February 28, 2021 • 30 mins
My next guests are Benny Boom - directed episodes of NCIS-LA, Black Lightning and All American, and Lee Daniel's Empire on Fox and Executive produced Tazmanian Devil, which earned director Solomon Onita Jr. the inaugural John Singleton Director Award for Best First Feature at the 2020 American Black Film Festival. Benny Boom is the Executive Producer of Tazmanian Devil, and Solomon Onita Jr. is the writer and Director of Tazmanian Devil. Here is a little history on Benny Boom; he is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. Benny directed the much-anticipated Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me, which has grossed over $70M worldwide for Lionsgate Films. Also dominating the television and streaming platforms, Boom has directed NCIS-LA (CBS) episodes, Black Lightning and All American, The Quad and Tales at BET, and Lee Daniel's Empire on Fox. In August 2020, Tazmanian Devil earned Solomon Onita Jr. the inaugural John Singleton Director Award for Best First Feature at the 2020 American Black Film Festival. Tazmanian Devil will be streaming is Steaming on Amazon, iTunes, and Fandango. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations Benny Boom and Solomon Onita Jr.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
advice to many occasions. In the casion didn't notice, I'm
not broke. You know He'll be interview with celebrity CEOs,
entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do.
It's what he likes to share. Now it's time to
(00:25):
hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money making Conversations. Here
we come. Welcome to my money Making Conversation. I'm your host,
ras Shan McDonald. It's time to stop reading other people's
success story. I tell people all the time when they
listen to my show, watching my show, you need to
start writing your own now. You can be motivated by
other people's success because their stories could offer you direction
and help you reach your goals through your planning and
(00:46):
your community effort. But remember, the interviews I bring on
this show allow you, as a consumer business owners to
access interviews with celebrity CEO, entrepreneurs, and industry decision makers.
I have two of the biggest inter decision makers on
My show today. My next two guests are Bennie Boom,
well known director, and Solomon Onneita Jr. Bennie Boone is
(01:07):
one of the executive producers of Tasmanian Devil and Solomon
Ounita Junior is the writer and director of Tasmanian Devil.
He is a little history of My Man, Benny Boom.
He's a member of Appa Phi Apple As it Is. Solomon,
he directed a much anticipated two pop cool bio pick
out All Eyes on Me. He has dominated television and
streaming platforms. Benny's directed episodes of n c I, s
(01:28):
l A, Black Lightning and All American The Quad and
Tales at BT Lee Daniels Empire on Fox Now. In
August of twenty The Tasan Tasmanian Devil Earned Solomon Nita Jr.
The inaugural John Singleton Director Award for the Best First
Feature at the twenty American Black Film Festival. Tasmanian Devil
was streaming on all platforms, especially Amazon, iTunes and Fandaego.
(01:52):
Please welcome to My Man. To money making conversations, Bennie
Boone and Solomon Oneita Junior. How you doing, Fellas are
you doing, man, I gotta play apples on the call
right here. I think that's important to say this because
we're talking about them more by pledging and and if
they you know, I've seen a lot of different versions. Uh,
(02:14):
I know. I was fortunate. Uh I should do sitcoms
and I used to. I wrote an episode with Sister
Sister when it was on the air and we did.
Uh my man, Brian McKnight, he was a start in
the sitcom and we and you know, when you start
talking about fraternitys and sororities and if you if you
make anybody walking the straight line or anybody to do
(02:35):
something against their will, then no national branch to mess
with you, because that's hazy. That's you know, if you
said walking the straight line, if they bowed out to you,
they say yes, sir, that is a form of hazing.
I just want to explain to people why they didn't
use a f I A And you can't. That's hazing.
And if you acknowledge that use in a movie, then
they can come and can come back and bite them
(02:56):
into some form of a lawsuit because they can use
that where you acknowledge just portray in a movie here.
So That's why even though they are members of a
phi A, they can't use it because guess what the
images that they're portraying in this movie, which are very
realistic by the way. And I'm not saying anything negative
because guess what it happened to me when I pledged
to make a fire. In fact, it was pretty much
worse in certain situations. But you know, I have nothing
(03:20):
negative about that, Benny and Solomon when I talk about this,
because I will tell you this pledge to maka scat fire,
as you probably say pledge in a phi A, it
changed my life, how about you, guys? Uh? For me,
a hundred percent changed my life. I pledged spring one
at Temple at University Pigro. I was a solo pledge.
(03:40):
So it was a very very very difficult or deal
for me, and um, it definitely changed me from a
boy to a man. I was nineteen years old and
I had uh. I was a freshman. You know a
lot of those things you know that I was grappling
with as a young man. I was molded and guided
by by my bros. You know the it grows at
the time, and so it really changed my life, guided me,
(04:03):
matured me, really quickly, and I appreciated every single day.
You know, what I was, what I went through, and
what I was able to make it through. How about you, Solomon?
For me, I had a very similar experience with with
pledging Alphafi offa. UM. What I showed in the film
is not necessarily my exact experience, you know. I made
(04:24):
it a fixtionalized version for entertainment purposes. But the lessons
and the values that these organizations UH give young men
is what I was trying to depict through film. Um.
And so the journey that my lead character takes throughout
Tasmanian Devil, it's something similar that I experienced, you know,
(04:44):
gaining self confidence, gaining that brotherhood factor that uh that
you know, really propels you to that next phase of
your life, especially as a young man. We know. It's interesting, Benny,
you said you pledged you when you was a freshman.
I was a senior and I played so you know,
they hit me hard. Why do you watch you long?
Why wat you long? Oh dude? Trying to pledge all
(05:06):
these young people? And but and I say that because
I was lost, man, and that's what I see in
this movie Tasmanian Devil, was a young man who's lost,
trying to find himself. He's from a foreign he's from
another country. His mom is back in the country where
he's coming from his dad. I guess it's a disconnect
because his dad wasn't with him as he grew up
and became a man, and so he comes over here
(05:28):
and the manhood he receives it is really from the
relationship he creates with these young men in the in
the in the fraternity, he's trying to pledge and I,
in my reading it right, that's um, that's exactly right.
