[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: For your movie BURT, how did you come up with the $7,000 budget?
Joe Burke, Filmmaker/NYFA Instructor: Again, a little backstory.
Tried for many years to kind of have my follow-up film to my first feature be something bigger and with the mentality of we gotta to have money!
I have friends who are making their one to 2 million films that are playing Sundance and selling to different companies.
And I’m like, those are real movies.
I got to make a real movie.
I can’t just not do that.
And we tried and I could not have made a movie for $7,000 years ago.
I would not have had the mindset to think that’s even possible.
I would have been like,
“No, that’s not a real movie. You can’t do it. You need to do this. You need this. You need this crew. You need this.”
That was younger.
But once you get enough sort of no’s and rejections and sort of the industry professional Hollywood stuff and you start getting so fed up with waiting for permission, you start loosening up a little bit and you start being like,
“All right, well, what is another way to do this?”
I’ll give a little backstory to kind of tell you how we got to the $7,000.
Oliver and I during the early COVID days when there was like that early lockdown in 2020, everyone sort of stayed at home for a few weeks.
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Oliver [Cooper] went and lived in the desert.
He just rented a little small studio house in the middle of nowhere for a month and I was living alone and I said,
“Hey dude, can I come sort of isolate with you for a week and I’ll bring some Halloween masks and some fake blood and we can make a horror movie in the desert. Let’s stay creative. Why not? Just the two of us.”
And I drove out to the Joshua Tree/ Palm Springs /Palm Desert area.
I had bought a couple cheap Halloween masks off Amazon.
I bought a 100 foot extension cord because I had one light, one LED panel light that I could plug into the side of the house and with that extension cord move the light anywhere I want.
I had a camera I borrowed from a friend and a flashlight and I drove out there and I listened to horror music on the whole drive out there watching the sunset and listening to this creepy music in the car and getting inspired.
I think I spent like four days writing a quick script.
It was just me and Oliver for four days. I crashed on the floor at this little place…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
Joe Burke is an indie filmmaker and actor best known for his new award-winning movie Burt, Four Dogs, Another Cancer Movie, House Sitting and more. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous national commercials and television shows, including Freeform’s Good Trouble, and the critically acclaimed Showtime series Ray Donovan, acting opposite Academy Award winner Jon Voight. Originally from Toledo, Ohio, Burke moved to Chicago after high school to study filmmaking and theater at Columbia College Chicago. He later relocated to Los Angeles, where he earned his MFA in Directing from the prestigious American Film Institute (AFI).
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About New York Film Academy:
Founded in 1992 by Jerry Sherlock, the New York Film Academy (NYFA) provides an accessible, hands-on education in filmmaking, media, and the performing arts. With a mission to make the film industry more accessible to all, NYFA empowers students from diverse backgrounds to tell powerful stories through a project-based, immersive curriculum. Students work closely with industry professionals, gaining invaluable mentorship and real-world experience while building creative, technical, and collaborative skills. NYFA’s global community includes students from over 160 countries, fostering a network of passionate storytellers. From day one, students dive into creating projects that refine their craft and prepare them for successful careers. With a focus on practical experience and individualized support, NYFA equips students with the tools and confidence to excel in the competitive world of filmmaking and the arts.
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Nyfa.edu/location/nyfa-los-angeles
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