BridgeThink December News

Jay Burke is a filmmaker and screenwriter from Dartmouth, MA. He earned an M.F.A. in Film from Columbia University and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. Prior to his film career, he spent six years as a management consultant with Accenture in Chicago, Boston, and Sydney, Australia. Burke has served as Director of Photography on the basketball training series Building a Champion, starring Lakers coach, Phil Jackson. He is the recipient of a 2005 screenwriting development award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for his feature script Whaling City which is scheduled to film in New Bedford, MA in spring 2010.

Jay participated in this interview with BridgeThink's Don Burton at the end of November '09. Excerpts from interview:

BridgeThink: What's the scope of this production in terms of crew size, length of proposed shoot?

Jay Burke: Unless our budget changes significantly, we will shoot for a total of 20 days (5-day weeks and 12-hour days). The crew will be very small, probably around 20 people for the length of the shoot, with a few extras for "special" shoot days that require more lighting or setup.

BT: Have you set a date to begin filming?

JB: We will be shooting in the March-April 2010 timeframe, and prep will begin in early February 2010. We continue to seek additional equity investment in the project to lengthen our shoot and lure bigger name actors, but are moving forward with the amount we have nevertheless. I encourage people to check for updates on our project website which is http://www.whalingcityfilm.com. There is also a mechanism on the website to contact the production if anyone wishes to learn more about investing in the project or donating or contributing to it. We have structured the project in such a way where certain qualified investors could be eligible for protection on a portion of their investment and things like executive producer credits.

BT: Filmmaking is much more than just making a film. You had to build a bridge to the fishing community to tell this story. Can you comment on that outreach process?

JB: Since I am dealing with two worlds that were very new to me (marine science and commercial fishing), I needed to do a lot of outreach and bridge building, despite the fact that I was born in New Bedford, MA and grew up in the area. I did some early homework to pinpoint a collection of names in commercial fishing and at SMAST (School for Marine Science and Technology at UMass Dartmouth), then reached out via phone and email and introduced myself and my project. I found plenty of people in both worlds that were very receptive and extremely generous with their time and knowledge.

Our outreach will continue as we gear up for productions. Since we are shooting at such a low budget, we will need to partner with individuals and groups to help us get this film made. We are actively looking for all sorts of resources-including locations, boats, office space, vehicles, parking, cast and crew housing, etc. Anyone who can help should contact us via our website, www.whalingcityfilm.com.

BT: How is the fishing community receiving the story?

Read the entire interview HERE