I think that the one thing for me when I
read the script, you know, Solomon Uh Solomon's producer Trishia Woodard,
got the script to me and and my company and
(05:48):
we're looking for um producers and financing and stuff like that.
And so when I read the script, I was so
familiar with the pledge process that that wasn't the first
thing that jumped out of me. The first thing that
really jumped out of me was the relationship, the father's
son relationship in the film, and I felt like reading
that script. You know, whenever you read a piece of material, um,
(06:10):
you try to find the commonality of the story that
that you think everyone can relate to. So everybody can't
relate to for pledging or hazing, or the Black week
life or black colleges, but everybody can relate to their
own relationship or dynamic with their mother or father. And
to me, that is the strength and the foundation of
this film. Um, that relationship that you know, um where
(06:34):
where where Diode comes to America thinking that you know,
he looked as his dad as a god, you know,
and he comes to America and he's falls very short
of that. You know, you're also talking about in the film.
He's a man of God, he's a missionary and a pastor,
and so we have that dynamic of faith um in
the film, which is also something that uh, you know,
(06:55):
I I'd like to talk about in the film because
I think it's an important factor when when in this story, well,
you know, it was important to me because you know,
here's a guy he left his family, right, he left
his wife, His wife had to raise a young man,
and we all know the dynamics of it importance the
men in the boy's life, and he wasn't there in
those important formative years and basically he was the only
(07:19):
reason he came to him. I'm not gonna tell the story.
It was. It was it was kind of like happens
that that he actually was in the States to be
with his father. But his father explaining, Solomon, what were
you trying to achieve in the in the in the
ark of the character with the father, because you're the
writer and the director, what were you achieving in that relationship?
Because I hear what Benny said, and I'm agree with
(07:40):
what you're saying, Bennie. And because my father was a
disconnect with me, you know, I loved him to death,
you know, and uh, but we were not that type
father s relationship. Uh for me. When it came to
the father Tasmane in Devil, uh, it kind of mirrored
my relate and ship with my father. My my dad
(08:01):
is also in the ministry and OFT and often he
would leave to Nigeria to other countries on missionary trips
to uh, you know, because he he works in UM
and like radio broadcast and in order to kind of
you know, spread the message of Christ. And so I
was looking at that when I was when I was
(08:22):
growing up, and I was thinking, you know, he's leaving
his family in order to push the Gospel and so
you know, his his attention is being carried away from
things that I thought he should have, you know, been
at home trying to nurture us as we were coming up,
but he was instead doing other things. So for me,
it's like that was the most interesting part of of
(08:43):
of the character for me, because I thought the art
there was he puts more value in this out is
in this external system of religion versus his own family,
and that's what I was trying to portray. Well, you know,
we're not being you know, you know I mentioned a
different of as you show you've done success in the
film industry and then you get a project that comes
(09:05):
to your production company, Tasmanian Devil. You know, is it
is it the character structure or is the content of
what the script brought to the table that really excited
you the most, or we're just the favorite mee ority
of the background because you are remember I'm apafip. Well,
it was a combination of things. I think part of um,
(09:27):
part of our responsibility as uh in these fraternities is
something that's important, and I think over the years it
has gotten lost on on all of us, you know,
not just Alpha's not just cues. All of us we've
we've sort of we've taken a back seat to what
we're supposed to be doing. And what we're supposed to
be doing is giving back to the community. We're supposed
(09:49):
to reach back and bring other people up. Regardless of
what I mean, I would have had this film come
to me Solomon not been an alpha and he was
you know, a queue or new I would have been
involved in the same way, because that wasn't the reason why.
Um what I wanted to do was to be able
to help a young man who wanted to be or
who is a filmmaker tell his story and not be
(10:12):
held back by what happens when you make a studio movie,
when producers who've never made a movie before or never
directed or never written have all these notes and ideas
and thoughts and all this stuff, and it goes against
what you want to do creatively. Right, So what I
what I wanted to do was helped shepherd him in
this into this industry in a way where his full
(10:34):
vision can be achieved. The way he thought about the scenes,
the way he wrote the scenes, the way he directed
the scenes, or his vision. At the same time, because
of the experience I had. I wanted to give him
some notes and some ideas, but never was I in
a position where I said, Yo, you gotta take these
notes or it's gonna be whacked. No. I would offer
(10:55):
my ideas to him, some he took something he didn't,
and I respected to respect acted them both the same way. Um,
because the point of the matter is when you make
a film, you have to as the director and writer,
you have to live and die by that film. So
I I just wanted him to make sure that he
was solid and stood solid on the ground and the
decisions that he made. And my whole goal was to
(11:17):
be here to support him. And I think it's really
important to Solomon that you did have someone who had
the fraternal experience, the pledge experience, because I would tell you,
man really enjoyed the movie. I was. I smiled because
they brought back memories, you know, zombody trying, you know,
(11:38):
when it was past, you know, when it was greed.
It was like, you know I was going through if
I was going through, see it through, I was, I
was going I was just it was like even keep
your heading all about your losing theirs and blaming you
I'm going whoo. You know, it was like it was.
It was the reason I'm excited about it. I wanted
to highly recommend this movie is because you know, it's
(11:58):
a collegiate journey because you don't have people on the
outside saw what we experience, and then you have the
people who experienced it and can share that that that
firm belief. But this is why I feel it was
important that Benny was part of this, this this bootoo
seen in uh process, because it didn't go over the top.
