yelling, all really intense and 'final.' So to speak. I also must say I really liked the character of Morse. Next to that, I'd say
Aliens and
Predator are tied for second. Both good action flicks, and I love android character of Bishop.
Give us some insight into the man behind the username. In other words, 'who are you and what do you do?' Well my name is Ben, I'm 18, and going to graduate High School in about a month. I'm going to start college and am pretty excited for it, glad to leave my hometown
. I want to major in Sociology (I think.) In my free time, I hang with my friends, and we sometimes make comedy sketches (more about that later).
How did you come up with your username?My username, god I wish I could change it, it sounds kinda goofy. And I guess some people found it creepy. Back when I joined, I strongly preferred the
Predator creature and films to the
Alien ones, (which has changed). So I fused my name (Ben) with "predator" and got "
The Predben." And even though I sometimes want to change it, I've grown to use to it.
Has your love of this franchise influenced you in anyway?As in it effects how I act? No, not really. But it
did get me into sci-fi, a genre which I enjoy to this day.
We're all here due to our appreciation of these franchises. What about them keeps you interested after all these years of fandom?Probably the fact that the series are still 'going' I guess. New material such as video games, movies and comics/novels come out. Since 2004, we've had several films (for better or worse) associated with
Alien and
Predator come out.
What are your thoughts on how the series has developed over the years?In all honesty, rather poorly. I don't like either AVP films much, and well I liked
Predators, I wasn't overly impressed with it. But I did like the newest video game alright, and I'm pumped up for
Prometheus, so maybe there's still some good blood left in these series.
What is it about the AvP Galaxy community that you enjoy the most?This is tough. Probably the members. There are some great people on here, or at least very humorous ones, that get me coming back to this site daily to check their posts. I mean, certain people on certain threads, particularly in the General Discussion section of this site, are pretty funny and enjoyable to read.
If you could change or add one thing to AvP Galaxy, what would it be?I'd bring the chat thing back. Look, I no nobody uses, but my best memory of this site, in a 4 - 5 hour discussion, was on chat. Although, to be fair, I can see understand why it got taken down.
Again.
Who is your favourite board member and why?Probably
Maledoro. Since I first started posting here, he's always struck me as both witty and intelligent. Not that other members haven't, but he was the first one who's posts I read. So maybe he made the biggest impact of me.
What is your favourite curse word?Probably
f**k, I mean its overused for sure, but it's the most efficient, in my book, for expressing a variety of emotions
.
If Heaven exists, what would you like God to say when you arrive at the pearly gates?"Even though you didn't believe in me, I always believed in you." - Awww.
Ridley Scott's Prometheus is set to be the lastest installment to the franchise. What are your feelings towards the film and the direction they're taking with it?I think the film sounds great, and it's really got me curious about its plot and its connection to the rest of the
Alien franchise. As far as the films direction, I'm a bit ignorant to all the latest news, but I like it. It seems to be kinda based off the Ancient Astronaut theory,but made pretty cool since its in the Alien universe. I also like the direction they went in regarding the concept of "Weyland" the person.
Do you feel AvP is a wasted concept? If so, what could be improved?AVP is a wasted concept to me. I feel that a good
Alien vs Predator film is 100% possible. It just needs a first rate director with some knowledge of how aliens and predators act (which is something both Paul W.S. Anderson and The Brothers Strause lacked, regardless of what they claimed.) The concept is wasted because they haven't set it in the future yet, in space, like it should be .
You mentioned to me that you're a chess player. As someone who is totally ignorant about what chess is or how it's played, see if you can explain it to me in one paragraph. Okay ,here I go. It's a turn based game.The goal of chess is to get the opponents King in check mate. You do this buy blocking the kings movements using your other pieces. There are 8 pawns, 2 rooks/castles, 2 knights/horses, 2 bishops, and one Queen and King. The pawns more one space forward, expect in their first turn. The rooks move up and down and side to side unlimited, the knights move in an L shape, taking up four spaces, the bishops move diagnonally and the Queen can move any direction, any amount of spaces, besides the L shape of the horse. The king can move one space in any direction. Whoa, that was long. Word of advance, put your pawns in up an down pattern, it's a good defensive strategy if you ever start playing!
You also mentioned comedy sketches on YouTube. Were these serious projects you hoped to take to another level? Are they still online?I was hoping they'd become serious, and although we got a larger then expected local reaction, we still don't even have 700 views on a single video (there were 7 skits) to my knowledge. Had they done better, I would've followed them up with even more, and I would gladly take it seriously. And yes, they're still online.
www.youtube.com/awkwardcomedyinc. NOTE - WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Do you still write more material for such projects or has your focus shifted as of late?I wrote most of our material, but now I've stopped. After a failed filming session, on what I think was my best written piece of work, I stopped writing comedy. I went back to writing poetry and short stories (non-comedy themes), like I use to. Comedy is much harder to write then you'd think, and there are so many different times. Jeez.
When you say religion is an interest of yours, can you be more specific? What exactly is it about religion that intrigues you?Religion interests me because its such an ingrained part of human society. Billions of people live their lives according to religious laws and rules, and believe firmly in their respective deity(ies). They also believe they know the absolute truth about things such as the origin of the universe and what happens after death. People who think they have absolute answers always fascinates me, its an incredible confidence to have (for better or worse.)
Do you think religion can be a force of good at all or do the negatives that came with religious belief outweigh them entirely?Religion can be a force for good, or a force for bad. I think it goes both ways. That being said, I feel the amount of people who've been killed by people claiming to do it for religious reasons is way to many. And religion can be in the way of progress because it gets people to hold onto somewhat archaic views.
People have said that religion is not necessary because morality and good will are universal. Would you agree with this?I believe that nowadays, with all due respect, religion is no longer needed. So in a sense, yes. That being said, back in the stone age, I feel the idea of a 'higher power' punishing you if you did something such as kill or steal is a good thing. It keeps the suspicious criminal from committing crimes they otherwise would do.
