When a “package” is delivered to the wrong address, all hell breaks loose trying to get it back, is the premise for this dark comedy.

Widely known for his sexy, vibrant and hip videos for artists like Keyshia Cole, Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent, T.I., Nelly, Boyz II Men and P. Diddy, Benny has brought that same passion to his first feature film.

Urban Network’s Tosha Y. Thomas had the pleasure to sit down and talk to music video director turned film director on a beautiful day in Los Angeles.

UN: What was the mindset for you not to make this movie too much of a video; which some people may have expected from you and to keep it a straight movie?

BB: I think in the video world, I’m known for certain things and everyone’s known for certain things in music videos if you’ve done enough. Little X does dance videos, with Dave Meyers, you think colorful kind of dance; sort of super realistic. When you think of Hype [Williams] you think of grand big images and over the top wardrobe and stuff. For me, I’m mostly known for videos that are along the lines of the cinematic kind of storytelling videos. I was already shooting stuff training myself to do a movie in a way; most of the concepts I wrote were for story elements. Coming in doing the movie, I didn’t want to make it just be about images. Everybody kept saying ‘you gotta tell a story, you gotta tell a story’ so I made sure that’s what we did. Every scene had to be something that kept telling a story, I didn’t want to shoot scenes just to show I could shoot, because everybody already knows that. They wanna know ‘can you shoot a movie?’ I didn’t want to go into it as a ‘music video director,’ I wanted to go into it as a ‘film director’ the same way a guy who had never shot a frame of film in his life got a chance to do his first movie what would he do? That’s how I went into it, like a novice, like I was brand new.

UN: Was there apprehension at all, doing the transition?

BB: There’s definitely a big economic setback in doing your first feature from doing videos, which can be lucrative. Doing your first feature as a first time director is not quite as lucrative at all. The apprehension of ‘okay, once you make that first movie, you can’t bring it back.’ It’s not like a video where ‘well that video wasn’t so good’ but the next week you’re shooting another video and people forget about it, it doesn’t work like that in feature world. I wasn’t over anxious to do it and I think that’s why I was able to get it done. I wasn’t at a point where I was like ‘God I gotta do a movie or else,’ I didn’t feel like that. It was because all the timing, everything was right.

UN: Outside the technical aspect of being a music video director how does that prepare you for the film side?

BB: It’s hard to answer because being able to handle a set is a technical skill, and I’ve done almost like 200 commercials and music videos. To be able to get the group together, convey what your idea is for that day and to have everybody go off and do their part to bring it together visually on screen, then interject the actors; all that is part of a skill that you learn and it’s all about communicating. I’d communicate with Mike Epps the same way I’d communicate with Nelly or 50 Cent.

UN: Does this mean no more music videos?

BB: Not right now, I just did a video for Trey Songz last week. I’m gearing myself to make a transition into features and also television too as a ‘big boy’ in television. Right now I have like 2 or 3 TV shows that I’ve written and we’re trying to get placed. I’ve learned that TV used to be a crutch and a taboo thing like a film director never wanted to dabble in TV, but now that’s not true. Like Michael Bay has TV shows on and McG the director of Terminator Salvation, he’s got TV shows on, Spike Lee does pilots, he did the pilot for Shark. You have all these guys crossing over. Scorsese I think just did a pilot for HBO, so you got big guys that are doing TV, and I think that’s another avenue, especially cable TV, where I could make a big impact. That’s kinda what I’m trying to press for.

UN: If you had your ‘druthers’ in a sense, to where you had the budget you wanted without any other issues that came into play, what would be your dream project to do?

BB: The dream project to do would be some sort of action movie with Jamie Foxx and Mark Wahlberg or somewhere in that combination, playing off each other. You know what I really want to do, I want to do a movie where I can direct Will Smith, but he’s a bad guy in the movie, cause you know as great as his career is, I would love for him to be that person like Alonzo in Training Day was for Denzel. Man to be that to Will, to just take him and switch him and turn him just a bit so people still love him but you see this other side. That would be big. It’d be kinda like a dream scenario to do a big action movie with Will Smith.

UN: What would you say is your best video work? Is there one or two that stand out?

BB: I’ll give you top 5: “Lost Without U” Robin Thicke. We shot it at the Roosevelt Hotel and it was a small budget too. The video just came off so well because it was a sensitive kinda thing.