(12:18):
Nothing in this movie. I went, that's some crap what
you doing? And we were never on that dude. It
stayed on the level plane field. It didn't go to
the extreme because you know where it can go. But
it was not nobody's jumping out of a plane, somebody
dropping out of a call, somebody robbing the store because
they're trying to get some Everything that was asked in
(12:39):
this movie by the young man actually happened to me
or I asked somebody to do it for me when
I became a big brother. That's important, Solomon, and I
believe it. What's your what's your thoughts on that? Uh? Yeah,
I just wanted to show almost like a standard view
of what hazing is. I mean, a lot of people
(13:00):
in hazen from other black films like Stump the Yard
and Spike Lee's movie, so we have a knowledge of
hazing already. I didn't want to get too deep into,
you know, what different organizations do, because that's not what
this is about. You know, I created it. I created
a film that's outside of m pH C. So I
just wanted to show a generic hazing process or pledging process,
(13:23):
to use that as a vehicle to to show what
it's like to to enter this organization and then uh
comparing compared contrast that to the religious aspects of it
and to the you know him trying to assimilate to
American culture. Uh So that's why I kept a very
surface level. I just showed stuff that people probably already
(13:44):
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That's O T T E R dot ai. Well you
doing someone, I don't want to. I don't say yourself short. Um,
it's about an experience and and you know as a person,
and you both you both fair plays, you know, any
(15:54):
plays by myself. I played with three other brothers. I
players with a fifth one. But we're going to run,
and he jumped out of the car while I was
still moving. So we went down the flour So that's
how extreme pledging can beat, you know, and then ran
back to the door when we weren't gonna get out
of his bed. I quit, I quit, I'm done, And
I know the first day, just sharing some experience. I
did get hit on the first day. That were the board.
(16:15):
I got paddled, you know, because my my Lyon brothers knew.
I didn't know them. We're just all pleasure. At the
same time we're playing cards. They said, look look at me.
Serious now, however many points y'all lose by that's that man, time,
we're gonna hit him. Ye, they were really okay. They
just the points kept, And in my mind, I'm going,
(16:37):
are they seriously up a hundred points here? Damn? You
know what I'm saying, And and then all real it
was a hundred and eighty four points they lost? Come on,
come on now, And I got hit a hundred and
eighty four times on my first day. And I'm not
saying that as a badge of courage. I'm just saying
that that in that point of life, you make decisions.
(16:57):
And I think that that's what this movie is about.
It's a decision making movie. It's a decision about relationships.
It's a decision about his dad, this decision to come
over there, it's decision how people look at you. When
he finally stood up to Homeboard that told him he
know started calling him names, and he stood up for
him the first time because he found he was soft,
because he had a soft tone and he wasn't aggressive.
(17:19):
This is a really great movie, Solomon, and it's not
about the levels that you deliver. It's the story that
you're telling. Man. And Benny, I'm sure you played a
major role. And I'm and I'm not trying to undersell this.
I'm just selling it right. Man. I enjoyed. I would
watch it again because I watched it this morning. Whenever
I do interviews like this, I don't like to watch
a movie three days or four days. I like to
(17:41):
watch it the day of. So I got up at
four o'clock this morning and I watched the movie. And
it's entire to the one hour and fifty nine minutes.
I know. I watched it and I enjoyed, and I went, wow,
this is really good because and the lead character is amazing.
That plays d He's amazing. Abraham. Yeah. You know. The
one thing too, I want to say the culture of
(18:03):
the cultural aspects of this film are important. And you know,
when when we made this movie, we didn't you know,
this was pre pandemic, this was pre George Floyd and
all these things. And I think one interesting factor about
it is that um as as Africans in this diaspora
of America. We we are finally, I think now have
(18:23):
finally come together as one unit where we can look
at each other as real brothers. And I mean, you know, um, Russia.
You know, we were probably not that far in age,
and we grew up in a time where you know,
if you as African or Haitian or Jamaican or something
like that, southern Southern brothers and brother people that grew up.
(18:44):
I grew up in Philly, but my parents, my father's
from the South, you know, from Virginia, and my mother's
from Philly, but she's her parents are from Virginia, North Carolina,
so southern roots. And we always looked at Africans or
blacks coming from other places in a little weird, a
little weird way to way they sounded, the food they
ate and all these things. And so this is this
(19:04):
film showed It showed a little bit of that, but
it showed the respect factor too. He was like, you're
from Africa, right, and he says, you got a four
point oh. And I think that right there showed a
lot because it changed that little scene changed the dynamic
of what African Americans think of Afrikaans, right, And I
(19:26):
think that's important given what we are all going through
uh in this country right now. And in terms of
you know, when when that policeman stopped you, he's not
asking you if your parents are from Nigeria or Keaston
or or Charlotte or you know or Southfield, Virginia. He's
they looking at the black skin. And I think, now
(19:46):
we we uh at a point in in in this um,
you know, in this journey of of African people that
we all together now you know, we can look at
each other and respect each other. It takes alloy took
a long time for that, but I think now I
probably you know, we could respect each other when we
see each other, you know. Not when I think about
this when at four I remember that scene because they
(20:06):
mentioned that four point four point or great point that
like three times in the movie. When I took away
from that Solomon and being able, I always tell people
when you have value, when you create value, then there's
a need or want for you, you know, because people
girl wants to be a millionaire, but what's your value?
Everybody wants to be active? Can you act and more basketball?
Can you dribble? You know? Can you show up for
(20:28):
practice on time, and to me, that was a strong
moment for me, for for just young black people in general,
especially black men. If you create value, then there's a want.
You create want, then there's a desire to make you
part of or make you a whole part of something
that's bigger. And that's the whole thing about the Tasmon
and day of experiences that you know, being our players
(20:49):
to make as fire. You know, we had the cute
pearls and all that's all these different layers, the A
K s and all that stuff. I remember the scene
when there was at the UC Center. We all know
when is the I don't care what campus you on
in America, Wednesday noon, brother, on the campus, that's where
you got to be on any black hbc U white
(21:11):
Wednesday New not Tuesday, Thursday, but Wednesday New. So I
had so many flashbacks in this movie, but it was
tied to the realism and the portrayal of the college experience,
because you really gave me the college experience, not only
from his point of view, for the other young men
who wanted to fit in. Because you can agree with this,
Ben and you went to Temple. I went to the
(21:31):
University of Houston. So even though it was like we
thought it was a lot of black people on campus,
it was only like dred of Us, right, you know
what you thought you thought we was like of the campus.
