In 2002, Ben Mor was signed as a director with SMUGGLER PRODUCTIONS, one of the world's elite commercial, music video, and short film production companies, and he has continued to direct productions for them ever since.

To date he has directed commercials, music videos, and short films. He is a director whose creativity and raw style lend his film an immense cinematic quality, no matter the budget or tools he is given to work with. Mor has completed work for clients such as Pepsi, Verizon, ESPN, Tanqueray, Miller Genuine Draft, and music videos for Nas, John Legend with Kanye West, TI, and Juvenile.

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NOW CASTING: Could you give us a brief synopsis on Help Is Coming?

BEN MOR: "In the wake of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, three youths survey the desolate wasteland only to find a suspicious looking package"

NC: Now would you give a brief blurb about yourself?

BM: I was in Israel, then moved to Nigeria when I was four. My father was integral in developing Nigeria's highway infrastructure. When I was there I barely had any exposure to television or telephones, so I relied heavily on my imagination for entertainment.

When I was ten, I moved to Los Angeles and formed a band called Blood of Abraham, with my best friend Mazik. We toured the US and Europe a few times, and I was asked to create the beats for commercials which helped me get my foot in the door as a director.

NC: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

BM: It wasn't a conscious choice. I started in the world of music, then music videos, then commercials and shorts and hopefully features soon. I love the alchemy of melding images and sounds together. When done properly the effect can be very powerful and highly gratifying.

NC: What inspired you to travel to ground zero and film this project?

BM: I was approached by the Hip-Hop artist Juvenile to make a video for a song dealing with Katrina called 'Get Your Hustle On'. I went to ground zero to shoot a video. Then after completing the video I realized that this amazing footage could potentially make a short film, only if scored properly. And that's what I did.

NC: You were one of the first, if not the first, to film anything in that area since the Hurricane, correct?

BM: As far as I know I was officially the second person to film in that area, I was there about one week after Spike Lee had wrapped his documentary. However, I was told by the local scouts that I was the first to roll film cameras as opposed to digital ones. About five months after me Tony Scott filmed some scenes for the movie Deja Vu there.

NC: How long did it take before you began shooting the film?

BM: It all went down pretty fast. I had about five days to conceive the whole thing, flew out to New Orleans from Los Angeles (yes I live in the other LA). Then I had about one week of scouting before shooting for three days.

NC: What was the casting process like for a project like this?

BM: Everything about this production was extremely difficult. The nearest Home Depot was about ninety minutes away. The area was virtually a ghost town. Finding the talent was the hardest. There were zero kids left in town and it took almost a week to round up just six kids of which I picked three (they were nephews of a local Key Grip living in nearby Baton Rouge).

NC: What was the toughest part of making this film?

BM: Again, everything about this production was difficult and posed unique challenges from beginning to end. Finding talent, crew-members driving in from Houston, Los Angeles and Miami, finding two horses, flagging down an SUV in the middle of the street and asking them to rent us their car for a shot. Making the masks in my hotel room, making the parachutes attached to bottles and cans and testing them in the hotel lobby at three AM, etcetera, etcetera. But I have to say that the trickiest part was actually getting permission to film in this location. That was a sheer miracle.

NC: What kept you motivated?

BM: I never lacked any motivation. The mere thought of potentially being able to pull this thing off in that historically tragic location kept my adrenaline pumping for ten days straight.

NC: Do you plan to continue making short films?

BM: Absolutely.

NC: Do you have a dream project in mind?

BM: To score, write and direct my own feature film. The idea is now gestating.

NC: Name some of your favorite films?

BM: Always a difficult question to answer, so I will give you a short list of some inspirations: THX1138, The Good The Bad And The Ugly (Leone in general), Network, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Disney's Pinocchio, anything Kubrick, Rod Serling. Terry Gilliam, Ennio Morricone, Banksy, Eggleston, Dali, Joseph Campbell, Manly P. Hall, COLORS Magazine, Homelessness, Conspiracy Fact, Empire, Philosophy, etcetera, etcetera.