The dream of directing and producing has come full circle for Class of 2014 alumnus Dillon Bentlage as he co-founded the production company, Karen Twins Productions.

With his childhood friend and co-founder Brian Reilly, the twosome partnered together to brainstorm movie ideas and script outlines, but the writing sessions quickly turned into discussions on creating their own business. Karen Twins Production was established in 2015 with the duo producing a few short films and one feature film titled Dilettantes.

The film had success in the indie film circuit, but the team’s proudest moment came when the film was picked-up and distributed on Amazon Prime and Tubi TV. Dillon noted that “all we wanted to do was make a film to learn as much as possible about filmmaking; we were very fortunate that others were also interested in seeing our movie.” 

The team has expanded to include Dillon’s friend Simon Kincade as a producer and two other writing partners and collaborators. Currently, the company is in mid-production for an international web-series titled Play It By Ear, which is aimed to be released this summer. Click here to view their website and check out the short films.

Dillon credits the late Dr. Lou Negri, the late Mr. Tom Iampietro, and Hamden Hall for inspiring his love of film stating the class “Music in Cinema” was his favorite and that he would stay late to discuss the subject matter and ask for films to study at home from Dr. Negri. He commented that Mr. Iampietro’s kind nature and guidance helped him choose Boston University, which became its own character in his scripts.

“The advice of both Dr. Negri and Mr. Iampietro’s stayed with me throughout my journey into filmmaking. I started to come away with an appreciation for the scope, scale, and technique of these films. I make movies for me to look back on and appreciate how lucky we are to have such a clear passion,” he said.

Dillon graduated from Boston University in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in cinema studies and a minor in literature. Following graduation, he moved to Amsterdam where he worked as an editor for three years at Storm Productions, a post-production film company. He resides in Brooklyn, N.Y., with plans to continue writing and producing.