You know, do you realize it's thirty five thousand white
people on this CAMPU we only and but but that's
(21:53):
the black experience. But also I remember I became vice
president's student body and that was because of the black
experience allowed me to experience that. But truly, I'm talking
to you saw the black experience just talking about what's
happened in and seeing what happened to Georgian Floyd, George Floyd,
and watching black men talk, you know, used in word
(22:15):
like they're supposed to use their word on the streets,
you know, being comfortable in using that. What was your
whole ultimate goal besides being a personal story that you
can relate to use a return to remember your dad
was in the ministry, did radio some form of entertainment?
What was the ultimate journey for the movie Tasmanian Devil,
Um with Tasmanian Devil, And also hopefully as I progressed
(22:40):
in my career, my goal is to show Black people
ask who we truly are? Um there's a lot of
like most of the stuff that that depicts African American
culture and film is us having to overcome some type
of system or like racism or slavery. Something that is, uh,
that's something that we have to fight against. But I
(23:00):
just wanted to us living our lives, like doing things
that we do. You know, that's that's that's my voice
as a filmmaker. That's that's my contribution. I want to
make films for black people that that that that's just
us existing in our everyday lives and showing the different
things we can do, not just having to overcome a
white system or being inferior to some other kind of
(23:21):
race or something like that. So with Tasmanian Devil, that's
what I was going forward as I created, As I
continue to make films, that's what I'll continue to do.
So I'm glad that you saw that in Tasmanian Devil,
because I hope to do more of it. Hey man,
I believe me. I saw that and more. I saw
a talented young man, and I'm so happy that Benny,
you're doing that. You know, Basically I created money making
(23:43):
conversation because so many people would ask me to mentor it,
you know, and I just can't mentor everybody. So I
kind of like use these interviews I'm doing with you
guys as a form of mentoring people. Listened an interview,
they grab your experience being they grab your experience, Solomon,
and it becomes a possibility those neuggage that you guys
dropped doing an interview. Now you talked about script to
come your way. You created a production company with a
(24:04):
fellow fraternity brother, Benny. Talk tell us about your production company. Well,
we have Groundwork Studios and it's uh, we created myself
and Gerald Rawls, who's brother alpha brother from my chapter
who I pledged, and we you know, from day one,
we always um said that we we have you know,
we know that there's something greater that can be done
(24:24):
in entertainment. So while I was directing videos and having
the opportunity to do movies and television, I'm also uh
opening myself up to the next voices and the important
It's interesting to hear Solomon say that because it's it's funny.
This is the first time I'm actually hearing his mission statement.
Funny enough of what he of what he sees himself
(24:44):
as a filmmaker, which I think is great because you know,
when I was trying to come up and make you know,
from transition from music videos to film, did knock was
that we didn't want to do anything that was black
subject matter because it really wasn't popular then, right, So
we were trying to fit in, get in somewhere. Um,
(25:06):
that didn't really happen for me. So the first film
I did was Next Day Air, which was the first
feature of Mike's Mike Epps and Wood Harris and Ormari Hardwick,
which is a very black, very um our comedy. You
know that that kind of dealt with the drug subject matter,
and it was very relatable to my life growing up
(25:27):
in West Philly in a way. Um, And so that
although you know, the film is funny and people talk
about it, you know, had I made that film in
this climate and probably would have been received more or
better or bigger, you know, and something like that, had
more interest in it. But it was just very hard
at that time to get people interested in black movies.
(25:48):
And I'm just so glad that I'm able to sit
here now, um, you know, some fifteen years later from
that movie almost and be able to help a young
filmmaker tell his story a way that he wants to
tell it to to and give it to the world,
and and the other great thing, um and it's not great.
But something that's come out of COVID is that we
(26:10):
don't we don't have to be hampered by the idea
of um of what do you call theaters of theatrical release,
And so we can put this film out and give
it to the audience without having to go through the
trades and say, oh, man, we only made you know,
three million the first weekend or two million the first
week those kind of things. Is which I'm really happy about.
(26:31):
We can actually actually service the audience with a great
movie and not be worried about, um, what the perception
is of it based on how many people saw it
the first weekend. Well, you know exactly what what I'm
saying when you said all Eyes on Me. It was
considered a black movie. It was only basically domestically released.
It was limited released into foreign selected markets maybe England,
(26:55):
the Caribbean, maybe South Africa, or Africa in general. Where
this movie when released February nine, it's gonna be on
the entire it's worldwide release. That's that's what I really
love about streaming. I'm glad you brought that up because
our champions streaming, especially when it comes to black products,
because we're not limited to what somebody says we should
be seen by. All of these people really want to
(27:16):
see your movie. Now. People are everybody seeing your movies,
and that's important because it's premiering on Amazon, it's premiering
on that tune, and these are international platform Fandango, Google,
Play Off the Horizon. That is the beauty of why
I wanted to make sure I was a part of
this interview you. I'm gonna put it on my social
media and put it in my newsletter because my man,
(27:38):
you know, like Bennie said, you are our future. And
I'm not saying being a not ready to die, I'm
not saying that solid okay, but you are our future
and it's important that we let you understand. Man. Look,
it's a whole ne different game out there because he's right.
You know, Next Day are funny boy that ended, but
they were shooting up everybody that ended, you know how
(27:58):
saw the movie and so but it was it was,
it was it was funny Mike eb that's my boy, Harvard, Harvard,
all these things and so it's all about timing. But
guess what if that movie back there was released domestically,
if every movie is released right now, the options of
being able to say I don't like that deal, I'm
gonna take that deal over here because I want my
(28:18):
product to see be seen by everybody China, uh, Russia, England, Germany,
all of Africa, Italy, you know, Brazil. That's what's gonna
happen to your project. That's why I like your project
because you're telling the story to me that's very honest
and very relatable. And I just want to say congratulations
(28:39):
Mr Writer, Mr Director, and I'm glad you had an
EP like Mr Benni Boone to show you the stay
true to your story because your story related was relatable
to me even at my age. You made me smile.
