Interviews with David Black

David Black started his acting career by doing a role as a cult guard on horror feature movie, Cult Girls. It certainly was an experience too. David Black remembers getting to the film location and seeing cranes, dollies, giant lights and a few stars, like Jane Badler from V. Prior to this he’d been in a theatrical horror rock band called Darkness Visible since 1994 and although he has produced, directed and appeared in 9 music videos, David Black didn’t really feel connected to the movie industry before, so Cult Girls was the start and Darkness Visible has been something that gave him the experience to make a movie career take off. After Cult Girls, it seemed like David was in one movie after movie. Universe – Stellar Birth, The Perfect Nonsense, The Last Hope, Order of the Wolf, Scene Through My Eyes, The Resurgence ….. David Black went from extra to featured extra to cast in what seemed like a very short time. This was followed by writing, producing and directing his own short movies. It’s been regular progress from extra to actor to director. Each time, it’s’ been a baby step up, but it’s also been at a breakneck pace too.

Did you study what you do
I didn’t really study for what I am doing now, unless you count having been in stage plays at school. So far, everything I’ve learned has been on the job. I have worked with many experienced people so I’ve always had someone there to guide and advise me. One of the brilliant things about the indie movie industry in Melbourne is that there are a lot of supportive people. As long as you haven’t bitten off more than you can chew and its just a little bit of advice or guidance here and there, you’ll find that there is always someone to help — as long as you have networked well, that is.

What is your filmmaking process
I didn’t go to a school, so I don’t have a name for my process. I started learning from my very first music video. That one was a simple one. We had a studio recording of the song, “Flesh” and I teed up a couple of camera guys to come to a gig, film it and edit it. The follow up clip was a bit more complicated. I had the recording of “I Nehemia” and an idea that there had to be travel in it. So I wrote a script where the band are the travellers, going to a gig. I booked a horse carriage ride in the city for one night, a boat at Studley House Boat House for another night, found a spot at St Kilda beach for one shoot and a bit of bushland for another, arranged a venue to do a gig. I advertised for a month or so for 30 extras and set up live photography and booth photography at the venue. In organising this, every single step seemed like common sense. It was a case of – what do we need to shoot this and then arranging it. It was only after Cult Girls and working with movie industry people that I started to learn the terminologies and processes of the movie industry.

Tell us about the work you have produced
I’ve produced 9 music videos for Darkness Visible. The first 8 can be found on I Bleed Indie for free. http://ibleedindie.com/category/music-videos/ . The 9th one, Breaking Point, is soon to be released and you can find all the information on the Breaking Point page – https://www.facebook.com/BreakingPointVideo . Movie industry wise, I’ve produced 2 segments for Shane Ryan’s “Ted Bundy had a Son.” I wrote, directed, produced, filmed and acted in one segment. It was a found footage piece of a man going to his girlfriends place and the two finding all her house mates dead. The main filming was by Alex Zemtsov with my iphone footage being cut in. As a follow up, I co-wrote, produced and acted in another segment where the boyfriend is interrogated for the murders. This one was directed and filmed by Steve Russell.

Local film makers are on the call out for zombie extras. Zombie extra David Black.

After this, I wrote, co directed and was an extra in Dark Night of the Zomboogies. This was one of those things that I just fell into. It was intended to be a throwaway piece to be filmed at the end of the Boogie Nights movie industry night in Abbotsford. The idea was just do do a film shoot quickly there for fun in order to bring more people to the night. Well, we really did have to shoot the whole movie in just 2 hours, with lots of restrictions, such as not being bothering patrons — which means no recorded dialogue due to not being able to call “Quiet on Set.” Well, that one grew! We had a pro sound crew from Soundworks in India that wanted to do a sound track. It then debuted at the Warrandyte Film Feast, within a week of being completed and did well there. It also is going out as a bonus extra on SRS Cinema’s release of “Peek a boo, then I strangle you.” And if that wasn’t surprising enough, it is going onto a horror show that goes onto Foxtel and Ch 41 in Adelaide.

Other projects that I am working on are not finished yet, but there is Daemonic Twist – a coming of age horror/ comedy to highlight youth suicide. Drugs ‘n Dildo’s, a comedy web series about what happens when a retired horror actor moves into the Dunshaftin Nursing Home for retired Porn Stars. And last, a series of short movies called “Obsessions of a Shattered Psyche” that is based on the series of short stories of the same name that I had published in the 1990’s in Dark Angel Magazine.

Do you take courses to improve your craft
I’ve been learning on the job, as mentioned, but I have spent quite some time reading about the industry online.

Darkness Breaking Dancing

How do you combine acting and writing
If I’ve written the project that I’m acting in, then it’s a natural process because I already have the character living in my head before the script is even broken down. I suppose it changes somewhat according to who I am working with and how the characters interact. I hadn’t really thought of how to combine both because once a project starts, it pretty much go, go, go, and a lot is done on auto pilot.

How did you get into the film business
I mentioned Cult Girls earlier and my band, Darkness Visible. Those two are linked. The director of Cult Girls, Mark Bakaitis, is also in a band called Psych Carni. I’d known Mark for years through his band. Our bands both played locally within the same scene and I’d probably booked them at a night I ran called “The 3rd Degree.” I didn’t know that Mark was even better known as a director and had made numerous movies, documentaries and music videos. Mark asked me to be an extra in his movie, Cult Girls, and that’s pretty much where it all took off.

There were earlier things such as doing extra spots for some tv shows that were filmed in my street in the 980’s and an extra spot in feature movie back in the 1990’s, but once again, I didn’t feel connected to anything from them.I just turned up, did what I was told and left. There were no explanations of the movie making process and no connections to anyone afterward. One thing hadn’t led to another either. Cult Girls really was the start of feeling that I was a part of the industry. It was where I met people and was offered more roles. It got the ball rolling and that ball hasn’t stopped yet.

How do you turn an idea into a screenplay
I’ve only done short movies so far, so I couldn’t say. The longest script I’ve written is 25 minutes. I wrote the idea down in brief, then worked out where it needed to go and broke it down to 10 main scenes. When you know what you want to achieve in a scene and have broken something down to  something that small, then it becomes easier. Once they are altogether, you just read through to make sure they all fit together and flow.’ I will be doing a feature movie for Obsessions of a Shattered Psyche, but the approach there will be to join ten short stories together, as chapters, to make the movie. Each story is sequential and using the same characters.

Explain your writing process
I start out with a sentence or two of the main idea. With Daemonic Twist, I wanted a movie to highlight youth suicide. That meant that I needed someone young who was going to be contemplating suicide. From there, I thought, who are the people that surround this person. Family, school friends etc. I then spent time on thinking
about what I could do to make this movie different and interesting. How all the different ideas came to me and then gelled together is beyond me. It was like the script wrote itself. In fact, the same could be said for all the other scripts I wrote as well. I have no idea how ideas come and why they come in floods.

What writing tip or idea can you give young writers
Just start. Don’t worry if you have made a mess with it. It’s from the messes that you start learning.

What do you want to change about the film business
Rather than change the industry, I want to learn more about it so that I can do better with getting funding, building a following and getting distribution.

What do you want to be remembered for
I’m not worried about being remembered. I think that in a world of 7 billion people that anyone believing that they should be remembered after death is being a bit arrogant.Life is for living and if I make a movie that is enjoyed by people today, then that is enough.

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