McKinley Benson & Mackenzie Benson On Exploring the Pitfalls of Opposite Schedules in a Relationship for ‘Two Ships’

Living with someone you love comes with its ups and downs, certainly, but there are specific arrangements that add additional complicated layers. When you are living on opposite schedules it can sometime feel like you aren’t even living with someone at all–like you are sharing close quarters with a ghost. You see evidence of their presence and maybe even clean up after them, but you are never in the same place at the same time. For McKinley Benson’s rewarding animated short, Two Ships, little dialogue is used to transmit a common conflict.

A man gets up in the middle of the night and folds over his side of the covers. He looks longingly at his girlfriend before he begins his nightly routine of grabbing a bite to eat before heading out to work. This side of Benson’s film (which he wrote with his partner, Mackenzie) is swathed in shades of different blues, as if the night is clinging to his skin and the clothes he picked out for his day. I couldn’t help but think about how he has perfected the art of quietly tiptoeing around his own apartment, trying to be quiet and respectful in equal measure.

When his partner wakes up in the morning, the warm beiges and pinks almost reflect how she feels to keep herself going to get to the end of the day. They visually exist in the same spaces but not in the same time–they feel imprinted on one another.

Based on the couple’s own experience living with opposite schedules, they recognize how their film can speak to many audiences who are grappling with a non-traditional living environment. Two Ships spoke to me, personally, as an understanding of a long distance relationship in how uncertainty and doubt creep in when you least expect it. In one section, the color drains out and our couple finds themselves flying on parallel swings, their fingertips straining for the tiniest bit of physical touch.

No one knows how it feels to be in your relationship, so you have to remain present and understanding to make the bond stronger–especially when the other isn’t sitting right next to you. The Bensons have created a film filled with longing and patience, a testament to the power of love and connection.