~ Interview with filmmaker 'David Noel Bourke' Copenhagen, Denmark ~~~
Hello David. Tell me something about yourself?
My name is David Noel Bourke, I’m a filmmaker based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Being in the center of Europe this comes in handy with easy access to cast and crew, a European filmmakers dream come true.
Originally I’m from a city in the west of Ireland called Limerick by the majestic River Shannon. After writing a couple of spec scripts and making some short movies, moved to Australia to study drama and acting, which is where I met my producer wife, who happened to be Danish. She had just made a short herself and wanted to get into producing, so we got along very well.
Eventually we moved back to Denmark and setup a small production company. We soon realized that getting funds wasn’t as easy as we thought. So we basically wrote a no budget script, called "Last Exit", it was my little love letter to underground movies. Since then we wrote and directed another bigger budget movie titled "No Right Turn" and at the moment have a couple of exciting projects that are in development.
"No Right Turn"
Share with me some insight on your films and what was your inspiration to produce them?
"Last Exit" all we wanted to do was to get out there and gain the valuable experience of shooting a movie. Which happened very quickly.
We started a little production company on an experimental basis to see what was possible to shoot, edit and produce a feature film on a low budget.
We wrote the script, cast soome local actors and decided since this is going to underground, we are going to break all the rules and make it as anti-Hollywood as possible, but we made sure to have at least some semblance of a story, so audiences would at least stick with it.
We shot "Last Exit" in the course of two weeks with one digital camera, looking back now, we were a bit crazy and now it’s a very hard for me to watch it, I personally see a lot of issues with it, but as an experimental first piece, we learned a lot along with making some great contacts.
Amazingly enough it got a strong turnout at our premiere. Once we then put trailer online,
we were contacted by some distributors and we eventually secured distribution deals. The DVD is distributed by Heretic Films and it is one of their strong sellers around Europe and in the United States.
After the film made some money I got work immediately on a script that I’ve been working on for a couple of years, it's a retro-thriller based in an fantasy surreal world, titled "No Right Turn", I dusted it off, did a couple of rewrites and decided this will be our first real movie-movie, that's wasn’t underground, which make it a little more accessible to mainstream audiences, but of course it still has an independent edge and style.
How long have you been filmmaking?
I have been making films all my life in one format or the other. I always wrote fictional stories and for the last ten years wrote around twenty scripts. In my youth, like so many other filmmakers used a cheap video camera to shoot tiny little movies of my family and friends. For the last five years, have been more focused on building and learning as a professional filmmaker.
Do you have any plans for future projects?
Yes, once "No Right Turn" is wrapped, I hope to start prepping a new psychologically thriller, that’s strays into the horror genre, it’s less pulpy than my first two efforts. I also have a couple of other projects in development for the future, one is a bio picture and one is a science fiction project, these will require significant budgets.
What qualities do you look for in an actor/actress?
I usually tend to for actors who have a little edge, who like to push the envelope a little and who are not afraid of challenging roles. My first two movies most of my characters talked a lot and are very emotionally screwed up, so it's an incredible challenge to try getting into these worlds and making it real.
In "No Right Turn" the biggest challenge was to find a good actress for the "Nina" role, a central character in the film, she plays a washed up escort girl who is trying to break into acting business and is also trying to leave her clingy drug peddling boyfriend. There were many difficult and emotionally complex scenes that actress Laura Bach had to go through, but it was well worth it.
We had spent many months casting actors from LA to Hungary to South Africa we finally ended up with a great cast.
Will your films be released on DVD and is it going to be submitted in any festivals?
Our first film "Last Exit" is out on DVD in US/ Canada, it can be picked it up in all major stores. It’s also released in a couple of countries in Europe, check our website for details, it can be ordered off Amazon etc. "No Right Turn" will kick start it's festival route when it's finalized, we already got some invitations so it looks good so far.
For more information and to contact Last Exit Productions go to:
One last question would you have any advice for any other indie filmmakers just starting out?
Well, having only made two movies so far, still very much learning myself! From what I learned so far, try to prepare as much as possible, have an interesting script, try to get actors that can act, it’s not a good idea to cast your friends, that’s a mistake.
Take your time casting, it may take up to a year to find the right talent but it’s well worth it in the long run. Before shooting, get everything signed on a paper, from actors to music rights to locations. It can be a legal nightmare to even show your film in public if these are not in place.
Also remember, it’s all a learning process and practice makes perfect, just try get out here and shoot something, it’s much more interesting to go and make some sort of film rather than be one of these folks that only talk about it and also most important of all - enjoy it!
I'd like to thank you very much for the fantastic interview David, looking forward to seeing your films in the near future.