Busta Rhymes “I Love My Chick” with Gabrielle Union. We kinda did a take on Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I actually use that video a lot in my reel because that video has so many different elements of film making that we send it out to producers.

Nas “Made You Look.” Nas, just because it was so gritty. First of all we didn’t have any permits to shoot that video, I had to make phone calls to everybody I knew in the boroughs. I lived in the neighborhood where Biggie grew up so I kinda had to tell cats the day before like ‘look I’m bringing Nas through.’ I had to keep Nas in the car, make sure everybody was cool with it, bring him out, shoot the scene, put him back in the car, it was one of those things. Then we shot up in Harlem and we kinda had a little drama up there with some of the Dipset guys at the time and they kinda weren’t happy that we were shooting there, so I had to peace that situation out. It came together with a whole lot of me trying to be Barack and make everybody just chill.

Another one would probably be 50 Cent’s “Just A Little Bit” which we shot in Cancun. I got called to do that video like 48 hours before we were shooting. They were like ‘we love your concept, you gotta come down here, and we shoot in like two days.’

And Boyz II Men “The Color Of Love.” It didn’t get enough airplay then and it doesn’t get enough recognition. What we did was Little X actually was hired to do the video and he had this idea of shooting each member in four different places in the world, but he didn’t want to just make it about him, he wanted to break it up. So it was myself, Chris Robinson, Hype and X all took one guy and shot him in different places. I shot in Ghana, X shot in India, Hype shot in Tokyo and Chris shot in Puerto Rico. We all did these segments and it all came together in one video. That experience was great because it was the first time I’d ever been to Africa, so it was like ‘wow I’m actually able to go to Africa working, shooting videos!’ It was a big deal. And the end product was just a beautiful video. Nobody knew what the other person was doing, but we all kinda in our mind came together and put this piece together that was something. Not enough people remember and it’s sad that it didn’t get enough fanfare from what we had done.

UN: When you think of the other directors, did you go to those who have directed a film for some advice?

BB: I talked to people I’m really close to. F. Gary Gray was the person who really has been my mentor through this whole Next Day Air process. He was the one who convinced me that I needed to do the movie when I was on the fence about it. We had been through pre-production and things in the beginning weren’t going my way and I had some apprehension; some of it economic and other things. We got on the phone and he gave me this lecture about taking chances and ‘if you wanna be a film maker you gotta make a movie. You can make videos all day, but nobody’s gonna take you seriously ‘til you make a movie and if these guys give you the opportunity and you like the material, you need to go ahead and do it.’ He said he made more money making TLC “Waterfalls” then he did for Friday, so don’t even trip on the money thing, if it’s right you’re gonna be good. He was one that was in my corner the whole time giving me advice. When Chris Robinson did ATL I visited him on the set and he had gone through a tough time with the studio, specifically around that time when I went to see him. We went out to dinner afterwards and were talking and he was giving me this whole thing about when I do my first movie what to do, what not to do, just on dealing with the studio level. When I started to direct, I gave him a call, we spoke a little bit about different things and he gave me a little outline of what to look out for. There’s a really cool kind of ‘fraternity’ of directors that respect each other. There are different eras of black video directors; you got Antoine, Paris, and Gary Gray. And then you have Hype which is his own era and then you have everybody after that. Then you get like Darren, Chris and Paul, me and X came on the tail end of that. I’ve been watching the new guys come up and there’s no real new movement of guys now. The music video world in general, has died down; the internet kinda killed it a bit.

UN: Do you see a future, or what’s the next new trend to videos?

BB: For the last two or three years most of the videos have been geared to the dance movement, you get these kids like Soulja Boy and all these videos are about dance, the songs are about dance movement. Now it’s not so much about bling, it’s about having a good time which is what hip hop was in the beginning. I think that if artists make better records, then they sell more records, and if they sell more records they have the opportunity to make more money which lends to the opportunity to do more videos, and better videos. Right now cats get one shot at a video and that’s it. There’s no ‘we’re gonna do this single for the first video, this single for the second video.’ I’ve been blessed because the latter part of my career I’ve been hooked up with Keyshia Cole and have been integral in almost every single video she’s ever done. I’ve done eight videos for her and I think she’s done maybe ten or eleven in total. She trusts so much in me that we connect and it allows me to do the job so well.

Next Day Air rated R opens Friday May 8 in theaters nationwide.