That's great. True. Well be I wanta thank you for
coming on the show. Solomon Ornita Jr. I'm sure I'm
gonna hear you in the future. Brother, You'll start on
(29:01):
the rise. Man, don't stop. Man, I appreciate you are
coming on some money making conversations. Thank you, Rush, I
appreciate the time. Man, Thank you so much. Hey man,
many you know I know you're gonna have projects in
the future. I always know you can come to me. Okay,
thank you, I appreciate that. Man. Alright, the Apple Apple
Omega Main. We all fraternity brothers. Okay, alright, y'all stay strong.
(29:22):
You want to hear conversation interviews, please go to Money
Making Conversation dot com I with Sean McDonald, I am
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dot Com
Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
advice to many occasions. In the casion didn't notice, I'm
not broke. You know He'll be interview with celebrity CEOs,
entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do.
It's what he likes to share. Now it's time to
(00:25):
hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money making Conversations. Here
we come. Welcome to my money Making Conversation. I'm your host,
ras Shan McDonald. It's time to stop reading other people's
success story. I tell people all the time when they
listen to my show, watching my show, you need to
start writing your own now. You can be motivated by
other people's success because their stories could offer you direction
and help you reach your goals through your planning and
(00:46):
your community effort. But remember, the interviews I bring on
this show allow you, as a consumer business owners to
access interviews with celebrity CEO, entrepreneurs, and industry decision makers.
I have two of the biggest inter decision makers on
My show today. My next two guests are Bennie Boom,
well known director, and Solomon Onneita Jr. Bennie Boone is
(01:07):
one of the executive producers of Tasmanian Devil and Solomon
Ounita Junior is the writer and director of Tasmanian Devil.
He is a little history of My Man, Benny Boom.
He's a member of Appa Phi Apple As it Is. Solomon,
he directed a much anticipated two pop cool bio pick
out All Eyes on Me. He has dominated television and
streaming platforms. Benny's directed episodes of n c I, s
(01:28):
l A, Black Lightning and All American The Quad and
Tales at BT Lee Daniels Empire on Fox Now. In
August of twenty The Tasan Tasmanian Devil Earned Solomon Nita Jr.
The inaugural John Singleton Director Award for the Best First
Feature at the twenty American Black Film Festival. Tasmanian Devil
was streaming on all platforms, especially Amazon, iTunes and Fandaego.
(01:52):
Please welcome to My Man. To money making conversations, Bennie
Boone and Solomon Oneita Junior. How you doing, Fellas are
you doing, man, I gotta play apples on the call
right here. I think that's important to say this because
we're talking about them more by pledging and and if
they you know, I've seen a lot of different versions. Uh,
(02:14):
I know. I was fortunate. Uh I should do sitcoms
and I used to. I wrote an episode with Sister
Sister when it was on the air and we did.
Uh my man, Brian McKnight, he was a start in
the sitcom and we and you know, when you start
talking about fraternitys and sororities and if you if you
make anybody walking the straight line or anybody to do
(02:35):
something against their will, then no national branch to mess
with you, because that's hazy. That's you know, if you
said walking the straight line, if they bowed out to you,
they say yes, sir, that is a form of hazing.
I just want to explain to people why they didn't
use a f I A And you can't. That's hazing.
And if you acknowledge that use in a movie, then
they can come and can come back and bite them
(02:56):
into some form of a lawsuit because they can use
that where you acknowledge just portray in a movie here.
So That's why even though they are members of a
phi A, they can't use it because guess what the
images that they're portraying in this movie, which are very
realistic by the way. And I'm not saying anything negative
because guess what it happened to me when I pledged
to make a fire. In fact, it was pretty much
worse in certain situations. But you know, I have nothing
(03:20):
negative about that, Benny and Solomon when I talk about this,
because I will tell you this pledge to maka scat fire,
as you probably say pledge in a phi A, it
changed my life, how about you, guys? Uh? For me,
a hundred percent changed my life. I pledged spring one
at Temple at University Pigro. I was a solo pledge.
(03:40):
So it was a very very very difficult or deal
for me, and um, it definitely changed me from a
boy to a man. I was nineteen years old and
I had uh. I was a freshman. You know a
lot of those things you know that I was grappling
with as a young man. I was molded and guided
by by my bros. You know the it grows at
the time, and so it really changed my life, guided me,
(04:03):
matured me, really quickly, and I appreciated every single day.
You know, what I was, what I went through, and
what I was able to make it through. How about you, Solomon?
For me, I had a very similar experience with with
pledging Alphafi offa. UM. What I showed in the film
is not necessarily my exact experience, you know. I made
(04:24):
it a fixtionalized version for entertainment purposes. But the lessons
and the values that these organizations UH give young men
is what I was trying to depict through film. Um.
And so the journey that my lead character takes throughout
Tasmanian Devil, it's something similar that I experienced, you know,
(04:44):
gaining self confidence, gaining that brotherhood factor that uh that
you know, really propels you to that next phase of
your life, especially as a young man. We know. It's interesting, Benny,
you said you pledged you when you was a freshman.
I was a senior and I played so you know,
they hit me hard. Why do you watch you long?
Why wat you long? Oh dude? Trying to pledge all
(05:06):
these young people? And but and I say that because
I was lost, man, and that's what I see in
this movie Tasmanian Devil, was a young man who's lost,
trying to find himself. He's from a foreign he's from
another country. His mom is back in the country where
he's coming from his dad. I guess it's a disconnect
because his dad wasn't with him as he grew up
and became a man, and so he comes over here
(05:28):
and the manhood he receives it is really from the
relationship he creates with these young men in the in
the in the fraternity, he's trying to pledge and I,
in my reading it right, that's um, that's exactly right.
I think that the one thing for me when I
read the script, you know, Solomon Uh Solomon's producer Trishia Woodard,
got the script to me and and my company and
(05:48):
we're looking for um producers and financing and stuff like that.
And so when I read the script, I was so
familiar with the pledge process that that wasn't the first
thing that jumped out of me. The first thing that
really jumped out of me was the relationship, the father's
son relationship in the film, and I felt like reading
that script. You know, whenever you read a piece of material, um,
(06:10):
you try to find the commonality of the story that
that you think everyone can relate to. So everybody can't
relate to for pledging or hazing, or the Black week
life or black colleges, but everybody can relate to their
own relationship or dynamic with their mother or father. And
to me, that is the strength and the foundation of
this film. Um, that relationship that you know, um where
(06:34):
where where Diode comes to America thinking that you know,
he looked as his dad as a god, you know,
and he comes to America and he's falls very short
of that. You know, you're also talking about in the film.
He's a man of God, he's a missionary and a pastor,
and so we have that dynamic of faith um in
the film, which is also something that uh, you know,
(06:55):
I I'd like to talk about in the film because
I think it's an important factor when when in this story, well,
you know, it was important to me because you know,
here's a guy he left his family, right, he left
his wife, His wife had to raise a young man,
and we all know the dynamics of it importance the
men in the boy's life, and he wasn't there in
those important formative years and basically he was the only
(07:19):
reason he came to him. I'm not gonna tell the story.
It was. It was it was kind of like happens
that that he actually was in the States to be
with his father. But his father explaining, Solomon, what were
you trying to achieve in the in the in the
ark of the character with the father, because you're the
writer and the director, what were you achieving in that relationship?
Because I hear what Benny said, and I'm agree with
(07:40):
what you're saying, Bennie. And because my father was a
disconnect with me, you know, I loved him to death,
you know, and uh, but we were not that type
father s relationship. Uh for me. When it came to
the father Tasmane in Devil, uh, it kind of mirrored
my relate and ship with my father. My my dad
(08:01):
is also in the ministry and OFT and often he
would leave to Nigeria to other countries on missionary trips
to uh, you know, because he he works in UM
and like radio broadcast and in order to kind of
you know, spread the message of Christ. And so I
was looking at that when I was when I was
(08:22):
growing up, and I was thinking, you know, he's leaving
his family in order to push the Gospel and so
you know, his his attention is being carried away from
things that I thought he should have, you know, been
at home trying to nurture us as we were coming up,
but he was instead doing other things. So for me,
it's like that was the most interesting part of of
(08:43):
of the character for me, because I thought the art
there was he puts more value in this out is
in this external system of religion versus his own family,
and that's what I was trying to portray. Well, you know,
we're not being you know, you know I mentioned a
different of as you show you've done success in the
film industry and then you get a project that comes
(09:05):
to your production company, Tasmanian Devil. You know, is it
is it the character structure or is the content of
what the script brought to the table that really excited
you the most, or we're just the favorite mee ority
of the background because you are remember I'm apafip. Well,
it was a combination of things. I think part of um,
(09:27):
part of our responsibility as uh in these fraternities is
something that's important, and I think over the years it
has gotten lost on on all of us, you know,
not just Alpha's not just cues. All of us we've
we've sort of we've taken a back seat to what
we're supposed to be doing. And what we're supposed to
be doing is giving back to the community. We're supposed
(09:49):
to reach back and bring other people up. Regardless of
what I mean, I would have had this film come
to me Solomon not been an alpha and he was
you know, a queue or new I would have been
involved in the same way, because that wasn't the reason why.
Um what I wanted to do was to be able
to help a young man who wanted to be or
who is a filmmaker tell his story and not be
(10:12):
held back by what happens when you make a studio movie,
when producers who've never made a movie before or never
directed or never written have all these notes and ideas
and thoughts and all this stuff, and it goes against
what you want to do creatively. Right, So what I
what I wanted to do was helped shepherd him in
this into this industry in a way where his full
(10:34):
vision can be achieved. The way he thought about the scenes,
the way he wrote the scenes, the way he directed
the scenes, or his vision. At the same time, because
of the experience I had. I wanted to give him
some notes and some ideas, but never was I in
a position where I said, Yo, you gotta take these
notes or it's gonna be whacked. No. I would offer
(10:55):
my ideas to him, some he took something he didn't,
and I respected to respect acted them both the same way. Um,
because the point of the matter is when you make
a film, you have to as the director and writer,
you have to live and die by that film. So
I I just wanted him to make sure that he
was solid and stood solid on the ground and the
decisions that he made. And my whole goal was to
(11:17):
be here to support him. And I think it's really
important to Solomon that you did have someone who had
the fraternal experience, the pledge experience, because I would tell you,
man really enjoyed the movie. I was. I smiled because
they brought back memories, you know, zombody trying, you know,
(11:38):
when it was past, you know, when it was greed.
It was like, you know I was going through if
I was going through, see it through, I was, I
was going I was just it was like even keep
your heading all about your losing theirs and blaming you
I'm going whoo. You know, it was like it was.
It was the reason I'm excited about it. I wanted
to highly recommend this movie is because you know, it's
(11:58):
a collegiate journey because you don't have people on the
outside saw what we experience, and then you have the
people who experienced it and can share that that that
firm belief. But this is why I feel it was
important that Benny was part of this, this this bootoo
seen in uh process, because it didn't go over the top.
(12:18):
Nothing in this movie. I went, that's some crap what
you doing? And we were never on that dude. It
stayed on the level plane field. It didn't go to
the extreme because you know where it can go. But
it was not nobody's jumping out of a plane, somebody
dropping out of a call, somebody robbing the store because
they're trying to get some Everything that was asked in
(12:39):
this movie by the young man actually happened to me
or I asked somebody to do it for me when
I became a big brother. That's important, Solomon, and I
believe it. What's your what's your thoughts on that? Uh? Yeah,
I just wanted to show almost like a standard view
of what hazing is. I mean, a lot of people
(13:00):
in hazen from other black films like Stump the Yard
and Spike Lee's movie, so we have a knowledge of
hazing already. I didn't want to get too deep into,
you know, what different organizations do, because that's not what
this is about. You know, I created it. I created
a film that's outside of m pH C. So I
just wanted to show a generic hazing process or pledging process,
(13:23):
to use that as a vehicle to to show what
it's like to to enter this organization and then uh
comparing compared contrast that to the religious aspects of it
and to the you know him trying to assimilate to
American culture. Uh So that's why I kept a very
surface level. I just showed stuff that people probably already
(13:44):
know about hazing or pledging. It's finally here the season
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That's O T T E R dot ai. Well you
doing someone, I don't want to. I don't say yourself short. Um,
it's about an experience and and you know as a person,
and you both you both fair plays, you know, any
(15:54):
plays by myself. I played with three other brothers. I
players with a fifth one. But we're going to run,
and he jumped out of the car while I was
still moving. So we went down the flour So that's
how extreme pledging can beat, you know, and then ran
back to the door when we weren't gonna get out
of his bed. I quit, I quit, I'm done, And
I know the first day, just sharing some experience. I
did get hit on the first day. That were the board.
(16:15):
I got paddled, you know, because my my Lyon brothers knew.
I didn't know them. We're just all pleasure. At the
same time we're playing cards. They said, look look at me.
Serious now, however many points y'all lose by that's that man, time,
we're gonna hit him. Ye, they were really okay. They
just the points kept, And in my mind, I'm going,
(16:37):
are they seriously up a hundred points here? Damn? You
know what I'm saying, And and then all real it
was a hundred and eighty four points they lost? Come on,
come on now, And I got hit a hundred and
eighty four times on my first day. And I'm not
saying that as a badge of courage. I'm just saying
that that in that point of life, you make decisions.
(16:57):
And I think that that's what this movie is about.
It's a decision making movie. It's a decision about relationships.
It's a decision about his dad, this decision to come
over there, it's decision how people look at you. When
he finally stood up to Homeboard that told him he
know started calling him names, and he stood up for
him the first time because he found he was soft,
because he had a soft tone and he wasn't aggressive.
(17:19):
This is a really great movie, Solomon, and it's not
about the levels that you deliver. It's the story that
you're telling. Man. And Benny, I'm sure you played a
major role. And I'm and I'm not trying to undersell this.
I'm just selling it right. Man. I enjoyed. I would
watch it again because I watched it this morning. Whenever
I do interviews like this, I don't like to watch
a movie three days or four days. I like to
(17:41):
watch it the day of. So I got up at
four o'clock this morning and I watched the movie. And
it's entire to the one hour and fifty nine minutes.
I know. I watched it and I enjoyed, and I went, wow,
this is really good because and the lead character is amazing.
That plays d He's amazing. Abraham. Yeah. You know. The
one thing too, I want to say the culture of
(18:03):
the cultural aspects of this film are important. And you know,
when when we made this movie, we didn't you know,
this was pre pandemic, this was pre George Floyd and
all these things. And I think one interesting factor about
it is that um as as Africans in this diaspora
of America. We we are finally, I think now have
(18:23):
finally come together as one unit where we can look
at each other as real brothers. And I mean, you know, um, Russia.
You know, we were probably not that far in age,
and we grew up in a time where you know,
if you as African or Haitian or Jamaican or something
like that, southern Southern brothers and brother people that grew up.
(18:44):
I grew up in Philly, but my parents, my father's
from the South, you know, from Virginia, and my mother's
from Philly, but she's her parents are from Virginia, North Carolina,
so southern roots. And we always looked at Africans or
blacks coming from other places in a little weird, a
little weird way to way they sounded, the food they
ate and all these things. And so this is this
(19:04):
film showed It showed a little bit of that, but
it showed the respect factor too. He was like, you're
from Africa, right, and he says, you got a four
point oh. And I think that right there showed a
lot because it changed that little scene changed the dynamic
of what African Americans think of Afrikaans, right, And I
(19:26):
think that's important given what we are all going through
uh in this country right now. And in terms of
you know, when when that policeman stopped you, he's not
asking you if your parents are from Nigeria or Keaston
or or Charlotte or you know or Southfield, Virginia. He's
they looking at the black skin. And I think, now
(19:46):
we we uh at a point in in in this um,
you know, in this journey of of African people that
we all together now you know, we can look at
each other and respect each other. It takes alloy took
a long time for that, but I think now I
probably you know, we could respect each other when we
see each other, you know. Not when I think about
this when at four I remember that scene because they
(20:06):
mentioned that four point four point or great point that
like three times in the movie. When I took away
from that Solomon and being able, I always tell people
when you have value, when you create value, then there's
a need or want for you, you know, because people
girl wants to be a millionaire, but what's your value?
Everybody wants to be active? Can you act and more basketball?
Can you dribble? You know? Can you show up for
(20:28):
practice on time, and to me, that was a strong
moment for me, for for just young black people in general,
especially black men. If you create value, then there's a want.
You create want, then there's a desire to make you
part of or make you a whole part of something
that's bigger. And that's the whole thing about the Tasmon
and day of experiences that you know, being our players
(20:49):
to make as fire. You know, we had the cute
pearls and all that's all these different layers, the A
K s and all that stuff. I remember the scene
when there was at the UC Center. We all know
when is the I don't care what campus you on
in America, Wednesday noon, brother, on the campus, that's where
you got to be on any black hbc U white
(21:11):
Wednesday New not Tuesday, Thursday, but Wednesday New. So I
had so many flashbacks in this movie, but it was
tied to the realism and the portrayal of the college experience,
because you really gave me the college experience, not only
from his point of view, for the other young men
who wanted to fit in. Because you can agree with this,
Ben and you went to Temple. I went to the
(21:31):
University of Houston. So even though it was like we
thought it was a lot of black people on campus,
it was only like dred of Us, right, you know
what you thought you thought we was like of the campus.
You know, do you realize it's thirty five thousand white
people on this CAMPU we only and but but that's
(21:53):
the black experience. But also I remember I became vice
president's student body and that was because of the black
experience allowed me to experience that. But truly, I'm talking
to you saw the black experience just talking about what's
happened in and seeing what happened to Georgian Floyd, George Floyd,
and watching black men talk, you know, used in word
(22:15):
like they're supposed to use their word on the streets,
you know, being comfortable in using that. What was your
whole ultimate goal besides being a personal story that you
can relate to use a return to remember your dad
was in the ministry, did radio some form of entertainment?
What was the ultimate journey for the movie Tasmanian Devil,
Um with Tasmanian Devil, And also hopefully as I progressed
(22:40):
in my career, my goal is to show Black people
ask who we truly are? Um there's a lot of
like most of the stuff that that depicts African American
culture and film is us having to overcome some type
of system or like racism or slavery. Something that is, uh,
that's something that we have to fight against. But I
(23:00):
just wanted to us living our lives, like doing things
that we do. You know, that's that's that's my voice
as a filmmaker. That's that's my contribution. I want to
make films for black people that that that that's just
us existing in our everyday lives and showing the different
things we can do, not just having to overcome a
white system or being inferior to some other kind of
(23:21):
race or something like that. So with Tasmanian Devil, that's
what I was going forward as I created, As I
continue to make films, that's what I'll continue to do.
So I'm glad that you saw that in Tasmanian Devil,
because I hope to do more of it. Hey man,
I believe me. I saw that and more. I saw
a talented young man, and I'm so happy that Benny,
you're doing that. You know, Basically I created money making
(23:43):
conversation because so many people would ask me to mentor it,
you know, and I just can't mentor everybody. So I
kind of like use these interviews I'm doing with you
guys as a form of mentoring people. Listened an interview,
they grab your experience being they grab your experience, Solomon,
and it becomes a possibility those neuggage that you guys
dropped doing an interview. Now you talked about script to
come your way. You created a production company with a
(24:04):
fellow fraternity brother, Benny. Talk tell us about your production company. Well,
we have Groundwork Studios and it's uh, we created myself
and Gerald Rawls, who's brother alpha brother from my chapter
who I pledged, and we you know, from day one,
we always um said that we we have you know,
we know that there's something greater that can be done
(24:24):
in entertainment. So while I was directing videos and having
the opportunity to do movies and television, I'm also uh
opening myself up to the next voices and the important
It's interesting to hear Solomon say that because it's it's funny.
This is the first time I'm actually hearing his mission statement.
Funny enough of what he of what he sees himself
(24:44):
as a filmmaker, which I think is great because you know,
when I was trying to come up and make you know,
from transition from music videos to film, did knock was
that we didn't want to do anything that was black
subject matter because it really wasn't popular then, right, So
we were trying to fit in, get in somewhere. Um,
(25:06):
that didn't really happen for me. So the first film
I did was Next Day Air, which was the first
feature of Mike's Mike Epps and Wood Harris and Ormari Hardwick,
which is a very black, very um our comedy. You
know that that kind of dealt with the drug subject matter,
and it was very relatable to my life growing up
(25:27):
in West Philly in a way. Um, And so that
although you know, the film is funny and people talk
about it, you know, had I made that film in
this climate and probably would have been received more or
better or bigger, you know, and something like that, had
more interest in it. But it was just very hard
at that time to get people interested in black movies.
(25:48):
And I'm just so glad that I'm able to sit
here now, um, you know, some fifteen years later from
that movie almost and be able to help a young
filmmaker tell his story a way that he wants to
tell it to to and give it to the world,
and and the other great thing, um and it's not great.
But something that's come out of COVID is that we
(26:10):
don't we don't have to be hampered by the idea
of um of what do you call theaters of theatrical release,
And so we can put this film out and give
it to the audience without having to go through the
trades and say, oh, man, we only made you know,
three million the first weekend or two million the first
week those kind of things. Is which I'm really happy about.
(26:31):
We can actually actually service the audience with a great
movie and not be worried about, um, what the perception
is of it based on how many people saw it
the first weekend. Well, you know exactly what what I'm
saying when you said all Eyes on Me. It was
considered a black movie. It was only basically domestically released.
It was limited released into foreign selected markets maybe England,
(26:55):
the Caribbean, maybe South Africa, or Africa in general. Where
this movie when released February nine, it's gonna be on
the entire it's worldwide release. That's that's what I really
love about streaming. I'm glad you brought that up because
our champions streaming, especially when it comes to black products,
because we're not limited to what somebody says we should
be seen by. All of these people really want to
(27:16):
see your movie. Now. People are everybody seeing your movies,
and that's important because it's premiering on Amazon, it's premiering
on that tune, and these are international platform Fandango, Google,
Play Off the Horizon. That is the beauty of why
I wanted to make sure I was a part of
this interview you. I'm gonna put it on my social
media and put it in my newsletter because my man,
(27:38):
you know, like Bennie said, you are our future. And
I'm not saying being a not ready to die, I'm
not saying that solid okay, but you are our future
and it's important that we let you understand. Man. Look,
it's a whole ne different game out there because he's right.
You know, Next Day are funny boy that ended, but
they were shooting up everybody that ended, you know how
(27:58):
saw the movie and so but it was it was,
it was it was funny Mike eb that's my boy, Harvard, Harvard,
all these things and so it's all about timing. But
guess what if that movie back there was released domestically,
if every movie is released right now, the options of
being able to say I don't like that deal, I'm
gonna take that deal over here because I want my
(28:18):
product to see be seen by everybody China, uh, Russia, England, Germany,
all of Africa, Italy, you know, Brazil. That's what's gonna
happen to your project. That's why I like your project
because you're telling the story to me that's very honest
and very relatable. And I just want to say congratulations
(28:39):
Mr Writer, Mr Director, and I'm glad you had an
EP like Mr Benni Boone to show you the stay
true to your story because your story related was relatable
to me even at my age. You made me smile.
That's great. True. Well be I wanta thank you for
coming on the show. Solomon Ornita Jr. I'm sure I'm
gonna hear you in the future. Brother, You'll start on
(29:01):
the rise. Man, don't stop. Man, I appreciate you are
coming on some money making conversations. Thank you, Rush, I
appreciate the time. Man, Thank you so much. Hey man,
many you know I know you're gonna have projects in
the future. I always know you can come to me. Okay,
thank you, I appreciate that. Man. Alright, the Apple Apple
Omega Main. We all fraternity brothers. Okay, alright, y'all stay strong.
(29:22):
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